Looking back on its glorious combat history, the People’s Army has consistently adhered to the absolute leadership of the Party, proposing and implementing a comprehensive set of strategies and tactics for people’s war. These strategies and tactics are a crucial weapon for the People’s Army to defeat the strong with the weak and to conquer the enemy. Over the past 98 years, with the changing times and evolving forms of warfare, the specific content and manifestations of the strategies and tactics for people’s war have continuously evolved. To confront the challenges of information-based and intelligent warfare, we must firmly grasp the essential requirements and value orientations of the strategies and tactics for people’s war amidst the rapidly evolving global trends and practices, unifying the inherently unchanging laws of conduct with the external realities of change, and continuously innovating and developing the strategies and tactics for people’s war in the new era.
President Xi Jinping emphasized that no matter how the situation develops, the magic weapon of people’s war must never be lost. However, we must grasp the new characteristics and new requirements of people’s war in the new era, innovate its content, methods and approaches, and unleash its overall power. Currently, facing profound challenges brought about by changes in science and technology, warfare, and our adversaries, we must not only inherit and carry forward the fine traditions of people’s war, but also be sensitive to changes, actively respond to them, and proactively seek change. We must accurately grasp the inherent requirements of the strategies and tactics of people’s war in the new era, consciously update our thinking and concepts, and innovate strategic guidance, so that this magic weapon of defeating the enemy can be demonstrated on future battlefields.
Adhere to relying on the people and deeply rooted
In the long practice of revolutionary war, the people are the most profound force for victory. The people are the primary force behind the strategies and tactics of people’s war, a magic weapon for victory. People’s war has its roots deeply rooted in the people, and its confidence comes from the people. Regardless of how the times change or how the war evolves, relying closely on the people and fully mobilizing them will always be the fundamental condition and the only way to carry out people’s war. Developing the strategies and tactics of people’s war in the new era requires adhering to the mass perspective of history and the fundamental requirement that soldiers and civilians are the foundation of victory. We must integrate the traditional strategic advantages of people’s war with the mass line, broaden the sources of vitality for the strategies and tactics of people’s war, draw strategic wisdom and tactical methods from the people, and develop an intellectual advantage for people’s war in the new era. We must solidly carry out national defense education throughout the nation, continuously foster a strong sense of patriotism, inspire patriotism, strengthen awareness of potential dangers, and enhance national defense awareness. We must guide the masses to actively care about and support national defense, thereby infusing powerful spiritual strength into people’s war in the new era. We must focus on promoting high-quality population development, comprehensively improve the cultural, scientific, and innovative qualities of the entire population, accelerate the development of a modern human resource base of high quality, sufficient in volume, optimized in structure, and rationally distributed, and promote the shift of the dominant force in people’s war from quantitative to qualitative. Further improve the national defense mobilization system and mechanism, promote the establishment of a rapid response system that is connected with the national emergency response mechanism and integrated with the joint combat system, fully tap and gather the unlimited war potential contained in the people, and give full play to the resource aggregation and value-added effect.
Focus on overall planning and full-area offense and defense
In the long-term practice of revolutionary warfare, the strategies and tactics of people’s war require the comprehensive mobilization of diverse forces and resources in the political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and military sectors, and the integrated use of various forms of struggle and methods of operation. This holistic approach compensates for local deficiencies and disadvantages, ultimately defeating powerful adversaries. Modern warfare is not only a fierce confrontation in the military sphere, but also a comprehensive struggle in the political, economic, and diplomatic spheres, exhibiting the distinct characteristics of hybrid warfare. To develop the strategies and tactics of people’s war in the new era, we must establish a broad systemic mindset, relying on the national strategic system and supported by the joint operations system, explore the implementation methods of people’s war strategies and tactics, and win the total war of people’s war in the new era. We should fully leverage the advantages of the new national system, relying on the integrated national strategic system and capabilities, efficiently aggregate superior resources across the board, fully activate the country’s national defense potential, and weave various forces and resources into a network. We should integrate and plan the subsystems of people’s war, including leadership, organization, personnel, command, technology, equipment, and support, to maximize the effectiveness of holistic linkage and systemic operation, and achieve the maximum benefits of all-round effort and multiplied energy. We must strengthen comprehensive coordination across the physical, information, and social domains, focusing on seeking breakthroughs in new domains and new qualities, and making achievements in new dimensions such as unmanned warfare, human-machine collaborative warfare, network and electronic warfare, space and deep-sea warfare, and intelligent and autonomous warfare. Military and non-military means must be coordinated, integrating various forms of struggle, including political, economic, diplomatic, public opinion, and military. Comprehensive measures must be implemented to effectively wage diplomatic offensive and defensive battles, financial and trade battles, psychological defense battles, and public opinion and legal battles. We must leverage the combined effectiveness of political offensives and armed strikes to effectively fight the political and military battles.
Strengthen active defense and take the initiative
Through the long practice of revolutionary warfare, the People’s Army has developed a comprehensive strategic philosophy of active defense, emphasizing, for example, the unity of strategic defense and offensive action in campaigns and battles, the principles of defense, self-defense, and preemptive strike, and the principle of “if no one offends me, I will not offend; if someone offends me, I will certainly offend.” Active defense is fundamentally defensive, its essence lies in activeness, and its inherent characteristic is proactiveness. Currently, profound changes have taken place in the international, national, and Party, military, and political landscapes. The strategies and tactics of people’s war in the new era generally adhere to the fundamental principle of defense and are not aimed at hegemony, aggression, or oppression of other countries. Consequently, they will win the support and endorsement of the vast majority of the Chinese people, as well as the understanding and assistance of peace-loving and justice-loving countries and peoples around the world. Developing the strategies and tactics of people’s war in the new era must adapt to the times and circumstances. We must adhere to a defensive national defense policy, implement the military strategic guidelines of the new era, excel at observing and analyzing issues from a political perspective, and be adept at considering and applying strategies from regional and global perspectives to consolidate the political foundation for victory in people’s war. We must persist in neither provoking trouble nor fearing it, strengthen the regular and diversified use of military force, firmly and flexibly carry out military struggle, and while adhering to the strategic preemptive strike, we must not give up campaign and combat offensives under favorable conditions and when necessary. We must advance steadily, make progress within stability, and be proactive within stability, effectively shape the security situation, contain crises and conflicts, and firmly grasp the initiative in the struggle.
Highlight new quality dominance and technological empowerment
In the long practice of revolutionary warfare, while emphasizing that victory in war is primarily determined by people, not objects, the People’s Army has also placed great emphasis on the research and development of advanced military technology, particularly weaponry. Comrade Mao Zedong once emphasized that without modern equipment, it would be impossible to defeat the armies of imperialism. The technological content of modern warfare has undergone a qualitative leap, with advanced technologies and new weaponry such as artificial intelligence, big data, quantum computing, unmanned aerial vehicles, and brain control being widely applied in the military. While the people remain the decisive force in determining victory in war, the manifestation of this power has undergone significant changes. Science and technology are core combat power, and People’s War will place greater emphasis on the application of scientific and technological means and rely even more heavily on the wisdom and creativity of the people. Developing the strategies and tactics of People’s War in the new era should prioritize winning information-based and intelligent warfare. We should deeply study the essential characteristics, winning mechanisms, and strategies and tactics of high-end warfare, accelerate the shift from “winning by numbers” to “winning by talent,” and from “winning by manpower” to “winning by intelligence,” effectively enhance our ability to win through scientific and technological empowerment and digital intelligence, and truly unleash the crucial role of science and technology and talent in People’s War in the new era. We will accelerate the development of high-tech industries, vigorously strengthen the construction of new forces in new domains such as ocean, space, cyberspace, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology, increase military-civilian collaboration in high-tech fields, accelerate the transformation and application of new productive forces into new combat capabilities, and promote the expansion of war potential reserves into emerging fields and the focus on new forces. We will integrate and coordinate military and civilian scientific and technological advantages, shifting the focus from traditional support and guarantee elements such as human and material resources to new support and guarantee elements such as information, technology, and intelligence. We will build information, resource, and technology pools with profound foundations and rich reserves, actively cultivate capable, strong, and professional professional support units, and continuously expand the breadth and depth of people’s participation in the war and scientific and technological support.
Emphasis on flexibility, maneuverability, innovation and checks and balances
In the long-term practice of revolutionary warfare, the strategies and tactics of People’s War are highly flexible and maneuverable. Their most essential requirement is to prioritize self-reliance, attacking the enemy without being attacked by them. Based on the actual situation of both sides, we fight the battles based on our weapons, against the enemy, and at the right time and place. We identify the enemy’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities, leverage our strengths and advantages, and defeat the enemy with our own strengths, always seizing the initiative on the battlefield. Flexible and maneuverable strategies and tactics are the magic weapon for defeating an enemy with superior equipment with inferior equipment. “You fight yours, I fight mine” is a summary and generalization of the long-term experience of China’s revolutionary war and the soul and essence of the strategies and tactics of People’s War. Developing the strategies and tactics of People’s War in the new era must grasp the methodological requirements of asymmetric checks and balances, leverage innovative operational concepts, adhere to the mechanisms of victory in modern warfare, and continuously develop practical and effective tactics to defeat the enemy. We must proceed from the actual circumstances of both sides, gaining a deep understanding of operational missions, adversaries, and the evolving operational environment. We must thoroughly grasp the concepts, elements, and methods of victory, objectively analyze and study the strengths and weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages of both sides, know the enemy and ourselves, adapt to the situation, and flexibly utilize various combat forces and methods, striving to achieve maximum results at the lowest cost. We must adhere to the principle of “attacking the enemy without being attacked by them,” capitalize on strengths and avoid weaknesses, avoid the real and attack the weak, attack where the enemy is least prepared, and attack where they must be defended. We must proactively create opportunities, flexibly maneuver the enemy, and fight wherever we are most advantageous and wherever we are most skilled. We must adhere to the principle of “using what we can to defeat what we cannot,” advancing the research and application of military theory, operational guidance, tactics, and training methods in a timely manner, innovating core operational concepts, and developing new types of combat methods. We must fight against the enemy’s tactics, targeting their weaknesses, and leveraging our military’s strengths, thus creating new winning advantages in people’s war through asymmetric checks and balances.
Emphasis on accumulating small things into big things and focusing on unity of purpose
Throughout the long practice of revolutionary warfare, our army has been at an overall disadvantage for considerable periods. Therefore, the strategies and tactics of people’s war emphasize leveraging strength against weakness locally, persisting in accumulating small victories into larger ones, and concentrating forces to wage annihilation campaigns. This has become a key strategy for the people’s army to defeat powerful foes. Compared to previous eras, modern warfare often unfolds across multiple dimensions and domains, providing greater scope for implementing this strategy of “accumulating small victories into larger ones.” Developing the strategies and tactics of people’s war in the new era requires strengthening the concept of “dispersed in appearance, yet focused in spirit; dispersed in form, yet united in strength.” This involves dynamically consolidating and uniting the numerous combat forces distributed across the multidimensional battlefield. Through the fusion of capabilities and immediate optimization, we can launch rapid localized focused-energy attacks, wide-area guerrilla harassment, and deliver annihilating and destructive strikes against key enemy locations. This not only creates a hammering effect, but also continuously wears down the enemy, gradually depriving them of the initiative on the battlefield. This highly integrated distributed warfare emphasizes the wide-area dispersion of troop deployment and the discrete distribution of capabilities. Based on the needs of achieving operational intent, objectives, and missions, it prioritizes the best operational elements, units, and forces. Through the integration of operational capabilities and the accumulation of operational impacts, it aggregates optimal operational effects, unleashes maximum operational potential, maximizes operational effectiveness, and achieves optimal operational results. This distributed warfare has evolved from “geographical dispersion” to “dynamic coupling across all domains and dimensions”: no longer limited to the physical dispersion of personnel and equipment, it extends to multi-dimensional battlefields such as cyber, electromagnetic, and cognitive. Relying on data links, artificial intelligence, and distributed command systems to achieve cross-domain collaboration, it significantly enhances battlefield survivability and multiplies strike effectiveness.
System “Gathering Excellent War” It is “systematic warfare in information warfare. It does not necessarily refer to a certain combat style, but is composed of multiple combat styles and tactics” “combination boxing”, or combat style group . Emphasizes that, depending on the combat mission, combat opponent and the changing battlefield situation, any appropriate means and style of combat can be used flexibly to form combat advantages as long as it is conducive to forming comparative advantages and achieving system victory. In the specific implementation process of “system-based superior warfare”, these specific combat styles and operational tactics can not only be organized and implemented separately as part of joint all-domain operations, but also emphasize fighting “combination boxing”, using multiple strategies simultaneously, and winning as a whole.
In order to better understand its core connotation, this article lists Nine typical combat styles including overall deterrence warfare, electromagnetic disturbance warfare, network penetration warfare, and cognitive control disturbance warfare And analyze . System “Juyouzhan” ――combination boxing that flexibly uses multiple combat styles“ 1. Overall deterrence war: Emphasis on multi-domain joint deterrence; Three elements should be present in the implementation of an overall deterrent war ; Strong overall strength is central to achieving effective deterrence 2. Electromagnetic Disturbance Warfare : The key to competing for information advantage; On the combined means approach, information empowerment is achieved through “connection + sharing” ; Crack down on effective tactics for unmanned cluster operations 3. Cyber-sabotage: Soft “kill” is the main focus, combining soft and hard, focusing on breaking the net and reducing energy failure 4. Cognitive scrambling: Control the cognitive power of situational awareness and compete for information advantage; control the decision-making power of command and compete for decision-making advantage; control “brain” power and seize the advantage of brain control 5. Agile mobile warfare: High-efficiency and rapid decision-making; high-efficiency formation of a favorable combat situation; high-efficiency and instant gathering of combat forces; agile mobile warfare is an innovative development of traditional mobile warfare 6. Swarm autonomous warfare: It is conducive to forming a system advantage to suppress the enemy; it is conducive to enhancing the combat effect; it is conducive to falling into the enemy’s combat dilemma 7. Point-and-kill War: Achieving an efficient cost ratio for operations; targeting key nodes is an important option; large-scale system support is a basic condition; it is inseparable from precise intelligence support 8. Supply-breaking: The supply guarantee chain has a huge impact on the overall combat situation; the center of gravity of the attack is a key node in cutting off the enemy’s supply guarantee chain; the focus is on choosing the right time and making full use of tactics 9. System “paralysis battle:” The objectives of the operation are to make the enemy combat system run out of order; to strike the key nodes of the combat system with heavy blows; and to carry out soft strikes against the enemy combat system For learning reference only, welcome to communicate and correct! Article views do not represent the position of this body The concept of combat was first proposed as a new combat style. Innovative combat styles are a core element in the development of combat concepts. It can be said that system-gathering battle is a general term for a series of specific tactics. The following nine typical combat styles constitute the tactical system of system-gathering and superior warfare. They are: One is Overall deterrence warfare, actively organize static power display and deterrence actions in system excellence battles, and strive to defeat others without fighting or small battles; Two is Electromagnetic disturbance warfare uses various combat methods and action styles such as electronic detection, attack and defense to disrupt, prevent and destroy the enemy’s electromagnetic capabilities, actively compete for the advantages of the electromagnetic spectrum, seize the right to control information, and then win the initiative in combat; Three is In cyber attack warfare, various means such as soft strikes and hard destruction are used to defeat the enemy’s command network, intelligence network, communication network, logistics supply network, and disrupt the enemy’s command and support; Four is Cognitively Controlled Disturbance. Form a controlling advantage in the cognitive space through information attacks, public opinion attacks, and brain attacks; Five is Agile mobile warfare. Quickly adjust the deployment of troops and weapons, quickly gather capabilities on the battlefield, and seize combat opportunities; Six is Swarm autonomous warfare. Extensively use unmanned combat methods such as “bee swarms”, “wolf swarms”, and “fish swarms” to independently organize actions and distributed attacks to achieve joint human-machine victory; Seven is Pointkill. Accurately obtain intelligence, carry out multi-domain precision strikes, strive to shake the overall situation with one point, and maximize combat benefits; Eight is Supply-breaking. Organize an elite force to attack enemy logistics supplies and equipment supply supply chains, supply lines and supply bases, defeat the enemy and lose supplies and withdraw from the battle; Nine is System “paralysis battle”. A variety of means, such as breaking the net, exercising, and hitting nodes, are used to interfere with, delay, destroy, or even paralyze the effective operation of the enemy’s combat system and weaken its functions.
1. Overall deterrence Overall deterrence warfare refers to actively organizing static power display and deterrence actions in the system’s battle for excellence, and striving to defeat others without fighting or small battles. Sun Tzu said: “Subduing one’s troops without fighting is a good thing.” Deterrence and war are the two main forms of military activity. And “deterrence” is mainly the act of showing determination and will to potential opponents by showing strength or threatening to use strong strength to deter opponents from action. It can be said that the overall deterrence war in the system-based battle of excellence is an important means or tactic to achieve the goal of “stopping” human troops without fighting. Clausewitz emphasized that the first rule of strategy is to be as strong as possible, first in general, and then in key locations. Modern warfare is system-to-system confrontation. The overall deterrence war under informationized local warfare requires not only traditional deterrence methods and capabilities on land, sea, air and space, but also new deterrence methods and capabilities such as space deterrence, electromagnetic deterrence, and network deterrence. It also requires an overall deterrence that shows the overall strength of the country. Especially with the rapid development of advanced technologies such as information technology, the technological revolution, industrial revolution, and military revolution have accelerated their integration, and strategic competitiveness, social productivity, and military combat effectiveness have become more closely coupled. Winning the information war is to a greater extent a contest between the will of the country and the overall strength of the country. To contain the war, we must first act as a deterrent to our opponents in terms of overall strength.
1.1 Emphasis on multi-domain joint deterrence Means of deterrence typically include both nuclear and conventional deterrence. In the “system-based battle for excellence”, the overall deterrence war is implemented, aiming to comprehensively use conventional deterrence methods across the land, sea, air and space power grids to achieve the purpose of deterrence. Especially with the application of information network technology and space and directed energy technology in the military, space, networks, electromagnetic weapons, etc. have become new means of deterrence. Space deterrence, It mainly uses equipment such as rapid response electromagnetic orbit weapons, space-to-ground networked anti-navigation and positioning service systems, large elliptical orbit laser weapons, and high-power microwave weapons to threaten and attack the opponent’s space targets and form a deterrent against enemy space information “interference blocking”. Cyber deterrence mainly uses cyberspace situational awareness and attack equipment to threaten and attack the opponent’s military network and other critical information infrastructure to achieve deterrence against the enemy. Electromagnetic deterrence mainly uses electromagnetic spectrum combat systems to threaten and attack enemy detection, navigation, communications and other information weapons and equipment systems to achieve deafening and blinding deterrence against the enemy.
1.2 The implementation of overall deterrence should have three major elements Implementing an overall deterrent war and achieving the desired effect of deterrence usually requires three main elements: One is strength. The deterrent must have the reliable ability or strength to frighten and fear the opponent; the second is determination and will. The deterrent party must dare to use this capability when necessary; third, to transmit information clearly. The deterring party must make the ability to act and the determination clearly known to the other party accurately and effectively.
Historically, the criteria for judging deterrent strength have varied in three main ways: First, the active military force; second, the combined national strength or war potential; and third, the total number of main battle weapons and equipment. For quite a long period of history, the number of troops was deterrence, and the strength of military strength depended directly on the size of the active military, the amount of vital weapons and equipment, and non-material factors such as the morale of the army’s training organization. After the twentieth century, with the expansion of the scale of warfare, deterrence power has become less limited to the strength of the military and the quantity of vital weapons and equipment, but is determined by the nation’s war potential, which includes economic power, scientific and technological power, energy resources, and even population size, among others. The overall deterrence war in the system’s “gathering and excellence war”, the formation of its deterrence strength is mainly based on the network information system, as well as the joint global deterrence capability formed under the integration of the system.
1.3 Strong overall strength is the core of achieving effective deterrence The development of information technology and its widespread penetration and application in the military sector provide favourable conditions for building overall strength and achieving overall deterrence. System “Juyouzhan” is supported by the network information system, making full use of the permeability and connectivity of information technology, not only integrating various combat forces, combat elements, and combat units into an organic whole, realizing the military system combat advantages, but also integrating Various fields related to war and national mobilization, such as national politics, economy, diplomacy, finance, transportation, and energy, are connected and integrated into the national war mobilization system Gather all forces and resources to form an overall synergy, realize the emergence effect of system capabilities, show the overall strength advantage, and form a powerful invisible deterrent of united efforts and sharing the same hatred Create a situation that makes the enemy “powerful but unable to act ”“able to act but ineffective”, and play a role in containing and winning the war. In the “overall deterrence war”, the scope of national war mobilization will be wider, not limited to a certain direction or region, but throughout the country and even the relevant regions of the world; mobilization time will be faster, and using networks and information systems, mobilization and action information can be quickly transmitted to everyone and every node at the first time; action coordination and synergy will be more consistent, and all forces distributed in various regions can be based on the same situation Under the same order, the operation is unified at almost the same time, which greatly improves the efficiency of operational synergy; resources are more fully utilized, and various war resources based on the Internet can quickly realize the conversion between peacetime and wartime, military-civilian conversion, and achieve integrated front and rear guarantees and precise guarantees.
2. Electromagnetic Disturbance Warfare Electromagnetic disturbance warfare refers to the flexible use of electronic detection, attack and defense and other combat methods and action styles to disrupt, prevent and destroy the enemy’s electromagnetic capabilities, actively compete for the advantages of the electromagnetic spectrum, seize information control rights, and then win operational initiative.
2.1 The key to competing for information advantage Informatization local warfare is highly dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum, the Control and counter-control of electromagnetic space have become the focus of competition for information rights. Organize and carry out electromagnetic obstruction warfare, mainly to destroy the enemy’s electromagnetic spectrum and protect one’s own side from destruction. The electromagnetic spectrum is the main carrier for transmitting information. The use of electromagnetic means to disrupt the enemy’s electromagnetic spectrum will effectively reduce the enemy’s information combat capabilities and enable our own side to ensure the rapid and effective flow of information in the scenario of ownership of information rights, driving command flow, action flow, and material flow through information flow, energy flow, and then have the dominance and initiative in combat.
2.2 The basic focus is to implement electromagnetic disturbance warfare in the battle to deactivate the enemy’s combat system. It is mainly aimed at the enemy’s dependence on electromagnetic space. At the same time, in order to ensure its own effective use of electromagnetic space, it organizes various electronic reconnaissance and interference, attack, defense and support forces to attack enemy communication networks, radar networks, computer networks and command centers, communication hubs, radar stations, etc Computer network nodes, global navigation and positioning systems, space link systems such as the “Heaven and Earth Integrated Internet”, and various other frequency-using weapons and equipment carry out interference and attacks, block and destroy their communication and data transmission, and destroy the enemy’s combat system. “Connection” and “sharing” structural center of gravity provide support for seizing information control and electromagnetic control from the root, thereby weakening the enemy’s command and control capabilities Deactivating and disabling the enemy’s entire combat system.
2.3 Crack effective tactics for unmanned cluster operations “Unmanned autonomous group operations such as swarms ”“wolves ”“fishes” are important features of information-based local warfare with intelligent characteristics. The various unmanned autonomous clusters are large in number, diverse in type, and complex in characteristics, and each individual can complement each other and play a role in replacing each other. It will be very difficult to intercept and damage the entire unmanned cluster. However, from a technical point of view, for unmanned combat clusters to achieve effective synergy, each individual must share and interact with each other. Once the communication coordination between unmanned clusters is interfered with, it will be impossible to share battlefield posture and information, and will not be able to coordinate actions with each other, making it difficult to achieve the combat effectiveness it deserves. This gives the other party an opportunity to implement interception of communications and electromagnetic interference. Therefore, the implementation of electromagnetic spectrum warfare, interference and attacks on the information and communication networks of unmanned clusters, and the destruction of their information sharing and interaction will make it impossible for each individual in the unmanned cluster to achieve effective synergy and thus lose its operational capabilities.
3. Cyber-sabotage Cyber-blowout, It refers to military confrontation operations that comprehensively use technologies such as networks and computers and other effective means to control information and information networks. It is a major combat style of cyberspace operations and competition for network control. Its main combat operations are both soft-kill and hard-destroy, focusing on soft and combining soft and hard. Among them, soft kill is mainly a cyber attack, that is, it comprehensively uses blocking attacks, virus attacks and other means to block and attack enemy information networks, command systems, weapon platforms, etc., making it difficult for enemy networks, command information systems, etc. to operate effectively or even paralyze; hard destruction mainly uses precision fire strikes, high-energy microwaves, electromagnetic pulses, and anti-radiation attacks to paralyze and destroy enemy information network physical facilities Destroy enemy combat and weapons and equipment entities. The important thing is to “break the net and reduce energy failure”. Organizing a cyber attack in a “system-based battle of excellence” is to target the weaknesses of the combat opponent’s military information network, use the advantages of the system to organize various cyber attack forces, and conduct combat command networks, reconnaissance intelligence networks, communication networks and even logistics throughout the entire operation. Supply networks, etc., continue to carry out soft killing and hard destruction operations to destroy the enemy’s network system The overall function of the enemy’s combat system is reduced or even disabled. It mainly targets core targets such as the enemy’s basic information network, intelligence network, command network, and support network, and implements a series of combat operations such as network-to-electronics coordinated attacks, deception and confusion, link blocking, and takeover control, so that the enemy’s intelligent combat network system becomes incapacitated and ineffective, achieving a critical victory that paralyzes the enemy system.
4. Cognitively Controlled Disturbance Warfare Cognitive interference control war refers to interfering with, destroying or controlling the enemy’s thinking and cognition through information attacks, public opinion attacks, and brain attacks in the system optimization war, so that the enemy cannot make correct judgments and decisions, thereby controlling the enemy in cognitive space. form a controlling advantage. Cognitive domains, That is, “human thinking space and consciousness space are areas that have a critical impact on combat decision-making and judgment”. The development of information technology, especially artificial intelligence technology, and its widespread application in the military field have expanded the battle of war from physical space and information space to cognitive space, making cognitive space a completely new combat domain. With the development of information and intelligent technology and its widespread and in-depth application in the military field, the Human-machine intelligence tends to converge This has made the status of cognition in intelligent warfare more prominent, and the cognitive field has gradually become an important battlefield. The right to control cognition has become a key element of future battlefield control. Fighting for cognitive control has become an important combat style for winning information-based local warfare operations with intelligent characteristics.
4.1 Control the cognitive rights of situational awareness and compete for information advantages In the system’s “excellence battle”, information flow drives the flow of matter and energy, and information advantage determines decision-making advantage. Rapid and accurate knowledge of intelligence information and battlefield situations has an important impact on seizing command and decision-making advantages. Therefore, when organizing and implementing system-based battle gathering, we must make full use of intelligent technology and big data technology to conduct comprehensive analysis and judgment on massive intelligence information data, mine and extract the required intelligence information, and achieve more accurate and faster understanding of battlefield situations and combat environments. Cognition ensures that the enemy is discovered first and the enemy is recognized first from the source. While removing one’s own side “the fog of war”, create “the fog” for the opponent. Therefore, in order to compete for cognitive rights, we must not only control and process information before the enemy, but also take measures such as online public opinion attacks and high virtual reality chaos to actively create and spread false information, disrupt and disrupt the perception and cognition of hostile battlefield situations, maximize confusion and increase uncertainty, interfere with the opponent’s combat decisions, and delay its combat operations.
4.2 Control and command decision-making power and compete for decision-making advantages Decision strengths determine action strengths. Quick decision-making by the commander is the key to shortening “the command cycle” and achieving quick wins. The organizational system focuses on excellent combat, and the success or failure of combat operations depends largely on the speed of the commander’s decision-making. It is necessary to “use intelligent auxiliary decision-making systems, select the best combat plans, scientifically and rationally allocate combat resources, and maximize combat effectiveness; use ubiquitous intelligent networks to access required combat nodes and combat platforms at any time to build and form an integrated combat system.” Achieve decentralized deployment of power, information, and capabilities, cross-domain linkage, form advantages at locations and times required for operations, gather energy to release energy, and gather advantages to win; Implementation “core attack”, Errors or deviations in the enemy’s command decisions are caused by hacking into the other party “chip”, tampering with its programs, and command and decision system algorithms.
4.3 Control “brain” power and seize the advantage of brain control Cognitive interference control warfare in the system’s “gathering excellence war” emphasizes “attacking the heart and seizing the will”, that is, using network warfare, electromagnetic warfare and other methods to control the enemy’s human brain and consciousness cognition as well as the control system of the unmanned autonomous platform “attacking the heart Cognitive control warfare to control the brain and seize ambitions” Replace “destroy” with “control”, To achieve the goal of stopping and winning the war at the minimum cost. Attacking the heart and controlling the brain is different from traditional strategic deterrence. It places more emphasis on active attack. It is an active attack operation that mainly uses advanced information combat technology, brain control technology, etc. to attack the enemy’s decision-making leader, as well as intelligent unmanned autonomous combat platforms, auxiliary decision-making systems, etc., carry out controlled “brain” attacks, directly control and disrupt the opponent “brain”, influence and control the enemy’s decision-making, or disable it Enable stealth control of enemy combat operations. For example, “Targeting human cognitive thinking, using brain reading and brain control technology, and using mental guidance and control methods to directly carry out “inject ”“invasive” attacks on the brains of enemy personnel, interfering with, controlling or destroying the cognitive system of enemy commanders.”, deeply control it from the perspective of consciousness, thinking and psychology, seize “control intellectual power”, disrupt the enemy’s decision-making, destroy the enemy’s morale, and force the enemy to disarm.
5. Agile Mobile Warfare Agile mobile warfare refers to the efficient decision-making, efficient adjustment of troop deployment and high-efficiency real-time gathering of combat forces in systematic battle, efficient gathering of capabilities on the existing battlefield, and seizing combat opportunities. Agility is the ability to respond quickly and timely to changes in the battlefield environment. It has the characteristics of responsiveness, robustness, flexibility, elasticity, innovation and adaptability.
Table 1 Connotation of the concept of agile warfare
5.1 Efficient and fast decision-making To implement agile and mobile warfare, we must first make efficient and rapid decisions to win operational opportunities. Therefore, it is necessary to comprehensively use various means of reconnaissance, detection, perception and surveillance to obtain battlefield posture and target information in a timely manner, especially characteristic information, activity trajectories and real-time position information of time-sensitive targets, so as to ensure precise intelligence support for rapid decision-making. Efficient decision-making is also reflected in the speed of intelligence processing. It takes less time to screen effective intelligence information, formulate action plans at a faster speed according to changes in circumstances, and seize the initiative and seize the opportunity with one step ahead. High-efficiency decision-making focuses on shortening the decision-making cycle, taking the target time window as the central point, and integrating decision-making command with combat units and weapon platforms, rapid response, and overall linkage to improve combat efficiency.
5.2 High efficiency forms a favorable combat situation It is necessary to “keep abreast of changes in the battlefield situation at any time, rely on the support of information networks, and achieve dynamic reorganization of combat forces and integration during movement through cross-domain, cross-dimensional, and diversified three-dimensional maneuvers. Combat resources flow efficiently throughout the region and gather during movement to achieve mobility and excellence.”, forming a favorable battlefield situation. Agile mobile warfare relies on data fusion processing, intelligent assisted decision-making and other means to quickly form combat plans, quickly project combat forces at a high frequency according to the case, organize troops to quickly form favorable combat deployments, and realize enemy discovery, enemy decision-making, and enemy fire, first enemy assessment, change the balance of power in the shortest time and fastest speed, form combat advantages, and improve the efficiency of combat operations.
5.3 Efficient and instant gathering of combat power To organize agile mobile warfare, the key is to select the right combat force within a limited time, coordinate the entire battle situation, and form an overall synergy to ensure a fatal blow. Therefore, in response to changes in battlefield posture, especially target situations, it is necessary to draw up groups to form a joint mobile combat system formed by multi-domain combat forces, gather combat forces in real time, deploy quickly and mobilely to a favorable battlefield, and carry out real-time strikes against the enemy. For deep space, deep sea, etc. to become a new combat space, an intelligent unmanned autonomous combat platform can be organized Rapid mobility is deployed to lurk near key targets or important passages that are difficult for humans to reach due to physiological limitations, and ambush operations are carried out on standby, creating new cross-domain checks and balances.
5.4 Agile mobile warfare is an innovative development of traditional mobile warfare In the history of both ancient and modern warfare at home and abroad, there have been numerous examples of successful battles that relied on rapid covert maneuvers to achieve combat objectives. However, the combat process of information-based local warfare has been greatly compressed, the combat rhythm has accelerated rapidly, and fighter aircraft are fleeting. It has put forward higher requirements for fast mobile capture fighters. It is difficult to meet the requirements of joint operations and all-area operations under information conditions alone “fast pace, high speed”. requirements, so agile mobility must be implemented.
6. Unmanned cluster autonomous warfare Unmanned cluster autonomous warfare refers to the widespread use of unmanned combat methods such as “bees”“ wolves ”“fishes” in system optimization warfare to independently organize actions and distributed attacks to achieve joint human-machine victory. With unmanned autonomous equipment becoming the main combat force on the battlefield, defeating the enemy with unmanned autonomous equipment clusters and numerical superiority has become an important combat style in information warfare.
6.1 It is conducive to forming a system advantage to suppress the enemy Unmanned cluster independent warfare gives full play to the special advantages of unmanned combat weapons such as all-weather, unlimited, difficult to defend, and low consumption, and builds and forms large-scale unmanned combat clusters or formations such as unmanned “bee swarms”“ wolves ”“fish swarms”, and organizes independently, mutual coordination, can implement close-range and full-coverage reconnaissance, or act as bait to interfere or deceive, or cooperate with main battle weapons to implement distributed coordinated attacks Enable overall mobility and joint control of the enemy.
6.2 Conducive to enhancing combat effectiveness In “unmanned cluster autonomous operations”, different combat units within the unmanned cluster organization are responsible for different functions and different tasks, including those responsible for reconnaissance, those carrying out electromagnetic interference and fire strikes, and those playing “decoy” roles. Clusters transmit and share battlefield information through inter-group networks, perform their respective duties according to the division of labor, and collaborate in real-time, independently, and dynamically according to battlefield changes. They not only give full play to their advantages in quantity and scale, but also use information networks and intelligent integration technology to achieve integration effects, using cluster advantages to consume enemy defense detection, tracking and interception capabilities, rapidly saturating and paralyzing the enemy’s defense system.
6.3 Conducive to getting into enemy combat difficulties Unmanned cluster autonomous warfare uses a large number of autonomous unmanned combat platforms with different functions to form an unmanned combat cluster integrating reconnaissance and detection, electronic interference, cyber attacks, and fire strikes. It can carry out multi-directional and multi-directional operations against the same target or target group. Multiple, continuous attacks will make it difficult for the enemy to make effective counterattacks.
7. Pointkill Battle “Precise point-killing warfare” refers to accurately obtaining intelligence in system-based battles, implementing multi-domain precision strikes, striving to shake the overall situation with one point, and maximizing combat benefits. Informationized local warfare is an overall confrontation between systems. Implementing precise point-killing warfare and precise strikes on important nodes and key links of the enemy’s combat system will destroy the enemy’s combat system and reduce enemy combat capabilities, which will achieve twice the result with half the effort. Combat effect.
7.1 Achieve efficient combat cost ratio Achieving maximum combat effectiveness at the minimum cost is a goal pursued by both sides of the war. With the widespread application of information technology in the military field and the advent of information warfare, precision-guided weapons, intelligent kinetic energy weapons, integrated surveillance and attack drones, and laser weapons are widely equipped with troops; through the use of big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies, it has become possible to accurately calculate the required troops and weapons. These all provide material and technical conditions for achieving precision point kill warfare, achieving operational objectives at a lesser cost, and achieving operationally efficient fee ratios.
7.2 Targeting key nodes is an important option The key to precise point-killing battles is to hit the key points and nodes. If you don’t hit, it will be enough. If you hit, it will be painful. If you hit, you will win. If you hit a point, you will break the enemy’s system and shake the overall situation. The target of the strike is not limited to the enemy’s dispersed deployment of ships and aircraft, but should also be targeted at local, dynamic, time-sensitive targets or independent targets such as enemy command centers, important hubs, and even major generals and commanders, in pursuit of deterrence, shock and enemy-breaking system effects. It will also be an effective countermeasure to use precision strike fire to carry out “point-kill” strikes in response to the distributed tactic of decomposing expensive large-scale equipment functions into a large number of small platforms and implementing decentralized deployment of forces.
7.3 Large-scale system support is the basic condition The implementation of precise point-kill warfare cannot be separated from the support of a large-scale system. Focusing on achieving combat goals, the required troops and weapons are transferred from each operational domain that is dispersed and deployed. With the support of the network information system, they are dynamically integrated to form a precision strike system to achieve overall linkage and system energy gathering. Through reasonable and sufficient firepower, the target is concentrated. Strike to achieve precise use of troops and precise release of energy. To implement precise point-and-kill operations to be precise, all links within the entire combat system need to be closely connected without any mistakes. The U.S. military’s killing of bin Laden in 2011 can be said to be a typical strategic precision killing operation supported by the strategic system.
7.4 It is inseparable from precise intelligence support In precision point kill warfare, precise intelligence support is always the key to achieving operational goals. Therefore, before the war, various means should be used to collect various enemy intelligence information, especially accurate analysis and judgment of enemy targets. During combat operations, various sensors and intelligence reconnaissance methods should be used to accurately grasp enemy target changes and dynamic target situations in a timely manner, so as to provide powerful and effective intelligence support for the implementation of precise point-kill warfare. The U.S. military’s targeted killing operation against Soleimani was a typical precise point-killing battle supported by an efficient intelligence system.
8. Supply-breaking Supply chain-breaking warfare refers to organizing elite forces in a system-gathering battle to attack the enemy’s logistics supplies and equipment supply supply chain, supply lines and supply bases, defeat the enemy and lose supplies and withdraw from the battle. In response to weaknesses such as the enemy’s long logistics supply line and large equipment support stalls, the organization of elite forces to build “chain-breaking warfare” combat systems, and to carry out sustained, precise and devastating strikes against enemy logistics supplies and equipment supply chains, supply lines and supply bases, will make it unsustainable due to the loss of supplies and will have to withdraw from the battle.
8.1 The supply guarantee chain has a huge impact on the overall combat situation Logistics equipment support is an important basis for operations. The constant supply of logistical supplies and weapons and equipment ultimately determines the size of an army’s combat troops, whether they can fight, in what season, where they can fight, how far they can leave their rear bases, how long they can fight, how fast they can maneuver, and so on. In information warfare, the consumption of battlefield materials has increased exponentially. Not only has the dependence on logistics equipment support for operations not decreased, but it has become larger and larger. Moreover, the requirements for the specialization of support have also become higher and higher In particular, modern combat equipment is available in a wide variety of models and specifications, with huge volumes of mixed transport, more dispersed troop deployment and very high requirements for transport capacity, which makes bases, communication lines and transport more important than ever. The stable and efficient operation of the supply guarantee chain and continuous and uninterrupted supply guarantee are the key to operational victory and have a huge impact on the overall operational situation.
8.2 The center of gravity of the attack is a key node in cutting off the enemy’s supply guarantee chain The operational center of gravity of supply chain-breaking warfare is a key link in attacking the enemy’s supply support chain, and its continuous support capability is lost through chain-breaking. Therefore, the organization of supply chain-breaking warfare should mainly target enemy ground railway and road transport lines, maritime supply convoys, military requisitioned merchant ships and combat support ships, large and medium-sized air transport aircraft, and rear supply bases. For example, striking the enemy’s maritime supply support chain and cutting off the enemy’s fuel, ammunition, fresh water, and food supplies will make the enemy aircraft carrier battle group lose its ability to continue fighting, which in turn will even affect the outcome of a battle.
8.3 The key is to choose the right time and make full use of tactics It is crucial to organize the implementation of supply chain-breaking warfare and to choose a favorable time to strike. The timing of strikes in supply chain-breaking warfare should be organized and implemented when the enemy’s supply maneuvers are selected, so as to surprise and attack unprepared concealed tactics, carry out sudden strikes on enemy supply vehicles, ships and transport aircraft, and terminate their supply operations. Specific tactics usually include covert ambush warfare, organizing capable forces to ambush the routes and routes that enemy transportation must pass through, waiting for opportunities to carry out covert surprise attacks; stealth surprise warfare, using submarines, stealth fighters, etc. to covertly move forward to carry out attacks on enemy transportation targets, and win by surprise; long-range precision warfare, using long-range conventional surface-to-surface missile forces to attack enemy supply bases and airports Long-range precision strikes are carried out at the departure points of supplies such as docks.
9. System “paralysis battle” System destruction and paralysis war refers to the comprehensive use of various means such as breaking the network, breaking the chain, and defeating nodes in the system optimization war to interfere with, delay, destroy, or even paralyze the effective operation of the enemy’s combat system and weaken the functions of the enemy’s combat system. The essence of system destruction and paralysis warfare is to weaken the correlation and structural power between the elements of the enemy’s combat system, degrade the functions of the system, and fail to play a role in doubling capabilities.
9.1 The combat goal is to disorderly operate the enemy’s combat system In information warfare, the combat systems of both warring parties have their own internal order, and this order is the key to maintaining and supporting the operation of the combat system. The side that can maintain and navigate the internal order of the combat system will gain an advantage and, conversely, a disadvantage. Therefore, the goal of “disrupting the enemy’s winning mechanism and causing the enemy’s combat system to become disordered” should be established in system destruction and paralysis warfare. This requires that the system be fully utilized in the battle of paralysis Information technology in particular intelligent algorithms The “powerful enabling effect” can quickly adjust and reconstruct one’s own combat system, quickly generate and release powerful combat power, and implement agile and precise strikes on the enemy’s combat system, causing the enemy’s combat system to lose normal operating order and become disordered. The system functions are destroyed and the overall combat capabilities are significantly reduced.
9.2 A key node in the heavy strike combat system Systematic confrontation is a major feature of information warfare. System is an important foundation and support for system confrontation, and is also the key to effectively exerting combat effectiveness by integrating various combat forces, weapon platforms and weapon systems on the battlefield. Whether the system can be kept robust and run smoothly has a decisive influence on the achievement of war and campaign victories. In the battle to destroy and paralyze the system, the key is to focus on the enemy’s integrated combat system of land, sea, air and space power grids, breaking the network, breaking the chain, and attacking nodes. By attacking key node targets, the operating mechanism of the enemy’s combat system will be out of order, and it may even be severely damaged or destroyed. Paralysis. Therefore, the basic direction of system destruction and paralysis warfare is to select key units, key nodes, and key elements of the enemy’s combat system to carry out strikes, attack one point, destroy one part, and paralyze the whole, so as to achieve the goal of defeating the enemy.
9.3 Implement soft strikes against the enemy’s combat system When organizing and implementing system breaking and hard destruction, it simultaneously organizes soft-kill combat operations such as electronic warfare, cyber warfare, psychological warfare, and public opinion warfare, and carries out soft strikes on the information domain and cognitive domain of the enemy’s combat system. Electronic warfare uses the power of electronic warfare to carry out strong electromagnetic interference against the enemy, causing its information to malfunction and fall into the fog of war; cyber warfare uses the power of cyber attack to attack the enemy’s network information system, causing the enemy’s command and communication system and computer network to be severely damaged, causing its command to malfunction and fall into information islands or even war islands; psychological warfare and public opinion warfare, using psychological warfare and public opinion warfare methods It carries out psychological strikes and public opinion guidance against the enemy, severely damaging his will to fight and inducing his cognitive disorientation. Organizing “people’s livelihood wars” to attack the opponent’s major national economy and people’s livelihood facilities can also play a role in the enemy’s combat system “drawing fuel from the bottom of the cauldron”. In the 1999 Kosovo War, the US military did not attack the Yugoslav army, but attacked its war potential target system, causing the Yugoslav soldiers and civilians to lose their will to fight and lead to defeat.
Soldiers are a major event for the country. In the great journey of “building a powerful country and rejuvenating the nation, and against the background of the accelerated evolution of major changes unseen in the world in a century, building and consolidating national defense and a strong people’s army are directly related to the future and destiny of the country and the nation”. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out that “national defense and military modernization are important components of Chinese-style modernization”, which fully reflects the great importance that the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core attaches to national defense and military construction, and provides guidance for national defense and military modernization on the new journey. Modernization points out the direction.
The modernization of the national defense and military is the security guarantee and strategic support for Chinese-style modernization
”If you fall behind, you will be beaten. Only when the army is strong can the country be safe”. Without a strong army, there can be no strong state. After the Opium War in 1840, modern China was repeatedly defeated in its battles with Western powers. The vast country gradually became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, with the country humiliated, the people in trouble, and civilization in dust. History has inspired us that the Chinese nation’s emergence from suffering and the liberation of the Chinese people depend on a heroic people’s army; to comprehensively promote the great cause of building a powerful country and national rejuvenation with Chinese-style modernization, we must place national defense and military modernization as a barrier to national security, plan and deploy in strategic positions based on career development, and accelerate the construction and consolidation of national defense and a strong people’s army.
The modernization of the national defense and military is closely linked and internally unified with Chinese-style modernization. Without the modernization of national defense and the military, there would be no Chinese-style modernization. Comrade Mao Zedong once profoundly pointed out “the original requirements for building socialism were industrial modernization, agricultural modernization, scientific and cultural modernization, and now we must add national defense modernization”; Comrade Deng Xiaoping also emphasized “four modernizations, one of which is national defense modernization”, these all reflect the great importance our party attaches to national defense and military construction.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, President Xi has always adhered to the integrated operation of strengthening the country and the military, put national defense and military modernization in the chess game of Chinese-style modernization, and opened up the road to strengthening the military with Chinese characteristics, forming a new strategy for national defense and military modernization by 2027, 2035, and the middle of this century, a new “three-step” strategy for national defense and military modernization that connects near, medium and long-term goals Created a new situation in the cause of strengthening the military. Guided by the party’s goal of strengthening the military in the new era, we will comprehensively implement the strategy of reforming and strengthening the military, promote the reform of the leadership and command system, the reform of scale structure and force organization, and the reform of military policies and systems. Our military’s organizational structure will achieve historic changes, and the force system will achieve revolutionary changes. Reshaping, the basic framework of the socialist military policy system with Chinese characteristics has been constructed and formed. Our military system has been completely new, its structure has been completely new, its pattern has been completely new, and its appearance has been completely new It has laid a solid foundation for the modernization of national defence and the army.
Military means, as a means of guaranteeing the realization of great dreams, can only stop a war if it can be fought. The current and future periods are critical periods for comprehensively promoting the great cause of building a powerful country and rejuvenating the nation through Chinese-style modernization, and will inevitably encounter various risks, challenges and even turbulent waves. We must comprehensively modernize our national defense and military, build the People’s Army into a world-class military, effectively guarantee Chinese-style modernization, and safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests.
Comprehensive and accurate grasp of the scientific connotation of national defense and military modernization
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, President Xi has issued a series of important expositions around “Chinese-style modernization”, summarizing the Chinese characteristics, essential requirements and major principles for the formation of Chinese-style modernization, building a theoretical system for Chinese-style modernization, and promoting the new era and new journey. Chinese-style modernization provides scientific guidance and also carries out strategic design and scientific deployment for national defense and military modernization.
The most fundamental thing about modernizing the national defense and military is to uphold the absolute leadership of the party over the military. The leadership of the Party is the fundamental guarantee of Chinese-style modernization, which determines the fundamental nature of Chinese-style modernization, and it must also determine the fundamental nature of national defense and military modernization. To promote the modernization of national defense and the military on the new journey, we must fully implement a series of fundamental principles and systems for the party to lead the people’s army, comprehensively and thoroughly implement the chairman’s responsibility system of the Military Commission, and effectively unify thoughts and actions into the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and President Xi; Adhere to the party’s management of cadres and talents, and highlight political standards and combat capabilities Ensure that the barrel of the gun is always in the hands of those who are loyal and reliable to the party; improve the comprehensive and strict governance of the party system, enhance the political and organizational functions of party organizations at all levels, and integrate the party’s leadership throughout the entire process of continuing to deepen national defense and military reforms in all aspects.
To modernize national defense and the military is to modernize military doctrine, military organization, military personnel, and weapons and equipment. This reflects the inherent requirements for the construction of military forces resulting from changes in the concept of victory in modern warfare, elements of victory and methods of victory, and clarifies the main signs of the basic realization of national defence and military modernization. To realize the modernization of military theory is to keep pace with the times, innovate war and strategic guidance, and form a military theoretical system that is contemporary, leading, and unique; to realize the modernization of organizational form is to deepen the reform of national defense and the military, and the military force structure layout is scientific and reasonable, strategic deterrence capabilities are consolidated and improved, new areas and new quality combat forces continue to grow, and elite operations, system support, and joint victory have become the basic application models; To realize the modernization of military personnel is to deeply implement the strategy of strengthening the military with talents in the new era, promote the comprehensive transformation and upgrading of military personnel’s capabilities, structural layout, and development management, and forge high-quality, professional new military talents with both ability and political integrity; to realize the modernization of weapons and equipment, It is necessary to focus on strengthening national defense scientific and technological innovation and accelerating the development of strategic, cutting-edge and disruptive technologies Accelerate the upgrading of weapons and equipment and the development of intelligent weapons and equipment.
For the modernization of national defence and the military, we must adhere to the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence. The military conflicts and local wars that have taken place in recent years have shown that new qualitative combat capabilities generated based on intelligent combat systems are increasingly becoming core military capabilities. Based on mechanization, dominated by informatization, and oriented by intelligence, the three superimpose, penetrate, and support each other, jointly giving rise to new forms of warfare and methods of warfare. Only by accelerating the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence and keeping up with the new military revolutionary trends in the world can we seize the opportunity and take the initiative in seizing the commanding heights of the military struggle.
The modernization of national defence and the army is a guarantee of security for insisting on the path of peaceful development. Since ancient times, soldiers have not been warlike. Chinese-style modernization is modernization on the path of peaceful development. Building a consolidated national defense and a strong military commensurate with international status and national security and development interests is a strategic task of China’s socialist modernization drive and an insistence on taking the path of peaceful development. Safety guarantee is an inevitable choice for summarizing historical experience. China has always pursued a defensive defence policy and adhered to the strategic idea of active defence, and no matter how far it develops, China will never seek hegemony or engage in expansion. To promote the modernization of national defense and the military on the “new journey”, we must faithfully implement the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, resolutely oppose all forms of hegemony and bullying, and contribute China’s strength to building a beautiful world of lasting peace and universal security.
Advancing the modernization of national defence and the military at a new historical starting point
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China included “continuous deepening of national defense and military reforms into the overall plan for further comprehensive deepening of reforms, and made a series of major strategic arrangements for improving the leadership and management system and mechanism of the people’s army, deepening the reform of the joint operations system, and deepening cross-military and civilian reforms”. On the new journey, we must deeply understand and grasp the themes, major principles, major measures, and fundamental guarantees for further comprehensively deepening reforms, resolutely implement the new “three-step” strategy for national defense and military modernization, and accelerate the modernization of military theory, military organizational form, and military personnel. Modernize and modernize weapons and equipment, and lead the modernization of national defense and the military to move forward with better strategies, higher efficiency, and faster speed.
Strengthening the Party’s theoretical and scientific leadership in military guidance. Our party insists on combining the basic principles of Marxism with the practice of building the people’s army, absorbing the essence of China’s excellent traditional military culture, and constantly exploring new realms in the development of contemporary Chinese Marxist military theory and military practice. As an important part of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military has achieved a new leap forward in the Sinicization and modernization of Marxist military theory. It is the fundamental guiding ideology of our party building and military governance in the new era. We must unremittingly arm our minds with Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, further firmly establish the guiding position of Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military in national defense and military construction, and build and consolidate national defense and a strong people’s army under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Strengthening the Military. Take new and greater steps on the road to strengthening the military with Chinese characteristics.
Efforts should be made to make the main responsibility and business of war preparation more solid and effective. The People’s Army is an armed group that performs the party’s political tasks. It must be both politically strong and capable. In the final analysis, this ability can win wars. To accelerate the modernization of national defense and the military, we must firmly grasp the fundamental direction of winning wars, establish the only fundamental standard of combat effectiveness, focus all our energy on fighting wars, and work hard on fighting wars. Conscientiously implement the military strategic policy for the new era, operate war preparation and cessation, deterrence and actual combat, war operations and the use of military forces in peacetime as a whole, innovate strategies, tactics and tactics, effectively shape the situation, manage crises, contain wars, and win wars. Adhere to the principle of “training troops as they fight, and comprehensively improve the actual combat level of military training and the ability to perform missions and tasks”.
Promote high-quality development of national defense and military construction through “reform and innovation”. Reform is a key move that will determine the growth of our army and its future. On the new journey, we must put innovation at the core of the overall military construction and development, transform development concepts, innovate development models, enhance development momentum, and promote the transformation of national defense and military modernization from quantitative growth to qualitative improvement. Focus on integrating national defense and military construction into the national economic and social development system on a wider scale, at a higher level, and to a deeper extent, continuously improve the quality and efficiency of national defense and military modernization, promote the simultaneous improvement of national defense strength and economic strength, and consolidate and improve the integration National strategic system and capabilities, and constantly write a new chapter of strengthening the country and the military.
With the approval of Xi Jinping, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, the Central Military Commission issued the “Outline of Joint Cooperation between the People’s Liberation Army of China (Trial Implementation)”, which will come into effect on November 7, 2020.
The Outline focuses on building a legal system for joint operations and strengthening the clear orientation of preparing for war. It is of great significance to consolidate and deepen the results of the reform of the leadership and command system, scale structure and force composition, and to promote the liberation and development of our military’s joint operations capabilities.
The Outline is the top-level regulation of our military’s new-era combat doctrine system. It focuses on clarifying the basic issues of joint combat organization and implementation, unifying combat thinking, clarifying responsibilities and procedures, and guiding combat operations. It also clarifies major principles, requirements, and basic procedures for joint combat command, combat operations, combat support, national defense mobilization, and political work.
The Central Military Commission requires that all levels should earnestly study and implement the “Outline”, adhere to combat effectiveness as the only fundamental standard, use the “Outline” as the basic basis for organizing and implementing joint operations and joint training, and comprehensively improve the ability to win in the new era.
The battle flag hunt, the military parade ground was full of ups and downs, and the climaxes continued——
From north to south, the surging iron torrents train elite soldiers; in the deep blue ocean, soldiers step on the waves to forge sharp swords; above the vast sky, eagles fly thousands of miles towards the blue sky; deep in the dense forests, the east wind roars to the sky; the skynet controls power, and the invisible war defeats the visible… One after another joint combat exercises are gradually unfolding in multiple domains and all dimensions, presenting a picture of a strong army that trains together to plan for war, uses training to promote war, and wins war through strong training, sounding the strong note of a new era in the history of our army’s training and preparation.
Over the past year, the world has been undergoing unprecedented changes unseen in a century, intertwined with the global COVID-19 pandemic. Under the sky shrouded by the epidemic, the international situation has been in constant turmoil and confrontation. The drone warfare that has shined in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has shown the world the unique characteristics of modern warfare.
“When times change, things change. When things change, we must be prepared for change.” In the future, “what kind of war to fight and how to fight it” carries the heavy mission, and the entire military is surging with enthusiasm for researching and winning wars.
Faced with new changes in the national security situation, new threats from powerful enemies and adversaries, and new developments in the form of warfare, we urgently need to provide answers to strengthening the military, winning battles, and meeting the needs of the times.
“Overall, modern warfare has indeed undergone profound changes. These changes may seem dazzling, but there are regularities behind them. The fundamental thing is that the winning mechanism of war has changed.” Faced with the rapid development of the new world military revolution and changes in the war situation, under the guidance of the commander-in-chief and in accordance with the unified deployment of the CMC’s policy and system reforms, the CMC Joint Staff Department organized experts from the Academy of Military Sciences and capable personnel from relevant departments of the CMC, various theater commands, various military services and armed police forces to form a joint research group to pool wisdom and strength to tackle key problems and advance the formulation of new-era combat regulations.
On November 7, 2020, the “Outline of the Joint Cooperation Warfare of the People’s Liberation Army of China (Trial Implementation)” was implemented throughout the army, marking a new coordinate system for our army’s joint cooperation war in the new era.
Since the issuance of the Outline, commanders have taken the lead in learning it, agencies have taken the lead in studying it, and troops have practiced learning it. The officers and soldiers of the whole army have been enthusiastic about learning and publicizing the Outline. A great discussion on joint operations in the new era, a great liberation of thoughts, and a great practice of preparation for war have been vigorously carried out in the whole army.
Pointing to victory, leading the new practice of preparing for war in the new era
“Following the main road, who would you follow to seek a shortcut?” In the world of soldiers, there is no such thing as “easy”. The only way to win a battle is to be prepared.
What kind of war we will fight in the future will require innovative tactics; if we cannot innovate tactics, it will be difficult to win future wars.
In essence, combat regulations are about solving the problem of how to fight and how to win, and are the refinement, deepening and concretization of military strategic policies. The Outline of Joint Cooperation of the People’s Liberation Army of China (Trial) (hereinafter referred to as the Outline) deeply studies the characteristics and laws of future wars, accurately grasps the era characteristics of the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligentization of our army, and through the forward-looking and concrete design of future operations, implements the spiritual essence and content requirements of the new era’s military strategic policy into the troops’ preparation for war.
The Outline is not only a guideline for preparing for war, but also a guideline for winning joint operations.
At the beginning of the new year of 2021, a certain area of the Eastern Theater Command is organizing a multi-service, multi-directional, systematic combat training. Under the guidance of the newly issued “Outline”, this exercise involves the full-domain linkage of land, sea, air, space, network and electric power, close coordination of political and public opinion, and information-led throughout the entire process from combat preparation to situation shaping to mission implementation. All units work closely together, demonstrating the firm determination and strong ability to maintain national unity with a thunderous momentum, and also witnessing the transformation of our military joint cooperation from “formal linkage” to “spiritual linkage”.
In the west, at midnight in mid-spring 2021, a series of urgent alarm bells rang. According to the level transfer order of a certain base of the Western Theater Air Force, the officers and soldiers of a certain air defense battalion of the Army quickly rushed to their positions, and the level transfer time was further shortened. According to the unified deployment, more than 10 Army air defense forces in the theater air force responsibility area entered the Air Force command chain in an organized manner, breaking the information barrier of the services, sharing early warning information, and jointly taking on combat readiness duty, and initially forming a joint air defense combat system. “You lend me the ‘eye in the sky’, and I will help you with the ‘iron fist'”, the integrated joint air defense combat across the services has taken a new step and entered a new stage.
In the north, at the beginning of the summer of 2021, war eagles soared and iron currents rolled, and an exercise with the theme of air-ground joint operations was in full swing. According to the plan, a certain command post of the Air Force of the Northern Theater Command and a certain group army of the Army jointly organized a brigade-level command post exercise to study and explore the composition of joint command institutions and test the integrated joint combat command capabilities of the command post personnel. Intelligence analysis and processing, joint firepower strikes, and integrated rear-end support were coordinated and planned and carried out in an integrated manner, and the command institutions were organized in an integrated manner with all elements. Through repeated joint combat and training, the policy of leading training through combat and carrying out combat through training has been further implemented, and the joint combat and command capabilities of commanders of all services and arms have been significantly improved.
In the direction of the South China Sea, war eagles roared and attacked fiercely, dragons took off and stepped on the sea and waves, radars flew and missiles raised their heads… Under the unified command of the theater joint command, all mission forces worked as a whole and coordinated closely to quickly build a battlefield layout that was multi-domain joint, both offensive and defensive, and deployed in echelons. They adopted a combination of centralized command and decentralized command, and flexibly carried out sea and air escort and deterrence and expulsion in a reasonable, forceful and restrained manner, effectively maintaining peace and tranquility in the South China Sea.
In the past year since the implementation of the Outline, the orientation of preparing for war has become clearer and firmer, the sole fundamental standard of combat effectiveness has been more firmly established, training and preparation for war as the main responsibility of the troops has become more prominent, researching and planning war as the primary responsibility of officers and soldiers has become clearer, the ideas and measures for joint operations and victory have become increasingly effective, and the entire army has continued to set off a new upsurge in training and preparation for war.
Keep pace with the times and clarify the new mechanism of joint cooperation in the new era
“All beneficial ways go with the times.”
Military theorist Douhet once said: “Victory smiles only on those who can foresee the changes in the character of war, not on those who wait for the changes to happen and then adapt to them.”
Looking around the world, the game and struggle among major powers are intensifying, the threat of war exists, the war situation continues to evolve, new military reforms are booming, stealth, unmanned and intelligent weapons and equipment have become the mainstream trend, the battlefield space has expanded to all domains and dimensions, the integrated linkage of combat forces has become the norm, combat command, action and support have become more sophisticated, and winning future wars requires the support of more advanced combat theories.
The gap in combat concepts is the fundamental gap, and the backwardness of combat theory is the biggest backwardness. When modern wars are surging in the world, what is most needed is newer and braver minds.
The new-era combat regulations, led by the Outline, adhere to Xi Jinping’s military strategic thinking and the new-era military strategic policy as the soul and outline, deeply grasp the new changes in national security, new adjustments in combat opponents, new designs in strategic layout, new connotations of active defense, and new developments in combat guidance, and materialize the principles and methods of commanders’ understanding and guidance of war into norms and standards for the specific implementation of the troops, so as to promote our military-joint cooperation war to a higher level.
——It comprehensively expounds the contemporary connotation of war guidance under information conditions.
The Outline aims to win future high-end wars, accurately grasps the characteristics of lowered thresholds for future armed conflicts, blurred boundaries of war, and increasingly prominent mutual influence and efficiency between the war field and other fields, strengthens the political and social attributes of combat operations, innovatively develops military struggle paradigms, emphasizes relying on the country’s integrated strategic system and capabilities, emphasizes the integration of war and non-war domains, emphasizes the comprehensive implementation of military and political, diplomatic, economic, cultural and other means, and gives full play to the overall advantages of the party, government, military, police and people. It reflects the modern war concept and the war guidance for winning the people’s war and total war in the new era.
——All elements standardize the style and methods of our joint military operations.
The Outline is based on the tasks and development of our army, and systematically expounds on the possible joint operations in the future, covering the core missions of various strategic directions, covering land, sea, air, space, network and electromagnetic multi-dimensional space. At the same time, it also creatively summarizes the basic types of joint operations, highlights the basic actions that run through the joint operations and have common characteristics, and forms a closed-loop chain of joint operations with all elements and in all fields.
——The joint combat command system and organizational operation mode were designed throughout the entire process.
The implementation of joint operations organizations is extremely complex and difficult. Whether they can be “coordinated” in terms of strength, “joined” in operations, and “excellent” in effectiveness depends crucially on whether they can achieve “unification” in command. The “Outline” focuses on building a strong and efficient joint operations command structure, closely integrates the Central Military Commission and the theater joint command operation model mechanism, fully considers that it not only complies with the general direction and general requirements of the reform, but also leaves room for flexible formation in practice. It focuses on solving major issues such as the construction of a joint operations command system, the differentiation of command authority and responsibility interfaces, and the integration of services into the joint system, so as to ensure that thousands of troops and horses can jointly act under unified orders.
Taking joint training as the guideline, promoting a new leap forward in joint training in the new era
At the Central Military Commission’s military training conference, President Xi Jinping stressed the need to strengthen joint training, adhere to joint training as the key, develop a joint training system with Chinese characteristics, and accelerate the improvement of integrated joint combat capabilities. Soldiers should be trained in the way they fight, and troops should be trained in what is needed for fighting. Today’s world-class armies all regard improving joint training as the top priority for war preparation.
The Outline is the opening chapter of the new era combat doctrine and the guiding principle for the transformation of joint training in the new era. The Outline provides direction, inspires vitality, and gives birth to a new pattern of joint training in the new era.
——Incorporate combat into training to present an “integrated posture” of training.
In the Taiwan Strait, the naval and air fleets carried out joint combat readiness patrols to test and enhance the joint combat capabilities of multiple services, maintain a high state of alert at all times, and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Exercise preparation is combat preparation, and the exercise state is the combat state. Joint military exercises are no longer simple training activities, but have become a preparation process to promote combat readiness and enhance capabilities. Joint training, the “source” and “main stream” full of power, is guiding and driving the in-depth advancement and vigorous development of military struggle preparations, and fully unleashing the role and effectiveness of training to carry out combat and training to promote preparations.
——Systematic training has become the “new normal” of joint training.
“East”, “South”, “West”, “North”, and “Central” are joint live-fire exercises organized by various theater commands, “Crossing”, “Mobility”, “Red Sword”, “Sky Sword”, and “Joint Logistics Mission” are series of systematic exercises organized by various services, covering all seasons, all weather, and all regions. The CMC, theater commands, and services are responsible for division of labor, overall design, and systematic organization. They are decomposed from top to bottom and integrated from bottom to top, driving the operation and inspection of the joint combat system. Joint exercises and systematic training present a new look, and new changes have taken place in the training and preparation mode. Our military’s joint training has entered a new stage of all-round transformation and overall improvement.
——Joint training between China and foreign countries highlights the “integration” of joint exercises.
At the foot of the Helan Mountains and in the heart of the Bronze Gorge Desert, the “Western Joint-2021” China-Russia joint exercise was booming. In this joint exercise, the Chinese and Russian militaries were mixed and planned together. The two sides shared their positions, coordinated closely, and acted together. They practiced more than 20 subjects such as joint air defense, joint obstacle removal, and joint three-dimensional seizure. With the support of the deeply integrated combat system between China and Russia, new breakthroughs in joint exercises and training were achieved. “Maritime Joint”, “Common Destiny”, “Peace Mission”… With the joint training between China and foreign countries as a “window”, the new changes in the joint training of the Chinese military are being brilliantly presented to the world.
——Intensive training in new domains, demonstrating an “open attitude” in research and warfare.
In joint exercises, underwater unmanned “fish schools”, land unmanned “wolf packs”, and air unmanned “bee swarms” began to emerge. New domains and new types of forces such as land aviation, special operations, electric power, unmanned, network, and aerospace were deeply integrated into the joint combat system and the joint exercise process, and realistic combat scenarios were carefully constructed to accurately experiment with modern war organization and management. As the most active practice area for preparing for war, joint training, with an innovative and open attitude, boldly tried and made great strides towards the new combat areas pointed out in the Outline.
Integrating war and construction to shape a new pattern of system construction in the new era
President Xi stressed that we must adhere to the principle of building the country in accordance with war, strengthen the coordination of war and construction, speed up the promotion of major strategic, leading and fundamental projects, and accelerate the creation of a high-level strategic deterrence and joint combat system.
If the “trouble” in the construction of the joint combat system is not resolved quickly, once the “interest” of the debt accumulates, it will become a “pain” on the battlefield tomorrow. From the perspective of war, the “Outline” calibrates the “sight” of construction and firmly points to the correct direction of military construction.
——Calibrate the construction “sight” to point to the needs of joint operations.
Under the guidance of the Outline, the concept of jointness has been gradually established, and the barriers of “coordination” of military operations and “integration” of combat domain capabilities have been gradually broken down. The land, sea, air, and fire arms have been combined in the same domain, and cross-domain integration of combat domains such as space, network, and electromagnetic space has gradually become a reality. With the support of the network information system and combat data information as the link, a full-time and smooth command link has been built. The system is internally connected to each combat sub-center, and is connected to each combat group (team) command post. When necessary, it can directly reach the end of the individual platform to achieve joint command to the end. All operational forces worked together around the overall intention, realizing the transformation of the joint combat concept from focusing on the “service attributes” of combat forces to focusing on the “operational domain”, which has become the main feature of future joint combat. Studying, planning, and training for war with the “Outline” has become a trend throughout the military.
——Calibrate construction’s “sights” to point to system shortcomings and weaknesses.
Based on the Outline, our army insists on combining inheritance and innovation, theory and practice, innovatively designs strategies for winning future wars, focuses on highlighting problem orientation, takes root in training and preparation for war, promotes the construction of joint combat command system and new combat force construction, and effectively solves the outstanding shortcomings and weaknesses in military combat preparation. In mid-May 2021, the Party Committee of the Northern Theater Command held a special war meeting, and in accordance with the Outline, thoroughly identified contradictions and problems in joint combat research, command and control mode transformation, joint handling level, and efficient command capabilities. According to the Outline, it optimized system support, improved command and control methods, and improved command means, which promoted the transformation of the operation mode of the theater joint command center and the improvement of command effectiveness. Looking across the entire military, similar practices are becoming more and more common. Referring to the Outline to find gaps, ideas, and methods in the near and long term has become the new mainstream for planning and promoting construction at all levels and in all fields.
——Calibrate the construction “sight” to point to the urgent need to balance powerful enemies.
To implement the principle of building the military in accordance with war and coordinating the military construction, we must not only focus on solving current practical problems, but also pay attention to solving long-term development problems. The Outline is anchored on the future of defeating the strong and contains a far-sighted plan to build a world-class military. Guided by the Outline and focusing on changes in the war situation and changes in scientific and technological development, the construction of asymmetric means to check and balance powerful enemies has ushered in a qualitative leap. Batches of new drones, new helicopters and other advanced weapons and equipment have been tested and deployed, and a series of high-tech equipment has been deployed and developed, which has given us more confidence and stronger capabilities to win the war. The Outline condenses the “war code” of historical wisdom and also integrates the way to build first-class and win the future in the new era.
“But look at the path you have come from, and you will see verdant and green mountains.” One year after the implementation of the Outline, the new-era combat regulations are releasing capabilities and increasing efficiency in building a joint combat system with Chinese military characteristics.
In the new era and new journey, our path of joint military operations will surely become broader, our ability to defend the country’s strategic development interests will surely become stronger, our confidence in winning future informationized wars will surely become firmer, and the great goal of building a world-class military will surely be fully realized.
“We have a string that is tightly tied to us, a mission that we shoulder, and a storm that we are watching closely… We are always ready!”
Since the 1990s, the concepts of multi-dimensional central warfare, such as network-centric warfare, personnel-centric warfare, action-centric warfare, and decision-centric warfare, have been proposed one after another. The evolution of the concept of multi-dimensional central warfare reflects the overall goal of seeking advantages such as platform effectiveness, information empowerment, and decision-making intelligence by relying on military science and technology advantages, and also reflects the contradictory and unified relationship between people and equipment, strategy and skills, and the strange and the normal. Dialectically understanding these contradictory and unified relationships with centralized structured thinking makes it easier to grasp the essential connotation of its tactics and its methodological significance.
Strengthen the integration of the “human” dimension in the combination of people and equipment
The concepts of personnel-centric warfare and platform-centric warfare largely reflect the relationship between people and weapons and equipment. Some have specially formulated human dimension strategies, emphasizing continuous investment in the human dimension of combat effectiveness, which is the most reliable guarantee for dealing with an uncertain future. Since the beginning of the 21st century, with the rapid development of intelligent weapons and equipment, unmanned combat has emerged, and voices questioning the status and role of people have arisen one after another. It is imperative to strengthen the integration of the human dimension and enhance the synergy of the human dimension.
First, we need to enhance spiritual cohesion. Marxism believes that consciousness is the reflection of objective matter in the human mind. Tactics are the expression and summary of combat experience, and they themselves have spiritual or conscious forms. When studying tactics, we naturally need to put spiritual factors first. Some scholars believe that war is still fundamentally a contest of human will. In the information age, people’s spirits are richer and more complex, and enhancing the spiritual cohesion of the human dimension is more challenging and difficult. To enhance people’s spiritual cohesion, we need to coordinate the cultivation of collective spirit and individual spirit, maximize the satisfaction of individual spiritual needs in leading the collective spirit, realize individual spiritual pursuits in shaping the value of collective spirit, and empower people’s spirit with all available and useful information; we need to coordinate the cultivation of critical spirit and innovative spirit, adhere to the tactical epistemology of dialectical materialism, resolutely oppose idealism and mechanism in tactical cognition, and constantly inherit and innovate in criticism; we need to coordinate the cultivation of fighting spirit and scientific spirit, and promote the revolutionary spirit of facing death with courage and winning, and promote the spirit of winning by science and technology.
The second is to enhance the organizational structure. Organizations are the organs of the military, and people are the cells of the organization. The settings of military organizations in different countries have their own characteristics and commonalities. For example, the Ministry of National Defense is generally set up to distinguish between the structure of military branches, hierarchical structures and regional structures, and to distinguish between peacetime and wartime organizations. Although the purpose of construction and war is the same, the requirements for the unity of construction and the flexibility of war are different. To enhance the organizational structure and promote the consistency of war and construction, it is necessary to smooth the vertical command chain, reasonably define the command power and leadership power, command power and control power, so that the government and orders complement each other, and enhance the vertical structural strength of the organization; it is necessary to open up horizontal coordination channels, explore the establishment of normalized cross-domain (organizations, institutions, departments) coordination channels, change the simple task-based coordination model, and enhance the horizontal structural strength of the organization; it is necessary to improve the peace-war conversion mechanism, focus on the organization connection, adjustment and improvement in the change of leadership or command power of the troops, and maintain the stability and reliability of the organizational structure network.
The third is to enhance material support. The spiritual strength of people in combat can be transformed into material strength, but spiritual strength cannot be separated from the support of material strength. To enhance material support and thus realize the organic unity of material and spirit, it is necessary to ensure combat equipment, bedding, food, and medical care, build good learning venues, training facilities, and re-education channels, provide good technical services in combat regulations, physiological medicine, etc., help design diversified and personalized capacity improvement plans and career development plans, and provide strong material and technical support for the development of people’s physical fitness, skills, and intelligence, and thus comprehensively improve people’s adaptability and combat effectiveness in the uncertain battlefield environment of the future.
Deepen the practice of the “skill” dimension in the combination of combat and skills
The combination of combat skills is an important principle of tactical application. The technology includes not only the technology at the practical operation level (such as shooting technology), but also the technology at the theoretical application level (such as information technology). It can be said that tactics, technology, art and procedures together constitute its “combat methodology”. Scientific and technological development and scientific technology are important characteristics of scientific and technological development. To deepen the combination of combat skills, it is necessary to correctly grasp the relationship between technology and tactics, art and procedures, and continuously deepen the practice of the “skill” dimension.
First, promote the tacticalization of advanced technology. Technology determines tactics, which is the basic view of dialectical materialism’s tactical theory. The evolution of the concept of multi-dimensional central warfare is also an example of technology driving the development and change of tactics. Engels once pointed out: “The entire organization and combat methods of the army and the related victory or defeat… depend on the quality and quantity of the population and on technology.” However, technology-driven tactics have a “lag effect”, especially in the absence of actual combat traction. This requires actively promoting the military transformation of advanced civilian technologies and the tactical application of advanced military technologies. On the one hand, we must actively introduce advanced civilian technologies, especially accelerate the introduction and absorption of cutting-edge technologies such as deep neural networks and quantum communication computing; on the other hand, we must strengthen tactical training of advanced technology equipment, closely combine technical training with tactical training, and promote the formation of new tactics and new combat capabilities with new equipment as soon as possible.
Second, promote the technicalization of command art. “Art” is a highly subjective concept. Some Chinese and foreign scholars believe that “the art of command is rooted in the commander’s ability to implement leadership to maximize performance”, while others believe that “the art of command is the way and method for commanders to implement flexible, clever and creative command”. Chinese and foreign scholars generally regard command as an art. The main reason is that although command has objective basis and support such as combat regulations, superior orders and technical support, the more critical factor lies in the commander’s subjective initiative and creativity, which is difficult to quantify by technical means. With the development of disciplines and technologies such as cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience, the cognitive structure and mechanism of command will become more explicit, the mysterious veil of “command art” will gradually fade, and the technicalization of command art will become an inevitable trend. This requires continuous strengthening of technical thinking, continuous deepening of the construction of artificial intelligence-assisted command decision-making means, continuous deepening of the application of human brain decision-making mechanisms, practical use of technology to deconstruct art, and continuous promotion of the technicalization of command art.
The third is to promote the regulation of combat technology. Many scholars place technology on a position that is almost as important as tactics. This insistence on the integrated development of tactical regulation and the regulation of specialized military technology and special combat technology is an important way to promote the systematic and standardized construction of combat regulations and further achieve the integration and unification of tactics and technology at the legal level.
Seeking the advantage of the “odd” dimension in combining the odd and the regular
The odd and the even are a basic contradictory structure of tactics, with inherent identity. Without the odd, there is no even, and without the even, there is no odd; either the odd or the even, ever-changing. The choice of the odd and the even is the category of decision-centered warfare, and the application of the odd and the even is the category of action-centered warfare. In the 1990s, the theories of asymmetric warfare, non-contact warfare, and non-linear warfare were proposed. If “symmetric warfare, contact warfare, and linear warfare” are even, then “asymmetric warfare, non-contact warfare, and non-linear warfare” can be called odd. From the perspective of natural science, “symmetry, contact, and linear” are general, and “asymmetry, non-contact, and non-linear” are detailed. It is an inevitable requirement to grasp the dimension of “odd” in the combination of odd, odd, and even, and to seek the advantages of the “three nons”.
First, seek “asymmetric” advantages. “Symmetry” and “asymmetry” originally refer to the morphological characteristics of things or space. Symmetrical warfare is a battle between two troops of the same type, and asymmetric warfare is a battle between two different types of troops. The theory of asymmetric warfare requires the scientific and reasonable organization of troops, combat forces and weapon systems of different military services, deployment in a wide area, and the concentration of superior forces to deal a fatal blow to the enemy at the best combat opportunity, and then quickly redeploy the forces. Due to the limited combat power, the troops have positive asymmetric advantages and negative asymmetric disadvantages. Seeking asymmetric advantages and avoiding asymmetric disadvantages is the common expectation of the warring parties, which will lead to such a situation that the warring parties cycle back and forth between symmetry and asymmetry. Therefore, to seek “asymmetric” advantages, it is necessary to seek asymmetry in combat power, combat capability, combat command and other aspects, adhere to and carry forward “avoid the strong and attack the weak, avoid the real and attack the virtual”, “you fight yours, I fight mine”, and effectively play advantages and avoid disadvantages in asymmetry. For example, when weapons and equipment are symmetrical, strive to gain an asymmetric advantage in personnel capabilities; when forces are symmetrical, strive to gain an asymmetric advantage in command art.
The second is to seek “non-contact” advantages. “Contact” and “non-contact” are a description of the distance between different things. Contact in the military field is usually defined by the projection distance of weapons. The concept of “non-contact combat” originated from World War II and was created during the Cold War. The connotation of contact combat and non-contact combat changes with the change of the striking distance of weapons and equipment. The warring parties always seek to attack each other at a farther distance or in a wider space without being threatened. Since the 1990s, the theory of “non-contact combat” has been used in many local wars. Non-contact combat is a combat action style that implements long-range precision strikes outside the defense zone while being far away from the opponent. Non-contact combat embodies the idea of winning by technology, flexible mobility, and center of gravity strikes. With the rapid development of military science and technology, the armies of major countries in the world will have the ability to perceive and strike globally, and the connotation of “non-contact” will be further compressed to space, cognitive domain and other space fields. To this end, on the one hand, we must base ourselves on the reality of “contact combat”, learn from each other’s strengths and overcome our weaknesses in contact, and continuously accumulate advantages; on the other hand, we must expand the space for “non-contact combat”, seize the initiative and seize the opportunity in non-contact, and continuously expand our advantages.
The third is to seek “nonlinear” advantages. “Linear” and “nonlinear” usually refer to people’s thinking or behavior patterns. The movement of all things in the universe is complex and mostly nonlinear, while human cognition always tends to be simple, abstract, and linear, and has invented concepts such as logic lines, time lines, and linear mathematics. In military science, the transition from linear operations to nonlinear operations reflects the development and progress of military technology theory. Since the second half of the 20th century, nonlinear operations have been on the historical stage. Some scholars have pointed out that in linear operations, each unit mainly acts in a coordinated manner along a clear front line of its own side. The key is to maintain the relative position between its own units to enhance the safety of the units; in nonlinear operations, each unit simultaneously carries out combat operations from multiple selected bases along multiple combat lines. The key is to create specific effects at multiple decision points against the target. Linear operations mainly reflect the action-centered warfare idea, while nonlinear operations mainly reflect the target-centered warfare idea. To this end, on the one hand, we must deepen the use of linear warfare and make full use of its practical value in facilitating command, coordination and support; on the other hand, we must boldly try non-linear warfare and maximize its potential advantages of extensive mobility and full-dimensional jointness. (Yin Tao, Deng Yunsheng, Sun Dongya)
●To understand the laws of intelligent warfare, we must grasp the foundation of intelligence and autonomy, the key of building a war knowledge and action system, and the essence of the changes in the connotation of war power.
●War leaders must examine intelligent warfare dynamically, keenly capture the new elements spawned by intelligent warfare, correctly analyze the changes in the relationship between the new elements, and constantly re-understand intelligent warfare.
President Xi pointed out that we should seriously study the military, war, and how to fight, and grasp the laws of modern warfare and the laws governing war. Today, the intelligent characteristics of war are becoming increasingly prominent, and intelligent warfare has already shown its early form. In order to seize the initiative in future intelligent warfare, we should actively follow the development of modern warfare, keep close to the actual military struggle preparations, proactively understand the laws of intelligent warfare, deeply grasp its guiding laws, focus on answering questions such as “what is it” and “how to do it”, and constantly innovate war and strategic guidance.
Answering the question “What is it?” and understanding the laws of intelligent warfare
Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out: “The laws of war are a problem that anyone who directs a war must study and must solve.” Today, as intelligent warfare begins to emerge, we should proactively understand “what” intelligent warfare is. Otherwise, we will not be able to solve “how to do it,” let alone control future wars.
The laws of intelligent warfare are the reconstruction of the war knowledge and action system. The laws of intelligent warfare, like the laws of cold weapon warfare, hot weapon warfare, mechanized warfare, and information warfare, are the inherent and essential connections between the elements of war. The difference is that it has new elements and new modes of composition between elements. It is essentially the reconstruction of the war knowledge and action system caused by the intelligent revolution. Today, to understand the laws of intelligent warfare, we must grasp the foundation of intelligence and autonomy, grasp the key to building a war knowledge and action system, and grasp the essence of the change in the connotation of war power. Mastering these laws can overcome the chaos and uncertainty in future wars and find order and certainty from them. This is the objective requirement for dealing with intelligent warfare.
The laws of intelligent warfare are the basis of the laws of war guidance. In “Problems of Strategy in China’s Revolutionary War”, Mao Zedong first analyzed the characteristics of China’s revolutionary war and revealed the laws of war, and then “derived our strategies and tactics from this”, that is, the laws of war guidance; in “On Protracted War”, he first explained “what it is”, and then turned to the question of “how to do it”, reflecting a logical order of the cognitive process. Today, the study of intelligent warfare should still follow this order, and neither put the cart before the horse, nor reverse the order; nor add, reduce or replace links. On the basis of mastering the fundamental law of intelligent autonomy, we must reveal the laws of war guidance such as autonomous perception, autonomous planning, autonomous implementation, autonomous linkage, and autonomous evaluation.
If you don’t understand the laws of intelligent warfare, you can’t guide the war. “Sun Bin’s Art of War” points out: “Know, win” and “Don’t know, don’t win.” Tao is the law of war. If you master it and act in accordance with it, you can win; otherwise, you will lose. Mao Zedong also emphasized: “If you don’t know the laws of war, you don’t know how to guide the war, and you can’t win the war.” Similarly, mastering the laws of intelligent warfare is the premise for correctly guiding intelligent warfare. Otherwise, it is inevitable to be confused by the superficial phenomena of intelligent warfare. Today, we need to analyze the basic, long-term and subversive impact of intelligent technology groups on war, and study what intelligent warfare looks like? What are the laws? How should it be fought? These are all major issues that must be answered in the guidance of intelligent warfare.
Solve the “how to do it” problem and reveal the guiding principles of intelligent warfare
The guiding laws of intelligent warfare are the medium for guiding practice by using the laws of intelligent warfare, playing the role of “bridge” and “boat”. We should solve the problem of “how to do it” on the basis of answering “what is it” and propose the “swimming skills” of intelligent warfare.
The guiding laws of intelligent warfare are the laws of applying the laws of war. The purpose of understanding the laws of war is to apply them. Marx pointed out: “Philosophers only interpret the world in different ways, but the problem is to change the world.” Similarly, intelligent warfare itself forces commanders to discover the laws. Once discovered, they will combine initiative and use the laws to serve winning the war, which will inevitably lead to the emergence of guiding laws for intelligent warfare. Today, war is the continuation of politics, which is still the law of intelligent warfare. From this, it can be concluded that intelligent warfare must obey the guiding laws that serve politics; soldiers and civilians are the basis of victory, which is still the law of intelligent warfare. From this, it can be concluded that the guiding laws of mobilizing the people in the broadest possible way are derived, and so on. These guiding laws for intelligent warfare are derived from the laws of war and are “swimming skills in the sea of intelligent warfare.”
Give full play to the active role of people in intelligent warfare. Engels said: “It is people, not guns, who win the battle.” The guiding laws of intelligent warfare are the laws of practice and use. It is not a simple “transfer” or “copying” of the laws of intelligent warfare, but it can be transformed into the guiding laws of war with the addition of people’s subjective initiative. Today, military talents who master artificial intelligence are not only the operators of intelligent weapons, but also the creators of artificial intelligence. People still occupy a dominant position in the intelligent human-machine system and are the decisive factor in the victory or defeat of intelligent warfare. Commanders should give full play to their initiative on the basis of mastering the laws of intelligent warfare and adhere to the “technology + strategy” combat theory generation model, so as to change from answering “what is” to solving “how to do”.
The laws governing intelligent warfare are constantly evolving. War is a “chameleon”. Intelligent warfare itself will also go through different stages such as germination, development, and maturity, which will inevitably lead to the development of laws governing intelligent warfare. War leaders must dynamically examine intelligent warfare, keenly capture the new elements of intelligent warfare, correctly analyze the changes in the relationship between the new elements, and constantly re-recognize intelligent warfare. We must keep up with the historical process of the accelerated advancement of war forms towards intelligence, grasp the direction of development of intelligent warfare and the pulse of the times, push the research on the laws governing intelligent warfare to a new level, and seize strategic initiative and opportunities on future battlefields.
Keep a close eye on the “initiative” and continue to innovate intelligent warfare and strategic guidance
As the military is ever-changing, water is ever-changing. As intelligent warfare has already arrived, we must follow the laws and guidance of intelligent warfare, keep close to the actual military struggle preparations, strengthen research on opponents and enemy situations, take the initiative to design “when”, “where” and “who to fight”, innovate war and strategic guidance, and firmly grasp the strategic initiative of future wars.
You fight yours, I fight mine. The highest realm of the art of war guidance is that you fight yours, I fight mine. “Each fights his own” requires commanders to use their own forces independently and autonomously in future intelligent wars, no matter how complex and difficult the environment is. In particular, enemies with high-tech equipment may cause a temporary local situation where the enemy is active and we are passive. At this time, we must use comprehensive means such as politics, economy, and diplomacy to make up for the disadvantages in weapons with an overall favorable situation, quickly reverse this situation, and restore the active position. If you are led by the nose by your strategic opponent, you may suffer a great loss.
Seize the opportunity and use the troops according to the time. The Six Secret Teachings pointed out: “The use depends on the opportunity.” Jomini emphasized: “The whole art of war lies in being good at waiting for the opportunity to act.” On the one hand, if the time is not right, do not force it. Be cautious about the opportunity, and have great patience before the opportunity comes to prevent strategic blind action. On the other hand, the time will not come again, so don’t miss the opportunity. Be good at seizing the opportunity, and once you encounter a favorable opportunity, you must resolutely use it and avoid being timid. It should be pointed out that we should look at the issue of the maturity of the opportunity dialectically. The future intelligent war is changing rapidly, requiring quick decision-making, but in the face of uncertain factors, we must make careful decisions. Sometimes making a decision early may be more effective than making a more perfect decision tomorrow. Therefore, we must dare to take a little risk, otherwise we will sit back and watch the loss of the opportunity for success.
Different domains are different, and operations are based on the local conditions. Clausewitz pointed out: “War is not like a field full of crops, but like a field full of trees. When harvesting crops, you don’t need to consider the shape of each crop, and the quality of the harvest depends on the quality of the sickle; when chopping down trees with an axe, you must pay attention to the shape and direction of each tree.” Different strategic spaces lead to different wars, and war guidance is also different. At present, the battlefield space is constantly expanding from traditional spaces such as land, sea and air to new spaces such as space and the Internet. War leaders should explore new intelligent war laws and guidance laws based on the characteristics of multi-domain, three-dimensional, and networked.
Aim at the opponent and win by taking advantage of the enemy. The Art of War by Sun Tzu states: “Follow the enemy and decide the battle.” Jomini also said: “No matter who you are, if you don’t understand the enemy, how can you know how to act?” Looking to the future, smart strategists should classify combat targets into primary combat targets and general combat targets, actual combat targets and potential combat targets according to their importance and urgency, and comprehensively and objectively understand the strategic intentions, force deployment, combat concepts, etc. of different combat targets, propose new intelligent war guidance laws that can give full play to the advantages of their own combat power, and implement correct war actions.
In short, the laws of intelligent warfare are the laws of the cognitive process, solving the problem of “what”; the guiding laws are the laws of the practical process, solving the problem of “how”. The two are dialectically unified and inseparable, forming a complete chain of understanding and guiding intelligent warfare. “Victory is not repeated, but should be formed in infinity.” Today, war and strategic leaders should, based on objective conditions, deeply explore and flexibly apply the laws of intelligent warfare and the laws of war guidance, and innovate war and strategic guidance in line with the times.
(Author’s unit: Academy of Military Science, Institute of War Studies)
Source: Liberation Army DailyAuthor: Hao Jingdong Niu Yujun Duan FeiyiEditor-in-charge: Wang Feng2021-03-16 10:12
In recent years, with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology and its widespread application in the military field, the form of war and combat style have been constantly changing. Some foreign academic articles believe that artificial intelligence is reshaping the form of combat forces, enhancing the effectiveness of combat systems, improving the effectiveness of combat command, and improving the quality of combat coordination, promoting profound changes in combat activities.
Reshaping the combat force
These academic articles point out that combat forces are mainly composed of combat personnel, weapons and equipment, and organizational structures, and are undergoing tremendous changes under the influence of artificial intelligence technology.
From the perspective of personnel structure, with the widespread application of artificial intelligence technology and related equipment systems in the military field, the demand for professionals with the ability to develop, manage, use and maintain artificial intelligence technology has increased significantly, and the proportion of technical personnel in combat forces will continue to increase. Frontline combat personnel are no longer just direct operators of weapons, but are gradually transforming into battlefield monitors, system commanders and key decision makers in human-machine collaborative operations, and the requirements for their scientific and technological literacy and information processing capabilities have been greatly improved.
From the perspective of the equipment system, intelligent weapons and equipment such as drones, unmanned combat vehicles, and intelligent missiles will appear in large numbers and become an important part of the equipment system. These equipment are highly accurate and flexible, with stronger autonomous combat capabilities, and can independently complete tasks such as reconnaissance and strikes, greatly changing the traditional equipment structure and combat mode. In addition, traditional weapons and equipment will also accelerate intelligent transformation by adding intelligent sensors, communication modules, and automatic control systems, so as to have the ability to interconnect and cooperate with artificial intelligence systems. For example, old tanks can be upgraded and transformed to realize functions such as automatic driving, automatic aiming, and intelligent ammunition loading, thereby improving overall combat effectiveness.
From the perspective of combat unit formation, unmanned combat systems will gradually develop from auxiliary combat forces to independent combat units and organize them, relying on their unique advantages in high-risk and high-intensity combat environments. Research reports from some think tanks in Western countries believe that drone swarm combat forces and unmanned combat vehicle battalions will become common combat formations, which can complete a variety of tasks such as reconnaissance and surveillance, intelligence analysis, and firepower strikes. In order to give full play to the respective advantages of artificial intelligence and human warriors, human-machine mixed formations will also become the main form of future combat forces. In this formation, human warriors and intelligent weapons and equipment work closely together to complete combat missions.
Enhance combat system effectiveness
Judging from the evolution trend, intelligent technology will integrate unmanned equipment across domains and empower traditional combat platforms, and will become the “enabler” of future system warfare.
At present, many military experts in Western countries believe that artificial intelligence can conduct a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of various elements of the combat system, identify weak links and optimization space in the system, and provide a scientific basis for the construction and adjustment of the combat system. By optimizing the structure and function of the combat system, the overall effectiveness and stability of the combat system can be improved, making it more competitive when facing a changing battlefield environment and a powerful combat system.
During the combat process, artificial intelligence can analyze the combat systems of both sides in real time, predict the opponent’s possible actions and weaknesses, propose targeted system confrontation strategies, and continuously adjust and optimize according to the actual situation in the combat process to achieve efficient operation of one’s own combat system and improve the quality and effectiveness of combat system confrontation.
Western militaries believe that based on the advantages of artificial intelligence empowerment, they can greatly enhance security risk defense capabilities. By automatically predicting, identifying, discovering, and handling complex security risks, they can autonomously protect personnel, equipment, and materials from various attacks, improve all-domain and all-round defense capabilities, and ensure the safety and stability of the combat system.
Improving combat command effectiveness
At present, artificial intelligence has been deeply integrated into all aspects of combat command, affecting the external manifestations and main activities of combat command. Human-machine intelligent fusion control supported by artificial intelligence technology will become the basic form of combat action control.
Some foreign research institutions have found that artificial intelligence systems can quickly analyze the situation based on real-time battlefield situations and a large amount of historical data, generate multiple combat plans, and timely deduce and evaluate plans, adjust and optimize actions, provide commanders with more scientific and reasonable decision-making suggestions, and efficiently guide the execution of plans, so that combat planning can keep up with the rapidly changing battlefield rhythm. Especially when facing rapidly changing battlefield situations, it can help commanders make accurate judgments more quickly.
With the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, some intelligent combat systems have a certain degree of autonomous decision-making capabilities. In certain situations, such as facing sudden threats or the temporary appearance of fighter jets, combat command systems assisted by artificial intelligence can make decisions and take actions autonomously within the preset rules and authority range, shorten the decision-making chain, and improve the response speed and flexibility of combat. When the combat terminal has stronger intelligent autonomy, it can even realize the self-generation, self-evaluation, and self-adjustment of combat plans, breaking through the limitations of human reaction capabilities and forming a more adaptive combat command.
Many experiments have proved that based on the accumulation of massive combat data and the enhancement of big data analysis technology, artificial intelligence technology can accurately calculate the entire process of combat planning under simulation conditions, helping commanders to accurately analyze the situation in advance, comprehensively judge trends, and reasonably plan trends. Then, through combat simulation, simulation and deduction, etc., it can virtually carry out activities such as calculation of combat force requirements and optimization of tactics and actions. In the planning process, it can scientifically and dynamically adjust combat plan strategies to form the best option, provide more reliable reference basis for combat command, and improve the accuracy of command and control.
Improve the quality of combat coordination
As artificial intelligence technology is deeply integrated into the combat system, the responsiveness of various combat elements on the battlefield continues to improve, the response time is gradually shortened, the adaptability level is gradually enhanced, and the quality of combat coordination is continuously improved.
Some military experts in Western countries believe that the battlefield of the future will be cross-domain, networked, and nonlinear. Artificial intelligence can break the boundaries between various combat domains and combat elements through efficient algorithms, making the coordination between different combat forces closer and more efficient. Based on artificial intelligence technology, autonomous coordination and cooperation between manned and unmanned combat forces can be achieved, so that manned and unmanned combat forces can complement each other and complement each other, significantly improving combat effectiveness. Moreover, the application of unmanned combat systems is becoming more and more extensive. Artificial intelligence technology can perform cluster control and collaborative management of a large number of unmanned combat platforms, achieve efficient coordination and task allocation between them, and improve the overall effectiveness and safety of unmanned combat.
China Military Network Ministry of National Defense Network
Focus on anti-AI operations in intelligent warfare
■ Kang Ruizhi and Li Shengjie
introduction
The extensive application of science and technology in the military field has caused profound changes in the form and mode of warfare. The military game between major powers is increasingly manifested in technological subversion and counter-subversion, surprise and counter-surprise, offset and counter-offset. To win the future intelligent war, we must not only continue to promote the deep transformation and application of artificial intelligence technology in the military field, but also strengthen dialectical thinking, adhere to asymmetric thinking, innovate and develop anti-artificial intelligence combat theories and tactics, and proactively plan anti-artificial intelligence technology research and weapons and equipment research and development to achieve “breaking intelligence” and win, and strive to seize the initiative in future wars.
Fully understand the inevitability of anti-AI operations
Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out in “On Contradiction”: “The law of contradiction of things, that is, the law of the unity of opposites, is the most fundamental law of dialectical materialism.” Looking at the history of the development of military technology and its combat application, it has always been full of the dialectical relationship between attack and defense. The phenomenon of mutual game and alternating suppression between the “spear” of technology and the “shield” of corresponding counter-technology is common.
In the era of cold weapons, people not only invented eighteen kinds of weapons such as “knives, guns, swords, and halberds”, but also created corresponding “helmets, armor, and shields”. In the era of hot weapons, the use of gunpowder greatly increased the attack distance and lethality, but also gave rise to technical and tactical innovations represented by defensive fortifications such as “trench” and “bastion”. In the mechanized era, tanks shined in World War II, and people’s development of technical and tactical related to “tank armor” and “anti-tank weapons” continues to this day. In the information age, “electronic attack” and “electronic protection” around information control have set off a new wave of enthusiasm, and electronic countermeasures forces have emerged. In addition, there are countless opposing concepts in the military field such as “missiles” and “anti-missiles”, “unmanned combat” and “anti-unmanned combat”.
It should be noted that “anti-AI warfare”, as the opposing concept of “intelligent warfare”, will also gradually emerge with the extensive and in-depth application of intelligent technology in the military field. Prospective research on the concepts, principles and technical and tactical implementation paths of anti-AI warfare is not only a need of the times for a comprehensive and dialectical understanding of intelligent warfare, but also an inevitable move to seize the high ground of future military competition and implement asymmetric warfare.
Scientific analysis of anti-AI combat methods and paths
At present, artificial intelligence technology is undergoing a leapfrog development stage from weak to strong, and from special to general. From the perspective of its underlying support, data, algorithms, and computing power are still its three key elements. Among them, data is the basic raw material for training and optimizing models, algorithms determine the strategic mechanism of data processing and problem solving, and computing power provides hardware support for complex calculations. Seeking ways to “break intelligence” from the perspective of the three elements of data, algorithms, and computing power is an important method and path for implementing anti-artificial intelligence operations.
Anti-data operations. Data is the raw material for artificial intelligence to achieve learning and reasoning. The quality and diversity of data have an important impact on the accuracy and generalization ability of the model. There are many examples in life where artificial intelligence models fail due to minor data changes. For example, the face recognition model in the mobile phone may not be able to accurately identify the identity of the person because of wearing glasses, changing hairstyle or changes in the brightness of the environment; the autonomous driving model may also misjudge the road conditions due to factors such as road conditions, road signs and weather. The basic principle of implementing anti-data operations is to mislead the training and learning process or judgment process of the military intelligent model by creating “polluted” data or changing the distribution characteristics of the data, and use the “difference” of the data to cause the “error” of the model, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the military intelligent model. Since artificial intelligence models can conduct comprehensive analysis and cross-verification of multi-source data, anti-data operations should pay more attention to packaging false data information from multi-dimensional features to enhance its “authenticity”. In recent years, foreign militaries have conducted relevant experimental verifications in this regard. For example, special materials coating, infrared transmitting device camouflage and other methods are used to simulate the optical and infrared characteristics of real weapon platforms and even the engine vibration effects to deceive intelligent intelligence processing models; in cyberspace, traffic data camouflage is implemented to enhance the silent operation capability of network attacks and reduce the effectiveness of network attack detection models.
Anti-algorithm warfare. The essence of an algorithm is to describe a strategy mechanism for solving a problem in computer language. Since this strategy mechanism has a limited scope of adaptation, it may fail when faced with a wide variety of real-world problems. A typical example is Lee Sedol’s “God’s Move” in the 2016 man-machine Go match. After reviewing and analyzing the game, many professional Go players said that the “God’s Move” was not actually valid, but it worked for AlphaGo. Silva, the developer of AlphaGo, explained that Lee Sedol had hit an unknown loophole in the computer; there are also analyses that it may be that “this move” contradicts the Go logic of AlphaGo or is beyond its strategy learning range, making it unable to cope. The basic principle of implementing anti-algorithm warfare is to conduct logical attacks or logical deceptions against loopholes in the algorithm strategy mechanism and weaknesses in the model architecture to reduce the effectiveness of the algorithm. Anti-algorithm warfare should be combined with specific combat actions to achieve “misleading deception” against the algorithm. For example, drone swarm reconnaissance operations often use reinforcement learning algorithm models to plan reconnaissance routes. To address this situation, irregular or abnormal actions can be created to make the reward mechanism in the reinforcement learning algorithm model less effective or invalid, thereby achieving the goal of reducing its reconnaissance and search efficiency.
Anti-computing power operations. The strength of computing power represents the speed of converting data processing into information advantage and decision-making advantage. Unlike anti-data operations and anti-algorithm operations, which are mainly based on soft confrontation, the confrontation method of anti-computing power operations is a combination of soft and hard. Hard destruction mainly refers to the attack on the enemy’s computing power center, computing network facilities, etc., by cutting off its computing power to make it difficult for its artificial intelligence model to function; soft confrontation focuses on increasing the enemy’s computing power cost, mainly by creating a “fog” of war and data noise. For example, during combat, a large number of meaningless data such as images, audio, video, and electromagnetic are generated to contain and consume the enemy’s computing power resources, reducing the effective effect rate of its computing power. In addition, attacks can also be carried out on weak links in defense such as the support environment and supporting construction of computing power. The computing power center consumes huge amounts of electricity, and attacking and destroying its power support system can also achieve the effect of anti-computing power operations.
Proactively plan the construction of anti-AI combat capabilities
In any war, the right tactics are used to win. In the face of intelligent warfare, while continuing to promote and improve intelligent combat capabilities, it is also necessary to strengthen preparations for anti-AI operations, proactively plan theoretical innovations, supporting technology development, and equipment platform construction related to anti-AI operations, and ensure the establishment of an intelligent combat system that is both offensive and defensive, and integrated with defense and counterattack.
Strengthen the innovation of anti-AI combat theory. Scientific military theory is combat effectiveness. Whether it is military strategic innovation, military scientific and technological innovation, or other military innovations, they are inseparable from theoretical guidance. We must persist in emancipating our minds, broadening our horizons, strengthening dialectical thinking, and using the innovation of anti-AI combat theory as a supplement and breakthrough to build a theoretical system of intelligent combat that supports and serves to win the battle. We must insist on you fight yours and I fight mine, strengthen asymmetric thinking, and provide scientific theoretical support for seizing battlefield control through in-depth research on anti-AI combat concepts, strategies and tactics, and effectively play the leading role of military theory. We must persist in the integration of theory and technology, enhance scientific and technological cognition, innovation, and application, open up the closed loop between anti-AI combat theory and technology, let the two complement and support each other, and achieve deep integration and benign interaction between theory and technology.
Focus on the accumulation of anti-AI military technology. Science and technology are important foundations for generating and improving combat effectiveness. Once some technologies achieve breakthroughs, the impact will be subversive, and may even fundamentally change the traditional war offense and defense pattern. At present, major countries in the world regard artificial intelligence as a subversive technology and have elevated the development of military intelligence to a national strategy. At the same time, some countries are actively conducting research on technologies related to anti-AI operations and exploring methods of AI confrontation, with the intention of reducing the effectiveness of the opponent’s military intelligence system. To this end, we must explore and follow up, strengthen the tracking and research of cutting-edge technologies, actively discover, promote, and stimulate the development of technologies such as intelligent confrontation that have anti-subversive effects, seize the technological advantage at the beginning of anti-AI operations, and prevent enemy technological raids; we must also carefully select, focus on maintaining sufficient scientific rationality and accurate judgment, break through the technical “fog”, and avoid falling into the opponent’s technical trap.
Research and develop weapons and equipment for anti-AI operations. Designing weapons and equipment is designing future wars. What kind of wars will be fought in the future will determine what kind of weapons and equipment will be developed. Anti-AI operations are an important part of intelligent warfare, and anti-AI weapons and equipment will also play an important role on future battlefields. When developing anti-AI weapons and equipment, we must first keep close to battlefield needs. Closely combine combat opponents, combat tasks, and combat environments, strengthen anti-AI combat research, accurately describe anti-AI combat scenarios, and ensure that the demand for anti-AI combat weapons and equipment is scientific, accurate, and reasonable. Secondly, we must establish a cost mindset. The latest local war practices show that combat cost control is an important factor affecting the outcome of future wars. Anti-AI operations focus on interfering with and confusing the enemy’s military intelligence system. Increasing the development of decoy weapon platforms is an effective way to reduce costs and increase efficiency. By using low-cost simulations to show false targets to deceive the enemy’s intelligent reconnaissance system, the “brain-breaking” effect can be extended and amplified, and efforts can be made to consume its high-value strike weapons such as precision-guided missiles. Finally, we must focus on upgrading while building, using, and upgrading. Intelligent technology is developing rapidly and is updated and iterated quickly. We must closely track the opponent’s cutting-edge military intelligent technology applications, understand their intelligent model algorithm architecture, and continuously promote the application and upgrading of the latest anti-artificial intelligence technology in weapon platforms to ensure its efficient use on the battlefield.
As if overnight, “metaverse” suddenly became a hot word, and related concepts formed many hot topics.
With the development of technologies such as augmented reality, digital twins, 3D rendering, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, high-speed networks, blockchain, and the iteration of terminal devices, the construction and evolution of the “metaverse” may far exceed people’s expectations, and a new Internet form of multi-dimensional, full-sensory, immersive human-computer interaction will hopefully become a reality.
Unveiling the Metaverse
The “Metaverse” allows users to freely travel between the real world and the virtual world. Produced by Lu Xintong
What is the Metaverse?
The term “Metaverse” comes from the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. In the novel, humans live in a virtual three-dimensional world through “Avatars” (digital virtual incarnations). The author calls this space “Metaverse”.
From science fiction to reality, people have not yet reached an absolute consensus on what the metaverse is. Due to the evolution of the times and technological changes, the metaverse is still an evolving concept. Different participants are constantly enriching its definition in their own ways, and the characteristics and forms of the metaverse are also constantly changing. However, we can explore a little through the current presentation of the metaverse.
At present, “metaverse” concept products are mainly concentrated in online games, VR/AR, social networking and other fields.
Online games are widely considered by the industry to be the most likely field to realize the “metaverse” because they themselves have virtual scenes and players’ virtual avatars. Today, game functions have gone beyond the game itself, and the boundaries of games are expanding, and they are no longer just games.
A well-known singer held a virtual concert in the game “Fortress Night” with a virtual image, attracting more than 12 million players from all over the world to participate, breaking the boundary between entertainment and games; due to the impact of the epidemic, the University of California, Berkeley and the School of Animation and Digital Arts of Communication University of China coincidentally rebuilt their campuses in the sandbox game “Minecraft”. Students gathered together with virtual avatars to complete the “cloud graduation ceremony”, realizing the integration of virtual games and real social interactions.
The new generation of “VR social (virtual offline social)” has been gradually developing and becoming popular. It is a fusion of offline social (face-to-face in real life) and online social (through social software such as WeChat). Some well-known VR social platforms provide a free community environment, which not only becomes a place for players to conduct online activities and virtual face-to-face gatherings, but also becomes a social and cultural phenomenon closely related to the current concept of “metaverse”.
The above “metaverse slices” are all important explorations into the construction of the “metaverse”, and they explain in a variety of visible and tangible ways how the “metaverse” will change our real life.
In common research, the following consensus has been formed: “Metaverse” is a new type of Internet application and social form that integrates multiple new technologies and integrates virtual and real. It provides immersive experience based on extended reality technology, generates virtual scenes based on digital twins and 3D rendering technology, builds basic software and hardware services based on cloud computing, artificial intelligence and high-speed networks, and builds an economic system based on blockchain technology, closely integrating the virtual world with the real world in economic system, social system and identity system. At the same time, it allows each user to produce and edit content, and has complete self-driving and iteration capabilities.
The development direction of the “metaverse”
Today’s mobile Internet is actually still in a flat information interaction state, presented on mobile terminals through text, sound, pictures, and videos. Although news information, e-commerce, social chat, live video, etc. meet people’s needs for using the Internet, it is obviously impossible to achieve the effect of face-to-face communication and full sensory experience in real life through the mobile phone screen. With the development of society, people need more native and richer experience and interaction.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused people to move their lives from offline to online. This forced change has made people think more, discuss more, and pay more attention to the “metaverse”. In particular, the core feature of the “metaverse” is the immersive experience, which can turn a plane into a three-dimensional, multi-dimensional, real-time interactive space, greatly enriching and restoring the real physical world and various human relationships. Therefore, the “metaverse” is highly anticipated.
Looking at the development of information technology and media in the past, humans have constantly changed the way they perceive the world, and later began to consciously transform and reshape the world. From the newspaper era, the radio and television era, to the Internet era, and the mobile Internet era, the tools and platforms under the concept of “metaverse” are becoming increasingly complete, and the path to the “metaverse” is gradually becoming clearer.
Since 2020, Internet giants around the world have been closely planning around cutting-edge technologies such as augmented reality, digital twins, 3D rendering, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, high-speed networks, and blockchain, and the door to the ultimate closed-loop ecosystem of the “metaverse” has been opened little by little. Today, when the “bonus” of mobile Internet users has reached its peak, many experts and scholars have stated that the “metaverse” will be the ultimate form of the next generation of the Internet.
Just as it was difficult to accurately predict the development of the Internet 20 years ago, people cannot accurately predict the future form of the “metaverse”. However, combined with the current development trends of related industries, we can see that: the Internet has changed human life and digitized communication between people, while the “metaverse” will digitize the relationship between people and society; the technologies related to the “metaverse” will show gradual development, and single-point technological innovations will continue to appear and merge, approaching the ultimate form of the “metaverse” from all aspects of the industry; the “metaverse” will surge with massive user-generated content, while revealing the value of digital assets.
In a nutshell, the “metaverse” will profoundly change the organization and operation of the existing society in a way that integrates the virtual and the real, forming a new lifestyle that combines the virtual and the real, giving birth to a new social relationship that integrates online and offline, and giving new vitality to the real economy from a virtual dimension.
The future physical “metaverse” will be similar to the scene described in the science fiction movie “Ready Player One”: one day in the future, people can switch identities at any time and anywhere, freely shuttle between the real world and the virtual world, and study, work, make friends, shop, travel, etc. in the “metaverse”. Through immersive experience, the virtual world will be closer to and integrated into the real world.
In this virtual world, there will be self-evolving content and economic systems that always remain safe and stable, meeting the social needs of individuals.
The mediating role of the “metaverse”
“Imagine the ‘metaverse’ as a physical Internet, where you are not just watching content, but you are in it as a whole.” This is a vivid description. However, as it stands, the content of these “metaverses” that allow “everyone to be in it” is relatively scarce. It needs more content that can be independent, self-iterative, and multi-dimensional to attract users to participate in the experience and even creation.
The “metaverse” is bound to become a new platform for media content production. Content producers can transform the “micro-universe” into the “macro-universe” through rich content production. In the short term, the breakthrough of the “metaverse” is immersive content. With the development and penetration of the concept of “metaverse”, the integration of immersive virtual content (such as games, cartoons, etc.) and immersive physical content (such as media, social networking, film and television, etc.) will become higher and higher. In other words, the “metaverse” will play a greater role as a medium.
In September this year, Yu Guoming, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication of Beijing Normal University, pointed out at the release conference of the “2020-2021 “Metaverse” Development Research Report” released by the New Media Research Center of the School of Journalism of Tsinghua University: “Today, the role played by the media is generally the provision of cognitive information, but the role of the media is completing a process from providing cognition to providing experience. The entire media and technology development from cognition to experience is a huge transformation. Once the goal of “metaverse” is established, it will play a directional role in communication technology, communication form, communication methods and even communication effects.” If the “metaverse” is the ultimate form of the next generation of the Internet, then it is a super media channel that will show the ultimate form of media convergence and provide the best immersive experience.
Theoretically, the best communication experience must be based on real scenes. For example, when watching a football game, the ideal situation is to watch it in person on the field. In the “metaverse”, with the development of display interaction, high-speed communication and computing technology, it will become a reality to construct a communication scene that is infinitely close to reality. Users can become “witnesses” and “on-site observers” of news events in a three-dimensional, multi-sensory reception situation.
Therefore, “metaverse” media can realize true “multimediaization”, and various human senses such as vision, smell, hearing, taste, touch, etc. can play a role, and even fully develop and cooperate with each other to realize “immersive” media applications.
Today, media content is constantly evolving and innovating, and its development trend seems to be moving towards the concept of “metaverse”. Media content will no longer be limited to flat presentation methods such as TV, computer, and mobile phone screens. Media content production will consider holographic presentation more, focusing on creating an on-site environment and atmosphere to make users feel as if they are in the scene. Social interaction will no longer be limited to text comments. People can express their feelings in real time with voice and body movements, and communicate virtually face to face on the spot.
Imagine if news reports could restore the war scene and create a “battlefield metaverse” so that people could feel as if they were there and experience in real time the tremendous damage that war has caused to human civilization. This shock would further stimulate human society’s desire and yearning for peace, and media content would have a stronger influence and communication power.
The metaverse is an artificial online virtual world that is born out of, parallel to, and independent of the real world. It is parallel to the real world, reacts to the real world, and integrates a variety of high technologies. These are the three major characteristics of the future metaverse. The operation of the metaverse conforms to the natural laws of human understanding and transformation of the world, and provides a new way of thinking to understand and discover the operating behavior, state, and laws of complex real systems, as well as a new means to explore objective laws and transform nature and society. Researching the application of the metaverse in the field of foreign military training and analyzing the opportunities and challenges that the metaverse brings to the field of military training have important theoretical and practical value in solving the key problems that need to be solved in military training in the intelligent era, promoting scientific and technological training, and promoting the innovative development of military training models.
Background of Cognitive Metaverse Empowered Military Training
The scientific and technological revolution has given rise to a new ecology of military training. Driven by the new scientific and technological revolution and the industrial revolution, cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things have accelerated their development. Technology giants have laid out the metaverse, and human real life has migrated to the virtual world more rapidly. The metaverse integrates a variety of emerging technologies, thus generating new Internet applications and new social forms that integrate the virtual and the real. Perception technology supports the integration of the virtual and the real in the metaverse, “AI+” technology supports the social nature of the metaverse, data transmission technology supports the real-time nature of the metaverse, electronic game technology supports the diversity of the metaverse, digital twin technology supports the sustainability of the metaverse, and blockchain technology supports the security of the metaverse. The future metaverse, where virtual and real are highly interconnected, is born out of, parallel to, and independent of the real world. It integrates all elements such as the Internet, virtual reality, immersive experience, blockchain, and digital twins to build a new basic ecology for intelligent military training.
The evolution of war has dominated the transformation and upgrading of military training. With the advent of the intelligent era, the war situation has accelerated its evolution towards informationization and intelligence. The informationized warfare system with “information acquisition and utilization as the core” will gradually transition to the intelligent warfare system with “intelligent simulation and expansion as the core”. The trend of long-range precision, intelligence, stealth, and unmanned weapons and equipment has become more obvious, and intelligent warfare has surfaced. At the same time, combat elements represented by artificial intelligence such as “AI, cloud, network, group, and terminal” and their diversified combinations have formed a new battlefield ecology. The metaverse has constructed a new battlefield space where virtual and real are integrated and parallel interactions occur. The traditional war winning mechanism is being profoundly changed. The development and changes in the form of intelligent warfare have compulsorily driven the transformation and reshaping of the military’s thinking and concepts, requiring the accelerated transformation and upgrading of military training, greater attention to the impact of technological development and changes on warfare, and the use of the “new engine” of training and warfare to achieve “accelerated” preparations.
Foreign militaries explore breakthroughs in military training models. In order to seize the strategic commanding heights of military intelligence, the world’s military powers attach great importance to the innovation of military training models. Some countries have begun to try to apply the metaverse and related technologies to military training. For example, the United States has successively released the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy and the Department of Defense Transformation Plan, focusing on building an “all-round army” and forming a “full spectrum advantage”. It has also simultaneously formulated the Training Transformation Strategic Plan and the Training Transformation Implementation Plan, and proposed the concept of a comprehensive training environment (STE), the core of which is immersive and integrated virtual training, which intends to integrate real-time, virtual, constructive and gaming environments into a comprehensive training environment. Russia also attaches great importance to the development of virtual training systems. Almost all of its advanced weapons and equipment are equipped with corresponding virtual training systems, and are moving towards universalization and embedding. The United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, etc. are also actively developing various professional military training virtual environments. Intelligent training supported by technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality is gradually becoming the mainstream of military training research in powerful countries.
Clarifying the Advantages of Metaverse-Enabled Military Training
The emergence of new concepts in military training. Only by leading the opponent in thought can we gain the upper hand in action. The emergence of disruptive technologies will inevitably rewrite the current military training rules and systems, and will also innovate the existing military training thinking concepts. On the one hand, the metaverse has set off a hurricane-like “brainstorm”, and the training thinking led by “intelligence” has organically connected training with actual combat, and upgraded to intelligent military training thinking. On the other hand, new technologies and new means represented by the metaverse empower military training, strengthen the concept of winning by science and technology and intelligent drive, and greatly improve the scientific and technological content of military training, in order to control the initiative in future wars. In the future, the metaverse will create more impossible possibilities by constructing a virtual battlefield space, designing wars and evolving wars.
Innovate new theories of military training. War is the area that needs innovation the most. Military training must adapt to the development of intelligent warfare, and theoretical innovation and training practice must be driven by both. Training transformation will not happen automatically. It requires not only a sharp and profound foresight to grasp the general trend, but also a scientific, powerful and solid theory to drive forward. On the one hand, by keeping up with the development of the times and starting from new concepts and new cognition, we can build a scientific theoretical system for metaverse-enabled military training. On the other hand, by following the laws of combat-training coupling, we can establish an innovative model of intelligent military training theory with the characteristics of the times, allowing the metaverse to empower and improve the efficiency of promoting the iterative development of military training transformation.
Transform the new military training model. The combat style determines the training mode, and intelligent warfare changes the “rules of the game”. Military training for the next war must adapt to the requirements of future wars by changing the training mode. First, it can build an intelligent blue army with “both form and spirit”. With the help of optimized AI technology, powerful computing power support, and realistic performance simulation, the Metaverse follows the evolutionary process of “knowing the enemy, imitating the enemy, surpassing the enemy, and defeating the enemy” to create an intelligent blue army with platform support and data empowerment, and carry out “real” confrontation training and effect evaluation in the Metaverse space. Second, it can carry out new domain and new quality combat training. The metaverse expands the practical application path with new domains and new types of combat forces as the leading elements, highlights the research and development of training methods and tactics that are compatible with advanced combat concepts and winning mechanisms, and creates new forms of training such as unmanned and seamless human-machine collaboration, becoming a new point of combat power growth. Third, it can cultivate new types of military talents. At present, the educational metaverse has led the intelligent transformation of education. In the future, the military metaverse will accelerate the realization of intelligent interaction between people and equipment, deep integration between people and systems, and adaptive evolution between people and the environment, and promote the integrated development of “commanders” and “fighters” into “scientists” and “technicians.”
Reshape the new ecology of military training. The multi-dimensional perception, virtual-real integration, free creativity, and open development of the metaverse will make the future metaverse a fully immersive, time-transcending, self-creating and developing space. First, create a digital twin “battlefield metaverse”. The “battlefield metaverse” will be a typical manifestation of the metaverse in the military field, with stricter security and confidentiality standards, stronger simulation computing capabilities, and more real-time and detailed interaction requirements. Secondly, create a full-dimensional three-dimensional metaverse training environment. The metaverse uses technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality to create an immersive and complex scene environment; using powerful data and network support, it builds a full-dimensional space such as land, sea, air, space, electricity, and the Internet. Furthermore, a Metaverse verification platform for weapons and equipment will be built. The platform will have functions such as new weapon and equipment design demonstration, weapon and equipment performance test, weapon and equipment compatibility test, and weapon system combat effectiveness test. In the future, the Metaverse will greatly shorten the timeline for weapons and equipment to go from “weak intelligence” to “strong intelligence” and then to “super intelligence”, realizing the intelligence multiplication effect of weapons and equipment.
Grasping the Key Points of Metaverse-Enabled Military Training
Focus on top-level design. From the perspective of the development of things, the metaverse is a new thing, and its maturity has yet to be verified. Intelligent military training is also a complex, arduous and long-term system engineering, which requires strengthening strategic planning and top-level layout. We should pay close attention to the development trends and technological trends of the metaverse, and scientifically formulate the development plan of the “training metaverse”. In the context of the integration of intelligence, informatization and mechanization, we should give full play to the outstanding advantages of the metaverse, such as enabling trainees to undergo immersive experiential training, so that the metaverse can not only be a display platform for virtual technology, but also a practical platform for improving the effectiveness of military training.
Strengthen technology research and development. From a technical perspective, the Metaverse has reintegrated existing technologies in the information and intelligent technology group, proposed an overall innovative concept, and provided comprehensive application scenarios, thereby giving birth to new vitality. To accelerate the development of the “training Metaverse”, we must speed up the research on basic software and hardware technologies such as algorithm engines and network communications, strengthen the research and development capabilities of core technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital twins, blockchain, and the Internet of Things, and at the same time strengthen the overall technical design and research and development of the Metaverse, such as immersion, sociality, openness, collaboration, and decentralization.
Create training types. From the perspective of time and space, the metaverse may create a vast virtual war space, recreate the war environment, present the war process, and virtualize the future of war. An intelligent military training operation system based on the metaverse should be built, military training concepts should be updated in a timely manner, and innovations in military training models, management support, and legal mechanisms should be deepened. A dynamic and high-level combat-oriented military training environment based on the metaverse should be built to fully support strategic, campaign, and tactical training as well as war simulations. At the same time, in the process of “intelligent adaptation” of military training, we will achieve the expansion of wisdom and intelligent evolution towards the unknown space of military training with “innovation, openness, diversified iteration, and new intelligent ecology”.
Attach importance to risk prevention and control. From the perspective of safety and controllability, the concept and technology of the Metaverse brings innovative opportunities to intelligent military training, but the potential risks associated with the technology itself cannot be ignored. The Metaverse is a huge technology group, and its system architecture, key technologies, and application environment are still in the development and implementation stage. The supporting protection system, safety technology, and management standards will bring security risks. In addition, the integrated application of various emerging technologies in the construction process, the complexity and confidentiality in the application process will be the unknown factors for the key prevention and risk challenges of the Metaverse in military training.
