Today, the world’s science and technology is brewing new breakthroughs. With the man-machine war as a symbol, the development of artificial intelligence has made significant progress and is accelerating its development into the military field, which will inevitably have an impact on the war situation and even a subversive impact. Therefore, our military must accelerate the promotion of military intelligence construction and accelerate the forging of an intelligent army.
Create intelligent theory. Create the basic theory of intelligent warfare, and conduct in-depth research on the concept connotation, essential characteristics, war guidance, combat style, offensive and defensive actions, winning mechanism, characteristic laws, etc. of intelligent warfare; continuously innovate the tactics of intelligent warfare, such as intelligent cluster warfare, precise second-kill warfare, cognitive control warfare, intelligent ambush warfare, etc.; study and master the basic technical theories of intelligent warfare, including the perception and understanding of highly complex battlefield environments, human-machine hybrid intelligence in human-machine collaborative operations, etc. These theories are the cornerstone of the intelligent warfare theory system. In the future, the war theory with “algorithm-centric warfare” as the core is very likely to replace the war theory with “network-centric warfare” as the core.
Reshape the intelligent form. Military organization is the link between military technology and combat theory, and is the lever for exerting the overall combat effectiveness of the army. In the future intelligent warfare, along with the pace of new military reforms, the development trend of military organization will be built and developed in the direction of “globally distributed, networked matrix” leadership and management system, “algorithm-supported, human-machine integration” combat command system, “small and flexible, modular cluster” scale structure, and “military integration, military and civilian integration, traditional forces as the main body, intelligent forces as the backbone, unmanned and adaptive” force composition. The organizational structure of future intelligent warfare will be to form small, multi-functional, intelligent, new joint combat forces of different types and purposes according to different levels of strategy, campaign, and tactics and different military services.
Develop intelligent weapons. We should focus on the dual needs of intelligent warfare system operations and intelligent weapons and equipment system construction, do a good job in top-level design and overall coordination, compile a roadmap for the development of intelligent weapons and equipment systems, and develop intelligent unmanned combat equipment systems that match operations and support, covering land, sea, air, space, and network space domains, in a planned, focused, and step-by-step manner, and with high, medium, and low-end, large, medium, and small, long, medium, and short ranges, and enhance the system integration of various services and various intelligent weapons and equipment such as operations and support. At the same time, we should focus on the needs of unmanned and anti-unmanned, intelligent and anti-intelligent operations, and focus on the research and development of weapons and equipment systems for anti-enemy intelligent unmanned operations to ensure that we can effectively conduct intelligent unmanned offensive and defensive confrontations with the enemy.
Innovate intelligent training. At present, the concept and method of intelligent combat are constantly updated, and the training mode has changed from “mechanical + information” dominated to “intelligent +” dominated. Artificial intelligence technology can create a more “real” weapon operation experience and battlefield environment, can realistically simulate the combat process, assist decision-making and command, and evaluate combat concepts. Exploring new models of intelligent training and improving intelligent combat capabilities will become an important part of future military training and preparation. In particular, intelligent warfare and unmanned combat should be included in the training outline and carried out on a regular basis.
Cultivate intelligent talents. Talent is the first resource. The cultivation of artificial intelligence talents is the foundation for strengthening the country’s intelligent infrastructure. Intelligent warfare has the characteristics of complexity, advancement, and humanization. It has the characteristics of decentralized combat command, de-division of combat processes, de-stratification of talent structure, high-end skill operation, research-based working methods, and fuzzification of the front and rear. Correspondingly, it also requires intelligent military talents to have the characteristics of talent group, advanced skills, complex knowledge, innovative thinking, and intelligent decision-making. Therefore, to build an intelligent army and win intelligent warfare, it is first necessary to have a large number of specialized technical talents and command talents in the field of artificial intelligence.
Deepen intelligent integration. Breakthroughs in the core key technologies of artificial intelligence are the “national heavy weapon” to deal with the threats and challenges of intelligent warfare. In the tide of the intelligent era, we must focus on achieving integrated breakthroughs in the following disruptive technologies: around algorithm support, develop intelligent data mining technology for massive intelligence information and intelligent planning technology; around machine combat, develop intelligent chip technology and autonomous unmanned system technology; around intelligent decision-making, develop explainable high-reliability auxiliary decision-making technology, human-computer interaction and intelligent fusion technology; around extreme combat, develop intelligent cluster combat coordination technology and energy and information intelligent confrontation technology. Therefore, the research and development of core key technologies of military intelligence should not only carry out cross-disciplinary and cross-domain collaborative innovation, but also connect the development of social intelligence with that of military intelligence, draw on the mature technologies and successful experiences of social intelligence development, vigorously strengthen the in-depth development of military-civilian integration, and promote the rapid embedding of various artificial intelligence technologies into combat elements and processes.
Operational planning capability is a key capability of operational command and is also the basic way to transform strategic objectives and campaign tasks into specific combat actions. With an eye on winning future wars, improving operational planning capabilities will help people seize the initiative in war and gain the advantage in winning wars.
Focus on mission science planning
The combat mission stipulates the time and space conditions of the operation, determines the type, number and scale of the participating forces, and is the basic basis for combat planning. In modern warfare, the types of combat missions are more diverse, with more constraints and greater difficulty in completion. In addition, the relationship between different missions is closer, and often one move affects the entire system.
In the process of combat planning, only by accurately understanding combat tasks, scientifically decomposing combat tasks, and reasonably allocating combat tasks can we ensure that combat planning is scientific, accurate, and efficient. Accurately understanding combat tasks emphasizes accurate and comprehensive understanding of the superior’s intentions, ensuring that combat planning is always carried out around the implementation of the superior’s intentions; scientifically decomposing combat tasks emphasizes the analysis of major combat tasks, secondary combat tasks, and implicit combat tasks, ensuring that combat planning is always focused on task completion; reasonably allocating combat tasks emphasizes the reasonable selection of force resources in combination with specific tasks, ensuring that combat planning is always carried out around the optimal allocation of combat resources.
When conducting combat planning, it is necessary to accurately understand the combat intent of superiors, take the efficient completion of combat tasks as the axis, pay close attention to the efficient use of time, space, manpower, firepower, information and other factors to design combat actions, and ensure that the combat plans and programs are detailed and feasible.
Reasonable planning based on ability
Combat capability directly affects the completion time and final effect of the mission, and is an important basis for conducting combat planning. In future integrated joint operations, combat forces will be deployed over a wide area, combat actions will be coordinated across domains, and combat capability will be aggregated across multiple domains. The systemic synergy of various combat capabilities will become the key to determining victory or defeat on the battlefield.
In the process of combat planning, combat objectives should be reasonably determined, combat forces should be scientifically organized, and combat actions should be designed as a whole to ensure that combat planning is close to reality and feasible. Scientifically determine combat objectives, emphasize the reasonable selection of combat objectives based on accurate assessment of the combat capabilities of the troops; scientifically organize combat forces, emphasize focusing on complementary advantages and functional coupling to achieve an organic combination of various combat forces; design combat actions as a whole, emphasize the effective aggregation of various combat capabilities through integrated design, and ensure that combat planning is always carried out around the efficient use of combat forces.
When conducting combat planning, we should base ourselves on existing combat strength and actual combat capabilities, comprehensively analyze various situations and relevant constraints, determine appropriate combat objectives, and use them to guide combat force deployment, combat force organization, and combat action design. We must prevent the objectives from being too high, which will lead to distortion of planning products, and from being too small, which will lead to failure of planning products, and effectively improve the practicality and feasibility of planning plans.
Aim at your opponent and plan accurately
“Know thy enemy and know thyself, and you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat.” Informatized and intelligentized warfare, the characteristics of all-domain confrontation, system confrontation, and full-process confrontation are obvious. To achieve “attack others without being attacked by others”, we must insist on anticipating the enemy and responding to changes in advance.
In the face of the constant changes in the combat system, force deployment, tactics and strategies of powerful enemies, in the process of combat planning, we need to keep a close eye on the “opponent” as the target to study strategies and methods and design combat actions to ensure that combat planning is targeted and has rules to follow. We must thoroughly understand the combat opponent, emphasize accurate assessment of the enemy’s combat intentions, detailed analysis of the enemy’s combat system, and accurate grasp of the enemy’s combat focus. We must design tactics and strategies by targeting the key points in the enemy’s combat system, the weak points in force deployment, and the key points in tactics and strategies to ensure that combat planning is always carried out around defeating the enemy.
When conducting combat planning, we should accurately grasp the enemy’s combat focus, key positions and weak links, focus on selecting attack targets, carefully deploy forces, and highlight the key points, nodes and soft spots that support the enemy’s combat system to carry out force utilization and action design, improve the pertinence and accuracy of various planning results, and support the realization of flexible and autonomous asymmetric operations.
Focus on issues and coordinate planning
In future integrated joint operations, there will be more participating forces, more combat levels, a wider spatial domain, greater coordination conflicts, and various combat issues will become more complex.
In the process of combat planning, we should take the discovery of combat problems as the basis, the analysis of combat problems as the entry point, and the resolution of combat problems as the goal, and continuously enhance the thoroughness, systematicness, and completeness of combat planning. We should keep a close eye on problem-based joint planning, emphasize the support of the network information system, focus on solving the pain points, bottlenecks, and difficult problems in combat, and jointly tackle and pool wisdom among all services, fields, and levels, implement overall joint planning across all time periods, fields, and levels, and ensure that combat planning is always focused on quickly solving combat problems.
When conducting combat planning, we should adhere to the main line of efficiently solving combat problems, always focus on the realization of combat objectives, the use of combat forces, and the use of combat time and space, coordinate the joint planning of various services, levels, fields, and elements, realize the overall use of the combat forces of various services, the integrated design of campaign and tactical actions, and the cross-domain linkage of combat elements in various spatial domains, and improve the integrity of combat planning.
Focus on the situation and make rolling plans
Battlefield situation refers to the overall state and situation of the battlefield. Changes in situation are key variables that must be grasped in combat planning. The battlefield environment of modern warfare is complex and the pace of operations is accelerating. Even if the plans and programs formulated before the war are perfect, they are difficult to adapt to the rapid changes in battlefield situation.
Scientific and reasonable combat planning needs to go through a rolling iterative process, grasp the changes in the situation in a timely manner, and emphasize the real-time perception of the development and changes of the battlefield situation; accurately analyze and judge the situation, emphasize the need to base on the plan, focus on changes, and make quick decisions; continue rolling planning throughout the process, emphasize the need to respond quickly and flexibly, and continuously plan operations and decide on actions. Only in this way can the flexibility and timeliness of combat planning be continuously enhanced.
When conducting combat planning, we should focus on changes in the battlefield situation, scientifically predict the evolution of the situation, focus on repeated iterations of key planning steps such as judging the situation, implementing intentions, formulating plans, and making plans, update planning results in a timely manner, and realize the interlocking of planning and action, and move forward towards the combat objectives in a rolling manner, truly achieving “the enemy changes and I change, and I defeat the enemy first”, being one step ahead of others in planning, seizing the advantage of combat planning, and converting it into combat victory.
With the widespread use of advanced technologies such as big data, neural networks, and cloud computing, artificial intelligence is driving the transformation of decision-making thinking, models, and methods with unprecedented power. Decisions based on intuition and experience in the era of small data will give way to decisions based on full sample data in the era of intelligence, and the latter will become a new paradigm for winning on the battlefield. Accelerating the integration of artificial intelligence into modern command decision-making and better realizing the complementary advantages of human brain thinking and machine computing can promote the overall improvement of the level of military command decision-making.
Clarify the advantages of intelligent integration
The intelligent nature of future wars will continue to increase, and it is necessary to make the best decision quickly according to the changes in the enemy situation, our situation and battlefield environment. Simple human brain decision-making is no longer able to adapt to the rhythm of modern warfare. It is necessary to actively use artificial intelligence to achieve rapid and efficient military command decision-making through human-machine collaboration and complementarity. Data-driven decision-making focuses on big data resources for data mining and comprehensive analysis, discovers data associations and unknown laws, and assists commanders in making decisions based on this. Autonomous decision-making relies on the big data analysis platform, combines perception, cognition and decision support, and accurately generates and optimizes decision-making plans on the basis of ensuring timeliness. Pre-practice decision-making, by using the decision simulation system, experiments, tests, demonstrates and optimizes the combat plan before the combat decision results are converted into combat actions, and extracts the best action plan. From this point of view, artificial intelligence will become the “all-source analyst” of the battlefield. With its powerful data and algorithm advantages, it will expand the commander’s breadth and depth of cognition of the battlefield, and can achieve more accurate situation perception, more reliable battle situation judgment, and faster command and control.
Focus on integrating quasi-intelligent
Algorithms, computing power and data are both the internal driving force and core support for the development of artificial intelligence, and should be integrated into the key links of the entire command and control process. We should enhance situational awareness and provide an intelligence basis for command decision-making. We should network and connect the perception systems in the multi-dimensional battlefield, use data mining, deep learning and other technologies to process and utilize a large number of heterogeneous data streams obtained from multiple sources, extract useful battlefield intelligence, and grasp the changes in battlefield situation, so as to achieve effective transformation from information advantage to decision-making advantage. We should strengthen cognitive decision-making capabilities and provide important support for command decision-making. We should focus on the objective reality that the battlefield situation is changing rapidly and the weight of the time factor is constantly increasing. Based on data information technology and artificial intelligence technology, we should organically combine new technologies, new tactics and experience decisions, so as to combine qualitative and quantitative analysis, improve the single-loop decision-making speed of our own OODA loop, expand the breadth of parallel decision-making, and seize cognitive initiative by using speed to defeat slowness, so as to form an effect similar to dimensionality reduction strike. We should optimize coordination and control capabilities and provide solid guarantees for command decision-making. We should use big data analysis technology to explore and compare anomalies in enemy data, quickly capture opportunities for enemy confusion, errors, weaknesses, etc., change the past command model of determining the next action based on the results of the action, adjust decisions in advance, dynamically deploy troops, simulate and measure the effects of actions, and coordinate and control troops to launch troop maneuvers.
Avoiding the risks and challenges of integrating intelligence
Artificial intelligence is susceptible to defective data input, and there are problems such as “garbage in, garbage out”. At the same time, the black box nature of artificial intelligence makes it difficult for people to understand why and how the machine makes decisions, and it is difficult to identify whether the data is damaged and produces wrong results. Therefore, we must work hard on the input end of artificial intelligence. Focus on the application scenarios of artificial intelligence, identify false, forged, and low-quality data, deeply explore data relationships, and improve the integrity of information required for decision-making. Remove the false and retain the true, and increase the accuracy of training data. We must work hard on the interactive end of human-machine collaboration. The biggest dilemma of human-machine collaborative decision-making lies in the interaction between people and machines. There is uncertainty in human-machine interaction, and poor information communication may produce unpredictable and inexplicable results. It is necessary to accelerate the development of intelligent human-machine communication models. We must work hard on the operation end of machine inference. The current “machine learning”, “supervised learning” and “reinforcement learning” have been realized, but we should continue to seek breakthroughs, fully absorb various technical means, optimize model design, and improve database construction. We must work hard on the distribution end of human-machine decision-making. The human brain and machines each have their own advantages. We should focus on strengthening artificial intelligence with “human participation”, reasonably define the level, scope and degree of integration of artificial intelligence into command decision-making, intervene in human brain judgment at critical times, and control the overall safety and reliability of human-machine collaboration.
Realize efficient and orderly integration of intelligence
At present, military intelligence, with intelligence as the core, informatization as the basis, and networking as the symbol, is developing rapidly. Major countries in the world are actively exploring the advantages of artificial intelligence, hoping to make faster and better military decisions than their opponents, while creating more decision-making dilemmas for their opponents. We must keep up with the world trend, focus on top-level design, fully understand and give play to the auxiliary support role of intelligent technology in command decision-making, explore the human-machine collaborative decision-making model that conforms to the characteristics of our army, and guide the construction of the command capability system. We must adhere to systematic guidance and optimize the structure to design the human-machine collaborative path. According to the decision-making purpose and capacity requirements of strategic, campaign, and tactical combat command, distinguish between command, control, communication and other task areas, take into account the respective advantages and characteristics of “man and unmanned”, fully demonstrate the adaptability of artificial intelligence in the field of military command decision-making and possible problems, and systematically design the fields, methods and integration degree of artificial intelligence integration. We must adhere to the division of labor principles of human-led, machine-assisted, learning from each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and coordinated cooperation, design our respective exploration boundaries, and realize the transformation from auxiliary decision-making to intelligent decision-making.
In today’s era, military intelligence is becoming a powerful driving force for a new round of military reforms after mechanization and informatization, profoundly affecting the future combat victory mechanism, combat rules, and combat methods, and increasingly pushing war into the era of intelligence. The impact of military intelligence on future combat is mainly reflected in four aspects.
First, “intelligence” will become the dominant factor in determining the outcome of future operations. Mechanized warfare can be seen as platform-centric warfare, where energy is the dominant force. Energy is used to achieve the mobility of combat platforms and firepower strikes on targets, to achieve the combat purpose of destroying the enemy, and to pursue the use of objects to carry energy and release energy. Informationized warfare can be seen as network-centric warfare, where information is the dominant force. Information does not replace energy, but through precise positioning of time and space, it multiplies the combat effectiveness of energy, thus becoming the dominant force in war, and pursues the use of networks to gather energy and release energy. Intelligent warfare can be seen as cognitive-centric warfare, in which the dominant force is “intelligence”. The combat space is further extended from the physical domain and information domain to the cognitive domain, social domain, and biological domain. The battlefield situation is more complex. War is a systemic confrontation across domains, and it pursues more empowerment and release of power with intelligence.
Second, intelligent unmanned equipment will become the main combat equipment in future operations. The development of intelligent technology has gradually separated people from weapons and equipment. Unmanned systems have shifted from assisting people in combat to replacing people in combat, completing many high-risk combat operations that are not suitable for people to perform. Intelligent combat has increasingly distinctive characteristics of “unmanned platforms, manned systems, unmanned combat, and manned command”. On the Syrian battlefield, the Russian military remotely controlled 10 combat robots to kill more than 70 Islamic State militants with “zero casualties” and seize the 754.5 high ground, becoming the first ground combat operation in military history with robots as the main force. It is expected that by 2025, the proportion of intelligent unmanned equipment in the Russian military’s weapons and equipment will reach more than 30%. The U.S. military predicts that by 2030, intelligent unmanned equipment will be able to perform tasks autonomously, and 60% of ground combat platforms will achieve unmanned intelligence. A large number of drones, unmanned ships/boats, and unmanned vehicles will become the main equipment for both sides on the intelligent battlefield, carrying out various traditional/untraditional military tasks and implementing self-organized and systematic operations.
Third, human-machine collaborative combat will become the main mode of action in future combat. Human-machine collaborative combat is a mode of combat in which manned and unmanned equipment joint formations implement coordinated attacks in a networked confrontation environment. Among them, human soldiers with battlefield decision-making and tactical control capabilities serve as the “command back end”, and intelligent unmanned equipment carrying guided weapons or various intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance sensors serve as the “weapon front end”. With the support of information networks, human soldiers and intelligent unmanned equipment work closely together to complete actions such as situation perception, tactical decision-making, firepower guidance, weapon launch and damage assessment. According to the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, before 2035, human-machine collaborative combat will mainly take the form of autonomous combat with humans in the loop; before 2050, authorized autonomous or fully autonomous combat with humans outside the loop will be achieved, officially kicking off intelligent warfare dominated by machines.
Fourth, autonomous swarm combat will become an important attack style in future combat. The technical inspiration of swarm combat comes from the bionics research on bees. The division of labor within the bee colony is clear, there is a rich and interesting information exchange language between individuals, and the social behavior is rich, so the cluster is also called a “bee colony.” Swarm combat is an intelligent combat style that relies on artificial intelligence, data chain integration, cloud computing and other technical support, and launches dozens or even hundreds of drones at the same time. They form precise formations and precise division of labor, and perform multiple tasks and multi-target strikes at the same time. Compared with traditional combat, swarm combat has incomparable advantages and is a subversion of traditional combat styles and combat rules. After hundreds of simulation tests, the U.S. Navy found that even an advanced air defense system like the Aegis air defense system has difficulty in allocating firepower when dealing with drone swarm attacks, resulting in some drones being able to avoid interception and successfully launch attacks on ships. Data shows that when a swarm of 8 drones is used to attack ships, an average of 2.8 drones can avoid the Aegis interception system; when the number of drones increases to dozens, the number of drones that successfully avoid the interception system and achieve penetration is greater. These simulation tests fully prove that the effect of drone swarm operations is significant and poses a huge threat to the current defense system. At the same time, it also indicates that swarm-type autonomous operations will inevitably become an important offensive combat style on the future intelligent battlefield.
System-based superior warfare is a system-based warfare in information warfare. It is not limited to a specific combat style, but a “combination punch” or a group of combat styles composed of multiple combat styles and tactics. It emphasizes that according to the changes in combat missions, combat opponents and battlefield situations, as long as it is conducive to forming relative advantages and achieving system victory, any appropriate combat means and styles can be flexibly used to form combat advantages. In the specific implementation of system-based superior warfare, these specific combat styles and action tactics can be organized and implemented separately as part of joint full-domain operations, and more emphasis is placed on “combination punches”, multiple strategies, and overall victory. In order to better understand its core connotation, this article lists nine typical combat styles, including overall deterrence warfare, electromagnetic interference warfare, network attack warfare, cognitive control and interference warfare, and analyzes them.
System concentration warfare – a “combination punch” that flexibly uses a variety of combat styles. Author: Academic Plus Senior Observer Dong Zhou The main content and keywords of this article
Overall deterrence warfare: emphasize multi-domain joint deterrence; the implementation of overall deterrence warfare should have three major elements; strong overall strength is the core of achieving effective deterrence
Electromagnetic interference warfare: the key to competing for information advantage; in terms of combined means and methods, information empowerment is achieved through “connection + sharing”; an effective method to crack unmanned cluster warfare
Network attack warfare: mainly soft killing, combining soft and hard, focusing on breaking the network and reducing energy
Cognitive control and interference warfare: control the cognitive right of situational awareness, compete for information advantage; control the right to command and decision-making, compete for decision-making advantage; control the “brain” right, and seize the brain control advantage
Agile mobile warfare: high-efficiency and rapid decision-making; high-efficiency formation of a favorable combat situation; high-efficiency and instant aggregation of combat forces; agile mobile warfare is an innovative development of traditional mobile warfare
Swarm autonomous warfare: conducive to forming a system advantage to suppress the enemy; conducive to enhancing combat effectiveness; conducive to trapping the enemy in combat difficulties
Precision point killing war: achieve high efficiency and cost-effectiveness in operations; hitting key node targets is an important option; large-scale system support is a basic condition; it is inseparable from accurate intelligence support
Supply chain disruption war: the supply guarantee chain has a huge impact on the overall operation; the focus of attack is the key node of the enemy’s supply guarantee chain; the key is to choose the right time to use tactics
System destruction and paralysis war: the combat goal is to make the enemy’s combat system disordered; hit the key nodes of the combat system with a heavy punch; implement a soft attack on the enemy’s combat system
For learning reference only, welcome to communicate and correct! The views of the article do not represent the position of this organization The concept of operation is first proposed as a new combat style. Innovative combat style is the core content of the development of combat concepts. It can be said that system-based optimization warfare is a general term for a series of specific tactics. The following nine typical combat styles constitute the combat method system of system-based optimization warfare. They are: First, overall deterrence warfare, actively organizing static power demonstrations and deterrence actions in the system-based superiority warfare, striving to win the battle without fighting or with a small battle; second, electromagnetic interference warfare, using a variety of combat means and action styles such as electronic reconnaissance, attack and defense to disrupt, prevent and destroy the enemy’s electromagnetic capabilities, actively compete for electromagnetic spectrum advantages, seize information control, and thus win the initiative in combat; third, network attack warfare, using a variety of means such as soft strikes and hard destruction to break the enemy’s command network, intelligence network, communication network, and logistics supply network, and disrupt the enemy’s command and support; fourth, cognitive control and interference warfare. Through information attacks, public opinion attacks, and brain attacks, control advantages are formed in cognitive space; fifth, agile mobile warfare. Rapidly adjust the deployment of troops and weapons, quickly gather capabilities on the battlefield, and seize combat opportunities; sixth, swarm autonomous warfare. Widely use unmanned combat means such as “swarms”, “wolf packs”, and “fish schools” to autonomously organize actions and distributed attacks to achieve human-machine joint victory; seventh, precision point killing warfare. Accurately obtain intelligence, implement multi-domain precision strikes, strive to hit one point to shake the overall situation, and maximize combat effectiveness; Eighth, supply chain disruption warfare. Organize elite forces to attack the enemy’s logistics and equipment supply chain, supply lines and supply bases, and destroy the enemy’s loss of supply and withdrawal from the battle; Ninth, system destruction and paralysis warfare. Comprehensively adopt a variety of means such as breaking the network, training, and hitting nodes to interfere with, delay, destroy or even paralyze the effective operation of the enemy’s combat system and weaken the function of the enemy’s combat system.
Overall deterrence warfare Overall deterrence warfare refers to actively organizing static power displays and deterrence actions in system-based superior warfare, striving to defeat the enemy without fighting or fighting a small battle. Sun Tzu said: “To defeat the enemy without fighting is the best of the best.” Deterrence and war are two main forms of military activities. Deterrence is mainly to show determination and will to potential opponents by showing strength or threatening to use strong strength to deter the opponent’s actions. It can be said that the overall deterrence warfare in the system-based superior warfare is an important means or tactics to achieve “stopping” the enemy’s troops without fighting. Clausewitz emphasized that the first rule of strategy is to be as strong as possible, first of all, strong in general, and then strong in key parts. Modern warfare is a confrontation between systems. The overall deterrence war under the informationized local war requires not only the traditional deterrence means and capabilities of land, sea, air and space, but also new deterrence means and capabilities such as space deterrence, electromagnetic deterrence, and network deterrence, and more importantly, the overall deterrence that demonstrates the overall strength of the country. In particular, with the rapid development of advanced technologies such as information technology, the scientific and technological revolution, industrial revolution, and military revolution are accelerating integration, and the coupling relationship between strategic competitiveness, social productivity, and military combat effectiveness is closer. Winning the informationized war is more of a contest of national will and national overall strength. If you want to contain the war, you must first deter your opponent from the overall strength. 1.1 Emphasize multi-domain joint deterrence Deterrence means usually include nuclear deterrence and conventional deterrence. In the system-based superiority war, the overall deterrence war is implemented, aiming to comprehensively use the conventional deterrence means of the land, sea, air, space, and power grid in the whole domain to achieve the purpose of deterrence. In particular, with the application of information network technology and space and directed energy technology in the military, space, network, and electromagnetic weapons have become new means of deterrence. Space deterrence mainly uses rapid response electromagnetic orbital weapons, space-ground networked anti-navigation and positioning service systems, large elliptical orbit laser weapons, high-power microwave weapons and other equipment to threaten and attack the opponent’s space targets, forming an “interference and blocking” deterrence against the enemy’s space information. Network deterrence mainly uses cyberspace situational awareness and attack equipment to threaten and attack the opponent’s military network and other key information infrastructure to achieve deterrence against the enemy. Electromagnetic deterrence mainly uses electromagnetic spectrum combat systems to threaten and attack enemy detection, navigation, communication and other informationized weapon equipment systems to achieve deafening and blinding deterrence against the enemy. 1.2 Three elements should be possessed in the implementation of overall deterrence warfare To implement overall deterrence warfare and achieve the expected deterrence effect, three elements are usually required: one is strength. The deterrent party must have reliable capabilities or strength that make the opponent feel daunted and fearful; the second is determination and will. The deterrent party must dare to use this capability when necessary; the third is clear information transmission. The deterrent party must accurately and effectively let the other party know its action capability and determination. Historically, there are three main changes in the criteria for judging deterrence strength: first, active military strength; second, comprehensive national strength or war potential; third, the total number of main combat weapons and equipment. For a long period of history, the number of troops was deterrence, and the strength of military strength directly depended on the size of the active army, the number of important weapons and equipment, and non-material factors such as military training and organization morale. After the 20th century, with the expansion of the scale of war, deterrence strength is no longer limited to the number of troops and important weapons and equipment, but is determined by the country’s war potential, including economic strength, scientific and technological strength, energy resources, and even population size, etc. The overall deterrence war in the system-based superiority war, the formation of its deterrence strength is mainly based on the network information system, and the joint full-domain deterrence capability formed under the integration of the system. 1.3 Strong overall strength is the core of achieving effective deterrence The development of information technology and its extensive penetration and application in the military field have provided favorable conditions for building overall strength and achieving overall deterrence. System-based superior warfare is supported by the network information system and makes full use of the penetration and connectivity of information technology. It not only integrates various combat forces, combat elements, and combat units into an organic whole to achieve military system combat advantages, but also connects and integrates various fields related to war and national mobilization, such as national politics, economy, diplomacy, finance, transportation, and energy, into the national war mobilization system, gathers various forces and resources to form an overall force, realizes the emergence effect of system capabilities, and shows the overall strength advantage. It forms a powerful invisible deterrent of unity and common hatred of the enemy, and creates a situation where the enemy “has power but cannot act” and “can act but has no effect”, which plays a role in containing and winning the war. In the overall deterrence war, the scope of national war mobilization will be wider, not limited to a certain direction or region, but throughout the country and even relevant regions of the world; the mobilization time will be faster, and the mobilization and action information can be quickly transmitted to everyone and every node at the first time by using the network and information system; the action coordination and collaboration will be more consistent, and the forces distributed in various regions can act in a unified manner almost at the same time based on the same situation and the same order, greatly improving the efficiency of action coordination; the resource utilization will be more sufficient, and various war resources based on the network can quickly realize the transition from peace to war and from military to civilian, and realize the integrated and precise guarantee of the front and rear.
Electromagnetic interference warfare Electromagnetic interference warfare refers to the flexible use of various combat means and action styles such as electronic reconnaissance, attack and defense to disrupt, prevent and destroy the enemy’s electromagnetic capabilities, actively compete for the advantage of the electromagnetic spectrum, seize the right to control information, and then win the initiative in combat. 2.1 The key to competing for information advantage Local information warfare is highly dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum, and the control and counter-control of electromagnetic space have become the focus of competing for the right to control information. Organizing and implementing electromagnetic interference warfare is mainly to destroy the enemy’s electromagnetic spectrum and protect one’s own side from destruction. The electromagnetic spectrum is the main carrier for transmitting information. Using electromagnetic means to disrupt and destroy the enemy’s electromagnetic spectrum will effectively reduce the enemy’s information combat capability, and enable the enemy to ensure the rapid and effective flow of information in the scenario where the enemy has the right to control information, and drive the command flow, action flow, material flow, and energy flow through the information flow, thereby gaining the dominance and initiative of the operation. 2.2 The basic focus is to disable and invalidate the enemy’s combat system. The implementation of electromagnetic interference warfare in the system-based superior warfare is mainly aimed at the enemy’s dependence on electromagnetic space. At the same time, in order to ensure the effective use of electromagnetic space by the enemy, various electronic reconnaissance, interference, attack, defense and support forces are organized to interfere with and attack the enemy’s communication network, radar network, computer network and command center, communication hub, radar station, computer network node, global navigation positioning system, space-ground integrated Internet and other space link systems, and other various frequency-using weapons and equipment, block and destroy their communication and data transmission, and destroy the “connection” and “sharing” structural center of gravity of the enemy’s combat system, and provide support for the seizure of information control and electromagnetic control from the root, thereby weakening the enemy’s command and control capabilities and disabling the enemy’s entire combat system. 2.3 Effective tactics to crack unmanned swarm warfare Unmanned autonomous swarm warfare such as “bee swarm”, “wolf pack” and “fish pack” is an important feature of information-based local warfare with intelligent characteristics. There are a large number of various unmanned autonomous clusters, with various types and complex characteristics, and each individual can complement each other and replace each other to play a role. It will be very difficult to intercept and destroy the entire unmanned cluster. However, from a technical perspective, in order to achieve effective coordination in unmanned combat clusters, each individual must share and interact with each other. Once the communication coordination between unmanned clusters is interfered with, it will be impossible to share battlefield situation and information, and it will be difficult to coordinate actions with each other, and it will be difficult to play its due combat effectiveness. This provides an opportunity for the other party to implement communication interception and electromagnetic interference. Therefore, the implementation of electromagnetic spectrum warfare, interference and attack on the information and communication network of unmanned clusters, and destruction of their information sharing and interaction will make it impossible for each individual in the unmanned cluster to achieve effective coordination, thereby losing combat capability.
Network attack warfare Network attack warfare refers to the comprehensive use of network and computer technologies and other effective means to conduct military confrontation actions around the control of information and information networks. It is a major combat style for cyberspace operations and the struggle for network control. Its main combat operations include both soft killing and hard destruction, mainly soft and hard. Among them, soft kill is mainly network attack, that is, the comprehensive use of blocking attack, virus attack and other means to block and attack the enemy’s information network, command system, weapon platform, etc., making it difficult for the enemy’s network, command information system, etc. to operate effectively or even paralyzed; hard destruction mainly uses precision firepower strikes, high-energy microwaves, electromagnetic pulses and anti-radiation attacks to paralyze the enemy’s information network physical facilities and destroy the enemy’s combat and weapon equipment entities. The focus is on breaking the network and reducing the ability to fail. Organizing network attack in the system concentration war is to target the weaknesses of the opponent’s military information network, take advantage of the system, organize various network attack forces, and continuously implement soft kill and hard destruction actions against the enemy’s combat command network, reconnaissance intelligence network, communication network and even logistics supply network throughout the combat process, destroy the enemy’s network system, and make the enemy’s combat system function decline or even disabled as a whole. Mainly against the enemy’s basic information network, intelligence network, command network, support network and other core targets, implement a series of combat operations such as network and electricity coordinated attack, deception confusion, link blocking, takeover and control, so that the enemy’s intelligent combat network system is disabled and ineffective, and achieve a key victory in paralyzing the enemy system.
Cognitive control and disturbance warfare Cognitive control and disturbance warfare refers to the interference, destruction or control of enemy thinking and cognition through information attack, public opinion attack and brain attack in the system-based superiority warfare, so that the enemy cannot make correct judgments and decisions, thereby forming a control advantage over the enemy in the cognitive space. The cognitive domain, that is, the human thinking space and consciousness space, is a field that has a key impact on combat decisions and judgments. The development of information technology, especially artificial intelligence technology, and its wide application in the military field have expanded the competition of war from physical space and information space to cognitive space, making cognitive space a new combat domain. With the development of information and intelligent technology and their extensive and in-depth application in the military field, human-machine intelligence tends to merge, making the status of cognition in intelligent warfare operations more prominent, and the cognitive field has gradually become an important battlefield. Controlling cognitive rights has become a key factor in future battlefield control rights. Fighting for cognitive control rights has become an important combat style for winning in informationized local wars with intelligent characteristics. 4.1 Controlling situational awareness and cognitive rights and fighting for information advantages In the system-based superiority warfare, information flow drives material flow and energy flow, and information advantage determines decision advantage. The rapid and accurate recognition of intelligence information and battlefield situation has an important impact on gaining command and decision-making advantages. Therefore, in order to organize and implement system-based optimization, we must make full use of intelligent technology and big data technology to analyze massive intelligence information data.
Through the smoke of war, we can see that today’s war has developed from barbaric flesh-and-blood battles and battles to capture cities and territories to information-led precise beheadings and fierce competition on the intellectual battlefield. This objective fact tells us that war, as a specific complex social phenomenon, will present different war forms and winning mechanisms in different historical periods. As American futurist Toffler pointed out, “Artificial intelligence is like previous missiles and satellites. Whether you are prepared or not, it will enter the historical stage of human civilization war.” President Xi clearly pointed out: “If we do not understand the winning mechanism of modern war, then we can only look at a diorama and miss the point.” The winning mechanism of war refers to the way in which various war factors play a role in winning a war. and the laws and principles of interconnection and interaction. Compared with information-based warfare in the traditional sense, the winning mechanism of future intelligent warfare has undergone significant changes.
The method of confrontation has changed from “system confrontation” to “algorithmic game”, and algorithmic advantages dominate war advantages.
Algorithms are strategic mechanisms for solving problems. In fact, an “algorithm” is a series of clear instructions for solving a problem. It is a clear step to solve a certain type of problem according to certain rules. In future wars, the party that masters the advantages of algorithms can quickly and accurately predict battlefield situations, innovate optimal combat methods, and achieve the war goal of “victory before fighting”.
Algorithms are the key to leading intelligent warfare. First, algorithmic advantages dominate cognitive advantages. After big data is processed through high-performance and efficient algorithms, massive data is quickly converted into useful intelligence. Therefore, the party with the advantage of the algorithm can dispel the “battlefield fog” caused by the lack of timely processing of data, making the understanding more profound. Second, the algorithm advantage dominates the speed advantage. Compared with classical algorithms, quantum algorithms have achieved exponential acceleration effects. In addition, quantum computers have increased from 1 qubit in 2003 to 1,000 qubits in 2015. The computing efficiency is 100 million times faster than that of classical computers. Artificial intelligence has achieved a qualitative leap. Third, algorithmic advantages dominate decision-making advantages. Algorithms, with their high-speed and precise calculations, replace people’s “meditation” and repeated exploration, thereby accelerating knowledge iteration. Mastering super powerful algorithms can quickly propose flexible and diverse combat plans and countermeasures in response to changes in the enemy’s situation, constantly disrupting the enemy’s established intentions and deployment.
Algorithms are at the heart of the jump in war effectiveness. First, war is more efficient. With the support of algorithms, artificial intelligence can react hundreds to thousands of times faster than humans. In 2016, the “Alpha” intelligent software developed by the United States has a reaction speed 250 times faster than humans. It controlled a third-generation aircraft to defeat a manned fourth-generation aircraft in a simulated air battle. Second, the war endurance is stronger. Artificial intelligence is not limited by physiological functions and can continuously perform repetitive and mechanical tasks. In September 2016, an F-16 fighter jet reached 8 times gravity during training, causing the pilot to lose consciousness. However, before the plane hit the ground, the onboard “automatic anti-collision system” automatically pulled the plane up, avoiding the tragedy. occur. Third, the outcome of the war is better. With the support of massive data and supercomputing capabilities, artificial intelligence judgment and prediction results are more accurate. The combined use of manned and unmanned equipment in the U.S. military’s search and hunt for bin Laden is a successful example.
Combat elements are changing from “information-led” to “machine-based warfare”, and machine-based warfare reshapes the combat process
In the future, intelligent technology will penetrate into all elements and processes of war. The Internet of Things, the Internet of Intelligence, and the Internet of Brains have become the basis of war. The four domains of physical domain, information domain, cognitive domain, and social domain are deeply integrated, making the battlefield holographically transparent. There are people to control the war and no one to fight on the battlefield. Intelligent weapons and equipment will reshape the combat process “from sensor to shooter”.
“Detection” with a keen eye. “Reconnaissance” refers to intelligent intelligence reconnaissance. It can use multi-dimensional sensors such as land, sea, air, space, and electricity for virtualized collaborative networking, self-organized dynamic scheduling, automatic mining of multi-source intelligence, and order-based on-demand use to maximize information shortage or information redundancy. The “fog of war” brought about by the epidemic has opened up the “eyes” to see through intelligent warfare.
Loop “control”. “Control” refers to intelligent command and control. Focusing on the core of decision-making advantages, we use the human-machine collaboration technology of “human in the loop” and adopt three decision-making and control methods of “human in the loop”, “human in the loop” and “human outside the loop” according to the autonomous authority of the machine. , forming a comprehensive advantage with superior decision-making quality and action speed.
Smart “hit”. “Strike” refers to intelligent offensive and defensive operations. Relying on the advantages of system structure and algorithm, it mobilizes all-domain multi-dimensional, manned and unmanned combat platforms in real time, quickly couples combat forces, builds combat systems on demand, focuses on targets, independently implements “distributed” and “swarm” collaborative operations, and quickly resolves battles after they are completed. Couple and wait for the battle, so that the troops can gather and disperse randomly. At the end of 2015, Russia invested 6 tracked unmanned combat vehicles, 4 wheeled unmanned combat vehicles and 1 drone to support the Syrian government forces in storming Islamic extremist strongholds and achieved the world’s first unmanned combat victory. Victory in the tough battle dominated by cars. During the battle, about 70 extremist militants were killed, while only four Syrian government troops were injured.
The decision-making method changes from “human brain decision-making” to “intelligent decision-making”, and intelligent decision-making optimizes combat operations
With the emergence of intelligent auxiliary decision-making technology and “cloud brain”, “digital staff” and “virtual warehousing”, war decision-making has evolved from pure human brain decision-making to human-machine hybrid decision-making, cloud-brain intelligent decision-making and neural network decision-making.
Human-machine hybrid decision-making. Reasonable division of labor and interaction and collaboration between humans and machines are the best solutions to explore and solve problems. The advantages of the human brain are creativity, flexibility, and initiative; the advantages of machines are fast speed, high precision, and resistance to fatigue. Artistic tasks such as high-level decision-making are handled by the human brain, and big data calculations are completed by machines. Human-computer interaction allows machines to “listen” to understand human language, “see” human movements and expressions, “understand” human emotions and intentions, and present the calculation process and results in a way that is easy for humans to understand.
Cloud brain intelligent decision-making. In future intelligent warfare, there will be a “brain” metaphor center, and distributed combat units will be linked through the cloud brain. This cloud brain is not only a physical information, physiological information and psychological information center, but also a military command center. Cloud brain decision-making is based on the intelligent “network, cloud and terminal” system. “Net” is an intelligent combat basic network integrating intelligent battlefield perception, decision-making and weapons control systems. “Cloud” is built on the basis of “network”, with the intelligent resource service layer as the main body. It is not only a “resource pool” that integrates various combat resources, but also an “intelligent cloud” that provides intelligent services for combat operations. Due to the coupling of multiple centers, rapid networking and decision-making can be achieved even when bombarded by information. “End” refers to the combat resource end, discrete intelligence and networked intelligence in combat processes, which can not only make independent decisions, but also provide distributed intelligent resources for the war system, allowing the new war system to emerge with group intelligence.
Neural network decision-making. In July 2018, Russia developed artificial neural network fully automatic software that can destroy immediately upon discovery. The intelligent decision-making tool developed by the US military is intended to shorten the decision-making cycle and improve decision-making efficiency. The application of neural networks was once limited to tactical-level calculations, making it difficult to make qualitative analysis and decisions on strategic-level macro-complex situations. “AlphaGo” has made a breakthrough in the field of Go by simulating the working mechanism of the human brain’s neural network. In the future, the super self-evolution and strategic decision-making capabilities of deep neural networks will realize a combat cycle of “people outside the loop”.
The combat style has changed from “breaking links and breaking bodies” to “extreme operations”, which subvert traditional combat methods.
Extreme warfare breaks through the boundaries of traditional warfare, subverts traditional combat styles, dramatically increases war effectiveness, and creates a truly all-weather, all-time, all-dimensional, all-domain intelligent warfare.
Break through the limits of human physiology and thinking. First, the combat space and fields have been extremely expanded. Intelligent warfare in the future will be three-dimensional, all-dimensional, and all-domain operations. The war space will expand from the traditional space field to the polar regions, deep seas, outer space, and other extremes. It will especially penetrate into the cognitive domain, information domain, and penetrate into other fields, including combat fields. More blurry. Second, the combat process has been extremely accelerated. Unmanned autonomous warfare has greatly compressed the “observation-judgment-decision-action” cycle, developing from the “instant destruction” of information warfare to the “instant destruction” of intelligent warfare. The victory of intelligent warfare is achieved by advancing the warning time, shortening the decision-making time, and extending the combat operations forward to achieve the effect of preemptive layout and preemptive strike. Third, combat operations are extremely flexible. In intelligent warfare, artificial intelligence can propose extremely rich combat plans, and the unmanned combat platform can quickly switch between different functional roles, making combat operations more bold and adventurous, and tactics more unexpected. Even if one of the combat elements loses its function, the “decentralization” function will ensure that the function of the group is not affected.
Subvert the traditional combat style. The first is intrusive lone wolf operations. That is, a single unmanned system operates independently. The second is the manned and unmanned coordinated system attack battle. That is, based on intelligent unmanned systems, through mixed operations with and without unmanned equipment, combat objectives can be quickly achieved. The third is the independent operation of unmanned system formations. Multiple sets of unmanned systems constitute a combat unit that can perform complex tasks such as multi-target attacks. The fourth is mothership swarm operations. Using the mothership as the transportation carrier and command center, a manned and unmanned hybrid swarm combat style is formed.
It has the combat effectiveness of “nuclear power”. Intelligent warfare maximizes the characteristics and potential of intelligent robots, leading to combat effectiveness approaching the limit. First, the target is small and difficult to find. For example, miniaturized stealth robots are difficult to detect with radar and sonar. The U.S. hybrid UAV with an Optode chip embedded in the Dragonfly is smaller, lighter and more stealthy, with a battery life of up to several months. Second, confrontation is difficult and costly. For example, as long as a beetle-sized micro-drone scans a human face, it can directly hit the target’s head after data analysis and determination, and it can carry enough ammunition to penetrate the brain. Third, the cost is low and the damage is great. In the future, the use of intelligent weapons in extreme operations will have the power of nuclear weapons, especially extremely large-scale intelligent weapons and equipment, extremely low-cost robot automatic production, and extremely flexible robot swarm operations, which may exceed the maximum explosion power of nuclear weapons.
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.
2021-06-24Source: People’s Political Consultative Conference
After the related picture of Shenzhou 12 extending its mechanical arm came out, the US media immediately carried out a new round of reports on the relevant information, and pointed out at the same time that “this may be the same as what the commander of the US space force said before. China can capture the US military. The same is true for satellites. As early as April this year, General James Dickinson, commander of the U.S. Space Force Command, publicly declared in front of media cameras that China has developed a satellite equipped with a large robotic arm, and China is trying to use this satellite for military purposes. Used to “grab and capture” US military satellites.
So, what is anti-satellite technology?
In theory, where there are satellites, there is anti-satellite technology. There are three types of artificial satellites, one is scientific satellites, the other is technology experiment satellites, and the third is application satellites. According to the purpose, it can be divided into civilian satellites and military satellites, and military satellites are divided into communication, meteorology, reconnaissance, navigation, geodetic, interception satellites, etc.
The reason for anti-satellite
In modern warfare, the sky has always maintained a huge combat advantage over the ground. The emergence of artificial satellites has extended this advantage to outer space. In future wars, whoever can control space will have the initiative in war. It has become the focus of military competition among various countries.
Artificial satellites, especially military artificial satellites, fly seven or eight kilometers per second because of their fast speed, and can circle the earth in 90 minutes; they have a wide field of vision and a wide field of vision, and the same viewing angle is tens of thousands of times that of aircraft observation; there are few restrictions and they can fly over freely Any area on the earth, while bringing great convenience to one’s own side, also brings huge potential threats to the enemy.
Therefore, since the 1960s, the world’s military powers represented by the United States and Russia have been committed to the development of anti-satellite weapons such as “anti-satellite with guides”, “anti-satellite with satellites” and “anti-satellite with energy”. Take it as an important weapon for controlling space, eliminating threats, and seizing control of the sky.
Anti-satellite technology
Anti-satellite technology refers to military technology that attacks enemy satellites from the ground, air or outer space. At present, anti-satellite technologies mainly include nuclear energy anti-satellite, direct-ascent kinetic energy anti-satellite, directed energy anti-satellite, and co-orbit anti-satellite technology. Nuclear energy anti-satellite technology has a large killing distance and low technical threshold, but because of the huge collateral damage it produces, its practical value is not great. The direct-ascent kinetic energy anti-satellite technology can be regarded as an extension of the anti-missile technology, and it is an anti-satellite method widely used by military powers with precision guidance technology.
The directed energy anti-satellite technology represented by laser weapons and the captive co-orbit anti-satellite technology are not easy to generate space debris, and can include all low-, medium-, and high-orbit satellites in the attack range, which has great potential for combat application and has been obtained. Countries all over the world are favored and competing for development. At the same time, hidden and invisible satellite soft-killing technologies such as electronic countermeasures and network attacks are also gradually showing their edge.
Anti-satellite tactics
Generally speaking, there are four types of anti-satellite tactics: co-orbit, direct ascent, directed energy, and electromagnetic interference. It is mainly realized by anti-satellite satellites and anti-satellite missiles and anti-satellite electronic jamming stations.
Co-orbital anti-satellite weapons are launched into the orbit of the target satellite, track it, and then use kinetic energy or nuclear explosion to destroy it. It has a long range of action and a large killing radius, and it can still destroy the target even when the guidance accuracy of the weapon itself is poor. But its disadvantages are low accuracy, slow response, and it takes several days from launch to destruction; in addition, the additional damage effect of nuclear bombs is large, and it is easy to pose a threat to one’s own satellite; and once used, there is a danger of triggering a nuclear war .
The direct-ascent anti-satellite missile means that the anti-satellite missile does not enter the orbit of the target satellite, but only relies on the small tracker on the missile to directly find the target satellite when the target satellite passes over the sky, and directly destroys it.
Directed energy anti-satellite refers to the use of weapons such as lasers, particle beams, and high-power microwave beams to irradiate target satellites with high-energy laser beams, particle beams, and microwave beams to completely destroy them or disable sensitive electronic components and lose their ability to work. .
Electromagnetic interference anti-satellite is the use of satellite electronic interference technology to prevent communication between satellites and ground stations, thereby achieving the purpose of invalidating satellites. This is the earliest, most common, and most basic anti-satellite tactic.
my country’s anti-satellite technology
The Soviet Union was the first country to develop satellite technology, and the United States was the first country to develop anti-satellite technology. The history of world anti-satellite technology is basically a battle between the two countries.
my country started to conduct anti-satellite tests in 2005. In the early stage, it mainly focused on testing the functions of weapons. Although it started late, it did not lag behind. Remarkable results have been achieved in anti-satellite missiles and satellites.
On January 11, 2007, my country launched an SC-19, also known as DN-1, at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The missile carried a kinetic energy warhead and destroyed the orbital altitude at a speed of 8 kilometers per second. The “Fengyun-1” meteorological satellite, which is 863 kilometers long and weighs 750 kilograms, has been scrapped. This is the first time that my country has successfully intercepted an artificial satellite. Since then, my country has officially entered the field of anti-satellite technology.
Afterwards, my country successively developed two new anti-satellite missiles, the second-generation DN-2 and the third-generation DN-3, and conducted two successful tests in May 2013 and July 23, 2017. The successful research and development of DN-1, DN-2 and DN-3 anti-satellite missiles have fully covered low, medium and high orbits, and artificial satellites are basically within the strike range of my country’s anti-satellite missiles. Technology has entered the world-class level.
In addition to anti-satellite missiles, my country has also developed a satellite for anti-satellite experiments. The satellite is equipped with a mechanical arm, which can change orbits and perform all-round detection of other satellites. It is convenient and flexible in application. The latest achievements in technological development.
Anti-satellite trends
In order to compete for space superiority and ensure national security, the struggle for anti-satellite weapons and satellite defense will intensify. At present, anti-satellite technology is mainly developed in the following aspects: the combination of anti-satellite and anti-missile, and the development of missile defense system to further improve the anti-satellite capability of kinetic energy weapons.
There is an inseparable relationship between ballistic missile defense systems and kinetic energy anti-satellite weapons, because weapons capable of intercepting ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere all have anti-satellite capabilities to a certain extent. The development of missile technology to promote the development of anti-satellite technology is one of the current international anti-satellite trends.
Develop micro-satellites and exert their anti-satellite capabilities. Modern micro-satellites have a short development cycle, low construction costs, low system investment, strong anti-destruction capabilities, and fast equipment updates. It can move to any position on the geosynchronous orbit, and can even perform close operations around other satellites and launch attacks. It has great potential.
At present, the military powers headed by the United States have changed from the idea of ”killer” satellites loaded with ordinary explosives and “miniature homing missiles” to new concept weapons in the development of anti-satellite weapons. Directed energy weapons have become anti-satellite weapons. Weapons are new sharp weapons, and among them, laser anti-satellite weapons are the most deterrent and most effective weapons. The development of laser anti-satellite weapons focuses on ground-based and space-based anti-satellite technologies. Combine soft and hard, and pay more attention to the use of electronic countermeasures and other soft killing methods. The innovation, development, and application of traditional electronic jamming and other soft-kill technologies, through the development of reversible non-physical anti-satellite weapons, can interfere with, deceive, or prevent target satellites from performing effective functions within a certain period of time. Countries attach great importance to and continue to develop field of.
At present, complex aerospace technologies such as autonomous approach and rendezvous and docking have been applied to anti-satellite weapons. Rendezvous and docking technology solves this problem.
(The author is a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the chief engineer of a certain department in the northern theater)
Original Chinese Source: http://www.cppcc.gov.cn/zxww/2021/06/24/ARTI1624501659719410.shtml
認知域作戰有一個非常重要的支撐，即主要依靠語言媒介發揮作用，主要通過語篇層面發揮影響，主要通過語篇的敘事性對認知域形成隱性效應，主要 externing influence on the cognitive domain through cultural models 通過跨文化交際所發揮的潛在作用，顯性或隱性作用。 主要體現在以下幾個方面：
Cognitive domain combat refers to the use of multi-domain means such as public opinion, psychology, and law, and the use of modern network, media, text, pictures, video, digital and other multi-dimensional technologies to carry out public opinion propaganda, psychological attack and defense, and The important forms of fighting for people’s hearts, subverting confidence, influencing beliefs, fighting for thinking, and ideological struggle are intended to compete for people’s initiative in thinking, beliefs, values, personal attitudes, emotions, identification, and judgmental tendencies. Cognitive domain warfare is a complex collection of multi-domain warfare such as traditional public opinion warfare, psychological warfare, legal warfare, trade war, diplomatic warfare, technological warfare, and ideological warfare.
At present, combat in the cognitive domain has become an important basis for military struggles and struggles in other fields between countries, and language confrontation driven by goals in the cognitive domain has become an important form of combat in the cognitive domain, which deserves great attention.
A New Frontier for Language Countermeasures to Influence on Objects of Operation
Cognitive domain combat is the accompanying result of the research and development of contemporary cognitive science. It is a new combat field created after people actively explore the cognitive activities of the brain to gain a more complex, abstract and thorough understanding of the brain. Advanced deep covert activities are the high-end form of influence on the object of action. Regardless of whether it is the object of information action, the producer of information, the content of information itself, or the channel of information, operations in the cognitive domain all run through the characteristics of cognition, and highlight actions from the cognitive level from beginning to end.
From the perspective of the recipients of the information, this cognition is aimed at the deep cognition of the opponent’s audience, including its people, the army, military commanders or important leaders, important figures in the political and business circles, and even directly including the leaders of the opponent’s country or the military. Specific important generals, etc., can also be specific groups of people or people. It can involve the cognitive preferences, cognitive shortcomings, cognitive habits, cognitive biases, cognitive misunderstandings of individuals or groups; it can also be the beliefs, values, political identity, ethnic identity, social and cultural identity and emotional attitudes of individuals and groups.
From the perspective of the information provider and content, it should be infused with the cognitive design and arrangement of the information producer, which includes the unique cognition of the text, such as the discourse mode of the text, the narrative mode of the text, the perspective of observation of things, the narrative Cognitive focus and depth, organizational form of sentences, tendencies such as value concepts of sentences, acceptability of concepts of sentences, etc.
In terms of channels for information distribution and dissemination, the form of text is closer to the multimedia multimodal form, closer to the needs of cyberspace, closer to the advantages of contemporary smartphones, and closer to the characteristics of the current emerging media era, that is, more in line with the audience The cognitive characteristics of acceptance are cognitive habits and cognitive tendencies. The form of dissemination of the text fully considers the cognitive effect in international communication, especially the cognitive communication across cultures, languages, media, and groups. In this way, the text will better influence the audience from the cognitive level.
Language confrontation responds to changes in combat styles and generates new tactics
Throughout human history, it is not difficult to find that the style of military struggle has been constantly changing. From the initial physical fight with the help of cold weapons, it has developed into a contest of mechanical power with hot weapons, and has also developed into a check and balance of information capabilities under the conditions of high-tech warfare. Every change brings about profound changes in tactics. In the current transitional stage of co-existence of mechanization, informationization and intelligence, people not only pay attention to the struggle for dominance in the physical domain and information domain of the battlefield, but also pay more attention to the control of the main body of war-human cognitive domain, that is, the way of thinking, Cognitive models and styles, values, emotional attitudes, cultural models, communication models, psychological strengths and weaknesses, cognitive preferences, cultural and knowledge maps, and ideological identity. The latter involves the basic situation of social personnel and social existence, that is, the emerging field of cognitive domain operations exerting influence, and its tactics have strong particularities.
Topic flexibility and mobility: Cognitive domain operations can select many topics in the cognitive domain to carry out flexible and mobile combat operations. According to the current situation and needs, the topic can be chosen to involve a relatively macro strategic level (such as the ideology and system of the other party’s entire society, etc.), or a medium-level campaign level (such as social issues in a local area or direction of the other party’s society: Social welfare policies or environmental protection policies, etc.), you can also choose to involve very microscopic tactical issues in society (such as the unfair, unjust, and not beautiful side of society reflected by a certain person or a specific event). The macro, meso, and micro cognitive domains are interconnected and transform into each other. It is very likely that a micro issue will also become a macro strategic issue. The question should be raised according to the relationship with the entire military operation, and the cognitive domain operation must be subordinated to the overall combat operation and serve the needs of the macro political and diplomatic situation. More importantly, the topics should be prepared in normal times, and the data of various topics should be collected in normal times, especially paying attention to various important data in the real society. Once needed, these data can be quickly transformed into arrows, bullets, and shells fired at the enemy’s cognitive domain, and even become strategic weapons that affect the overall situation.
Controllability at the combat level: The important design of cognitive warfare is that at the combat level, it is controllable and adjustable as a whole, and can be upgraded or reduced according to changes in the situation. If the strategic level is needed, the commander can enable the design and force input at the strategic level; if the campaign level is needed, it can also be controlled at the corresponding campaign level; if it is only needed at the specific small problem level, it can also be controlled at the corresponding The niche local level makes the whole operation serve the needs of the overall combat operation. The strategy, campaign and tactics here refer more to combat design and power input. Since the battlefield situation may change rapidly, some issues may also change at the level, from strategic issues to affect the effects of campaign and tactical levels; some issues, due to the particularity of tactical issues, become campaign-level issues that affect the overall situation.
Emerging media dominance: The main influence channel of the cognitive domain has shifted from traditional paper media and print media to emerging media. Traditional media mainly rely on a single medium, such as newspapers, magazines, books, leaflets, posters, etc. to convey information; the later generation of television brought three-dimensional media. In the Internet era, especially the Internet 2.0 era and the birth of smart communication devices, people rely more on multimedia, multi-modality, and short videos and texts to transmit information. The introduction of various advanced devices such as smart phones, smart tablets, and smart players, and the birth of various new social software and tools have made new media the main tool for people to communicate and communicate. Emerging media, emerging social software and tools have become an important space for various forces to compete and struggle in social security, public opinion security, ideological security, social security, and political security. Internet security, especially the ability to grasp the security of new social media, emerging social software and tools, etc., is to some extent the key to the security of a country’s cognitive domain. The information of emerging media tools and new media spaces has become the main battlefield, main position and main space for cognitive warfare in various countries. It is worth pointing out that the thoughts and theories that influence people’s cognition will become the most influential weapons at all levels of cognitive domain operations.
Language confrontation adapts to the age of intelligence, cognitive computing enhances new computing power
In the era of artificial intelligence, on the basis of big data analysis and application, supercomputing ability, intelligent computing ability, natural language processing ability, smart phone dissemination ability and new generation network communication ability, human beings have begun to be able to understand the whole society and the whole network. Carry out precise modeling and analysis of language culture, psychological cognition, group emotion, and social behavior in different domains, local groups, different local groups, and specific individuals. Especially people’s deep understanding and grasp of brain cognition, human brain thinking, thinking mode, habit preference, image schema, cognitive framework, and even neural network, human-computer collaboration, brain control technology, etc., as long as there are enough diverse dynamic data , people can calculate and simulate all people’s psychological activities, emotional activities, cognitive activities, public opinion, and behavioral patterns. Through deep calculations, actuarial calculations, and clever calculations, people can accurately grasp people’s cognitive world and form an understanding of people’s cognitive domain. fine and deep control. This aspect presents the following characteristics:
Computational all-dimensionality: As an emerging field, the cognitive domain can be digitized in all aspects and can be calculated in all directions, the whole process and the whole individual. It can collect various types of information extensively, and then can be reflected as information about Big data with diversified main factors of combat opponents, so that various calculations can be carried out for the whole, groups, groups, and individual data and between them. All kinds of activities can be completed, displayed and accurately grasped through calculation.
Computational cognition: Computation in the cognitive domain embodies strong cognition, and it can reveal more relationships between various things, events, and characters that are difficult to observe with the naked eye, and can reveal the relationship between various concepts in the same event frame. The clustering and hierarchical relationship between concepts reflects the deep cognitive connection between concepts, whether explicit or implicit, direct or indirect, and reveals the complex concept network system between concepts, allowing people to see a deep cognitive world that is completely beyond the ordinary naked eye observation. .
Computing intelligence: Computing in the cognitive domain embodies strong intelligence. This kind of intelligence is manifested in the calculation, and it will draw intelligent conclusions. For example, through the collection of a large amount of text and data mining, we can find the relationship between various themes, viewpoints, tendencies, groups of people, positions, and appeals that cannot be seen due to limited human power, so as to form a more comprehensive understanding of a certain issue. Comprehensive, in-depth, accurate and systematic understanding to make scientific and optimized decisions. This kind of decision-making may be in line with human intelligence, or it may exceed or even far exceed human intelligence. By making good use of the power of cognitive computing, especially by combining the data of the country and the opponent, we can better achieve early prevention, early warning, and early deployment, and can achieve the best, best, fastest and most accurate strikes and counterattacks. It can also better reflect efficient, powerful and targeted protection. Cognitive computing here is more about a possible macro-meso or micro-level issue that may arise in different groups of people, in different time periods, in different backgrounds, in the entire network domain or in a local network domain, or within a specific group. In particular, the analysis and inspection of the active and passive situations that may be presented by both parties when playing games with opponents, and the attack and defense of the cognitive domain, etc.
Give full play to the status of discourse subject and release the new application of discourse power
Cognitive domain combat has a very important support, that is, it mainly relies on the language medium to play its role, exerting influence mainly through the discourse level, forming a hidden effect on the cognitive domain mainly through the narrative nature of discourse, and mainly exerting influence on the cognitive domain through cultural models Potential role, overt or implicit role exerted through cross-cultural communication. It is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
Text Discourse Uniqueness: Cognitive Domains Need Information to Influence. Although the information may be displayed by relying on the special visual effects of video pictures, fundamentally speaking, the uniqueness of the integrated discourse expressed by the text becomes the main support for the cognitive impact. Among them, the mode of discourse expression, the skill of discourse expression, the main design of persuasion and appeal of discourse expression, especially the uniqueness of discourse narrative will be the key to affect people’s cognition. This may include narrative perspectives, narrative themes, styles, narrative story frameworks, narrative language innovations, narrative key sentences, narratives contain philosophy, humanities, religion, society, nature, etc., and the identities of different participants in the narrative , the diversified evaluation of narrative, the authenticity, depth and emotional temperature of narrative, the subtle influence of narrative on viewpoints, and the personal emotions, values, ideology, and position evaluation released by narrative. The uniqueness of text discourse is an important reliance on cognitive influence exerted by text in cognitive domain operations. Making full use of the complexity of texts, giving full play to the respective advantages of diverse texts, and giving full play to the implicit and explicit cognitive influences of text connotations have become the key to combat in the cognitive domain of text discourse. The most important thing is to innovate text discourse, to win readers with brand-new discourse, more novel expressions, and more unique expressions, so that readers can understand and feel the thoughts in the text subtly, and accept them silently. The thought of the text.
Potential of cultural models: To fight in the cognitive domain, we must deeply grasp the characteristics and models of different countries and national cultures. Different countries and different nationalities have different cultural models, philosophical thinking, traditional culture, religious beliefs, customs, and ways of thinking are obviously different; citizens of different cultures also have different national psychology and national cognition Models should also have typical cognitive preferences belonging to their own nation and culture, as well as corresponding shortcomings and weaknesses, and some of them obviously have a huge difference from other nationalities in their own country, and even have misunderstandings and hostility. Therefore, at the cultural level, combat in the cognitive domain is to grasp the overall cultural models of different countries, build cultural models for different groups in different countries, build different cognitive models for different things in different countries, and fully grasp a certain country’s cultural models in a series of things. The overall attitude and way of doing things on issues and issues, especially for some typical cases, cultural taboos, religious requirements, spiritual pursuits, general concepts, etc. It is necessary to use existing theories and findings to comprehensively construct the basic performance of different groups of people in the cognitive field on some typical, sensitive, and important issues, so as to provide important reference and guidance for the next step of cognitive operations. Strengthen the research on the cultural patterns of different personnel of the enemy, especially military personnel, personnel in key positions, including the research and construction of basic cultural characteristics and models of generals, officers, soldiers, etc., such as the psychological cognitive behavior of characters and cultural model portraits, It has become the core practice of cognitive domain operations. It is also of great value to analyze the cognitive patterns of ordinary people, especially ordinary citizens and citizens, as well as specific groups of people, including special NGO forces.
Cross-cultural strategic communication: Cognitive domain operations are international language and cultural communication, which need to follow the laws of international communication. To grasp the basic paradigm of international communication, to skillfully combine national stories with international expressions, to skillfully combine the other party’s language and culture with their own stories and ideas; to be good at combining different art forms, including words, pictures, paintings, music (Sound), video and other means or multi-modal means to achieve the international dissemination of information. At the same time, it is also necessary to coordinate multi-dimensional and macroscopic communication at the strategic level: use various means, rely on military-civilian integration, military-civilian coordination, and military-civilian integration to carry out communication; in addition to non-governmental organizations, especially rely on non-governmental forces, experts, opinion leaders, and ordinary people To help the military carry out cognitive domain operations; to set up issues in a unified way, to make multi-point, multi-person and multi-dimensional voices, to form a strategic communication situation, to form a good situation for emergency solutions for major actions, major issues, major crisis management and control, etc., to form a good atmosphere of public opinion, and to create Positive effects, eliminating adverse effects or extinguishing adverse effects. In particular, it is necessary to establish a capable team that is proficient in foreign languages, understands cross-cultural skills, understands the laws of international communication, and can skillfully speak out on international multi-dimensional platforms. These personnel can usually carry out extensive issue awareness, collection and discussion, establish personal connections and fan groups with the help of common or special issues; more importantly, at critical moments, through their fan groups, exert influence and complete strategic communication tasks .
At present, with the popularity of hybrid warfare, multi-domain warfare and global warfare, cognitive domain warfare has become a common method of hybridization and mixing. , The advanced stage of the development of legal warfare, the complex stage and the escalation stage. Its rise is more deceptive, ambiguous, concealed, embedded, implanted and unobservable, especially considering its deep integration with contemporary emerging media, and continuous learning and reference into multidisciplinary, Interdisciplinary and interdisciplinary new ideas, new technologies, and new methods. As a result, combat in the cognitive domain has become a form of combat that we must be highly vigilant against. (Liang Xiaobo, professor and doctoral supervisor of the College of Arts and Sciences, National University of Defense Technology)
[This article is a phased achievement of the National Social Science Fund’s major project “National Defense Language Capacity Building from the Perspective of National Defense and Military Reform”]
Original Chinese Military Source: https://military.people.com.cn/BIG5/n1/2022/0517/c1011-32423539.html
Chinese Military Perspective on the New Development Trends in Foreign Military Network Warfare
After decades of development, cyberspace has become an important field of production and life in human society, and has become the fifth-dimensional battlefield after “land, sea, air, and sky.” In recent years, the United States and other developed countries have rushed to introduce cyberspace strategies, build (expand) cyber warfare forces, and implement cyber offensive and defensive operations. The moves in the construction, development, and application of cyber warfare deserve the attention of the world.
Pay attention to cyberspace security, and accelerate the establishment of supporting strategies and regulations
Since cyberspace security is a security issue in an emerging field, most countries lack supporting strategies and systems of laws and regulations. In recent years, major countries in the world have positioned it as a major security field, and the pace of promulgating network security strategies and regulations has been significantly accelerated. For example, since the first national network security strategy was proposed in 2000, the United States has continuously formulated, expanded, and updated various policies, strategies, regulations, and regulations in the field of network security. The network strategy alone includes the “National Network Strategy”, “International Cyberspace Strategy”, ” The Cyber Strategy of the Ministry of National Defense and the cyber strategy of the military services, etc., are used to standardize and guide the development and application of cyber warfare. In October 2014, the U.S. military also issued the world’s first joint doctrine “Cyberspace Operations”, which elaborated and standardized the concepts, actions, and tasks of cyberspace operations. In response to cyber attacks by the United States and NATO, Russia announced the “Russian Federation Cyber Security Strategic Concept” in 2014, and promulgated a new version of the “Information Security Doctrine” in 2016, proposing to ensure network information security. In order to strengthen the overall guidance of network security affairs, India issued the “National Cyber Security Policy” in 2013 and plans to issue a “National Cyber Security Strategy”; the Indian military has formulated policies such as the “Army Cyber Security Policy” and “Navy Information Security Policy” regulations.
Strengthen the professional construction of cyber warfare forces, and pay attention to the use of non-governmental network forces
In recent years, the establishment, integration, and expansion of specialized cyber warfare forces have become a trend among foreign militaries. The United States was the first country to propose the concept of cyber warfare, and it was also the first country to form a professional cyber warfare force. The U.S. military established the Cyber Command in 2010, and upgraded it to a first-level joint operations command in 2018. The number of cyber task forces under its jurisdiction has reached 133, with about 6,200 personnel. Russia established a professional information warfare unit in 2013, and cyber warfare is an important function of it. The Japanese Self-Defense Force established the Cyber Defense Team in 2014, initially with more than 100 members, and has now increased to nearly 300, and plans to expand to a thousand in the future. The United Kingdom also announced in 2020 that it will soon create a national cyber force. On this basis, foreign militaries have generally carried out systematic design and layout of cyber warfare forces. In the field of cyber warfare, forces such as network attack, network defense, and network operation and maintenance are inseparable; externally, network warfare forces are integrated and integrated with information warfare forces such as signal reconnaissance and electronic warfare. For example, the commander of the U.S. Cyber Command also serves as the director of the National Security Agency, and the network attack and defense are integrated with signal intelligence and reconnaissance. The Japanese Self-Defense Force has set up a special first-level command to oversee space, network, and electronic warfare affairs.
It is worth noting that foreign military forces constitute the “regular army” of cyber warfare forces, and private cybersecurity companies, technology companies, hacker organizations, etc. have also become important cyber offensive and defensive forces and have attracted much attention. The notorious “Eye of Sauron” and “Equation Group” and other hacker organizations are inextricably linked to the US military. In recent years, Iran, Russia, and Venezuela have encountered cyber attacks, all of which have the shadow of “Equation Group”. The Indian Army is also considering absorbing its rich IT talents to form a cyber warfare reserve force to further strengthen its cyber warfare capabilities.
Actively develop and build a network arsenal, and intelligent weapon systems are beginning to emerge
Cyber weapons are special weapons used for network attack and defense. They can be viruses, loopholes, denial of service attacks, phishing attacks and other offensive and defensive technologies, or network attack and defense system platforms. Anatoly Smirnov, chairman of the International Information Security Association of the Russian Federation, disclosed in 2019 that many Western countries were developing cyber weapons; the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan also made no secret of possessing cyber weapons. According to the disclosures of Snowden and WikiLeaks, U.S. intelligence agencies and the U.S. military have built a systematic offensive cyber arsenal, some of which can be called “weapons of mass destruction” in cyberspace. In 2020, Patrick Saunders, commander of the British Strategic Command, took the initiative to declare that the UK has developed a “destructive” cyber weapon, which can effectively kill the enemy’s power grid and other facilities and equipment.
In terms of network system platforms, the U.S. military has built the most complete network warfare system platform in the world, including accusation management systems such as joint network command and control and unified platform, basic systems for network warfare planning and execution such as the IKE project, and network warfare and network warfare systems such as “Shute”. A weapon system with integrated firepower. In terms of network monitoring and defense, India has developed and built system platforms such as a central monitoring system, network traffic analysis system, and network security monitoring and evaluation system.
Cyber weapons have a natural “kinship” with smart technology. At present, weapon systems in the fields of network situation monitoring, network attack and defense, and password deciphering have already taken shape in intelligentized countries in cyberspace dominant countries. With the development of artificial intelligence technology, the trend of intelligent network weapons will become more and more obvious.
Focus on enhancing the actual combat capabilities of network attack and defense, and innovate network training methods
In view of the reality and destructiveness of cyber threats, foreign militaries attach great importance to testing the security of information network systems and improving the cyber offensive and defensive capabilities of military and government agencies through cyber exercises and training activities in the context of actual combat.
In terms of participating forces, it covers the military, government agencies, reserves and civilian cyber forces. In the method mode, opponents are generally set to ensure the confrontation of the exercise. Some also innovatively use the method of offering rewards to attract hackers to “legally” attack specific target networks and help find network system defense loopholes. In terms of the training environment, actively build a network shooting range to simulate the information network environment of one’s own side and the opponent’s. The United States, Britain, Japan, Canada and NATO have all established professional cyber ranges. As the world’s largest multinational cyber exercise, NATO’s “Lock Shield” exercise simulated a country’s information network environment in 2019. The content of the drill includes responsiveness testing, defense vulnerability inspection, and election interference analysis. India regularly holds “Cyber Fortress” exercises. It is said that in the “Cyber Fortress-8” exercise organized in 2015, the Indian Army’s cyber brigade used remote penetration and other means to successfully obtain the administrator authority of a certain network system of the Indian Army, and found that 13 major categories of security vulnerabilities were identified. In addition, the U.S. military has begun to practice the integration of cyber warfare and operations in other fields. In the U.S. military’s “Schriever” exercise, the integration of space operations and cyber warfare is one of the important contents.
At present, some countries have regarded some serious cyber attacks as acts of war. As the international rules of conduct in cyberspace restrict and deter cyber attacks more and more, cyber exercises may replace real network operations and become foreign military training and upgrading. The primary path to network offensive and defensive capabilities.
Emphasis on pre-emptive offensive operations, actual combat tends to integrate deterrence and multi-domain integration
The hugeness, complexity, and fragility of the network system make network defense difficult and costly. For this reason, the United States and other countries have gradually changed their network security policy and operational thinking from the initial comprehensive defense to preemptive offensive operations, emphasizing Conduct pre-emptive offensive operations in hostile networks to eliminate potential or actual threats.
Driven by offensive thinking, cyber warfare is common in international conflicts, and the targets of attacks are no longer limited to military targets. The United States is the first country to apply cyber warfare to actual combat. In 2009, the U.S. military used the “Stuxnet” virus to carry out cyber attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities, causing more than 1,500 centrifuges to be scrapped and the Iranian nuclear process to be paused. In 2020, after the assassination of Soleimani, the U.S. military launched cyber attacks on the command and control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, missiles, and air defense systems to deter and prevent Iran from carrying out military retaliation. Of course, the idea of offensive cyber warfare does not require absolute cyber superiority. Some non-cyber powers have also proposed the idea of using asymmetric cyber capabilities to carry out preemptive attacks on the enemy’s weaknesses, and then achieve the goal of using the small to gain the big and the weak in the network game. Mandatory.
It is worth noting that in recent international conflicts, the trend of multi-domain integration in the fields of cyber warfare and firepower warfare, electromagnetic spectrum warfare, and cognitive domain warfare has become very obvious. For example, when armed conflicts broke out between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the Naka region in 2020, the two sides launched cyber offenses and defenses in cyberspace on the one hand, and on the other hand launched fierce confrontations in the cognitive domain around international and domestic public opinion, military morale, legal principles and morals.
At present, the low-intensity and ambiguous nature of cyber warfare attracts some international actors to frequently carry out cyberspace operations regardless of the consequences, and the risk of conflict escalation out of control is constantly accumulating. To this end, all countries in the world should start consultations and negotiations on international rules of conduct in cyberspace and cyber arms control as soon as possible, jointly restrict military activities in cyberspace, create a new pattern of cybersecurity, and build a community of shared future in cyberspace.
