Most of the local wars and armed conflicts in recent years have been “hybrid” confrontations carried out in multiple dimensions and fields, emphasizing the use of military, political, economic and other means to implement systematic control in the dimension of comprehensive decision-making, creating all kinds of chaos in the dimension of international communication, and creating various chaos in the dimension of international communication. Conduct targeted strikes in the strategic focus dimension, actively shape the battlefield situation, and seek to seize the strategic initiative. In future wars, in order to successfully fight political and military battles and military and political battles, we should deeply grasp the characteristics and laws of offensive and defensive operations in the cognitive domain and improve our ability to fight the “five battles” well.
Be proactive in cognitive operations, shape the situation and control the situation, and fight proactively. Before the war begins, cognition comes first. With the continuous development and evolution of war forms, the status and role of cognitive domain operations continue to be highlighted. Aiming to win future wars, cognitive deployment should be carried out in advance. Through strategies, information, technology and other means and carriers, the physiological, psychological, values and other cognitive factors of target objects should be affected, intervened and manipulated, and cognitive attack and defense should be used to cover military operations and accurately Efficiently dominate cognitive space. Fully understand the importance of being first, grasp the definition and interpretation power of “narrative” flexibly and autonomously, emphasize pre-emption to win the initiative in the cognitive narrative struggle dimension, create a favorable situation in which legal principles are in hand and morality is on our side, and occupy the moral commanding heights.
Cognitive operations focus on attacking the heart, and implement layered strategies to fight precise battles. “Those who are good at fighting will benefit others without killing them.” In future wars, the combat space will extend to the deep sea, deep space, deep network and other fields, and the battlefield space and time will present the characteristics of being extremely far, extremely small, extremely intelligent and uninhabited, invisible, and silent. We should keep a close eye on cognitive gaps to improve effectiveness, and use methods such as big data simulation, artificial intelligence matching, and psychological model evaluation to analyze and control the key information of cognitive subjects to achieve effective penetration and early deterrence of cognitive subject information. Closely focus on cognitive blind spots to enhance penetration, target the ideological consensus points, psychological connection points, and spiritual pillar points that maintain the unity of powerful enemy alliances to carry out effective strikes, and use their cognitive differences and interest conflicts to achieve differentiation and disintegration at all levels.
Based on cognitive combat strategies, we must penetrate the entire territory and fight for deterrence and control. In future wars, the strategic competition and tactical confrontation between the two warring parties will be extremely fierce. We should pay close attention to the decision-making process and make comprehensive efforts to increase the opponent’s decision-making dilemma and form our own decision-making advantages. On the one hand, we must pay more attention to key nodes such as the enemy’s decision-making center, command hub, reconnaissance and early warning system, and use advanced strike methods to physically destroy these nodes. On the other hand, we must pay more attention to the “soft kill” effects of cognitive shaping, cognitive induction, cognitive intervention and cognitive control, and embed cognitive domain operations into “hard destruction”, which not only creates a strong deterrent through precise strikes with high-tech weapons, but also integrates new qualities The combat power is expanded to the cognitive dimension, thus forming an asymmetric check and balance advantage.
Cognitive combat information is king, expand the field and fight for support. Future wars cannot be separated from strong information support, and system integration should be accelerated to gain data advantages. First of all, speed up the construction of cognitive offensive and defensive operations theory library, database, talent library, case library, and tactics library, dynamically collect and update the current status of the enemy’s cognitive offensive and defensive operations capabilities, and provide all-round support for cognitive offensive and defensive operations. Secondly, speed up the creation of the integrated media communication matrix, improve the self-owned platform system, speed up the deployment of network platforms, focus on system integration and collaboration, break down the “barriers” of information interconnection as soon as possible, and achieve cognitive integration and sharing, and comprehensive results. Thirdly, accelerate the coupling and linkage of information and cognitive domain operations, vigorously develop core technologies such as neural network systems, artificial intelligence applications, cognitive decision-making, psychological attack and defense, mine and analyze cross-domain and heterogeneous cognitive information, and improve the information fusion system of cognitive means to win the future. War provides “clairvoyance” and “early ears”.
Cognitive combat coordination is the key, and multi-dimensional efforts are used to fight the overall battle. Future wars are joint operations carried out in land, sea, air, space, network, electromagnetic and other fields. System thinking should be adhered to, the awareness of collaboration should be strengthened, and the compatibility and coordination of cognitive domain operations and other military operations should be improved. For example, it can integrate human intelligence, geographical intelligence, open source intelligence, etc., quickly collect and process massive data, remove falsehoods while retaining truth, seize cognitive space accurately and efficiently, achieve complementary advantages, and form cognitive advantages through full domain coverage. By networking dispersed multi-domain forces, we can establish an all-domain joint force with high connectivity, collective action, and overall attack to achieve the effect of “integrated deterrence.” By integrating national resources, strengthening strategic communication, using cognitive momentum to amplify the effects of political disruption, economic sanctions, and diplomatic offensives, and cooperating with military operations to put pressure on target targets in an all-round way, we strive to defeat the enemy without fighting.
(Author’s unit: University of Aerospace Engineering)
The military electronic sandbox is a modern information system platform that can grasp the three-dimensional battlefield space situation, implement efficient command, and support scientific command training. Its core is to use geographical information technology, military simulation technology, advanced display technology, etc. to replace traditional maps and sandbox tools to achieve The integrated display of geographical information and situational information allows commanders to deeply understand the combat environment. With the assistance of the command operation system, it greatly improves the command’s decision-making capabilities and response speed, and improves the quality effect of command training.
The software platform of the military interactive electronic sandbox system is the core of the electronic sandbox system. Its working principle is to access multi-source external data, integrate, process and store data, analyze data based on business needs, and dynamically display data in two or three dimensions. Therefore, the data processing platform is the foundation, and the data access platform and visual display platform are the support. The visual display terminal is the most intuitive cognitive image of the electronic sandbox, including mobile terminals, desktop terminals and large-screen display terminals. Among them, large-screen display terminals can support multi-point infrared touch and are the main form of human-computer interaction.
1. System introduction
In military applications, electronic sandbox systems are generally deployed in fixed command centers or mobile command posts. They are an important part of the command training system. Their basic functions are two- and three-dimensional geographic information display and battlefield simulation.
In order to achieve the effect of stable integration of the electronic sandbox and the real environment, for example, a multi-channel interactive system is constructed based on multi-AI methods to provide commanders with a more efficient and natural interaction method, thereby improving the commander’s command efficiency. Achieve full-element, multi-category, multi-level, and multi-granularity three-dimensional real-scene holographic display, provide commanders with intuitive and realistic battlefield situation elements, and provide the ability to observe the situation from multiple perspectives and directions, helping to grasp the overall situation and ensure the smooth operation of combat missions Complete it in time to improve combat effectiveness. The military plotting electronic sandbox is based on natural interaction (including voice, movement, gesture, line of sight, etc.), augmented reality, collaborative plotting and other technologies, and allows commanding combatants with different roles to conduct virtual and real interactions and collaborative discussions in real command posts. , jointly plotting, formulating plans, etc. to provide technical support, which will become a strong driving force for the leapfrog development of electronic sandboxes.
The multi-dimensional interactive military plotting electronic sandbox developed by a company is based on a practical perspective and is compatible with the terrain description function of the traditional physical sandbox and inherits the geographical information display function of the traditional electronic sandbox. It is oriented to the combat and training needs of senior commanders and focuses on achieving Through the interconnection of the electronic sand table and other operating seats in the command center, a set of intelligent interactive command and training operating platforms are designed and proposed for command operations during wartime and for drills and drills in peacetime.
During wartime, the electronic sand table serves as the display and control terminal for the commander to command operations. It integrates the support information of combat elements at each operating seat, receives battlefield information in real time, displays two- and three-dimensional battlefield situation maps, and provides basic auxiliary means such as plotting, measurement, and calculation. At the same time, it is based on data Mining and artificial intelligence technology provide the commander with a combat plan that can be intelligently learned and adjusted and conduct deduction simulations to assist the commander in making combat decisions. In normal times, the electronic sand table serves as the command and control terminal for the chief’s training exercises. It has the functions of scenario setting and training guidance, and supports data recording, auxiliary evaluation, review deduction and historical data query in the entire process of training scenarios from formulation, deployment to training. At the same time, it can also be used as a research platform for personnel exchange and training in the command center and a service platform for the release, display, and application of military intelligence information.
The multi-dimensional interactive military plotting electronic sand table developed by a company is based on a two-dimensional geographical information platform and a three-dimensional digital earth, combining multimedia display and control technology, simulation visualization technology, network communication technology, massive data management technology and multi-touch technology. A new two- and three-dimensional interactive military simulation and simulation integrated platform.
The software platform is the core of the electronic sandbox system. Its working principle is to access multi-source external data, integrate, process and store data, analyze data based on business needs, and dynamically display data in two or three dimensions. Therefore, the data processing platform is the foundation, and the data access platform and visual display platform are the support. The visual display terminal is the most intuitive cognitive image of the electronic sandbox, including mobile terminals, desktop terminals and large-screen display terminals. Among them, large-screen display terminals can support multi-point infrared touch and are the main form of human-computer interaction.
Working principle diagram of military interactive electronic sandbox system
(1) Infrastructure layer
The infrastructure layer is the basic environment that supports system operation, including graphics workstations, storage devices, computing devices, network devices, display devices, operating systems, etc. It provides a unified, high-speed, and secure basic network and host operating platform for the prototype system.
(2) Basic service layer
The basic service layer is the data resource carrying and basic service providing layer of the system. It supports the platform application layer and provides basic functions such as database management system, communication manager, and specific engines. On this basis, it develops and provides business-related basic services. Core services include geographical information services, data access services, situation display services, simulation deduction services, interconnection services, military marking services, etc. Service types can be customized and developed according to needs to meet the needs of different business applications.
(3) Platform application layer
Including business platform and user-oriented application plug-ins. The business platform includes a data access platform, a data processing platform, and a visual display platform.
(4) Data access platform
It is used to access, process, store and distribute various types of information and build a customized professional military intelligence database. Specifically, it is able to receive data from different sources, formats, and characteristics on combat processes, comprehensive support, geographical information, simulations, and other data, and integrate them logically or physically to provide information for situation display, combat discussions, command decisions, training evaluation, etc. Different applications provide data support. In peacetime, all kinds of basic military information, such as equipment information, personnel information, position information, target information, combat plans, etc., are collected, processed into a data format that can be called by the data processing platform, and saved in the form of local storage or cloud storage; During wartime, the meteorological and hydrological, electromagnetic environment, geographical environment, and humanistic environment data from each operating seat of the command center, the real-time location and attributes of personnel and equipment on the battlefield, Beidou information, video information, etc. are accessed in real time and processed into a data processing platform. The data format of the call.
(5) Data processing platform
With geographical information data as the background, various types of data from the data access platform are received or called, and a situation map is constructed to realize the visualization of the enemy’s situation, our situation, battlefield environment, target analysis, action progress, plotting and intervention process. On this basis, it provides standardized interfaces to achieve effective data connection with other systems, ensures function expansion and access to other systems, supports customized development of business application plug-ins, and provides support for the expansion of combat command business. In peacetime, based on the accumulated data, a simulated battlefield situation is constructed, combat plans and plans are formulated, exercises, training and simulations are conducted, and relevant results are stored in the data access platform for use in wartime.
(6) Visual display platform
Based on the independent 3D simulation engine, real-time rendering generates a 3D battlefield environment that is consistent with the combat and training areas. It uses structured data technology and flexible and editable logical data models to realize “layered” information data fusion display and output, and realizes multiple Click on infrared touch control and voice control, etc.
(7) Platform plug-ins
Relevant plug-ins are designed to meet the needs of operational planning, including functional plug-ins for data connection and management, process analysis and display, and program deduction and evaluation. They are customized to realize the connection and comprehensive management of operational planning business data. A “one picture” comprehensive display of the battlefield environment and battlefield situation during the combat process, as well as a comprehensive simulation deduction and display of various plans for reconnaissance, troop operations, battlefield defense and fire strikes involved in the combat process.
3. System composition
(1) Data engine
1. Diverse data
Supports massive, multi-source data processing, mainly including: images, vectors, DEM, 3D models, sea maps, land maps, aerial maps, etc.;
2.Data update
Supports rapid updating of multi-level mixed-precision geographical data;
3.Data distribution
Support data distribution based on C/S mode and quickly build electronic sandbox;
4.Data access
Supports distributed deployment and access of massive data from multiple sources, and can access cloud data.
(2) Comprehensive display and control
1.Full space expression
Supports full-space, multi-view, and multi-granularity simulation visual expression;
2. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional integration
Supports two- and three-dimensional integrated visual expression;
3.Multi-touch
Support new human-computer interaction methods based on multi-touch technology;
4. Interactive annotation
Supports interactive annotation of 3D models, landmarks, paths, regions, 360 panoramas and mounting of multimedia information.
(3) Sand table situation
1. Situation visualization
Supports multi-target and multi-batch battlefield situation visualization, and has functions such as scene saving and playback;
2. Diverse data sources
Compatible with multi-source surveillance data such as GPS, Beidou, radar, and AIS, and has an expandable data interface;
3. Editing and deduction
Supports 2D and 3D integrated editing and deduction of situational scenarios;
4. Situation special effects library
It has a rich library of battlefield simulation effects such as flame, explosion, smoke, infrared, electromagnetic, and radar.
(4) Military standard drawing
1. Collaborative plotting
Supports multi-person and multi-client synchronous and asynchronous collaborative military plotting;
2. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional plotting
Supports 2D and 3D simultaneous plotting and editing of military standards;
3. Sketch drawing
Supports intelligent recognition and plotting of sketches;
4.Same screen plotting
Supports multi-person 3D model plotting and editing on the same screen;
5. Military standard deduction
It has the function of 2D and 3D military standard situation deduction.
(5) Simulation engine
1. Natural environment simulation
Professional game-level rendering, supporting natural environment simulations such as three-dimensional clouds, fog, rain, snow, seawater, etc.;
2. Meteorological numerical simulation
Supports efficient processing, analysis and numerical simulation of large-scale, multi-source battlefield meteorological environment data;
3. Simulation deduction
Use human-computer interaction to deploy and perform deductions on deduction targets, and can expand simulation algorithms and combat rules;
4.Effectiveness evaluation
Supports assessment of operational effectiveness.
(6) Collaborative discussion
1. Electronic whiteboard
Distributed collaborative discussion and plotting based on electronic whiteboard, supporting conventional graphics, military standards, multimedia files, etc.;
2. Video conferencing
It has conference room mode collaborative discussion functions based on text, voice, and video communication to improve communication efficiency;
3. File sharing
Supports file sharing such as txt, PPT, PDF, picture files, compressed files, videos, etc.
(7) Software and hardware integration
Supports perfect integration with desktop interactive hardware;
Supports perfect integration with multi-touch hardware;
Support integration with video conferencing system hardware;
Support cross-platform applications.
(8) Key functional indicators
It has the display effects, fault simulation, and data connection functions of the existing aviation police information reconnaissance system; it has the functions of world sea and air area division display and air defense identification zone;
Have the ability to quickly configure existing business data into learning resources, and quickly configure learning resources and learning duration based on professional knowledge learning templates;
It has a variety of preset scenarios for sand table deduction and a variety of countries, including the United States, India, Japan and other countries;
Supports multi-source massive data storage, processing and update functions.
(9) Advantages and Features
1. Complete industry solutions
The electronic sandbox solution involves sandbox data processing, import, update, sandbox information sharing, collaborative work, command decision-making, military plotting, simulation, sandbox deduction and other related contents. The functions remain relatively independent and can be customized according to user needs. Professional solutions to meet the diverse needs of users;
2. Massive data management capabilities
Geographic information data is the core of the electronic sandbox. The data engine can store, process and update multi-source and massive geographical information data, supports distributed deployment of data, can access cloud data, and provides low-cost and efficient methods for the construction of sandboxes. Data Sources;
3. Integrated application
It achieves the perfect combination of software and hardware integration, supporting multiple hardware platforms such as multi-touch screens, command and control stations, circular projection screens, dedicated display and control stations, production monitoring platforms, etc.; the software realizes two- and three-dimensional integrated applications. , and integrates video conferencing, network communication, military plotting and other functions, it is a multi-functional comprehensive electronic sandbox system;
4. Good openness and compatibility
The system architecture is reasonably designed, has a good organizational structure and an easy-to-use development interface; it has good compatibility with hardware, can carry out secondary development and function expansion, and can be quickly integrated with other software systems.
4. Conclusion
With the deepening of informatization construction, the sources and types of information are increasingly expanding, and decision-making support methods are constantly enriched. According to the needs of combat training and command decision-making of various services and arms, a complete set of command decision-making analysis, mission deduction and situation display has been established. A functional electronic sandbox system has become a top priority. In response to the needs of BD, this electronic sandbox system developed by a certain company has intuitive comprehensive situation display, rich and diverse interactive methods, flexible combat data access, complete functions and expansion, which can meet the commander’s operational command and command training needs.
Chinese Military Analysis of Developing Intelligent Command Information Systems
資料來源：解放軍報 作者：李建平 紀鳳珠 李琳 責任編輯：王鳳 2022-08-09 12:OO
外文音譯：
Introduction
The era of intelligent warfare has begun. Command information systems with intelligent characteristics will become the “central nerve” of future intelligent combat command and the supporting means for intelligent combat command and control. Accelerating the construction of intelligent command information systems is an inherent requirement for the development of military intelligence. Only by clarifying the essentials of the development of intelligent command information systems, grasping the key points of research and development of intelligent command information systems, and exploring the key points of the development of intelligent command information systems can we better develop Promote the construction and development process of intelligent command information systems and win the opportunity to win future intelligent operations.
Clarify the essentials of the development of intelligent command information systems
Intelligent command information systems are an inevitable choice for the development of information-based and intelligent warfare. They are the inevitable result of the development of the scientific and technological revolution, and are also the demands of the times for the development of military intelligence. Clarifying the essence of the development of intelligent command information systems will help to grasp the direction of the construction of intelligent command information systems and establish long-term goals for system development.
Promote the intelligent evolution of warfare. In future intelligent operations, the battlefield situation will change rapidly and the battlefield environment will be complex and harsh. If you want to take the initiative on the battlefield, “intellectual power” will become the new commanding heights, and intelligent command information systems will undoubtedly be an important support for future combat command and operations. Its intelligent development can promote the evolution of warfare into intelligence, and is an important basis for intelligent warfare to gain the upper hand and seek victory.
Support intelligent innovation of combat concepts. Future intelligent operations require corresponding combat command concepts, and the intelligent command information system is an important basis for the practical application of combat command concepts and the soil for the innovation and development of intelligent combat command concepts. New concepts of intelligent combat command such as human-machine hybrid command grouping, data-driven command activities, open development command model, and intelligent concentrated command process are all inseparable from the support of intelligent command information system. Intelligent command information system will serve as a human The extension of the brain breaks through the physiological limits of the human body and realizes the organic integration of combat command art and intelligent technology.
Promote intelligent transformation of combat methods. The widespread application of artificial intelligence technology in the military field has caused major changes in the mechanism of combat victory. Intelligence surpasses firepower and information power and has become the primary factor in determining the outcome of a war. The construction and development of intelligent command information systems will promote the transformation of combat methods to intelligence, making the combat methods transform from the “combat network + precision guided weapons” in the information age to the “intelligent Internet of Things + manned/unmanned combat platforms” in the intelligent age. The combat style has accordingly evolved from “network-centric warfare” to “cognition-centric warfare”.
Seize the key points of research and development of intelligent command information system
The command information system is a product of the era of informationized warfare. With the rapid development of military intelligence and the research and practical application of intelligent combat winning mechanisms, the intelligent upgrade and construction of the command information system is urgent. The key points of functional research and development should be highlighted to create a new intelligent command information system.
“Super brain” assisted decision-making. In future intelligent operations, the amount of battlefield information data will be huge and complex. Commanders will easily fall into the “information ocean” during the command process, leading to information confusion and affecting command decisions. With the emergence of intelligent auxiliary decision-making technology and “cloud brain” and “digital consultants”, a new decision-making model based on “human brain + artificial intelligence” collaboration is quietly taking shape. The intelligent command information system will break through the limits of human intelligence, serve as an extension of the human brain, assist commanders in their work, and develop war decision-making from pure human brain decision-making to super-brain command decision-making of “human brain + artificial intelligence”.
“Full-dimensional” situational awareness. In future intelligent operations, the space will be multi-dimensional, the forces will be diverse, the styles will be diverse, and the pace will accelerate. Comprehensive and flexible grasp of the battlefield situation will become the basis for commanders’ decision-making. Multi-domain integration, intelligent and dynamic presentation of the full-dimensional battlefield situation will become the construction and development of command information systems. Necessary requirement. The command information system’s perception, understanding, fusion and prediction of battlefield situations such as target identification, threat level estimation, combat action prediction and future battle situation prediction are expanding from land, sea, air, space, electromagnetic, network and other spaces. to the cognitive domain and social domain to achieve “full-dimensional” situational awareness.
“Intelligent” network communication. In the future, intelligent operations will use a large number of intelligent command and control platforms and intelligent weapon platforms, and the connection between command and control platforms and weapon platforms must be intelligent information communication systems. Like the nerves and blood vessels of the human body, intelligent information and communication systems play a linking and lubricating role in intelligent operations. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a full-dimensional coverage, uninterrupted intelligent information network to support the connectivity and control of intelligent equipment, and form intelligent optimization of network structure, intelligent reorganization of network invulnerability, and intelligent anti-interference capabilities to ensure intelligent collaboration between platforms Combat and exert the best overall combat effectiveness.
“Unmanned” autonomous collaboration. In recent local conflicts around the world, drones have been widely used and played an important role in determining the direction of the war, which has attracted widespread attention from all parties. Unmanned weapons and equipment are the material basis for intelligent warfare, and have formed subversive combat styles, such as intrusive lone wolf operations, manned/unmanned coordinated system attack operations, unmanned system formation independent operations, and unmanned aerial vehicles. Swarm combat, etc. Although unmanned combat is led by humans, machines are given a certain degree of autonomous action authority in the background, thereby enabling machines to perform unmanned combat operations on the front line. However, the unmanned combat battlefield is changing rapidly, and the destruction of human-machine collaboration will become the norm. The command and control system of the unmanned intelligent equipment platform must be smarter and be able to conduct autonomous coordinated operations according to the combat purpose.
“Active” information defense. Intelligent operations will inevitably face all-dimensional and diverse information attacks from powerful enemies. The level of information security protection capabilities directly affects the outcome of the battle for “intelligence control” on the battlefield, and is a key link in the construction of intelligent command information systems. Therefore, we should take the initiative to actively formulate and improve network protection strategies, enrich intrusion detection capabilities and authentication identification methods, strengthen the application of high-tech information security, strengthen the anti-interference and anti-intervention capabilities of various wireless transmission methods, and build and strengthen intelligent traceability response. control capabilities to effectively contain information attacks.
Explore the key points for the development of intelligent command information systems
The development of intelligent command information systems is not only a technological innovation, but also requires further emancipation of minds and updating of concepts. To promote the development of intelligent command information systems, we must change the traditional thinking of adding hardware, building a large “network”, and collecting and storing various types of data. We must break through the inherent hierarchical settings and create an open and service-oriented system to target the needs of intelligent combat command and operations. , explore and study the key points for the development of intelligent command information systems.
Innovative ideas. Adhere to the guidance of innovative thinking concepts, learn from the development ideas of intelligent command information systems of military powers, and explore a development path with its own characteristics based on actual needs. It is necessary to break the traditional “chimney building” approach, adhere to the top-level design and overall planning of the command information system, unify interfaces, protocols and standards, and form an open and sustainable system architecture layout; adhere to the system research and development ideas that combine research, construction and application, and formulate Develop strategies for different stages in the near, medium and long term to standardize the development direction of system construction; adhere to iterative upgrades, optimization and improvement strategies, and continuously improve the intelligence level of command and control, intelligence reconnaissance, communications, information countermeasures and comprehensive support to ensure intelligence The command information system continues to develop healthily.
Concentration is the key. Focusing on the key capabilities of the intelligent command information system is an important basis for intelligent warfare to gather superior intelligence and win with intelligence, and is the key to obtaining “victory power” for intelligent warfare. Algorithms, computing power, and data are not only the intrinsic driving force and support for the development of artificial intelligence, but also the core capability requirements and advantages of intelligent command information systems. The development of intelligent command information systems must adhere to algorithm innovation research to improve the system’s cognitive advantages, speed advantages and decision-making advantages; accelerate the research and development of next-generation computers represented by quantum computers to provide stronger computing power support for intelligent command information systems; Deeply explore the value of deeper and wider dimensions of information in massive combat data resources to seek opportunities for victory.
Gather wisdom to tackle key problems. The construction and development of intelligent command information systems is one of the main projects of military intelligence. It is a multi-domain, multi-disciplinary, multi-department and multi-unit participation project of great integration and linkage. The construction and development of intelligent command information systems must adhere to the spirit of teamwork, collective wisdom, and pioneering innovation, and target strategic and forward-looking fields such as sensors, quantum information, network communications, integrated circuits, key software, big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. Adhere to the promotion of high and new technologies and the demand for intelligent combat, carry out in-depth research and exchanges in multiple fields, multiple levels, and multiple forms, and continue to make breakthroughs, innovations, and iterative upgrades to make the intelligent command information system more complete and smarter.
Collaborative development. To further promote the construction and development of intelligent command information systems, we must fully absorb local advanced technological achievements and integrate into the current trend of world artificial intelligence innovation and development. At present, the world’s artificial intelligence technology is developing vigorously, accumulating strong development momentum and technological advantages. The application of artificial intelligence technology is highly versatile and has broad prospects for the transformation and application of technological achievements. It is an important way to realize the construction and development of intelligent command information systems. It is necessary to study and formulate general technical standards, tear down barriers, break ice, smooth military-civilian cooperation, and achieve shared linkage of technological achievements. It is necessary to cultivate and shape new types of military talents through collaborative training, so that they can continuously adapt to the needs of various positions under intelligent conditions and give full play to the effectiveness of intelligent command information systems.
Chinese Military Ordered to Emphasize “High Quality” and Achieve “Acceleration” – Military representatives discussed accelerating the high-quality development of national defense and military construction
——Army representatives and members discussed accelerating the high-quality development of national defense and military construction
■People’s Liberation Army Daily reporter Li Jianwen and Yue Yutong
The journey of thousands of miles is going strong, and we are pursuing our dreams for another year.
At the opening of the National Two Sessions, two words were repeatedly mentioned by military representatives: one is “high quality” and the other is “acceleration.”
High-quality development is the primary task of building a modern socialist country in an all-round way. Achieving the centenary goal of the founding of the army as scheduled and accelerating the building of the people’s army into a world-class army are strategic requirements for comprehensively building a modern socialist country.
Anchor “high quality” and run “acceleration”. Representatives of the military have stated that in the modernization of national defense and the military, only by putting high-quality development first, strengthening innovative breakthroughs, changing development concepts, innovating development models, and enhancing development momentum can we seize the window period, accelerate, and ensure The centenary goal of the founding of the army was achieved as scheduled.
Grasp the hard truth of the new era
In 2023, China’s innovation power and development vitality will surge forward. The C919 large aircraft has achieved commercial flight, the domestic large-scale cruise ship has completed its trial voyage, the “Shenzhou” family space relay, the “Struggle” extreme deep dive…
High-quality development is solidly promoted, innovation drives the accumulation of development momentum, and Beautiful China moves towards “newness”. Military representatives unanimously believe that high-quality development is the last word in the new era. As an important part of national modernization, national defense and military modernization must actively implement high-quality development requirements to ensure that the national defense and military modernization process is consistent with the national modernization process, and military capabilities are consistent with national strategic needs.
At present, the realization of the 100-year goal of the founding of the army has entered a critical period of hard work and a sprint period of increasing pressure. The military representatives are deeply aware that development is too slow, let alone low quality. Achieving the centenary goal of the founding of the army as scheduled depends largely on changes in development concepts, innovation in development models, and enhancement of development momentum. Only by consciously promoting high-quality development with a clear understanding of “hard truth” and truly shifting the development model to systematic and connotative development can we promote quality changes, efficiency changes, and motivation changes in our military’s construction and development, and continuously improve the quality of national defense and military modernization. benefit.
To promote the high-quality development of our military, we must firmly establish the strategic guidance of “Five More Focuses”. Many military representatives said that the “Five More Focuses” have established strategic guidance for the construction of our military in the new era, clarifying the development direction, development motivation, development methods, development models, and development paths. We must correct all thoughts and behaviors that are inconsistent with actual combat requirements, increase the contribution of innovation to the growth of combat effectiveness, improve the combat capabilities of our military system, improve the accuracy of national defense and military development, and consolidate and improve the integrated national strategic system and capabilities.
“Everything is for fighting, everything is for victory. The high-quality development of our army must focus on being able to fight and win wars.” Representative Gao Gaoqiang said that the main responsibility of the army is to prepare for war, and the development concept should be directed towards the construction of combat effectiveness, which should ultimately fall to In terms of comprehensively improving the ability to win, we will promote high-quality development with a jump in combat effectiveness.
Advanced ideas lead to a modern military; innovative ideas lead to brilliant development. “In recent years, we have strengthened the traction of combat needs, going to plateaus, going to the ocean, and flying across borders. System training and system training have become the new normal.” Talking about the changes around him, Representative Hao Jingwen was filled with emotion, “Actual combat, innovation, system, intensiveness, and integration Such new concepts are being incorporated into all aspects and the entire process of national defense and military construction.”
“In the past few years, we have insisted on fighting, preparing for war, and building at the same time, and the good situation of integrating war, construction, and preparation has achieved gratifying results.” Representative Xu Anxiang said that the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed “persisting in fighting, preparing for war, and “Border construction” is not only an inevitable requirement for effectively fulfilling the missions and tasks of the People’s Army in the new era, but also a scientific decision to promote the high-quality development of our army and achieve the 100-year goal of the founding of the army.
All work in the military must focus on preparing for war and effectively implement high-quality development into all areas of the entire process of building our military. Several representatives from the Army said that in recent years, the Army has deepened the system construction of political work in preparation for war, strengthened research on practical issues such as cognitive operations and talent support, embedded in exercises and training to innovate wartime political work models, and improved service and preparation. Win contribution rate.
Need motivation to deepen reform and innovation
Only reformers advance, only innovators are strong, and only reformers and innovators win.
The command system is lean and efficient, the scale and structure are constantly optimized, joint combat training has opened up a new situation, and policies and systems have become more perfect… Members of the military representatives deeply feel that since the comprehensive implementation of the strategy of reform and strengthening the military, the people’s army has accelerated its breakthrough in the “new system era” Cocoon butterfly transformation.
The situation is gratifying and inspiring. “Reform and innovation are a powerful driving force for the development of our military. To promote high-quality development, we must use reform and innovation methods to study and solve problems.” Representative Zhang Hongxing said that to adapt to the world’s military development trends and the development needs of our military’s strategic capabilities, we must persist in The reform of national defense and the military is advancing in depth, and we insist on promoting high-quality development in the spirit of reform and innovation, so that our military’s construction and development and combat effectiveness generation model can be shifted to the track of innovation-driven development as soon as possible.
“Only through continuous reform and innovation can we continue to gain vitality for development and progress.” Representative Liu Wei said that the development history of our army is also a history of reform and innovation. Facing the severe challenges and rare opportunities of the world’s new military revolution, we must insist on placing innovation at the core of the overall construction and development of our military, and rely on scientific and technological progress and innovation to improve the quality and combat effectiveness of the military.
“As a witness, I personally feel the rapid improvement of the military’s scientific and technological innovation capabilities in recent years.” Commissioner Wu Dewei said that in recent years, they have strengthened research on key core technologies and promoted the accelerated transformation of advanced science and technology into combat effectiveness.
Technological innovation is the core driving force for high-quality development. Some military representatives from various services and arms said that in recent years, the entire military has vigorously promoted the transformation and upgrading of training, explored training methods and means such as “technology +” and “network +”, promoted the integration of new equipment, new forces and new fields into system training, and accelerated new Quality combat effectiveness generation is improved.
High-quality development relies on innovation, and the foundation of innovation lies in talents. Military representatives from military academies and scientific research units said that it is necessary to thoroughly implement the military education policy of the new era, implement the priority development strategy of colleges and universities, deepen the reform and innovation of military education, improve the three-in-one new military talent training system, and improve the supply capacity and supply of talent for war preparation and fighting. level.
Use high-level governance to promote overall improvement
“Currently, accelerating the formation of strategic capabilities of our military is a hard-core task. We must base ourselves on the overall situation to plan a domain, integrate into the system to prepare for war, focus on core priorities, decompose capability indicators, draw a mission map, formulate a timetable, and advance node by node, one by one Solve difficult problems to ensure that papers are handed in on time and returned to work as scheduled.” Representative Zhang Dongxu said.
“Achieving the centenary goal of the founding of the army contains clear political, strategic and practical directions. The fundamental thing is to improve the strategic ability to defend national sovereignty, security and development interests.” Many military representatives said that after the reform and reshaping , the military strength is more diverse, the elements are more diverse, and the operation is more complex. We should speed up the establishment and improvement of a new management model that adapts to information warfare and the requirements of fulfilling missions and tasks, improve the efficiency of the use of national defense resources, and improve the efficiency of military force construction and use.
As the highest-level management of national defense and military construction, strategic management is a macro-management activity that manages the overall situation, long-term management, and major events. It plans and designs the investment of military resources from the top level. Military representatives said that strengthening strategic management is the hub of military management and the key to promoting the high-quality development of our military.
A country thrives on governance, and an army thrives on governance. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed “comprehensively strengthening military governance”, which reflects our party’s profound grasp of the laws of military building and management in the new era. “In the past few years, we have focused on solving various urgent, difficult and anxious problems of officers and soldiers at the grassroots level, and turning the troubles of officers and soldiers into heart-warming things.” The representative of the army said that the grassroots level is the foundation of all the work and combat effectiveness of the army, and comprehensively strengthening military governance must always be Persist in relying on the valuable experience of grassroots and building strong grassroots, and constantly release the vitality of grassroots governance.
Military governance is fundamentally the governance of systems. The more perfect the military system is and the more powerful the system is implemented, the more effective military governance will be. Representative Yuan Wei said that in recent years, the continuous advancement of military policy and system reforms has focused on integrating various governance activities of war, construction, and preparation into the rule of law, adhering to the unification of legal management and scientific governance, and enhancing the scientific and effective nature of military construction management. sex.
The spring sunshine fills the earth, and the horn of war echoes in the ears. Representatives of the armed forces have expressed that they must insist on putting high-quality development first, strengthen the mission of handing in historical answers as scheduled, accelerate the struggle to strengthen the army in the new era, and go all out to fight the tough battle to achieve the centenary goal of the founding of the army.
(People’s Liberation Army Daily, Beijing, March 4)
——Analysis of the combat effectiveness generation model in the integration of “three modernizations”
●The transformation of the combat power generation model is not “you sing and I will appear”, but a process of interaction between the new combat power factors and the original combat power factors. This interaction process changes due to the different characteristics of the new combat power factors.
●As intelligent unmanned weapons platforms continue to enter the war arena, artificial intelligence decision-making and algorithmic confrontation have added new intelligent factors to the generation of combat effectiveness. The confrontation method of the combat system has also shifted from information-led firepower platforms to human-based and The swarm intelligence of networks and machines leads to a cognitive confrontation that promotes the “information × (firepower + mobility)” combat power generation model and evolves to a more advanced stage of “[information × (firepower + mobility)]” intelligence.
Currently, modern warfare is at the juncture of the integration of mechanization, information, and intelligence (hereinafter referred to as the “three modernizations”). Exploring the inherent laws of the combat power generation model under the conditions of the integration of the “three modernizations” is essential for gaining insight into new war winning mechanisms and mastering the initiative on future battlefields. Rights are of great significance.
The evolution of “Firepower+”: Fusion
The transformation of the combat effectiveness generation model is not “you sing and I come on stage”, but a process of interaction between the new combat effectiveness factors and the original combat effectiveness factors. This interaction process changes due to the different characteristics of the new combat effectiveness factors.
Superposition patterns before the age of mechanization. Throughout the history of mankind, the generation model of combat power has been evolving in a “+” manner. From the superposition of physical strength and skills of people in the Stone Age, to the addition of the penetrating power of swords in the cold weapon age, to the injection of firepower in the gunpowder age, and the generation of mobility in the mechanization age, the generation model of military combat effectiveness follows the superposition method. A display method of “physical strength + penetration power + firepower + mobility” has been formed. This combat power generation mode characterized by superposition gives an army of large numbers an overwhelming advantage on the battlefield. In the meantime, although the power of information has always played a decisive role on the battlefield, such as “know yourself and the enemy, you can fight a hundred battles without danger” reflects the importance of information on the ancient battlefield. However, due to various conditions, “knowing yourself” cannot fully guarantee “knowing yourself” and “knowing the enemy” It is even more difficult. Information power has become the most uncontrollable link in the combat effectiveness factor, thus playing a subordinate role in the generation of combat effectiveness.
Information multiplier model in the information age. In the era of network information, the ubiquitous network provides all-encompassing information and promotes the ubiquity of information. It also draws people into the “network-information” space in the process of information interaction; and the information unit Embedding, the dispersion of smart dust, and the deployment of micro-nano sensors transform mechanical systems such as tanks, fighter planes, artillery, and ships into “information-physical” systems. In this process, information power, firepower, and mobility are linked across boundaries, and a multiplicative relationship in addition to superposition is created in the generation mode of combat power, showing a new method of “information × (firepower + mobility)”. This combat power model in which information power acts as a multiplier factor is determined by, first, the characteristics of information power permeating firepower and mobility; secondly, by the fact that information power has a higher status than firepower and mobility; thirdly, by the fact that information power has It may be determined by the multiplication factor of combat effectiveness or the sharp reduction in load. This follows the uncertainty of information power and depends on the degree of matching between the information and the battlefield situation.
Intelligence index model in the era of intelligence. Humanity has never stopped exploring the laws of combat effectiveness generation. In recent years, as intelligent unmanned weapons platforms continue to enter the war arena, artificial intelligence decision-making and algorithmic confrontation have added new intelligent factors to the generation of combat effectiveness. The confrontation method of the combat system has also changed from information-led firepower platforms to one based on In the cognitive confrontation that can be won by the swarm intelligence of people, networks and machines, it promotes the combat power generation model of “information × (firepower + mobility)” and evolves to a more advanced stage of “[information × (firepower + mobility)] intelligence” . The core of this combat power generation model that uses “intelligence” as an exponential factor is to move from the original confrontation of firepower, mobility, and information to the highest level of human confrontation – cognitive confrontation. Although this combat power generation model has not yet been used in actual combat on a large scale at this stage, it will become the protagonist in high-intensity confrontations in the future. Its impact on combat power originates from artificial intelligence and appears in three aspects: First, it transforms human beings into To be freed from the “information dilemma” that becomes more and more mined; secondly, to give unmanned system weapons autonomous attack and defense capabilities; thirdly, machine learning and algorithm optimization provide brand-new solutions that are different from humans in command and decision-making.
The essence of “information ×”: empowerment
When the firepower and mobility of the mechanization era encounter physical limits, information becomes a penetrating factor in the generation of combat effectiveness. It travels through the physical domain, cognitive domain and social domain in the form of signals, knowledge and instructions, resulting in information interaction, information dissemination, Effects such as information power empower other combat effectiveness factors.
Information empowers command and control, taking it to a new level of “art + science”. The information on the traditional battlefield is limited by the means of perception, transmission and processing, and is in an incomplete, inaccurate and non-real-time state. The confrontation of command and control activities in this information state can only rely on the commander’s strategy to give “art” “Vitality on. Under the conditions of the integration of “three modernizations”, the information on the battlefield is extremely rich, and the accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of the information have been greatly improved, thus promoting command decision-making from pure human brain planning to machine calculation and model optimization. , a new level of rule adaptation; the commander reduces the subjective speculation or assumption due to lack of information, and enters a new level of prediction from the original “current situation” to the prediction of “future situation”; the confrontation of the combat platform is injected with The computational component of mathematical model calculations greatly improves the “scientific” component of combat command.
Information empowers firepower, leading it to a new form of “precise release.” Traditional information empowers firepower, mainly providing firepower units with summary information about targets. This is why fire coverage, fire extension and fire suppression are required on traditional battlefields. Under the conditions of “three modernizations” integration, information on the battlefield empowers firepower. When tracking and positioning targets, it provides the firepower platform with centimeter-level target position information and target movement trajectories and other mathematical information; when planning combat missions, commanders use The flow and flow of information on the ubiquitous network associate the most suitable forces and weapons for the mission in the system, forming a dynamic “combat power circle” based on information stakeholders, greatly reducing the redundant load on the operation of the combat system and achieving the accuracy of the combat system. Matching; during a fire strike operation, the information unit embedded in the fire platform will compare and analyze the real-time change information of the target’s incoming trajectory, as well as information about the evasion strategies that the target may adopt, with the fire strike method, timing and strategy of the fire platform. , to achieve “information-firepower” interaction in the entire process of target finding, attitude adjustment, attack timing, etc.
Information empowers mobility, leading it to a new state of “instant access”. The mobility in the traditional combat system mainly refers to the maneuvering speed of land platforms, sea platforms, and air platforms. Affected by command relationships, deployment areas, and response delays, the mobility of platforms is often limited. Weapons and equipment under the conditions of “three modernizations” integration are in a real-time network online state, and the mobility of all weapon platforms converges into something similar to a “resource pool.” When the combat system senses external threat information, it is closest to the place where the threat occurs. The weapons that are most suitable for responding to threats and the fastest to perceive threats are extracted by the mission planning system to perform real-time combat operations. This greatly improves the instantaneous response capability of the combat system. Under the “pooling” effect, the mobility of different combat platforms transcends the separation of time, space and command relationships, and becomes a new state of “instantly accessible” mobility.
Infusion of “Intelligence Index”: Leap Change
The injection of intelligence index in the combat power generation mode “[Information The three aspects of the combat system include combat structure, computing resources and combat models.
Adaptive adjustment of combat structures generates intelligence. The combat system under the conditions of the integration of “three modernizations” is a complex system based on the network. In this complex system, there are a large number of network access nodes, and the characteristic of user connection is decentralization. These characteristics make the combat system always go from a chaotic state to a stable state during operation. Then due to external stimulation, the operating state of the system is unbalanced and enters a new chaotic state. The interaction of various elements of the system , mutual relations, and mutual coordination, the system gradually enters a new stable state again. Of course, a combat system is not a complex system that can grow freely. This self-consistency or adaptive adjustment comes not only from the commander’s decision-making, mission planning, action control, and combat coordination of the forces and weapons in the system, but also from the actions of each member based on their actions. The pre-agreed rules make relevant responses autonomously, as well as the relevant rules that each member learns or evolves by themselves in the process of operating according to the rules. In the process of self-consistency, the combat system resolves the conflicts between related elements, clears the pain points, breakpoints and blocking points in the system, brings it into a state of integration and symbiosis, and stimulates the combination of elements to produce new structures. force.
Adaptive allocation of computing resources produces intelligence. The more you win, the less you win. “Calculation” on the traditional battlefield relies on the commander’s planning, planning, prediction and strategy. It faces three problems: first, the subject of calculation is one or a very small number of individual commanders; second, the calculation process The first is the linear superposition of combat-related information; the third is the conclusion that the calculation result is static and lags behind the situation. The computing power of the combat system on the battlefield under the integration of “three modernizations”, in addition to the commander’s mental calculations, also benefits from the “cloud + edge + terminal” computing resource deployment model, that is, large cloud computing centers provide powerful high-end Computing power support, the “combat cloud” configured at the edge of the combat system provides customized computing power support, and the intelligent end with embedded information units performs primary processing of the target signals of the sensing platform. This computing resource allocation model is well adapted to the characteristics of the battlefield where information is abundant, network transmission resources are limited, and different combat units have very different information processing needs. Computing resources and computing tasks are well integrated. When matched, commanders, combat personnel, intelligence centers, combat platforms, etc. can all receive effective computing power support, which greatly increases the probability of “multi-probability victory” on the battlefield.
Adaptive optimization of combat models generates intelligence. Strategies in human brain confrontation are often affected by human physiological characteristics, such as nervousness, inertial thinking, danger avoidance, etc. These “intelligent flaws” in human nature can be effectively overcome by machine decision-making. On August 20, 2020, a human pilot who participated in the U.S. Air Force’s “Alpha Air Combat Competition” said, “The AI fighter plane is superior because it is extremely aggressive. It uses attack methods that are not commonly used by human pilots to carry out operations, which makes human pilots very uncomfortable.” “. This is enough to prove that the combat model implanted in the machines on the battlefield under the conditions of “three modernizations” integration is very different from the strategies used by human commanders in the decision-making process. Another feature of the machine combat model is its self-learning ability. The process of accumulating combat experience that may take years for humans to complete can be completed by intelligent machines in only dozens of days or even dozens of hours. When the learning ability of machines surpasses that of humans, algorithmic victory will become another focus in battlefield confrontations. However, wars are always led by humans, and this will not change no matter how advanced the machines evolve. Therefore, designing a combat model under human intervention conditions and formulating reasonable rules to promote the adaptive optimization of machine combat models are the key to the competition of combat effectiveness intelligence index on the future battlefield.
Only by proactively seeking change can we win the times
In the same way that humans produce, they fight in the same way. The military’s combat effectiveness generation model is a product of the times and will inevitably be deeply marked by the times. The form of war has entered the era of informationization and intelligence. The intelligence factor has changed from an addend in the past to an exponential. The status, role and structure have undergone earth-shaking changes. The mechanism for winning wars has been completely refreshed, and “yesterday’s old tickets” can no longer board the “passenger ships” of the future.
Facing the great changes of the times, the military’s transformation of its combat effectiveness generation model is a prerequisite for victory. The first-rate troops took the initiative to turn around, the second-rate troops followed suit, and the third-rate troops were forced to turn around. As a soldier, to win in the future, you must learn to be a “lookout on the mast”, dare to step out of the “comfort zone” and “familiar zone” of thinking, take the initiative to seek change, actively explore, and use the storm of ideas to sweep away the old and rigid thinking. Take control of the lifeblood of victory.
Chinese Military From “Cyber Warfare” to “Mosaic Warfare”
Theory is the precursor to action. Strengthening innovation in combat concepts and promoting innovation in combat guidance have always been important ways for militaries around the world to cultivate military advantages. In recent years, the U.S. military has successively proposed cutting-edge combat theories such as “cyber warfare” and “mosaic warfare” in order to realize that the “production relationship” of combat mode can be more adaptable to the development of “productivity” of combat capabilities. By comparing and analyzing these two combat theories, the world can get a glimpse of the changes in the US military’s combat capability building thinking, especially the understanding of the winning mechanism of “mosaic warfare”, so that it can be targeted and find effective checks and balances.
● From threat response to war design——
Actively shape and promote the improvement of combat capabilities
“Threat-based” or “capability-based” are two basic ways to build military combat capabilities. “Threat-based” embodies demand traction and focuses on solving practical problems in the near and medium term, which is the basic law that should be followed in the construction of military combat capabilities; “capability-based” embodies goal traction, aims at future strategic missions, and supports strategic concepts with new combat theories, which is the key to military operations. The only way to achieve innovation and transcendence in capabilities. The development from “cyber warfare” to “mosaic warfare” reflects the differences and evolution of the inherent laws of the above two approaches, and also reflects the changes in the US military’s ideas and concepts for promoting combat capability building in recent years.
The concept begins to change. Cyberspace was originally created to solve human communication needs. Later, it gradually evolved into a new combat domain independent of land, sea, air and space. From this, the “cyberspace” with the core of fighting for cyberspace dominance was derived. war”. In contrast, “mosaic warfare” is a new operational concept actively developed and designed by the US military in order to maintain its strategic advantage and directly target competitors. Its formation process reflects the integration of demand-driven and capability-driven, strategic, proactive, and Traction is more prominent.
New ideas for technology application. “Cyber warfare” emphasizes the development of new generation technologies to support the transformation and implementation of combat concepts. “Mosaic warfare” breaks out of this model and does not overemphasize the research and development of new generation equipment technology. It pays more attention to the rapid transformation of common military and civilian technologies and the incremental iteration of mature technologies. The basic idea is to “mosaic” various combat system units into single-function, flexibly assembled units based on existing equipment and through module upgrades and intelligent transformation in accordance with the application concepts of service platforms such as online ride-hailing and crowdfunding development. , easy-to-replace “building blocks” or “pixels” to build a dynamically coordinated, highly autonomous, and seamlessly integrated combat system, embodying new technology-driven ideas.
Path development new design. “Cyber warfare” is an accompanying concept of the cyberspace. Wherever the cyberspace develops, “cyber warfare” will follow. Generally speaking, we first consider the “objective” material conditions before making the “subjective” conceptual design. , has strong dependence on path development. “Mosaic warfare” first evolved from “subjective” to “objective”. By developing a force design model that can dynamically adjust the functional structure, it can adapt to different operational needs and changes in the battlefield environment.
It can be seen that compared with previous combat concepts such as “cyber warfare”, “mosaic warfare” has clearer goals, more mature technology, and more reliable paths, reflecting the change in thinking actively shaped by the US military.
● From network center to decision-making center——
Group intelligence to achieve optimal energy release of the system
Artificial intelligence technology is a key variable in the information age and a core increment in the development of the “mosaic warfare” system. “Cyber warfare” emphasizes “network center”, while “mosaic warfare” tightly focuses on the core of artificial intelligence technology, adjusts the key to victory from “network center” to “decision center”, and changes the combat system architecture from system level to Platform-level alliances are transformed into functional-level and element-level integration, seeking to use group intelligence technology to achieve the optimal release of system energy on the premise that the network is fully energy-gathered, giving new connotations to the winning mechanism of war in the intelligent era.
Use “fast” to control “slow” and gain the upper hand in cognition. In future wars, the battlefield situation will change rapidly, and the weight of the time element will continue to rise. “Fast” versus “slow” can create a nearly dimensionally reduced combat strike effect. “Mosaic Warfare” uses data information technology and artificial intelligence technology to improve the single-loop decision-making speed of one’s own “OODA” loop, expand the breadth of parallel decision-making, reduce the granularity of group-loop decision-making, speed up the progress of system operations, and overall create a model that is always one step ahead of others. The “first move” posture aims to firmly control the dominance of cognitive decision-making on the battlefield.
Use “low” to control “high” and accumulate cost advantages. Different from the traditional combat concept of pursuing high-end weapon platforms, “mosaic warfare” focuses on using artificial intelligence technology to tap the potential and increase efficiency of existing weapon platforms and combat resources. By loading and running intelligent algorithms and specific functional modules on many mid- to low-end weapon platforms, they can achieve combat performance comparable to that of high-end weapon platforms. This overall improves the cost-effectiveness of the input-output of the weapon platform, thereby accumulating cost advantages.
Use “dispersion” to control “gathering” and seek sustainable survival. “Mosaic warfare” emphasizes the use of decentralized ideas and asymmetric checks and balances, using an open system architecture to decentrally configure various functions such as reconnaissance, positioning, communication, and strike on various manned/unmanned platforms to achieve Distributed deployment of power. At the same time, intelligent algorithms are used to improve the self-organization, self-coordination, and independent attack capabilities of each platform, so as to achieve centralized firepower. When some combat platforms are eliminated, disrupted, or stripped away, the entire combat system can still operate normally, thus enhancing the battlefield survivability of the force cluster.
Use “dynamic” to control “quiet” and improve system flexibility. “Mosaic warfare” emphasizes further breaking through barriers in each combat domain. By turning fixed “kill chains” in different combat domains into dynamically reconfigurable “kill nets”, the “OODA” large ring is disassembled into small rings, and a single ring is differentiated into multiple rings. According to changes in the combat process and combat needs, rely on intelligent networking to realize on-the-go splitting, on-the-go deployment, and on-the-go combination of combat forces. In this way, on the one hand, it can enhance the flexibility and adaptability of the combat system; on the other hand, it can also offset the node aggregation effect of complex networks, making it difficult for opponents to find key nodes to defeat one’s own system.
“Mosaic warfare” provides a reference prototype for intelligent warfare. But at the same time, as an idealized force design and application framework, “mosaic warfare” also needs supporting support such as technology, doctrine, and policies that are closely related to it. There is still a long way to go before it can be fully realized. Compared with traditional warfare, The situation of system coexistence will exist for a long time.
● From element integration to system reorganization——
Dynamic structure to enhance the flexibility of the combat system
Structure and relationships often determine functions and properties. “Cyber warfare” and “mosaic warfare” are built on the same material foundation in the information age and follow the same evolutionary paradigm, but the principles and effects of system construction are different. The architecture formed by “cyber warfare” can be statically deconstructed, while “mosaic warfare” dynamically combines functional units according to certain construction rules to form an elastic architecture with self-organizing and adaptive characteristics, similar to a “dynamic black box”. Conventional The means are difficult to track and predict. This flexible structure often “emerges” new capabilities to empower and increase the efficiency of the combat system.
The integrated development of network and cloud makes combat space and time more dynamic and malleable. The Internet and cloud are the basic environment for the operation of the information combat system. They have reshaped the process elements of intelligence, command, attack, and support in traditional operations, and at the same time derived new combat time and space. “Cyber warfare” mainly focuses on the cyberspace, and its combat time and space are relatively static. “Mosaic warfare” is not limited to a single combat space. Under the development trend of information infrastructure network moving with the cloud and integrating cloud and network, the tangible and intangible space can be further hinged, the boundaries of combat space and time are more flexible, and the allocation of combat resources is more flexible. The combat architecture is more dynamic.
Data flows across domains, making combat control more seamlessly coordinated. In the command and control link, “cyber warfare” focuses on the command and control of combat units by joint combat command institutions, and the cross-domain exchange and flow of data is mainly concentrated on theater battlefields. “Mosaic warfare” further lowers the level of joint operations to the tactical end. Through the independent cross-domain exchange and seamless flow of data at the tactical level, various data islands can be gathered into data clusters on demand, thereby generating significant “overflow” “” effect makes the dynamic, discrete, agile, and parallel characteristics of the combat command and control loop more obvious, and is more conducive to realizing agile connection and efficient coordinated actions of various combat units on demand.
The algorithm penetrates all dimensions, making the system run more autonomously and efficiently. Algorithms are the mapping of human consciousness in cyberspace, forming two basic forms: compiled codes transformed by intentions and neural networks transformed by knowledge. In “Cyber Warfare”, compiled code is used extensively and neural networks are only used locally. In the “mosaic war”, the algorithm has expanded to two key functions: shaping rules and providing engines, and the breadth and depth of its application are more prominent. The shaping rules mainly focus on compiled code, supplemented by neural networks, to construct the process framework and operating logic of the “mosaic warfare” system, laying a structural foundation for its uncertainty, adaptability and “emergent” capabilities; providing the engine mainly integrates intelligence The algorithm model is distributed to edge elements for operation, forming a knowledge diffusion effect, thereby comprehensively improving the intelligent autonomous combat capabilities of the “mosaic warfare” system.
The independent release of energy at the edge makes the combat style more flexible and diverse. The edge is an abstract model of various manned/unmanned combat functional units and is also the direct source of the “emergence” of system capabilities. In the “cyber warfare” system, edge elements are closely coupled with the superior and subordinate command and control processes and are in a state of precise control. In the “Mosaic Warfare” system, the perception, interaction, reasoning, and decision-making capabilities of edge elements are greatly improved. Its “OODA” loop does not need to be linked back to the higher-level command organization, which is conducive to supporting the formation of a decentralized combination of high-low and manned/unmanned. The optimized combat cluster form can give edge elements more self-organizing authority, which significantly enhances battlefield confrontation advantages.
It can be seen that if “cyber warfare” is called a sophisticated war machine, “mosaic warfare” can be regarded as a complex “ecology” that can stimulate the dynamic growth of combat capabilities. New technologies generated by network clouds, data, algorithms, and edge devices Changes promote the formation of a dynamic and complex “architecture”. This structure in turn regulates elements, platforms, and systems in reverse, constantly emerging new capabilities, and playing an important role in empowering and evolving the combat system.
● From system breach to compound confrontation——
Analyze the pros and cons and seek effective checks and balances
“Mosaic warfare” represents, to a certain extent, the possible direction for the development of future joint operations. We should fully study and grasp the winning mechanism of “mosaic warfare”, shape the information and communication field as a new domain that breaks the time and space boundaries of traditional wars, create a new concept of cloud-enabled operations, and build a strong defense information infrastructure support capability. Highlight the security and defense capabilities of military information networks, enhance the basic support capabilities for the operation of strategic and campaign command institutions, and continuously improve the network information system.
On the other hand, the emergence of the “mosaic warfare” theory makes it difficult for traditional combat methods to seize and control limited target nodes to achieve the system-breaking effect of destroying points and breaking links. However, it should be noted that any system has its inherent contradictions. Even the seemingly “impeccable” decentralized structure of “mosaic warfare” can still find ways to effectively crack it. For example, grasp the complexity characteristics of the system, use its correlation and dependence, highlight the functional suppression of the communication network, build a network and electricity composite attack path, and achieve the disassembly and isolation of each unit of the combat system; grasp the dissipative characteristics of its structure, Make use of its dependence on external information to highlight the camouflage and misleading of information data, prompting the combat system to transform into abnormal states such as information closure and information overload; grasp its group autonomy characteristics, use its dependence on key technologies to highlight the confrontation against intelligent algorithms Reduce efficiency and inhibit the intelligent driving force of each combat unit; grasp its functional non-linear characteristics, take advantage of its unknown vulnerabilities, highlight differentiated strike assessment on the battlefield, and explore and discover imbalance points in the combat system with higher efficiency and faster speed , looking for key weaknesses in the system to break.
With the continuous development of science and technology, the form of war has entered the era of information warfare. Information has become the dominant element of combat effectiveness. Both combatants are engaged in fierce confrontation around the collection, transmission and processing of information. Cyberspace is a channel for the transmission of data and information. The bridge between modern combat units.
The U.S. military was the first to militarize cyberspace. In 2008, the United States established the Air Force Cyber Command and defined cyberspace as the entire electromagnetic spectrum space, extending cognition and practice from the narrow information domain to the broad cyber domain. . In January 2018, the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) released “TP 525-8-6 U.S. Army Cyberspace and Electronic Warfare Operational Concept 2025-2040”, which describes how the U.S. Army will operate in cyberspace and electronic warfare. operate in the electromagnetic spectrum to meet the challenges of future operational environments. Compared with other traditional combat domains, what impact will cyberspace have on future operations? In the context of future integrated joint operations, what breakthroughs can it bring to multi-domain joint operations?
Mysterious – Cyberspace Operations
The fifth major area of information warfare. The term cyberspace first appeared in the 1982 Canadian science fiction novel “Fragments of the Holographic Rose”, which describes a cyberspace where the Internet and human consciousness are integrated. According to the U.S. Department of Defense Military Vocabulary Dictionary, cyberspace is a global domain within the information environment that consists of independent information technology infrastructure networks, including the Internet, telecommunications networks, various local area networks and computer systems, and embedded processors and controller. With the continuous development of network technology, cyberspace has expanded from computer networks to the invisible electromagnetic spectrum, which is a physical field in the electromagnetic environment. It includes not only computer networks as we usually recognize them, but also all physical systems that use various types of electromagnetic energy.
In addition, in modern warfare, cyberspace is a new field of information warfare. It has been listed by the US military as one of the five areas that are as important as land, sea, air and space and must maintain decisive advantages. It involves network warfare, information warfare, electronic warfare, space warfare, command and control warfare, C4ISR and other fields. It is a fifth-dimensional battle space that transcends the traditional four-dimensional battle space of land, sea, air and space. It is both relatively independent and embedded in other fields. Compared with traditional fields, cyberspace has the characteristics of blurred border boundaries, wide coverage, and complex and changeable situations.
Cyberspace operations transcend the limitations of time and space. Due to the lack of geographical boundaries and natural boundaries in the electromagnetic spectrum, cyberspace transcends the limitations of geographical boundaries, time and distance, allowing cyberspace operations to occur almost anywhere, across land, sea, space and air operations, integrating traditional In the four-dimensional combat space field, attacks on remote targets can be carried out instantly. Since the propagation speed of information in cyberspace is close to the speed of light, high-speed information transmission will greatly improve combat efficiency and capabilities, and provide the ability to make quick decisions, guide operations, and achieve expected combat effects. More importantly, according to operational needs, achieving military goals or military effects in or through cyberspace can be divided into two types: offensive cyber operations and defensive cyber operations.
Offensive cyber operations refer to preventing, weakening, interrupting, destroying or deceiving the enemy’s network in cyber space to ensure one’s own freedom of action in cyber space. Its main actions include the implementation of electronic system attacks, electromagnetic system blockade and attack , network attacks and infrastructure attacks, etc. Defensive cyber operations include activities to defend, detect, characterize, counter and mitigate cyberspace threat events, aiming to protect the U.S. Department of Defense network or other friendly networks, maintain the ability to passively and proactively exploit friendly cyberspace, and protect data , network and other specified system capabilities.
Electromagnetic warfare in cyberspace
Strategic deterrence, public opinion wins. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of cyber attacks against economic, political, military and other targets. Due to the characteristics of large scale, good concealment, and ability to attack infrastructure networks, these attacks have become an advantage for some countries in political conflicts. means of advantage. During the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Russia used cyberspace as its position and radio-electronic warfare as assistance to cut off the Ukrainian system in communications and interrupt the Ukrainian command; it resisted negative news in public opinion and released positive news; it paralyzed the enemy on the Internet. Use the enemy’s website to create panic, and then cooperate with the frontal attack of the troops to achieve the goal of quick victory.
Global layout, capturing enemies from thousands of miles away. In the process of establishing a cyberspace security framework dominated by its own country, the United States has mastered the cyberspace operations of its allies and established global military bases and cyberspace interconnectivity. Relevant intelligence personnel complete network presets through intelligence operations in peacetime, such as using the Internet and other means to monitor and collect enemy network data through intelligence analysis. Through network presets, when necessary, network vulnerabilities can be exploited to invade the enemy’s network, control the system, destroy data, etc., to achieve “taking the enemy’s life thousands of miles away.” In July 2010, the United States invaded Iran’s nuclear power plant through a certain worm virus and took control of its core equipment, greatly delaying Iran’s nuclear program.
Give full play to the advantages of asymmetric combat and improve combat benefits. The “Shute” plan was proposed by the U.S. Air Force to suppress the enemy’s air defense capabilities. It uses asymmetric combat theory to destroy the enemy’s air defense system. The core goal is to invade the enemy’s communications, radar, computer and other network power systems. In war, the “Shute” attack can invade the computer network of the enemy’s air defense early warning system and communication system through remote radio, and then attack and paralyze the enemy’s air defense system, or attack the enemy’s available electronic systems and network systems to break through the enemy’s network. Block, and then use corresponding professional algorithms (mainly “Trojan horse” viruses) to invade the enemy’s radar or network system, monitor or steal relevant information, and leak important information about the enemy’s combat plan, troop deployment, and weapons and equipment, thereby helping Adjust the combat plan, combat structure and weapon ratio to your own side to obtain the maximum benefits at the minimum cost.
The future development of cyberspace operations
Paying increasing attention to it, countries are vigorously developing it. As countries’ understanding deepens, developing cyber capabilities and winning cyber wars have become an important part of countries seeking military advantages and winning future wars. In 2015, based on comments and photos posted online by members of an “Islamic State” organization, the U.S. military used big data analysis and reconnaissance positioning, and finally destroyed an “Islamic State” command post within 22 hours. At present, the United States has established a Cyberspace Command, organized a cyberspace combat force, deepened research on combat theory, and developed preliminary cyberspace combat capabilities. Other countries have also launched cyber competitions. In order to strengthen its cyberspace combat capabilities, France established a new Information Systems Security Agency. The British government released the National Communications Security Strategy and announced the establishment of a Cybersecurity Office and a Cybersecurity Action Center. Japan has established a cyber warfare force mainly composed of computer experts, which shows that cyber space warfare has aroused the interest of more and more countries.
Integration of multiple technologies to enhance cyberspace combat capabilities. With the breakthrough of new technologies, big data technology, 5G technology, and artificial intelligence technology can be applied to cyberspace operations. Big data technology can store large amounts of data, collect complex types of data, and can quickly calculate and obtain useful information. It can speed up the execution of all aspects of cyberspace warfare and make it more accurate. 5G technology has the characteristics of low latency, high transmission and large capacity, making cyberspace warfare more threatening in a global environment and multi-domain coordinated operations. In addition, artificial intelligence deep learning, reasoning and other capabilities can be used to simulate cyberspace warfare. In the process, the weaknesses of one’s own weapon systems can be found and improved. Through the deep integration of these technologies, cyberspace can be built into an intelligent A network environment with high transmission and precision can create an intelligent brain for future information-based joint operations and grasp the initiative in future operations.
Effectively promote joint operations. The use of cross-domain information-based joint operations is essentially a new combat form that jointly achieves operational goals by establishing a stable and efficient cyberspace information activity situation based on the deployment of geographical space. The joint forces have different information capabilities. Achieve a high degree of sharing and deep integration to enhance real-time situational awareness, improve command efficiency, and improve integrated combat effectiveness. Cyber capabilities can not only serve a single service branch or unit, but can also prioritize the protection of strategic-level goals, organize cyber wars and operations of various arms with a high overall level, and plan cyber operations in land, sea, air, and space dimensions. battle target.
Future wars will be intelligent and systematic wars. The “joint information environment” is a strategic move to achieve “cross-domain collaboration” and build “global integrated operations” capabilities. With the continuous improvement and development of technology, cyberspace Operations will become one of the core operational domains, which will greatly improve the effectiveness of future systematic operations and provide important support for seeking information advantages and winning wars.
——Thinking of “decision-centered warfare” and cognitive complexity
中国军网-解放军报
Editor’s Note Complexity science is one of the frontier fields of contemporary scientific development. British physicist Stephen Hawking said that “the 21st century will be the century of complexity science.” As a social phenomenon in human society, war has always been a complex giant system full of possibilities. In recent years, with the evolution of war forms, the epistemology under the traditional scientific system has become increasingly difficult to meet the needs of the development of war practice. Paying attention to the scientific principles and thinking methods of complexity may be the key to opening the door to modern warfare. This article studies and discusses “decision-centered warfare” from the perspective of complexity science.
“Decision-centered warfare” is a new concept that has emerged in recent years. Why was the “decision-centered war” proposed? According to the US military, it is necessary to “fight a war that the opponent cannot understand.” Since the beginning of the 21st century, with the evolution of war forms and continuous changes in combat methods, the US military has found that network-centric warfare in the traditional sense has become increasingly difficult to adapt to the reality of the battlefield. In this context, “decision-centered warfare” came into being.
1. Create complexity
The so-called “decision-centered warfare” is to achieve diversified tactics through the upgrading and transformation of combat platforms and distributed deployment with the support of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence. While ensuring its own advantages in tactical selection, it imposes high complexity on the enemy. , in order to interfere with its command and decision-making capabilities and achieve an overwhelming advantage over the enemy in a new dimension.
Why “the opponent can’t understand”? In fact, through distributed deployment, flexible combination, and intelligent command and control, the opponent will not understand the battlefield situation and combat mechanism cognitively, and will be at a loss as to what to do. This is another transformation of war confrontation from competing for “greater power” in mechanized warfare, to competing for “faster” in information-based warfare, to competing for “making the right decisions” in future wars. In the words of Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese military strategist, “One who subdues the enemy without fighting is a good person.” Through clever command, control and decision-making, the battlefield situation becomes more complicated, making it impossible for the opponent to fight.
How to do this? Simply put, it is to use the nature of complex systems to find the opponent’s “vital gate” to exploit and control. A basic method is to reshape the opponent’s decision-making process by increasing complexity, forcing the opponent to introduce new decision-making parameters, causing its decision-making to become complicated, thereby changing the causal relationship and decision-making process, and ultimately leading to chaos. Adversarial situations have been able to balance in the past because all participants knew the outcome of the game, making it easy to make trade-offs, but complexity often destroys this balance. This is why complexity can be used as a weapon.
It should be noted that the battlefield is fair to any party. In the future battlefield, in order for the enemy to feel the complexity of decision-making in one direction and not to be troubled by the complexity, we must first be superior to the opponent in command and control capabilities. The complexity of battlefield decision-making is mainly reflected in the judgment and decision-making links of the “OODA” loop. Under normal circumstances, the “OODA” cycle can complete the complete cycle from observation, judgment, decision-making to action. However, if there is a way to make the battlefield more complex so that the opponent cannot make effective judgments in a timely manner, and thus cannot enter the decision-making and action links, the opponent’s “OODA” loop can always be limited to the observation and judgment links, and a closed loop cannot be formed. This may be the result of “decision-centered warfare” trying to create complexity. Therefore, how to make quick judgments has become a primary concern. If this cognitive process can be completed quickly with the support of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, that is, so-called intelligent cognition can be achieved, the speed of the “OODA” cycle can be greatly accelerated and unilateral advantages can be achieved.
Drawing correct judgments based on observation is the prerequisite for making correct decisions. But this can only be done under the condition of “having cognitive ability”. Currently, in systems such as command information systems and war game deduction systems, these cognitive tasks are basically completed by humans. Past attempts to autonomously complete judgments and decisions by artificial intelligence systems have been almost unsuccessful because the problem of intelligent cognitive modeling has never been solved. The behaviors displayed by various models are more or less “mechanical” and cannot truly show the characteristics of intelligence. Foreign militaries have also been focusing on “human behavior modeling” in recent years, but progress is still slow at present. Why is intelligent cognition so difficult, and what is the difficulty? The author believes that the core difficulty lies in how to understand and deal with complexity.
2. Understand complexity
At the beginning of this century, the Rand Corporation of the United States used a simulation system to conduct more than 1,700 deductions on the combat needs of the U.S. Air Force in response to possible military conflicts in a certain hotspot area around 2005. It then conducted statistical analysis and finally concluded how the U.S. Air Force Conclusion to maintain superiority on the battlefield. This statistical analysis method has a basic assumption: each trial is independent and unordered, and the rules do not affect each other. It’s like tossing a coin. If you toss it heads once, it’s likely to be heads the second time. But if you throw it 10,000 times, the probability of the result being a certain side will get closer to 50%. This method is scientifically accurate when used in physical research, but when transplanted to the study of human social issues such as war, the situation becomes different.
Human beings are cognitive and do not just obey the laws of physics like physical entities. Commanders will not simply repeat mechanically when analyzing combat problems. Normally, when people make decisions, they will consider the previous results, which will lead to adjustments to the next action. In this way, the inherent power law characteristics of human behavior will appear, which is often called the “eight-eighth law”. Therefore, we cannot simply copy physical thinking to think about human society.
The reason for this is mainly because we are often accustomed to thinking about problems in a simple way of reductionism. The simple system structure remains unchanged, the results are deterministic, the cause and effect correspondence is clear, repeatable, predictable, decomposable and reducible, etc., have become our default scientific thinking method. But there are still many complex systems in the world, and these systems have a holistic nature, such as the human body, society, economy, war, etc., all fall into this category. What is the overall nature? That is, what cannot be seen locally, but exists when viewed as a whole, is the overall nature. For example, a living person and a dead person are the same in terms of composition, but the difference between a dead person and a living person lies in whether there is life, and life is a holistic quality. The structure of complex systems is variable and has characteristics such as adaptability, uncertainty, emergence, and nonlinearity, and the results are neither repetitive nor predictable. Society, economy, war, cities, including intelligent systems, these human-related systems all have these characteristics. In fact, they are all typical complex systems. Therefore, war has the characteristics of “no return after victory”, which actually reflects the “unrepeatable” nature of the complex system of war.
It is precisely because of the complexity of complex systems that causes and results cannot correspond one to one, which will lead to the failure of the similarity principle, so it cannot be modeled and studied using traditional methods. In order to solve complex problems, some traditional physics methods were mainly adopted in the past, such as statistical methods and simple life body modeling methods based on Agent. This is the case with the Rand Corporation study mentioned earlier. Although it can solve some problems, when it is used to solve problems related to people, especially cognition, the results obtained deviate greatly from reality and are unsatisfactory. .
Why is this happening? This is because the origins of war complexity and physical complexity are different. The source of physical complexity often lies in the complex laws of physical motion; while the complexity of war comes from human cognition. Because humans are not chaotic particles without thoughts, nor are they lower creatures with simple life logic, but are intelligent creatures with cognitive abilities of judgment and decision-making. People will reflect on the results through causal relationships, sum up experiences and make adjustments, and then decide how to act next. Moreover, human cognition will continue to develop, which will further affect subsequent cognition. However, because cognition is highly uncertain, future actions are difficult to predict.
It can be said that under the current technological conditions, what can be predicted are basically simple systematic laws of the physical world, while the impact of human cognition on society or war is often difficult to predict. Therefore, it is a common mistake we make to use physical thinking to think about human society. Based on the complexity of cognition, which is completely different from those immutable physical laws, when we deal with the complexity of war, we must focus on the core feature of “cognition” and work hard on command and control.
3. Coping with Complexity
The core of “decision-centered warfare” lies in the acceleration of cognition. Because almost all changes in war can be seen as cognitive upgrades and complications. In the author’s opinion, to deal with the “decision-centered battle”, we need to “fight complexity with complexity” and start from the basic work.
The first is to understand the core concept of “decision-centered warfare”. That is to seize the initiative on the battlefield by actively creating complexity. For one’s side, one needs to manage one’s own complexity; for one’s enemy, it means imposing more complexity on the opponent. The second is to understand the changes in the mechanism of war. The evolution speed of combat systems is increasing exponentially, which will make it difficult to perceive, control and manage complex battlefields, and the role of intelligent cognition will become more prominent. To this end, it is necessary to focus on the focus of “command and control” and regard battlefield management capabilities as the key. The third is to find the correct concepts and methods of coping. Starting from war design, we take the direction of decision-making intelligence as a breakthrough.
In recent years, a series of achievements in the field of artificial intelligence have brought hope to solving the problem of intelligent command and decision-making. The AlphaGo series of research has brought breakthroughs to decision-making intelligence technology; and the emergence of the GPT large model has further confirmed that decision-making intelligence and even general artificial intelligence are possible in the future. It now seems that artificial intelligence will be deeply involved in wars in the future, which is a reality that must be faced. And this will bring more complexity to war and battlefields.
Decision intelligence research should be placed at the command and control level. To win a war, command and control decisions need to embody both “science” and “art.” The scientific nature of command and control is mainly reflected in how to do it “when you know how to do it”, such as using the obtained command data (weapons and equipment, force formation, battlefield environment, opponent intelligence, etc.), command methods (tasks, processes, procedures, operations planning, etc.) , planning, optimization, etc.), formulate a combat plan and implement it. The artistry of command and control is reflected in knowing how to do it “when you don’t know how to do it.” This is where true intelligence lies. The method is nothing more than continuous trial and error, accumulating experience, finding ways to solve problems, and forming new scientific knowledge. In fact, in reality, commanders continue to discover and summarize winning rules through trial and error, and each commander also has his own intuition and experience.
Therefore, true intelligence is actually finding solutions to exceptions. Following rules is not intelligence, finding your own way to solve problems is the key. Perhaps this is the core of decision-making intelligence and a goal that requires further efforts.
With the dawn of the intelligent era, artificial intelligence is approaching at a speed beyond people’s imagination, not only impacting all walks of life, but also changing our understanding and concepts. As a field that is inherently sensitive to technological changes, the military development and application of artificial intelligence is booming.
Currently, with the rapid development of information technology, sensors, big data and the Internet of Things, the military application of artificial intelligence is ushering in a new round of opportunities. Penetrating into all fields of military applications, artificial intelligence weapons and equipment with efficient command, precise strike, automated operation and intelligent behavior will contribute unique “machine intelligence and power” to the future battlefield.
Engels once said that the application of cutting-edge technology first began in the military field. When new technologies significantly enhance military combat capabilities, they will lead to new military changes. Traditional military powers such as the United States and Russia foresee the broad application prospects of artificial intelligence technology in the military field. They all regard artificial intelligence as a disruptive technology that “changes the rules of the war game” and believe that future wars will be intelligent wars and future armaments. The competition will be an intelligent arms race, and has been planned in advance, hoping to seize the opportunity of artificial intelligence military applications and strive to create a “generation gap” with potential opponents. A few months ago, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Shanahan officially issued a memorandum on the establishment of a “Joint Artificial Intelligence Center”, which will further increase the application of artificial intelligence in U.S. military military projects. Russia also regards artificial intelligence as the commanding heights of future military competition, and is stepping up the development of humanoid robots that can drive vehicles and the formation of robot troops that can fight side by side with human soldiers.
It should be noted that the military application of artificial intelligence is a “double-edged sword.” “It may become the best thing that has ever happened to mankind, or it may become the worst thing.” Hawking’s evaluation of artificial intelligence enlightens us to maintain sufficient caution in the face of the “menacing” military applications of artificial intelligence. careful. In the future, as a large number of intelligent unmanned systems are used on the battlefield, the cost of war will be greatly reduced, and “zero casualties” of combatants are expected to become a reality. This can easily lead to more casual use of force by military powers. In a complex battlefield environment, highly intelligent unmanned combat systems are very likely to encounter problems such as recognition errors, communication degradation, and even “defection and counterattack” after enemy electromagnetic and network attacks. Indiscriminate killing of innocent people and loss of control of the system are even more likely to occur. It brings endless worries to the military application of smart weapons.
It can be seen that major issues related to war must not be easily left to machines to make decisions. Even if the military application of artificial intelligence becomes increasingly mature, we cannot allow the “barbaric growth” of smart weapons. We need to be alert to the security and safety risks that artificial intelligence may bring. Legal, ethical and many other issues. Social security supervision and control should be strengthened to form a social governance model adapted to the era of artificial intelligence; actively participate in discussions and negotiations on international arms control of artificial intelligence, and contribute Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the security, legal and ethical issues brought by artificial intelligence; firmly establish The idea that humans are the leaders in the human-machine relationship enables safe and effective control of artificial intelligence and allows it to serve the peaceful development of mankind, rather than letting artificial intelligence become an “accomplice of the devil.”
Regarding this technological form that is expected to profoundly change the form of future warfare, we must not only keep a clear mind, but also fully stimulate its vitality. Judging from the history of military changes, science and technology have played a stimulating and basic supporting role in previous changes. Whoever has the sensitivity to technological changes and achieves technological breakthroughs first can master the new rules of war and control the war. The commanding heights to win future wars. For an army, the inability to correctly predict the direction of military technological breakthroughs and grasp changes in war patterns will not only lead to “technological generational differences”, but also lead to crises such as core capabilities and national security.
Today, in the face of “big changes” and “big breakthroughs” in the development of science and technology, we should deeply grasp the intrinsic driving influence of artificial intelligence on the evolution of war forms from the perspective of designing wars and mastering the rules of victory, and truly seize the initiative to win future wars. We need to firmly grasp the major historical opportunities for the development of artificial intelligence, do a good job in strategic planning, highlight the goal traction and planning leadership of intelligence, closely track cutting-edge technologies, and take proactive actions to effectively safeguard national security.
Cognition-centered warfare: operational concepts for dealing with complex wars
Complexity science is one of the frontier fields of contemporary scientific development. It is a new tool for understanding, understanding, and exploring the phenomena, laws, and mechanisms of war. As the form of war evolves from information war to intelligent war, the complexity of war shows an exponential growth trend, and it becomes increasingly difficult to seize control of information. The key to combat is to put the enemy into a “decision-making dilemma” so that it can even Even with information superiority, it cannot make correct decisions, thus losing its combat advantage. The focus of operations will change from “information-centered” to “cognition-centered”, and the winning mechanism will change from “information winning” to “cognitive winning”.
“Three changes” reveal the driving forces behind the increasing complexity of war
War is a field full of possibilities, and change is the basic characteristic that runs through it. President Xi stressed that we must pay close attention to changes in technology, war, and opponents. Changes in science and technology are the foundation, changes in war are the subject, and changes in opponents are the key. Changes in science and technology lead to changes in war, and changes in war prompt changes in opponents. The “three changes” have promoted the evolution of war forms, the expansion of war fields, the transformation of war goals, and the expansion of war influence, revealing the driving forces behind the growth of war complexity.
Technological changes have subverted the basis for winning wars. Science and technology are the core combat effectiveness and the most active and revolutionary factor in military development. Throughout the history of the world’s military development, every major scientific and technological innovation has started a new military revolution, and every military revolution has pushed military development into a new era. Scientific and technological innovation has become a huge engine to improve the military’s combat effectiveness. . At present, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and military revolution are accelerating. The degree of informatization of modern warfare is constantly increasing, and the characteristics of intelligence are becoming increasingly apparent. The role of driving the military revolution is becoming more and more prominent. The rapid development of some cutting-edge technologies may fundamentally change the face of war and war. According to the rules, the military game between great powers is more embodied in technological subversion and counter-subversion, raids and counter-raids, offsets and counter-offsets.
The U.S. Navy’s “Nemesis” project includes reconnaissance, decoy, jamming and other systems. The decoy system covers air, surface and underwater. Under the scheduling and control of the distributed artificial intelligence engine, it can complement each other, coordinate deception, and truly create a A “ghost aircraft carrier formation” completely subverted traditional electronic deception methods and raised information deception to an unprecedented level. It can be said that science and technology has never had such a profound impact on the overall situation of national security and military strategy as it does today. It has profoundly intervened in, supported, and dominated the evolution of war forms and the innovation of combat styles, and has even subverted the mechanism of winning wars.
The U.S. Navy’s “Nemesis” project is based on networked collaborative electronic warfare
Concept, integrating different systems and utilizing unmanned distributed Clusters of electronic warfare platforms enable large-scale collaborative electronic warfare
The changes in war highlight the complexity of war.
Modern warfare is undergoing profound changes, showing unprecedented diversity and complexity. This super complexity stems from many reasons: first, various advanced technologies or weapons are constantly emerging, bringing many uncertainties; second, the battlefield covers land, sea, air, space, network, electricity and cognitive and other multiple third, multiple combat objects, combat styles, combat areas, and combat methods are cross-correlated and combined to form a complex “hybrid war”; fourth, artificial intelligence algorithms build a large number of combat elements into a complex logic, and use human Machine speed beyond the reach of thinking prompts the combination, deconstruction, and recombination of various elements. In the Ukraine crisis in 2022, on the surface it is a confrontation between Russia and Ukraine, but in essence it is a “hybrid war” between the United States and Western countries and Russia; the Russian and Ukrainian armies extensively use military and civilian drones to expand The “unmanned +” application model shows the prototype of future unmanned intelligent operations; with the support of U.S. NATO air and space situational intelligence, the Ukrainian army frequently uses low-cost unmanned equipment to carry out raids on important Russian weapons platforms, highlighting its new qualities Combat forces have asymmetric attack advantages against large weapons and equipment in traditional combat systems. Changes in technology will eventually lead to changes in war. The impact of a single element on war will become weaker and weaker. The joint combat system composed of multiple elements will have a complex impact on war. War is non-linear, uncertain, chaotic and open. Complex characteristics such as adaptability and confrontation will increase exponentially, which will make it more difficult for people to judge the progress and outcome of the war.
Changes in opponents accelerate the growth of war complexity.
Changes in war prompt changes in opponents. Currently, we are experiencing major changes unseen in a century. Major military powers are actively making strategic adjustments and promoting a new round of military reforms, which exhibit the following characteristics: first, the trend of joint, miniaturized, and autonomous institutional establishments has become more obvious; second, The first is that weapons and equipment are showing a development trend of digitization, precision, stealth, unmanned, and intelligence; the third is that the combat form is moving towards the “four nons” (non-contact, non-linear, asymmetric and irregular) and the “three nos” (Invisible, silent, unmanned) combat; fourth, the military command form is developing in the direction of flattening, automation, networking, and seamlessness. The United States regards China as its main strategic opponent and strives to suppress and contain China. It has vigorously strengthened the innovation of operational concepts and has successively proposed new operational concepts such as “hybrid warfare”, “multi-domain warfare” and “mosaic warfare”, claiming that it will fight to defeat its opponents. A high-end war in which “technology cannot be understood, strikes are difficult to predict, and speed cannot keep up.” The core of the US military’s “mosaic warfare” is unmanned, low-cost, fast, lethal, flexible and reconfigurable. It is based on distributed situational awareness, with the help of intelligent auxiliary decision-making tools and the concept of building blocks and jigsaw puzzles to adaptively formulate mission planning. , dynamically reorganize combat forces, decompose the functions of the combat platform into a larger number of single-function nodes, and build a combat system with a large number of functional nodes. Replace the “kill chain” with a “kill network”. Several nodes will fail or be missing, and the combat system can be adaptively reorganized.
The increasing complexity of war drives the transformation of the winning mechanism of war
With the rapid development of national defense science and technology, the upgrading of weapons and equipment, and the rapid evolution of war forms, modern warfare has shown exponential and explosive complex changes. These changes may seem dazzling, but there are rules to follow behind them. The fundamental thing is that the winning mechanism of war has changed. Only by thoroughly understanding the winning mechanism of modern war can we accurately recognize changes, respond scientifically, be good at seeking change, and firmly grasp the initiative in future wars.
The form of war has changed from cold weapon warfare to intelligent warfare.
The shape of war is a holistic understanding of war. So far, human war has generally gone through four historical stages: cold weapon war, hot weapon war, mechanized war, and information war, and is moving towards intelligent warfare. The history of cognitive warfare is almost as old as the history of human warfare. In the era of cold weapon war, hot weapon war, and mechanized war, cognitive warfare appears more in the form of public opinion warfare and psychological warfare. As mankind enters the information age, the development of cyberspace technology has greatly expanded the space for cognitive warfare, enriched the technical means of cognitive warfare, and greatly enhanced the permeability, timeliness, and deterrence of cognitive warfare. The status and role of Zhizhan have been unprecedentedly improved. In the future, the form of war will enter intelligent warfare, and a large number of intelligent weapon systems and platforms will be equipped with the military and put into combat. Cognitive warfare can not only interfere with and deceive the cognition of enemy personnel, but also attack the cognition of smart equipment through algorithm deception methods such as “adversarial input” and “data poisoning”. Its application scenarios and scope will be further expanded. , the status and role will be further improved.
The purpose of war has changed from conquering by force to conquering by spirit.
The winning mechanism of modern war has undergone great changes compared with the past. The violence of war has been curbed, and the purpose of combat has changed from the original siege of cities and territories and annihilation of the enemy’s effective forces to making the opponent obey one’s will. The means of combat have shifted from military conquest to focusing more on psychological and spiritual conquest, which has made cognitive warfare increasingly prominent in its status and role in modern warfare. In recent years, “hybrid warfare” has become a major means of great power competition. More and more countries have begun to focus on using new fields and new means to achieve political, military, and economic goals that are difficult to achieve with traditional warfare. “Hybrid war” is a mixture of war subjects such as states, non-state actors and individuals, a mixture of conventional warfare, unconventional warfare and other war styles, a mixture of military operations such as combat, stability maintenance and reconstruction, and a mixture of political, military and economic The mixture of multiple fields such as military and people’s livelihood is a mixture of multiple combat goals such as defeating the enemy and winning the hearts and minds of the people. This is highly consistent with cognitive warfare. The operational field of “hybrid warfare” has expanded from the military field to politics, economy, culture, people’s livelihood and other fields; the combat methods have expanded from firepower warfare and troop warfare to diplomatic warfare, economic warfare, cyber warfare, psychological warfare, public opinion warfare and other directions. This is highly consistent with cognitive warfare. Its core essence is to “make profit out of chaos”, its main purpose is to win people’s hearts, and its combat guidance is to win by cleverness.
The winning domain of war changes from the physical domain and information domain to the cognitive domain.
Modern war occurs in three fields: physics, information and cognition at the same time. The physical domain and information domain are separated from the material domain, and the cognitive domain is separated from the spiritual domain. The physical domain is a traditional war domain, consisting of combat platforms and military facilities, which provides the material basis for information warfare. The information domain is a newly emerging war field, that is, the space for information generation, transmission and sharing, and is the focus of information warfare competition. Cognitive domain is the scope and field involved in human cognitive activities. It is not only the space for human feeling, perception, memory and thinking activities, but also the space for knowledge generation, exchange, association, storage and application. It is also the space for perception, judgment and decision-making in combat activities. and spaces of command and control. The cognitive domain exists in the field of consciousness of combatants and affects their judgment and decision-making. It is a rising field of warfare. With the development of technologies such as network information and artificial intelligence, the scope of the cognitive domain has greatly expanded, and is expanding from the field of human consciousness to the field of modern cognitive tools and artificial intelligence. The development of military technology has expanded the scope of the cognitive domain, providing more advanced, faster, and more effective material and technical means for cognitive warfare, greatly enhancing the permeability, timeliness, and deterrence of cognitive warfare, and fundamentally It has changed cognitive warfare, making the cognitive domain a new winning field that transcends the physical domain and information domain, and has become the ultimate domain for great power games and military confrontations.
The mechanism for winning wars changes from information victory to cognitive victory.
War confrontation is ultimately a game and confrontation of cognition. If you have the right to control cognition, you will have the initiative in war to a large extent. If you lose the right to control cognition, you will be passive in the war. The situation of being beaten. Obtaining higher and stronger control rights is the key to defeating powerful enemies. Finding ways to control cognitive power and then seize comprehensive battlefield control, so as to achieve maximum victory at the minimum cost, is an important mechanism and inherent law of modern warfare, especially cognitive warfare. In recent years, the U.S. military has successively proposed new concepts of future warfare represented by “decision-centered warfare” and “mosaic warfare”, intending to use complexity as a weapon to create multiple dilemmas for opponents, requiring it to ensure its own tactical “selective advantage”. At the same time, by creating highly complex decision-making influences on the enemy and interfering with its decision-making capabilities, it can achieve a subversive advantage over the enemy in the cognitive domain. In the primary and intermediate stages of information warfare, the key to combat is to seize network control and information control, which runs through the progressive model of “network advantage → information advantage → decision-making advantage → combat advantage”. After information warfare enters an advanced stage, it becomes more and more difficult to seize control of information. The key to combat is to make the enemy fall into a “decision-making dilemma” so that even if it has information superiority, it cannot make correct decisions, thereby losing its combat advantage and having recognition. Only by knowing the advantages can you have the combat advantage. In future wars, cognitive advantage will be the most important strategic advantage, and cognitive confrontation will be the most important form of confrontation. It can be said that “without cognition, there is no war.”
Coping with complex wars has given rise to the concept of cognitive-centered warfare
In order to cope with the exponential growth trend of the complexity characteristics of modern warfare, we must use the theories and methods of complexity science to change the concept of platform-centered warfare where firepower is supreme and killing is king, and establish a cognitive-centered combat thinking. Cognition-centered warfare refers to taking the cognitive domain as the winning area, taking the cognitive advantage as the operational goal, and focusing on interfering with cognitive means, suppressing cognitive channels, affecting cognitive production, and conducting cognitive operations on enemy personnel and intelligent equipment. Interference, suppression, deception and inducement are a new operational concept that obtains combat advantages by seizing and maintaining cognitive advantages. Its main winning mechanisms are as follows.
Use cyber deterrence to destroy the enemy’s will to fight.
Targeting at the enemy’s political, economic, military, diplomatic, and cultural contradictions and weaknesses, disseminate deterrent information through cyberspace, or publish military parades, large-scale military exercises, new weapons and equipment research and development and other information through the Internet , causing great fear and shock to the opponent’s cognition and psychology, and deterring the enemy is not conducive to the implementation of my actions. Comprehensive use of network and electricity attack methods to carry out point strikes and warning attacks against the enemy’s important network and electricity targets and key core nodes, destroying the enemy’s system combat capabilities, affecting the normal performance of the enemy’s weapons and equipment, and providing psychological deterrence to the enemy. The US military’s “gray zone operations” theory relies on its own technological advantages and mainly takes actions such as cyber and electronic countermeasures to respond to the opponent’s “gray zone provocation” and deter the opponent from giving up “confrontation” or escalating the conflict, putting it in a dilemma.
Use information deception to induce the enemy to make wrong judgments.
Aiming at the enemy’s reconnaissance equipment, intelligence agencies and command systems, conceal one’s military intentions, military operations and military objectives through cyber attacks, electronic deception and other means, and transmit to the enemy errors and information about one’s own False information on combat intentions, troop configurations, combat capabilities, combat plans, and battlefield situations, or use the enemy’s command information system to send false orders and information to induce the enemy to make wrong judgments and disrupt the enemy’s combat command. Implement new attacks such as “adversarial input” and “data poisoning” against artificial intelligence algorithms, allowing them to obtain preset conclusions through deep learning training, or causing them to fall into local optimal solutions and ignore the global optimal. Use technologies such as computer imaging, video synthesis, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence to synthesize sounds, videos, images, text information, etc., or use “deep fake” technology to generate false information that is difficult to distinguish between true and false and transmit it through the Internet Spread in large quantities to confuse and deceive opponents and influence their decisions and actions.
Use information suppression to block the enemy’s cognitive means.
Aim at the enemy’s important network targets, as well as core routers, switches, gateways, key servers, etc., and use “soft” and “hard” attack methods to destroy their network nodes. Based on the networking characteristics of wireless links such as the enemy’s command and control network, communication transmission network, weapon hinge network, and early warning detection network, comprehensively use technologies and means such as electronic jamming, GPS spoofing attacks, command link takeover, and data hijacking control to suppress them. Data communication, blocking its communication links and interfering with its combat command. Implement cyber-paralysis attacks on enemy command and control, military communications, early warning detection, aerospace information and other military networks, destroying core networks that affect their operations and weakening their combat capabilities.
Create a favorable public opinion environment through public opinion propaganda.
Cooperate with the country’s political, military, and diplomatic struggles, vigorously promote one’s own justice in the war, and stimulate the enthusiasm of all people to fully support the war. With the help of new media platforms such as instant messaging tools, online forums, podcasts, Twitter, and WeChat, we can systematically disseminate information that targets the enemy’s weaknesses. After gaining widespread attention and consensus, we can then promptly report information, create new hot spots, and repeatedly build momentum. Enhance the influence and form a resonance effect to expand the effect. Propaganda “sets the tone” by cleverly setting agendas, building public opinion through powerful media, setting off a “spiral of silence”, controlling and guiding public opinion, and changing people’s opinions and behaviors.
Use psychological attacks to undermine the morale of enemy soldiers and civilians.
Widely disseminate processed and processed information through the Internet, promote one’s own justice, demonstrate one’s strength, will and determination, vilify the enemy politically and morally, and internally Gather the thoughts and will of the military and civilians, strive for the legal and moral commanding heights externally, and spiritually “soften” and “weaken” the enemy. Use a variety of network communication methods and technical means to send various deceptive, disruptive, inductive, and deterrent messages to the enemy’s military and civilians in a targeted manner to attack the enemy’s psychological defense line, promote an ineffective confrontation mentality, and then lose the combat capability. . Through the Internet, we can create, guide, plan, build, and expand momentum to create a “momentum” that is beneficial to ourselves but not beneficial to the enemy, causing a psychological impact on the other party’s people, thereby affecting or changing their psychological state, and implementing effective psychological attacks.
Watch legal and moral support through legal struggle.
Use legal weapons to curb the enemy’s possible or future illegal acts, declare the legality of our actions, affirm our power of military counterattack, declare our determination to pursue war responsibilities, and give To intimidate the enemy. By exposing the illegality of the enemy’s provocative behavior, criticizing the legal basis for the enemy’s combat operations, and condemning the enemy’s illegal behavior, it causes the enemy’s strategic defeat and our own strategic gain. Use legal means to restrict the enemy’s possible actions, limit the possible interference of third parties, and block other parties from interfering with our own actions. Formulate the laws and regulations necessary for our operations to provide legal protection for our operations or take legal remedial measures to reduce the possible negative impacts of our operations and ensure that combat operations are carried out in accordance with the law.
