With the advent of the “smart +” era, artificial intelligence is widely used in the military field, and conventional warfare in physical space and cognitive confrontation in virtual space are accelerating integration. Deeply tapping the potential of artificial intelligence to empower cognitive confrontation is of great significance to improving the efficiency of cross-domain resource matching and controlling the initiative in future operations.
Data mining expands the boundaries of experience and cognition
Data-driven, knowing the enemy and knowing yourself. With the advancement of big data-related technologies, data information has become cognitive offensive and defensive ammunition, and information advantage has become increasingly important on the battlefield. Empowering traditional information processing processes with artificial intelligence technology can enhance the ability to analyze related information, accelerate information integration across domains through cross-domain data collection and false information screening, and enhance dynamic perception capabilities. Artificial intelligence can also help alleviate battlefield data overload, organically integrate enemy information, our own information, and battlefield environment information, and build a holographic intelligent database to provide good support for cognitive confrontation.
Everything is connected intelligently, and humans and machines collaborate. Modern warfare is increasingly integrated between the military and civilians, and the boundaries between peace and war are blurred. Technology has redefined the way people interact with each other, people with equipment, and equipment with equipment, and battlefield data is constantly flowing. Through big data mining and cross-domain comparative analysis, unstructured data such as images, audio, and video can be refined, and the truth can be retained to expand the boundaries of experience cognition and improve the level of human-machine collaboration. The in-depth application of the Internet of Things and big data technologies has promoted the continuous improvement of the intelligent level of data acquisition, screening, circulation, and processing processes, laying a solid foundation for the implementation of cognitive domain precision attacks.
Break through barriers and achieve deep integration. Relying on battlefield big data can effectively break through the barriers of full-domain integration, help connect isolated information islands, promote cross-domain information coupling and aggregation, accelerate barrier-free information flow, and promote the transformation of data fusion and information fusion to perception fusion and cognitive fusion. The comprehensive penetration of intelligent equipment into the command system can accelerate the deep integration of situation awareness, situation prediction and situation shaping, optimize multi-dimensional information screening and cognitive confrontation layout, and promote the continuous iteration and upgrading of cognitive domain combat styles.
Accelerate decision-making and cause confusion to the enemy. The outcome of cognitive confrontation depends to a certain extent on the game of commanders’ wisdom and strategy. Through full-dimensional cross-domain information confrontation and decision-making games, with the help of intelligent technology, we can analyze and intervene in the opponent’s cognition and behavior, and finally gain the initiative on the battlefield. At present, artificial intelligence has become a catalyst for doubling combat effectiveness. In peacetime, it can play the role of an intelligent “blue army” to simulate and deduce combat plans; in wartime, through intelligent decision-making assistance, it can improve the quality and efficiency of the “detection, control, attack, evaluation, and protection” cycle, create chaos for the enemy, and paralyze its system.
Autonomous planning and intelligent formation. In the future intelligent battlefield, “face-to-face” fighting will increasingly give way to “key-to-key” offense and defense. In cognitive domain operations, the use of intelligent algorithms to accurately identify identity information, pre-judge the opponent’s intentions, and control key points in advance can quickly transform information advantages into decision-making advantages and action advantages. Using intelligent algorithms to support cognitive domain operations can also help identify the weaknesses of the enemy’s offense and defense system, autonomously plan combat tasks according to the “enemy”, intelligently design combat formations, and provide real-time feedback on combat effects. Relying on data links and combat clouds to strengthen intelligent background support, we can strengthen combat advantages in dynamic networking and virtual-real interaction.
Make decisions before the enemy and attack with precision. Intelligent algorithms can assist commanders in predicting risks, dynamically optimizing combat plans according to the opponent’s situation, and implementing precise cognitive attacks. In future intelligent command and control, the “cloud brain” can be used to provide algorithm support, combined with intelligent push to predict the situation one step ahead of the enemy, make decisions one step faster than the enemy, and completely disrupt the opponent’s thinking and actions. We should focus on using intelligent technology to collect and organize, deeply analyze the opponent’s decision-making and behavioral preferences, and then customize plans to actively induce them to make decisions that are beneficial to us, aiming at the key points and unexpectedly delivering a fatal blow to them.
Powerful computing power improves the overall operation level
Plan for the situation and create momentum, and suppress with computing power. “He who wins before the battle has more calculations; he who loses before the battle has less calculations.” The situation of cognitive confrontation is complex and changeable, and it is difficult to deal with it only by relying on the experience and temporary judgment of commanders. Intelligent tools can be used to strengthen the penetration of enemy thinking before the battle, actively divide and disintegrate the cognitive ability of the enemy team, and improve our battlefield control ability and combat initiative. At the same time, we should use powerful intelligent computing power to improve flexible command and overall planning capabilities, take advantage of the situation, build momentum, and actively occupy the main position of cognitive confrontation.
Smart soft attack, computing power raid. The rapid development of artificial intelligence has promoted the transformation of war from “hard destruction” to “soft killing”, which is expected to completely subvert the traditional war paradigm. For example, the latest technical concepts can be used to gain in-depth insights into the operating mechanism of the enemy system, actively familiarize oneself with the opponent, and mobilize the opponent. It is also possible to use the psychological anchoring effect and the network superposition amplification effect to interfere with the opponent’s cognitive loop link, disrupt the opponent’s command decision-making, and slow down the opponent’s reaction speed.
Cross-domain coordination and computing power support. To win the proactive battle of cognitive confrontation, we must coordinate across domains, gather forces in multiple dimensions, use intelligent tools to autonomously control the flow of information, realize the integrated linkage of physical domain, information domain and cognitive domain, lead forward-looking deployment and distributed coordination, launch a comprehensive parallel offensive, and form cognitive control over the enemy. Effectively carry out joint actions of virtual and real interaction in the entire domain, intervene in the enemy’s cognition, emotions and will, and use powerful computing power to take the initiative and fight proactive battles.
China Military Network Ministry of National Defense Network
Since the 21st century, with the deepening of the world’s new military revolution, the world’s military powers have put forward a series of new operational concepts and continuously improved them in war practice, thus driving the accelerated evolution of war. With the rapid development of information technologies such as cloud computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and big data, and their widespread application in the military field, people’s understanding of war has gradually changed from summarizing actual combat experience to studying and judging future wars. At present, as the source of military capability building, the strength of operational concept development capabilities will directly affect the seizure of victory opportunities. In particular, the vigorous development of the world’s new military revolution is calling for innovation in operational theory all the time. Only by developing new operational concepts and designing future wars with a forward-looking vision can we gain the initiative in military struggle preparation.
The concept of combat fundamentally solves the problem of how to fight a war.
First-rate armies design wars, second-rate armies respond to wars, and third-rate armies follow wars. The so-called “real wars happen before wars” means that before a war starts, the theory, style, and method of fighting have already been designed. How can we not win if we fight according to the designed war? The key to designing a war is to design and develop new combat concepts based on understanding the characteristics and laws of war, promote innovation in combat styles and tactics, and fundamentally solve the problem of “how to fight a war.”
In designing wars, theories come first. In recent years, the U.S. military has proposed new concepts such as “network-centric warfare”, “air-sea integrated warfare” and “hybrid warfare”, and the Russian military has proposed theories such as “non-nuclear containment strategy”, “strategic air-space campaign” and “national information security doctrine”, reflecting that the world’s military powers are vigorously studying operational theories and seizing military commanding heights. To a certain extent, operational concepts are the “organizational cells” for the formation of operational theories. Without a perfect concept generation capability, it is difficult to give birth to advanced theories. When an operational theory is proposed, it is necessary to develop relevant operational concepts so that the operational theory can be “sunk” and visualized, and better improved and transformed into military practice. When there is no operational theory concept, operational concept innovation can provide “raw materials” for the study of operational theories. The military field is the most uncertain field, and people’s understanding of war is constantly evolving. However, operational theory innovation cannot wait for the understanding to mature before starting, but needs to be based on the existing understanding, through active development and innovation of operational concepts, constructing future operational scenarios, exploring future winning mechanisms, and guiding and guiding military practice, in order to seize the initiative in war. Therefore, operational concept innovation is becoming a strategic fulcrum and lever for military construction and development.
The development of operational concepts focuses on designing core operational concepts. The core operational concept is the nucleus and embryo of the operational concept, which reflects the essential requirements of operations and contains the “genetic genes” for the growth of operational concepts. The entire concept system is derived and developed from this. At present, the understanding of the winning mechanism of informationized and intelligent warfare is becoming clearer, and it is time to focus the design of war on the development of major operational theories and key operational concepts.
Operational concept is an abstract expression of operational thinking.
The term “operational concept” originated from the US military. It is a description of how to fight in the future and is increasingly becoming an important tool for promoting the development of the military. The US Army Training and Doctrine Command Concept Development Guide points out that the operational concept is a concept, idea, and overall understanding. It is based on the inference of specific events in the combat environment. In the broadest sense, it outlines what will be done and describes how to fight in more specific measures. The US Marine Corps Combat Development Command Operations Development and Integration Directive points out that the operational concept is an expression of how to fight, used to describe future combat scenarios and how to use military art and scientific capabilities to meet future challenges. The US Air Force Operational Concept Development Directive points out that the operational concept is a conceptual description at the level of war theory, which realizes the established operational concept and intention through the orderly organization of combat capabilities and combat tasks.
In summary, the operational concept can be understood as an abstract cognition of operational ideas and action plans that is refined for specific operational problems at present or in the future. Generally speaking, the operational concept includes three parts: the first is the description of the operational problem, that is, the background of the operational concept, the operational environment, the operational opponent, etc.; the second is the description of the solution, that is, the concept connotation, application scenario, action style, winning mechanism, capability characteristics and advantages, etc.; the third is the description of capability requirements, that is, the equipment technology, basic conditions, and implementation means required to implement the operational concept. It can be seen that the operational concept should have the characteristics of pertinence, scientificity, adaptability and feasibility, and its connotation and extension will be constantly adjusted with the changes in factors such as strategic background, military policy, threat opponent, time and space environment, and capability conditions.
In a sense, operational concepts are actually transitional forms of operational theories, and their ultimate value is to guide military practice. The purpose and destination of developing new operational concepts is to tap into and enhance the combat effectiveness of the military. Only by transforming operational concepts into operational regulations and operational plans can their value be fully realized.
Innovation in combat concepts drives changes in combat styles
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the world’s military powers have, in accordance with national strategic requirements and in response to new threats and challenges, developed new operational concepts as a key means of transforming military capabilities, promoting changes in operational styles, and seeking to gain the upper hand in future battlefields. In order to further strengthen their military advantages, the world’s military powers are accelerating the introduction of a series of new operational concepts.
The US military has actively seized the opportunities brought about by scientific and technological progress, comprehensively used cutting-edge technologies such as new-generation information technology, artificial intelligence technology, unmanned autonomous technology, and proposed a series of new combat concepts such as mosaic warfare, multi-domain warfare, distributed lethality, decision-center warfare, and joint global command and control, promoting fundamental changes in combat thinking, combat style, combat space, and combat systems.
Unlike the U.S. military, the Russian military has achieved iterative innovation in operational concepts in military practice. Recently, the Russian military has been committed to promoting the construction of joint combat capabilities, accelerating the development and deployment of new unmanned equipment, focusing on building advantages in the network information battlefield, and constantly enriching the connotation of its traditional operational concepts, integrating them with new operational concepts such as hybrid warfare and mental warfare to guide war practice.
In general, in recent years, the new operational concepts proposed by the world’s military powers are driving profound changes in combat styles. Their capabilities, characteristics and advantages are mainly reflected in the following five aspects: First, the unmanned combat equipment. The proportion of unmanned equipment systems based on the new operational concept has increased significantly, and manned-unmanned collaborative combat has become one of the main combat styles, forming an advantage of unmanned over manned; second, the deployment method is decentralized. The force deployment based on the new operational concept is distributed, and the systems are interconnected and interoperable, forming an advantage of division over combination; third, the kill network is complicated. The kill network based on the new operational concept has more diverse functions. A single system can perform multiple tasks, and its failure has little impact on the combat system, forming an advantage of many over single; fourth, the response time is agile. The new operational concept emphasizes quick battles and quick decisions, taking the initiative to catch the enemy off guard, forming an advantage of fast over slow; fifth, the combat field is multidimensional. The new operational concept pays more attention to multi-domain linkage, expanding the battlefield from the traditional land, sea and air to the electromagnetic, network and cognitive domains, forming an advantage of invisible over visible.
The development of combat concepts should adhere to the systematic design approach
Using operational concepts to guide military force construction is a common practice among the world’s military powers. In comparison, the US military’s operational concept development mechanism is relatively complete, and a relatively complete operational concept development system has been established, consisting of concept types, organizational structures, normative standards, and support means.
In terms of concept types, the U.S. military’s combat concepts can basically be divided into three categories: First, a series of combat concepts developed by each service, mainly from the perspective of the service, to study potential enemies and future battlefields, redefine combat styles, and seek new ways to win. Second, a series of joint combat concepts developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, mainly composed of three levels: top-level concepts, action concepts, and supporting concepts. Third, combat concepts developed by academia, think tanks, etc., the number of such combat concepts is not as large as the first two categories, but it is still an important part of the combat concept system. Through this system, the U.S. military has implemented the grand military strategy through combat concepts layer by layer into various combat operations, various combat capabilities, and various types of weapons and equipment performance for the troops, guiding the construction of joint forces and various services.
In terms of organizational structure, taking the development of joint operational concepts as an example, the US military has established a working system consisting of five types of institutions. The first is the Joint Concept Working Group, whose main responsibility is to review the overall issues of the concept outline and concept development; the second is the Joint Concept Steering Committee, whose main responsibility is to supervise and guide the concept development plan; the third is the core writing team, whose main responsibility is to transform the original ideas in the concept outline into joint operational concepts; the fourth is the concept development team, whose main responsibility is to provide operational concept development methods and plans; the fifth is the independent red team, whose main responsibility is to conduct independent evaluations to judge the rigor and scientificity of the concept.
In terms of norms and standards, the U.S. military has a complete system of institutions to constrain and guide the development of joint operational concepts, making them standardized, standardized, and procedural, so as to manage the entire chain of concept development, which is mainly reflected in a series of directives of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and joint publications. For example, the “Joint Concept Development and Implementation Guide” aims to establish a governance structure for joint concept development, clarify the framework for joint operational concept planning, execution, and evaluation, and promote the implementation of joint operational concepts; the “Joint Regulations Preparation Process” aims to standardize the preparation process of joint regulations and provide a clear process framework for converting operational concepts into operational regulations.
In terms of support means, the design, development and verification of operational concepts is a systematic project that cannot be separated from the support of various development tools and means. For example, tools such as the DODAF2.0 model, IDEFO model and SYSML modeling language can provide standardized structured analysis models and logical description models for operational concept designers; model-based system engineering methods can provide operational concept designers and evaluation and verification personnel with capability models of equipment elements in operational concepts for designing and building operational concept frameworks. The U.S. military’s joint operational concept development uses network-based digital software with strong interconnection capabilities. All institutions involved in the development can share information in real time to improve development efficiency.
The development of combat concepts requires collaboration among multiple parties
Developing operational concepts is a multidisciplinary and multi-field task that involves many fields such as military science, philosophy, operations research, and systems science. It requires collaboration among multiple parties to ensure that it is both advanced and forward-looking in theory and applicable and feasible in practice.
Establish a small core and large peripheral research team. The department initiating the development of the operational concept should give full play to its leading role, coordinate and dispatch the research work from a global perspective; establish a joint research and development team, give full play to the collective wisdom, and widely obtain various new ideas, new methods and new viewpoints on the research of operational concepts from all parties; establish a cross-domain and cross-departmental expert committee to supervise, review and guide related work from multiple angles.
Form a multi-departmental working mechanism. To ensure smooth communication and efficient operation among departments, we must first clarify their respective tasks and responsibilities. For example, the concept initiating department is responsible for overall planning and implementation, the laboratory is responsible for technical verification, the industrial department is responsible for equipment research and development, and the combat troops are responsible for actual combat testing. Secondly, relevant normative documents should be formulated to ensure that all work has rules to follow and is carried out in an orderly manner, providing institutional guarantees for the development of combat concepts. Finally, it is also necessary to establish demand traction mechanisms, collaborative research mechanisms, iterative feedback mechanisms, etc., to open up the link from research and development to practical application of combat concepts.
Promote the organic combination of theory and practice. Only through the iterative cycle of “design research-deduction verification-actual troop test” can the operational concept be gradually adjusted, optimized and improved, and the development of war theory can be driven. Therefore, the development of operational concepts should pay special attention to the combination of theoretical innovation and practical application, and achieve the fundamental purpose of driving the generation of new quality combat power through the mutual drive of theory and practice. Specific methods include timely incorporating mature operational concepts into operational regulations, compiling training outlines or teaching materials accordingly, and gradually promoting them to troops for use; organizing relevant exercises or tests to test the maturity and feasibility of operational concepts under conditions close to actual combat, and finding and solving problems; using the capability indicators determined by the operational concept as a reference for equipment demand demonstration, driving the development of equipment technology, and promoting the improvement of combat capabilities.
The rapid development of science and technology in the new era has brought many new opportunities and challenges to the construction of military capabilities. The development of new operational concepts will help us to seize the military opportunities brought by scientific and technological progress, actively respond to the threats and challenges formed by scientific and technological development, and timely grasp the direction and laws of the evolution of war forms, which can provide important support for leading future war styles and seizing the first chance to win. At present, the international security situation is complex and changeable. To win the future information war, we need to take the development of operational concepts as the origin of national defense and military construction, actively carry out military technological innovation, promote the upgrading of weapons and equipment, achieve leapfrog development, and thus lead the trend of the new military revolution.
(Author’s unit: Second Academy of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation)
The basic form of information warfare is system confrontation. Different from any form of warfare in history, information warfare is not a discrete confrontation or local decentralized warfare with the simple superposition of various combat units and elements, but a holistic confrontation between systems. The system integration capability of war determines the effectiveness of combat and the achievement of war objectives; achieving effective integration of various systems is the fundamental way to win information warfare.
Multi-space fusion
The battlefield space is the stage for the war hostile parties to compete. Due to the widespread use of high-tech weapons, the battlefield space of informationized warfare has been greatly expanded, forming a multi-dimensional battlefield space of land, sea, air, space, and information. Under the strong “bonding” of information technology, each battlefield space is integrated around a unified combat purpose. First, the three-dimensional, all-round reconnaissance and surveillance network covers the battlefield. Under the conditions of informatization, the military reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities have been unprecedentedly improved. The large-scale, three-dimensional, multi-means, and automated intelligence reconnaissance and surveillance network connects outer space, high altitude, medium altitude, low altitude, ground (sea), and underground (underwater) into one, thereby obtaining battlefield intelligence information in multiple fields. Second, long-range, high-precision informationized weapons are densely distributed and threaten the battlefield. The extraordinary combat capability of the informationized weapon system to cover and strike targets in the entire battlefield space has realized that discovery means destruction, and promoted the high integration of various battlefield spaces. In addition, the development of space and air power has made strikes more precise, means more flexible, and combat efficiency higher, and the battlefield space has become an integrated battlefield of sea, land, air, and space. This integrated battlefield structure has a high degree of integration of multiple spaces, and multiple spaces and multiple fields restrict each other. Third, the battlefield is restricted by electromagnetic and information competition in all time and space and throughout the entire process. The development of military information technology not only realizes the integration of tangible battlefields on land, sea, air and space through reconnaissance and strikes, but also opens up the competition for invisible battlefields in the electromagnetic and information fields. Electromagnetic and information are the soul of informationized warfare and the link between the battlefields on land, sea, air and space. They exist in the entire time and space of combat, act on all elements of war, run through the entire process of combat, and deeply affect the tangible battlefields on land, sea, air and space.
It can be seen that the informationized battlefield is precisely through the increasingly mature information technology, centering on the purpose of war and combat needs, closely integrating the multi-dimensional space of land, sea, air, space, information, etc., forming an inseparable and interdependent organic unity. Leaving any dimension of the battlefield space, or losing control of any dimension, will directly affect the overall combat effectiveness, thus leading to the failure of the war.
Fusion of multiple forces
War power is the protagonist of the battle between the two opposing sides of a war. The “integrated joint combat force” of system integration is a prominent feature of information warfare. Various participating forces in information warfare are highly integrated. Regardless of their affiliation and combat mission, they will be equal users and resources of the entire combat system and integrated into a unified large system. First, the participating forces are united. Information warfare is a joint operation in which the army, navy, air force, aerospace, special operations, information operations and other forces participate. Each participating force has advantages that other participating forces do not have or cannot replace. They communicate and connect through information technology to achieve “seamless connection” and form a force system that can play to its strengths and avoid its weaknesses and complement each other’s advantages, becoming an organic whole that combines “soft” strike and “hard” destruction capabilities, combat and support capabilities, mobility and assault capabilities, and attack and defense capabilities. Second, the participants are diversified. With the development of information networks, wars in the information age no longer have a distinction between the front and the rear, and the networking of combat systems can also make home a “battlefield”. In the industrial age, wars were “over, go home”; in the information age, wars can also be “go home and fight”. Participants in war are not limited to the military forces of countries and political groups. Non-governmental and group-based people can join the “battlefield” as long as they have high-tech knowledge and are proficient in computer applications. Third, the support force is socialized. With the development of science and technology, the mutual tolerance, intercommunication and compatibility of military and civilian technologies have been greatly enhanced. A large number of combat facilities and platforms will rely more on local basic resources. Not only does the material support in combat need to be socialized, but also the technical support and information support need to be socialized.
It can be seen that the victory or defeat of the informationized battlefield depends on the overall strength of the warring parties. Various combat forces are both interrelated and mutually influential, but any single force is difficult to determine the outcome of the war. Only when multiple forces work closely together and learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses can the overall combat system benefits be brought into play and victory be ultimately achieved.
Multi-level integration
The war level is the pattern of the war between the two hostile parties. In information warfare, the distinction between strategy, campaign and battle is no longer as clear as in traditional warfare. Instead, there is a mutual integration of you and me, and the distinction between levels has become relatively vague. First, the war path is simplified. With the centralized use of a large number of informationized weapons and equipment and their information systems, the precision strike capability of the troops has been unprecedentedly improved. A small-scale combat operation and a high-efficiency information offensive operation can effectively achieve certain strategic goals. A battle, a campaign or a carefully planned information operation may be a war. The path to achieve the purpose of war is becoming simpler and the convergence of war, campaign and even battle in purpose and time and space is prominent. Second, command and control is real-time. The widespread use of automated command and control systems on the battlefield has greatly enhanced the command and control function. Campaign commanders and even the highest political and military leadership of the country can plan and command and control all participating forces and specific combat operations in a unified manner, and directly intervene in campaigns, battles and even the actions of individual soldiers or combat platforms in near real time. Combat and campaign operations are similar to strategic engagements. Third, the combat process is fast-tracked. Quick victory and quick decision are important features of information warfare. The combat time is showing a trend of shortening. There is no concept of time for all combat operations. More often, the participating forces at all levels are carried out simultaneously in different fields. The beginning and the end are closely linked. The combat operations in various battlefield spaces penetrate each other, are closely linked, and gradually merge into an integrated and coordinated system, which is difficult to distinguish at the level.
It can be seen that information warfare has a strong overall nature. Campaigns, as a bridge for achieving strategic and even war objectives, are gradually integrated into battles. Combat, as the most basic combat activity in war, is also gradually sublimated into strategies and campaigns. All levels are intertwined and serve to achieve the purpose of war. Only by comprehensively exerting the combat capabilities of all levels and achieving overall effects can we seize the initiative in the war.
Fusion of various styles
The combat style is the carrier for the war hostile parties to compete. Informationized warfare is a process of confrontation between multiple forces and multiple fields, and is manifested in multiple combat actions and confrontation styles. Various combat actions are inseparable from the overall combat situation, and various actions are closely linked, mutually conditional, coordinated, and integrated to form an overall combat power. The first is the unity of combat actions. The victory or defeat of informationized warfare is the result of the system confrontation between the two warring parties. Isolated and single combat actions are often difficult to work. This requires multiple military services to adopt a variety of combat styles in different combat spaces and combat fields, while the combat style dominated by a single military service can only “live” in the overall joint action as a sub-combat action, and all combat actions are unified in the system confrontation. The second is the integration of combat actions. Informationized warfare is a form of war that pursues high efficiency. Objectively, it requires that multiple combat styles and actions must be highly “integrated” from the perspective of system effectiveness. Comprehensively use a variety of combat styles and tactics, combine tangible combat actions with intangible combat actions, combine non-linear combat with non-contact combat and asymmetric combat, combine psychological warfare with public opinion warfare and legal warfare, combine regular combat with irregular combat, and combine soft strikes with hard destruction to form an overall advantage. The third is the mutation of combat actions. In information warfare, while integrating various combat resources and exerting overall power, both hostile parties strive to find the “center of gravity” and “joint points” of the other side. Once the enemy’s weak points are found, all combat forces and actions are linked as a whole and autonomously coordinated, and various styles and means of destruction are adopted to cause a sudden change in the enemy’s combat capability and a comprehensive “collapse” of the combat system, so as to achieve combat initiative and advantage.
It can be seen that information warfare is a practical activity in which various forces use a variety of combat styles and means to compete in multiple battlefield spaces and combat fields. Only when multiple combat styles and means cooperate, support and complement each other can a multiplier effect be produced, thereby exerting the maximum combat effectiveness of the entire system.
Multi-method integration
The means of war are methods used to achieve the purpose of war. In addition to powerful military means, information warfare must also use all available ways and means to cooperate with each other, organically integrate, and form a whole to achieve a favorable situation. First, the use of war means is comprehensive. All wars have a distinct political nature and serve certain political purposes. With the influence of factors such as the globalization of the world economy and the multipolarization of international politics, information warfare is more based on military means, and military means are used in combination with various means such as economy, diplomacy, culture, and technology. Second, the use of war means is gradient. With the development of the times, war as a means of maintaining and seeking power and interests has been increasingly restricted by international law and international public opinion. In addition, resorting to war requires a high price. Therefore, in the information age, the use of war means presents a gradual development gradient, usually starting from retaliation, display of force, and violent retaliation (strike) in the sense of international law, and finally developing into local or even large-scale wars. Third, the use of war means is systematic. Information warfare is a contest of the comprehensive national strength of the hostile parties. The victory of the war depends on the comprehensive and systematic use of various war means. In specific combat operations, various means of warfare have different functions and natures, occupying different positions and playing different roles in the war. Only by closely combining various effective means of warfare into an organic whole can we form a combat system that fully utilizes our strengths and avoids our weaknesses, and maximize the overall combat effectiveness.
It can be seen that information warfare is subject to more restrictive factors, simpler war objectives, and newer combat styles. In the process of decision-making and action, only by coordinating and integrating with struggle actions in other fields such as politics, economy, culture, and diplomacy can the overall goal of the war be achieved efficiently.
In mid-July 2021 World Internet of Things Expo held a press conference and revealed that the expo is scheduled to be held in Wuxi in early September. At that time, the expo will be themed “Intelligently Connecting Everything and Leading the Future with Digital”, focusing on showcasing the latest achievements in the global Internet of Things field.
The Internet of Things is changing people’s daily lives, quietly changing the form of modern warfare, and promoting the development of intelligent warfare.
Professor Chen Yingwen from the National University of Defense Technology tells you about the military Internet of Things——
Everything is connected, winning thousands of miles away
■Feng Zijian, Qu Shenghui, Qi Xucong
Schematic diagram of military Internet of Things technology simulation.
A “bridge” connecting the virtual world and the real world
The so-called Internet of Things can be simply understood as an Internet that connects everything. If the Internet is a “dialogue” in the virtual world, then the Internet of Things is a “bridge” connecting the virtual world and the real world.
The application of the Internet of Things had already appeared in wars under the name of “sensor networks” more than half a century before it attracted people’s attention.
In the 1960s, the “Ho Chi Minh Trail” on the Vietnam battlefield was covered with tens of thousands of “tropical tree” vibration sensors. These sensors are like a dense “spider web”, waiting for the “prey” to arrive. Whenever a person or vehicle passes by, the sensor detects the vibration generated by the target and records data such as its direction and speed.
At this time, tens of thousands of kilometers away, in an infiltration surveillance center code-named “Task Force Alpha”, US military technicians were receiving and processing relevant information sent back by the “sensor network”. Once a Vietnamese military convoy was discovered passing by, the command center would send instructions to the US troops stationed in Vietnam, instructing fighter planes to fly over the target and carry out bombing.
Due to the limited technology at the time, the sensors could only work for a few weeks. The “spider web” carefully built by the US military ultimately failed to prevent the Vietnamese army from transporting troops and supplies.
Although this “cooperative” combat method between humans and objects did not achieve any good results in history, it has prompted Western countries led by the United States to conduct in-depth research on Internet technology and continuously explore the interconnection between humans and objects, and objects and objects. Its highly informationized advantages are highlighted in many areas of military applications.
After decades of development, some military powers have successively developed a series of military sensor network systems, including the “Smart Dust” system for collecting battlefield information, the “Lumbas” system for remotely monitoring the battlefield environment, the “Sand Straight Line” system for monitoring the movement of weapon platforms, and the “Wolf Pack” system specifically for detecting electromagnetic signals.
Among them, the detection element of the “smart dust” system is only the size of a grain of sand, but it can realize all functions such as information collection, processing and sending, thereby enhancing the ability to control information during combat.
No combat entity will become an “island”
In the world of the Internet of Things, every grain of “sand” will have its network address. For the military Internet of Things, no operational entity will become an “island”.
During the first Gulf War, many weapons and equipment transported by the US military could not be found, resulting in a large waste of war resources. The reason is that the containers transporting weapons and equipment were not clearly marked, and personnel were unable to track the location of the transported weapons and equipment, which led to the loss of a large number of weapons and equipment.
Twelve years later, during the Iraq War, the US military installed radio frequency microchips on every container shipped to the Gulf region, and placed readers and writers according to transportation and storage needs, thereby achieving full tracking of personnel, equipment, and materials, greatly improving the effectiveness of military logistics support.
Foreign research data revealed that compared with the Gulf War, the Iraq War’s sea transport volume decreased by 87%, air transport volume decreased by 88.6%, combat equipment reserves decreased by 75%, and strategic support equipment mobilization decreased by 89%.
In fact, from the moment the electronic tags are attached and the sensing systems are installed, the originally silent equipment becomes like an organic life form that can sense and communicate with each other. Through the transformation of the Internet of Things technology, each combat entity such as combat personnel and combat equipment has become a “network node”. Through perception and communication with each other, the battlefield situation is clearer and combat operations are more efficient.
Take the personnel assessment network established by the Australian Department of Defense as an example: during combat, commanders can assess the physical functions and conditions of soldiers through sensors worn by soldiers, and then combine them with satellite positioning information to obtain the physical function status of all personnel. Commanders can use this as a basis for allocating troops, which can greatly improve the efficiency of battlefield decision-making.
Military IoT technology will play a big role in future battlefields
In today’s world, there are more and more similar military news——
In June 2016, the US military launched an airstrike using drones, killing 16 Taliban members; in September of the same year, Turkish security forces killed 6 terrorists under the guidance of their domestically produced drones.
In the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the Middle East in 2020, a video released by Azerbaijan made many people feel the power of networked and intelligent weapons: after the drone discovered the enemy tank, it aimed and fired…
From sensing the battlefield situation to locking onto the target and then launching an attack on the target, the reason behind unmanned equipment becoming the main offensive entity is the huge support of military Internet of Things technology. This huge intelligent information network is like the “clairvoyance” and “super hearing” on the battlefield, allowing combat personnel to sit firmly in the “central military camp” and win the battle thousands of miles away.
“Everything is connected, and victory can be won thousands of miles away.” This is the development trend of military Internet of Things technology and an important feature of future intelligent warfare. In the era of the Internet of Everything, the military Internet of Things will connect several individual combat entities into intelligent combat groups and generate a smart combat system. In the future, it will only be necessary to give the smart combat system clear combat objectives, and military combat personnel will not have to participate in its execution process.
At present, the development of military Internet of Things technology still has a long way to go before it can realize the Internet of Everything, but we should be aware that when smart nodes reach a certain scale, the military Internet of Things will achieve a qualitative leap.
In future battlefields, military Internet of Things technology will surely play a big role in achieving victory through “connection”.
The metaverse is an artificial online virtual world that is born out of, parallel to, and independent of the real world. It is parallel to the real world, reacts to the real world, and integrates a variety of high technologies. These are the three major characteristics of the future metaverse. The operation of the metaverse conforms to the natural laws of human understanding and transformation of the world, and provides a new way of thinking to understand and discover the operating behavior, state, and laws of complex real systems, as well as a new means to explore objective laws and transform nature and society. Researching the application of the metaverse in the field of foreign military training and analyzing the opportunities and challenges that the metaverse brings to the field of military training have important theoretical and practical value in solving the key problems that need to be solved in military training in the intelligent era, promoting scientific and technological training, and promoting the innovative development of military training models.
Background of Cognitive Metaverse Empowered Military Training
The scientific and technological revolution has given rise to a new ecology of military training. Driven by the new scientific and technological revolution and the industrial revolution, cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things have accelerated their development. Technology giants have laid out the metaverse, and human real life has migrated to the virtual world more rapidly. The metaverse integrates a variety of emerging technologies, thus generating new Internet applications and new social forms that integrate the virtual and the real. Perception technology supports the integration of the virtual and the real in the metaverse, “AI+” technology supports the social nature of the metaverse, data transmission technology supports the real-time nature of the metaverse, electronic game technology supports the diversity of the metaverse, digital twin technology supports the sustainability of the metaverse, and blockchain technology supports the security of the metaverse. The future metaverse, where virtual and real are highly interconnected, is born out of, parallel to, and independent of the real world. It integrates all elements such as the Internet, virtual reality, immersive experience, blockchain, and digital twins to build a new basic ecology for intelligent military training.
The evolution of war has dominated the transformation and upgrading of military training. With the advent of the intelligent era, the war situation has accelerated its evolution towards informationization and intelligence. The informationized warfare system with “information acquisition and utilization as the core” will gradually transition to the intelligent warfare system with “intelligent simulation and expansion as the core”. The trend of long-range precision, intelligence, stealth, and unmanned weapons and equipment has become more obvious, and intelligent warfare has surfaced. At the same time, combat elements represented by artificial intelligence such as “AI, cloud, network, group, and terminal” and their diversified combinations have formed a new battlefield ecology. The metaverse has constructed a new battlefield space where virtual and real are integrated and parallel interactions occur. The traditional war winning mechanism is being profoundly changed. The development and changes in the form of intelligent warfare have compulsorily driven the transformation and reshaping of the military’s thinking and concepts, requiring the accelerated transformation and upgrading of military training, greater attention to the impact of technological development and changes on warfare, and the use of the “new engine” of training and warfare to achieve “accelerated” preparations.
Foreign militaries explore breakthroughs in military training models. In order to seize the strategic commanding heights of military intelligence, the world’s military powers attach great importance to the innovation of military training models. Some countries have begun to try to apply the metaverse and related technologies to military training. For example, the United States has successively released the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy and the Department of Defense Transformation Plan, focusing on building an “all-round army” and forming a “full spectrum advantage”. It has also simultaneously formulated the Training Transformation Strategic Plan and the Training Transformation Implementation Plan, and proposed the concept of a comprehensive training environment (STE), the core of which is immersive and integrated virtual training, which intends to integrate real-time, virtual, constructive and gaming environments into a comprehensive training environment. Russia also attaches great importance to the development of virtual training systems. Almost all of its advanced weapons and equipment are equipped with corresponding virtual training systems, and are moving towards universalization and embedding. The United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, etc. are also actively developing various professional military training virtual environments. Intelligent training supported by technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality is gradually becoming the mainstream of military training research in powerful countries.
Clarifying the Advantages of Metaverse-Enabled Military Training
The emergence of new concepts in military training. Only by leading the opponent in thought can we gain the upper hand in action. The emergence of disruptive technologies will inevitably rewrite the current military training rules and systems, and will also innovate the existing military training thinking concepts. On the one hand, the metaverse has set off a hurricane-like “brainstorm”, and the training thinking led by “intelligence” has organically connected training with actual combat, and upgraded to intelligent military training thinking. On the other hand, new technologies and new means represented by the metaverse empower military training, strengthen the concept of winning by science and technology and intelligent drive, and greatly improve the scientific and technological content of military training, in order to control the initiative in future wars. In the future, the metaverse will create more impossible possibilities by constructing a virtual battlefield space, designing wars and evolving wars.
Innovate new theories of military training. War is the area that needs innovation the most. Military training must adapt to the development of intelligent warfare, and theoretical innovation and training practice must be driven by both. Training transformation will not happen automatically. It requires not only a sharp and profound foresight to grasp the general trend, but also a scientific, powerful and solid theory to drive forward. On the one hand, by keeping up with the development of the times and starting from new concepts and new cognition, we can build a scientific theoretical system for metaverse-enabled military training. On the other hand, by following the laws of combat-training coupling, we can establish an innovative model of intelligent military training theory with the characteristics of the times, allowing the metaverse to empower and improve the efficiency of promoting the iterative development of military training transformation.
Transform the new military training model. The combat style determines the training mode, and intelligent warfare changes the “rules of the game”. Military training for the next war must adapt to the requirements of future wars by changing the training mode. First, it can build an intelligent blue army with “both form and spirit”. With the help of optimized AI technology, powerful computing power support, and realistic performance simulation, the Metaverse follows the evolutionary process of “knowing the enemy, imitating the enemy, surpassing the enemy, and defeating the enemy” to create an intelligent blue army with platform support and data empowerment, and carry out “real” confrontation training and effect evaluation in the Metaverse space. Second, it can carry out new domain and new quality combat training. The metaverse expands the practical application path with new domains and new types of combat forces as the leading elements, highlights the research and development of training methods and tactics that are compatible with advanced combat concepts and winning mechanisms, and creates new forms of training such as unmanned and seamless human-machine collaboration, becoming a new point of combat power growth. Third, it can cultivate new types of military talents. At present, the educational metaverse has led the intelligent transformation of education. In the future, the military metaverse will accelerate the realization of intelligent interaction between people and equipment, deep integration between people and systems, and adaptive evolution between people and the environment, and promote the integrated development of “commanders” and “fighters” into “scientists” and “technicians.”
Reshape the new ecology of military training. The multi-dimensional perception, virtual-real integration, free creativity, and open development of the metaverse will make the future metaverse a fully immersive, time-transcending, self-creating and developing space. First, create a digital twin “battlefield metaverse”. The “battlefield metaverse” will be a typical manifestation of the metaverse in the military field, with stricter security and confidentiality standards, stronger simulation computing capabilities, and more real-time and detailed interaction requirements. Secondly, create a full-dimensional three-dimensional metaverse training environment. The metaverse uses technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality to create an immersive and complex scene environment; using powerful data and network support, it builds a full-dimensional space such as land, sea, air, space, electricity, and the Internet. Furthermore, a Metaverse verification platform for weapons and equipment will be built. The platform will have functions such as new weapon and equipment design demonstration, weapon and equipment performance test, weapon and equipment compatibility test, and weapon system combat effectiveness test. In the future, the Metaverse will greatly shorten the timeline for weapons and equipment to go from “weak intelligence” to “strong intelligence” and then to “super intelligence”, realizing the intelligence multiplication effect of weapons and equipment.
Grasping the Key Points of Metaverse-Enabled Military Training
Focus on top-level design. From the perspective of the development of things, the metaverse is a new thing, and its maturity has yet to be verified. Intelligent military training is also a complex, arduous and long-term system engineering, which requires strengthening strategic planning and top-level layout. We should pay close attention to the development trends and technological trends of the metaverse, and scientifically formulate the development plan of the “training metaverse”. In the context of the integration of intelligence, informatization and mechanization, we should give full play to the outstanding advantages of the metaverse, such as enabling trainees to undergo immersive experiential training, so that the metaverse can not only be a display platform for virtual technology, but also a practical platform for improving the effectiveness of military training.
Strengthen technology research and development. From a technical perspective, the Metaverse has reintegrated existing technologies in the information and intelligent technology group, proposed an overall innovative concept, and provided comprehensive application scenarios, thereby giving birth to new vitality. To accelerate the development of the “training Metaverse”, we must speed up the research on basic software and hardware technologies such as algorithm engines and network communications, strengthen the research and development capabilities of core technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital twins, blockchain, and the Internet of Things, and at the same time strengthen the overall technical design and research and development of the Metaverse, such as immersion, sociality, openness, collaboration, and decentralization.
Create training types. From the perspective of time and space, the metaverse may create a vast virtual war space, recreate the war environment, present the war process, and virtualize the future of war. An intelligent military training operation system based on the metaverse should be built, military training concepts should be updated in a timely manner, and innovations in military training models, management support, and legal mechanisms should be deepened. A dynamic and high-level combat-oriented military training environment based on the metaverse should be built to fully support strategic, campaign, and tactical training as well as war simulations. At the same time, in the process of “intelligent adaptation” of military training, we will achieve the expansion of wisdom and intelligent evolution towards the unknown space of military training with “innovation, openness, diversified iteration, and new intelligent ecology”.
Attach importance to risk prevention and control. From the perspective of safety and controllability, the concept and technology of the Metaverse brings innovative opportunities to intelligent military training, but the potential risks associated with the technology itself cannot be ignored. The Metaverse is a huge technology group, and its system architecture, key technologies, and application environment are still in the development and implementation stage. The supporting protection system, safety technology, and management standards will bring security risks. In addition, the integrated application of various emerging technologies in the construction process, the complexity and confidentiality in the application process will be the unknown factors for the key prevention and risk challenges of the Metaverse in military training.
●The application of artificial intelligence in the military field is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it greatly improves combat effectiveness, but on the other hand, it also requires great attention to the potential weaknesses and loopholes of artificial intelligence.
●The use of intelligent weapons does not mean that the role of humans has declined, but rather that some of the functions of humans have been transferred and materialized into weapons. Weapons extend the human body and brain, and stimulate human creativity and initiative.
Accelerating the development of military intelligence is a strategic task proposed in the report of the 19th CPC National Congress. It is a powerful tool to promote the modernization of national defense and the army and realize the party’s goal of strengthening the army in the new era. It is also a major measure to aim at the future war situation and seize strategic opportunities. When conducting research on intelligent warfare, we should adhere to dialectical thinking, prevent research from “deviating from reality to virtuality”, “generalizing from a single case”, and “focusing on technology rather than theory”. Only by scientifically analyzing the characteristics and laws of intelligent warfare can we truly promote in-depth and practical research.
To prevent “decoupling from reality and turning to virtuality”, we need to use scientific methodology and epistemology to analyze the problem
Intelligent warfare is a highly informationized war conducted in the physical and cognitive domains through the extensive use of intelligent weapons and equipment and the corresponding combat styles and methods. It is essentially not out of the scope of informationized warfare. The trend of unmanned warfare in recent local wars only has some characteristics of intelligent warfare, and is far from being an intelligent war in the true sense. At present, there is a wave of research on artificial intelligence in all walks of life, but to some extent, there is also a phenomenon of exaggeration and exaggeration. Some people also believe that intelligent warfare will give rise to geopolitical changes, and the traditional physical space control will be replaced by “intelligence control” with artificial intelligence as the core. This view inevitably has a tendency to virtualize cognition. To this end, intelligent warfare should be rationally studied and understood using scientific methodology and epistemology.
System theory perspective. Intelligent warfare is an advanced stage of information warfare, and is essentially still a system confrontation based on information systems. Whether it is human-machine collaborative operations, real-time perception of the entire battlefield, or brain-machine integrated decision-making, the characteristics it exhibits are all conscious behaviors of the various elements of the military system with “winning the war” as the ultimate goal. The understanding of military intelligence cannot stop at “technology-only theory” and “weapon-only theory”, but should focus on the mutual connection and action characteristics between the various elements of the military system, and explore its triggering mechanism, internal laws and implementation path.
Global thinking. Qian Xuesen believes that war is an organic whole composed of many parts and cannot be separated. In all human social practices, there is no activity that emphasizes the global concept and the overall concept more than directing war, and emphasizes starting from the overall situation, using all forces rationally, and ultimately achieving the overall final effect. This is true for directing war and studying war. Intelligent warfare not only refers to the intelligence of weapons and equipment, but also includes a series of intelligence such as intelligence analysis, command and control, military training, and logistics support. Only by conducting all-round research and thinking on the relevant elements can we have a global understanding of intelligent warfare. Global thinking also requires us to consider military intelligence in the context of achieving the Party’s goal of strengthening the military in the new era and the overall national strategy, and to grasp the dialectical relationship between short-term and long-term, key and urgent needs, and actual military needs and overall military modernization.
Engineering design. To win future wars, we must have the ability to design future wars. We should use engineering thinking to classify and plan the operational concepts, operational styles, and force use of future intelligent warfare, and put forward practical military needs, phased development goals, and methods based on the current development stage of our army and targeting powerful enemies. We can follow the idea of ”proposing theories – developing concepts – experimental simulations – actual military exercises” to promote innovative breakthroughs in military theories based on intelligent warfare, incorporate them into operational regulations, and integrate them into actual combat training.
Avoid generalizing from a single example, and grasp the opposites of contradictions with the unity of opposites thinking
The ancients said: “The way to win or lose, to be safe or dangerous, is the way.” The “way” here includes not only the fundamental view of war, but also the speculative understanding of the laws of winning war. Intelligent warfare research should go beyond the limitations of one-sided descriptions such as “algorithmic warfare”, “unmanned warfare” and “self-adaptation”, and use dialectical thinking to fully understand and grasp the relationship between the various elements of future wars.
The relationship between people and weapons. With the widespread use of drones, unmanned combat vehicles, unmanned submarines, etc. in the military, “war between people” will be largely replaced by “war between machines”. The realization of combat means such as autonomous coordination and autonomous decision-making has reshaped the combat process, and the combat style with unmanned operations as a prominent feature has rewritten the rules of the battlefield. Despite this, the decisive role of people in war has not changed, but the way they act is significantly different from before. As Engels said, “It is people, not guns, who win the battle… Guns will not move by themselves, and they need a brave heart and a strong hand to use them.” Intelligent weapons undoubtedly play an important role in war, but the subject of war is still people, and people are always the most active factor in war. The use of intelligent weapons does not mean that the role of humans has declined, but rather that some of the functions of humans have been transferred and materialized into weapons. Weapons extend the human body and brain, and stimulate human creativity and initiative. Intelligent weapons cannot replace the important role of fighting spirit. The superposition of indestructible political beliefs, overwhelming heroism, the bloody spirit of daring to fight and win, as well as superb strategies and flexible strategies and tactics, these dynamic factors make it possible to win when the enemy and our strength are equal, and to have the possibility of defeating the strong with the weak when we are at a disadvantage.
The relationship between offense and defense. The application of artificial intelligence in the military field is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it greatly improves combat effectiveness, but on the other hand, it is also necessary to pay great attention to the potential weaknesses and loopholes of artificial intelligence. Intelligent warfare mainly relies on powerful algorithms and interconnected networks. Once they are attacked, fatal errors occur, or they are reversely controlled, the advantage may turn into a disadvantage. The U.S. Department of Defense has now established a special agency to assess the potential risks of military intelligence and countermeasures. While promoting military intelligence, we should pay special attention to strengthening information protection and risk management, and simultaneously develop “anti-artificial intelligence technology” to establish a two-way advantage of both offense and defense.
The relationship between inheritance and innovation. Artificial intelligence has promoted major changes in the war situation, but it has not changed the general sense of the war guidance rules and war winning mechanism. No matter how the future war is fought, we must not abandon or deviate from the precious war experience and theoretical guidance accumulated by our army in long-term practice. We must still adhere to the principle of “you fight yours, I fight mine”, uphold the principle of asymmetric strategic checks and balances, and attach importance to giving full play to people’s subjective initiative. On the other hand, we must follow the general trend of military reform, keep a close eye on the forefront of war development, promote military innovation with a sense of urgency and accelerate the application and transformation of results.
To prevent “focusing on technology and neglecting science”, it is necessary to promote technological and theoretical innovation by integrating science and technology.
An advanced army needs advanced military theory to guide it. The emergence of intelligent warfare is first of all due to the promotion of the new scientific and technological revolution, but it is inseparable from the scientific guidance of advanced military theory, especially Marxist military theory. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to comprehensively promote the modernization of military theory, which is an inevitable requirement for realizing the party’s goal of strengthening the army in the new era, and is also the meaning of intelligent warfare research. To this end, we must conscientiously implement the development idea of integrating theory and technology, and promote the simultaneous innovation of technology and theory in deepening problem research.
Conceptual integration. Modern military theories are increasingly characterized by actual combat-driven, interdisciplinary, and systemic support. To promote the integration of science and technology, we must first break through the barriers of concepts and ideas. We should adhere to the complex research approach of overall planning, system design, and system integration, based on the evolution of war forms and the actual national and military conditions and development stages, and coordinate the promotion of technological breakthroughs, concept development, tactics innovation, combat power generation and other theoretical innovations to provide scientific guidance and theoretical support for winning future wars. We should strengthen research on the winning mechanism, combat guidance, and combat style of intelligent warfare, and conduct in-depth research on the military organization form caused by intelligent warfare, especially the series of changes in organizational system, scale structure, combat organization, tactical principles, combat support, and force application, so as to make ideological and theoretical preparations for a new round of military reforms.
Integration of disciplines. Intelligent warfare research not only involves the application of artificial intelligence in the military field, but also involves multiple fields such as algorithms and materials, and multiple disciplines such as physics, chemistry, electronics, and biology, and involves a wide range of fields such as war ethics and international law. In order to achieve the integration of science and technology, technical workers are required to break away from the shackles of pure engineering thinking, establish strategic thinking and global awareness, master scientific methodology and epistemology, and use dialectical thinking to lead technology research and development. Theoretical researchers should break the boundaries of disciplines, step out of the small circle of pure academic research, actively promote the interaction between scientific research institutions and colleges, troops, and technology research and development departments, strive to achieve original results in the basic field of artificial intelligence, and enrich the theory of intelligent warfare. Make good use of data, focus on actual combat, adhere to the “three aspects”, and effectively play the leading and guiding role of theory on technology.
It is easy to break the “fog” of the battlefield, but it is difficult to break the “obsession” in your heart——
Since ancient times, achieving surprise through combat deception has been an important way to win on the battlefield. Entering the era of intelligence, the in-depth application of artificial intelligence technology has not only clearly dispelled the original war “fog”, but also created a large amount of new war “fog”. If we only rely on improving deception techniques and means, and simply superimposing and strengthening the traditional deception paradigm, it will become increasingly difficult to achieve the deception goal. From “smart deception” to “smart victory”, there is an urgent need for an overall transformation of the objects of deception, means of deception, methods of deception, and focus of deception, so as to form a new deception paradigm that meets the requirements of the intelligent era.
The target of deception has shifted from humans to human-machine hybrid agents
Clausewitz believed that three-quarters of the factors on which war is based are more or less surrounded by the “fog” of uncertainty. Combat deception is essentially the use of uncertainty in war. The more “fog” there is in war, the more room there is for maneuvering. Traditional combat deception is carried out around the opponent’s decision-making level, and people are the only target of deception. However, with the increasingly prominent role of intelligent intelligence analysis and auxiliary decision-making systems in command activities, the use of deception to achieve strategic, campaign, and tactical surprises faces major challenges. How to deceive human-machine hybrid intelligent entities composed of humans and intelligent systems has become an important factor that needs to be considered when planning and implementing deception in the intelligent era. The competition surrounding intelligent deception and anti-deception is becoming increasingly fierce.
There is a world of difference between deceiving people and deceiving intelligent systems. In the past, the “calculations” that deceived people may be exposed when facing the “calculations” of intelligent systems. Intelligent systems can efficiently integrate and process massive amounts of sensor data and Internet open source information, making a qualitative leap in the speed, depth, breadth and accuracy of battlefield situation perception, realizing a profound transformation from “sensing” to “knowing”, from “state” to “momentum”, and playing an important role in dispelling the “fog” of war. For example, on the battlefield, although both sides try to hide the truth and cover up their intentions in various ways, they still cannot escape the “eyes” of the intelligent system: the tracks left by carefully disguised tanks and armored vehicles, after being detected by the opponent’s satellites, drones, etc., will also reveal their specific locations under the analysis of the intelligent system.
On the contrary, it is very easy to deceive intelligent systems with methods that target them, but it may not be able to deceive people. A foreign research team found that by changing a few key pixels in a picture of a cat, the intelligent system can identify the cat as a dog, while the human eye will not make any recognition errors due to this change. Similar incidents are common. Some studies have pointed out that sticking a piece of paper with a special pattern on a person’s forehead can deceive the strongest facial recognition system, and this method is highly portable and can deceive other facial recognition algorithms with a slight change.
It can be seen that deceiving people and deceiving intelligent systems are two different “deception methods”. After the deep application of artificial intelligence in the field of intelligence analysis and auxiliary decision-making, from the formulation of strategic deception plans to the design of battlefield camouflage patterns, how to deceive both the human brain and the computer and keep the human-machine hybrid intelligent body “in the dark” will be an important issue that needs to be focused on and solved in order to win the initiative in war.
The fraudulent methods have shifted from being mainly human-based to a combination of human and machine.
The organization and implementation of traditional combat deception is mainly manual, especially large-scale strategic deception, which requires a lot of manpower, material and financial resources. For example, in World War II, the Allies formulated a series of deception plans to ensure the success of the Normandy landing: setting up a fake radio network and a simulated landing fleet, and imagining that the US 1st Army Group with 50 divisions and 1 million people was actively preparing to cross the channel and land in the direction of Calais; using the air force to bomb Calais and Normandy, but the former was bombed more than 1 times more than the latter, etc. The application of artificial intelligence in deception can fundamentally change this situation. With humans as the main guide and intelligent means as the auxiliary, it can quickly generate massive amounts of false information, confusing the real with the fake, and create a thicker war “fog” for the opponent.
The use of intelligent means can improve the quality of deception. On the one hand, intelligent decision-making aids can be used to formulate deception plans, optimize the design of deception forces, deception deployment, deception processes, etc., to achieve systematic deception with the best overall effect; on the other hand, intelligent intelligence analysis systems can be used to pre-test the deception effect, “using one’s own spear to attack one’s own shield”, find out the loopholes and contradictions in the plan, and then improve the deception plan to make it logically self-consistent and seamless.
The use of intelligent means can expand the scale of deception. The increasingly mature deep fake technology can synthesize realistic fake pictures, handwriting, audio, video, etc. in large quantities, and has broad application prospects in strategic, campaign, and tactical deception. For example, in strategic campaign deception, corresponding technical means can be used to confuse opponents by forging fake radio stations and fake commanders, and even to fake an active command post in a certain battle direction; in tactical deception, battlefield camouflage can be used to attach special patterns to high-value equipment to make the opponent’s intelligent system recognize it incorrectly.
The use of intelligent means can reduce the cost of deception. With the support of technologies such as virtual reality and deep fakes, unexpected deception effects can often be achieved with the help of synthetic optics, acoustics and other means, and they are low-cost and low-investment, which is more cost-effective than traditional strategic deception methods. For example, setting up false targets such as bait unmanned combat platforms, using electronic feints and electronic camouflage to send false signals can effectively restrain the opponent’s power, produce high returns at low cost, and thus gain the upper hand.
The use of intelligent means can optimize the accuracy of deception. Traditional combat deception is usually stereotyped, with prominent characteristics of broadcast, extensive, and generalized. For this reason, in the era of intelligence, we should focus on collecting data on opponent decision makers in peacetime and use big data for precise analysis to “know the enemy” more deeply and specifically. On this basis, deep fake technology can be used in wartime to customize the content of deception, realizing precise deception from targeting groups to targeting individuals.
The method of deception has shifted from mainly deceiving to mainly confusing and seducing.
“Playing cards” and “playing chess” are two game modes with completely different battlefield transparency. In the “playing cards” mode, both sides only know the cards that the opponent has played, but do not know the cards in the opponent’s hand, let alone what cards the opponent will play next; while in the “playing chess” mode, the deployment of both sides’ forces on the chessboard is completely transparent, but the opponent’s intentions and the next move are unknown. It is not difficult to see that from cold weapon wars, hot weapon wars, mechanized wars, informationized wars, and then to intelligent wars, the form of war confrontation is increasingly changing from the “playing cards” mode to the “playing chess” mode.
In a war of “playing cards”, blind deception is very useful. Through strict disguise and strict confidentiality, the opponent’s channels of information can be blocked as much as possible, making it impossible for the opponent to detect one’s own intentions and actions, thereby achieving surprise. In the past, when the means of obtaining information were limited and information on the battlefield situation was scarce, there were many examples of wars that used “hiding the truth” and “showing falsehood” to achieve surprise. However, at present, with the help of advanced reconnaissance technology, full-dimensional and full-spectrum reconnaissance has been realized, and the battlefield is becoming more and more transparent. Complete concealment without any revealing features is difficult to achieve. Once the concealment state is switched to the action state, the probability of being discovered by the opponent will be greatly increased. Blind deception can only become an auxiliary deception method.
In the war of “chess”, the following two deception methods are usually used: one is confusing deception, that is, using intelligent means to send a large amount of true and false mixed and difficult to identify information, increasing the ambiguity of information and the difficulty of analysis, making it difficult for the opponent to judge or misjudge. The second is inducement deception, that is, by sending high-definition misleading information, the opponent is led into a preset trap. The combination of these two methods and the cooperation of blinding deception together constitute a hybrid deception that is difficult for the opponent to guard against.
The focus of deception shifts from human perception to human cognition
As the main subject of war, people are important variables that influence the war situation, which implies uncertainty and uncontrollability. From the perspective of psychology, cognitive neurology and other aspects, the “black box” of the mind still cannot be revealed. Deception by deception targets people’s eyes and ears, taking advantage of human sensory weaknesses, while deception by deception and temptation directly targets people’s minds, taking advantage of human weaknesses.
From past cases, even with the most advanced intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance technology and the most intelligent analysis methods, it is impossible to make up for and overcome human weaknesses. In many cases, it is not that the intelligence department failed to recognize the opponent’s deception, but that the decision-makers are unwilling to believe the facts. On the eve of the Soviet-German War in World War II, although more and more evidence showed that Germany was planning to invade the Soviet Union, the Soviet decision-makers believed that the war would not come for the time being. Therefore, when the war broke out, the Soviet army was not well prepared for the response, and the initial defensive actions were very passive.
War practice shows that in the era of intelligence, even if the opponent has obvious military technology advantages and can achieve one-way transparency on the battlefield through advanced intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance technology, the enemy can still take advantage of the cognitive weaknesses of the opponent’s decision-making layer to implement counter-intuitive deception and cover up the true intentions and actions. This also shows that the focus and center of deception in the era of intelligence should not be entirely on how to deliberately cover up the traces of military actions, but should focus more on targeting the opponent’s decision-making layer and inducing it to make decisions and actions that the enemy wants to see.
Yuan Yi Zhao Di
(Author’s unit: Institute of War Studies, Academy of Military Science)
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee made new and comprehensive arrangements for national defense and military construction, aimed at achieving the goal of the centenary of the founding of the army, and clearly put forward the contemporary requirements and strategic measures for accelerating the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence. Forging ahead on a new journey, focusing on accelerating the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence, seizing opportunities, responding to challenges, and taking advantage of the situation are of great significance for accelerating the modernization of national defense and the army and comprehensively improving the ability to prepare for war in the new era.
Recognize the necessity of accelerating the integration of mechanization, informatization and intelligence
Those who follow the trend will win, and those who control the trend will prevail. At present, the new round of scientific and technological revolution is showing a strong trend of intelligent technology leading the way, pushing the world’s new military revolution to develop in depth. The trend of intelligent weapons and equipment is obvious, and the superposition and aggregation effect with mechanization and informatization is prominent. The war form is accelerating from mechanization to informatization, entering the stage of giving birth to intelligent warfare. It is the development and change of the times that has made the acceleration of the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence become the general trend and powerful driving force for promoting the in-depth development of military transformation, and the inevitable choice to ensure winning the initiative, winning advantages and winning the future.
Comply with the trend of the world’s military revolution. At present, the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology is increasingly having a subversive impact on the field of war and combat. Seizing the strategic commanding heights of artificial intelligence and accelerating the development of artificial intelligence militarization and practical combat have become the strategic frontiers of military competition among major countries in the world. Increasing the intensity of military application of artificial intelligence technology, realizing the deep transformation and comprehensive upgrading of mechanized and informationized combat equipment, embedding artificial intelligence systems into the informationized combat command chain and action chain, and making the combat force organization more modular and integrated through intelligent transformation are the common practices of the world’s military powers in seeking new military advantages. Whether it is possible to accelerate the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence, especially to fully release the efficiency expansion of intelligence on mechanization and informatization, so that platform operations, system operations and precision operations can obtain higher quality and efficient intelligent support, is undoubtedly a key to whether the strategic initiative of military competition can be firmly grasped.
The need to comprehensively improve the level of modernization. Modernization has a distinct timeliness, and the requirements of the times are the key measure to measure the degree of modernization of a country and an army. Today, we are entering a stage where intelligence is the core driving force of change. The integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence is not only an important symbol of the level of modernization of the country and the army, but also a fundamental measure to promote the modernization of national defense and the army. To accelerate the modernization of military theory, military organizational form, military personnel and weapons and equipment, we need to obtain a powerful engine and support for reform and innovation, transformation and upgrading, quality improvement and efficiency increase from the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence, and in a certain sense, it plays an important role in determining the direction, mode and path of modernization. Only by accelerating the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence, and making it run through all aspects of the whole process of promoting modernization, and promoting quality change, efficiency change and power change from a high starting point, can we comprehensively improve the level of national defense and military modernization.
The need to accelerate the transformation of combat effectiveness generation mode. The generation of combat effectiveness, from the combination of people and weapons to the element structure and the way of force release, has its mandatory era orientation and positioning. With the advent of the era of intelligent warfare, unmanned intelligent warfare has become a key factor affecting the direction of the war and even the outcome of the war. Intelligent technology and equipment have become a multiplier of mechanized and informationized combat effectiveness. Accelerating the development of military intelligence has become the strategic focus of improving the combat capability of the system and building new domains and new qualities of combat forces, making the generation and improvement of combat effectiveness increasingly dependent on the level of integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence. Only by incorporating the transformation of combat effectiveness generation mode into the track of integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence, building an intelligent and networked combat command platform, forming a human-machine efficient collaborative combat force use method, and making “smart victory” the core direction of combat theory innovation and combat method transformation, can combat effectiveness construction achieve substantial breakthroughs and overall leaps.
Grasp the requirements of the times to accelerate the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence
Accelerating the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence is a new proposition of the times. Grasping its requirements of the times from the perspective of its essential connotation, mode of action and basic laws is an important prerequisite for ensuring that the integrated development has a clear direction, accurate positioning, clear ideas and practical measures.
Grasp the essential connotation of integrated development. Mechanization, informatization and intelligentization are integrated and developed, with mechanization as the foundation, informatization as the leading factor and intelligence as the direction. The so-called integrated development is to form an integrated and unified promotion pattern, build an integrated design, and gather the best and release the energy operation mode, and produce an overall effect of superposition aggregation and quality and efficiency doubling. This deep integrated development is mainly reflected in: taking cognitive integration as the guide, having a scientific understanding of the advantages of firepower, mobility, information power and intellectual value, and establishing the operational concept of comprehensive control, comprehensive integration and comprehensive victory; relying on platform integration, building a combat platform integrating main combat equipment, information network and artificial intelligence, and improving the comprehensive combat capability of full-domain, precise and unmanned; taking system integration as the core, through the embedded transformation of weapon equipment system and information network system by artificial intelligence system, the overall potential of combat force and combat elements is demonstrated with higher quality and level of system integration; with system integration as the support, coordinating the construction of mechanization, informatization and intelligence, coordinating the construction of combat force and support guarantee force, and creating an integrated joint combat system that adapts to the needs of actual combat.
Grasp the role of integrated development. The integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence is a process of showing their strengths, interacting with each other and promoting each other. It is a process of aggregating equipment advantages, information advantages and intelligence advantages. Its role is mainly reflected in: strengthening the leading role of intelligence, focusing on accelerating the development of military intelligence, insisting on using intelligence to drive the leapfrog development of mechanization and informatization, taking intelligence as the core direction of the development of weapons and equipment and information network construction, increasing the research and development of unmanned and autonomous weapons and equipment, and improving the intelligent application, intelligent management and control, and intelligent operation level of information networks, and giving full play to the maximum effect of controlling energy with intelligence, gathering excellence with intelligence, and winning with intelligence; strengthening the leading role of informatization, grasping the information network system as a handle, accelerating the construction of command information systems and information combat systems, using the advantages of information technology to upgrade and transform existing weapons and equipment, and developing precise, intelligent, integrated, and efficient informationized weapons and equipment, and maximizing the adhesion and integration of information networks on combat systems and effectiveness; strengthening the basic role of mechanization, insisting on taking the mechanization of weapons and equipment as the material basis and carrier for the development of intelligence and informatization, strengthening the construction of weapons and equipment systems, and working hard to fill the gaps in the system and make up for the shortcomings and weaknesses, greatly improving the application level of information technology and intelligent technology in weapons and equipment, and enhancing the scientificity, pertinence, and cutting-edge nature of equipment construction and development.
Grasp the basic laws of integrated development. Mechanization, informatization and intelligence are inevitably closely linked, and together they constitute the key support for the generation and improvement of combat effectiveness. The basic laws of integrated development are mainly manifested in: the progressive nature of development and change, which reflects the different historical stages of the evolution of war forms, changes in combat methods, and the development of weapons and equipment in the time sequence; in terms of interaction, the former is the premise and foundation of the latter (for example, mechanization is the foundation and premise of informatization, and informatization is the foundation and premise of intelligence), and the latter is the development trend and higher potential of the former. With the long-term nature of overlapping and coexisting, the former will produce a marginal diminishing effect when it develops to a certain stage, and the latter needs to inject new momentum and vitality into it, but the latter is not a negation or end of the former, but a repositioning and orientation of the former. What needs to be achieved is the “three-in-one” inclusiveness, rather than the “three-choice” mutual exclusion. It has inclusive complementarity. Mechanization focuses on entities, informatization focuses on data, and intelligence focuses on algorithms. The stronger the foundation of the former, the greater the degree of realization of the latter; the stronger the traction of the latter, the faster the upgrading of the former. It has the empowerment of improving quality and efficiency. Weapon platforms need information networks to empower them, and weapon platforms and information networks need artificial intelligence to empower them. This is a process of optimization and upgrading, improving quality and efficiency, and achieving a new leap in combat effectiveness, quality and efficiency.
Tighten the strategic grasp to accelerate the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence
To accelerate the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence, we should plan, act and follow the trend, focus on combat effectiveness as the only fundamental standard, continuously promote the modernization of national defense and the armed forces, and realize the party’s goal of building a strong military in the new era.
We should focus on preparing for war. Wars change with the times, and victory changes with the times. We should take accelerating the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence as an important mission topic to comprehensively improve the ability to prepare for war in the new era. Focus on mission tasks, focus on the new requirements for winning modern wars, conduct in-depth research on the winning mechanism and changes in combat methods brought about by the evolution of war forms, grasp the new characteristics of the informationized and intelligent battlefield, actively explore new tactics for using and responding to intelligent weapons, and improve the informationized and intelligent combat capabilities; focus on transformation and construction, accelerate the transformation of combat effectiveness generation to informatization and intelligence, take military intelligent construction and combat as the main line, accelerate the construction of new domains and new types of combat forces, increase the training of informationized and intelligent talents, and strive to achieve the overall reshaping of combat forces and combat systems; focus on training with war, actively explore new ways of informationized and intelligent training, examine future battlefields and combat opponents from the perspective of “smart war” and “smart victory”, enhance the pertinence of mission topics and emergency response training, use intelligent technology to improve the level of science and technology training, and promote practical training to a higher quality level.
We must focus on deepening reform. Reform is a key move to strengthen the army and win the future. We must accelerate the integrated development of mechanization, informationization, and intelligence as an important focus of deepening national defense and military reform. We must insist on seeking combat effectiveness from reform, focus on the prominent characteristics of the army’s lean, integrated, miniaturized, modular, and multi-functional nature in the intelligent era, design reforms with a forward-looking, innovative, and open mind, establish a smooth and efficient leadership, command, and support mechanism, further integrate force resources, streamline the construction and management mechanism, and optimize the organizational structure. Adapting to the requirements of being able to fight and win battles, we must build a strategic and campaign command system that is integrated in peacetime and wartime, operates normally, specializes in the main business, is lean and efficient, and build a joint combat force system with elite combat forces as the main body, promote the development of the force organization in the direction of enrichment, synthesis, multi-functionality, and flexibility, implement modular organization, building block combination, and task-based joint, build a force with multiple capabilities and broad adaptability, and promote the overall leap in combat effectiveness through system structure optimization and reconstruction.
We should stick to the support point of innovation-driven development. Innovation is the core support for the development of combat effectiveness. We should accelerate the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence as the focus of implementing the innovation-driven development strategy. We should seek breakthroughs in the innovation of combat theory, closely follow the development trend of military revolution and the recent wars in the world, study the development and application of high-tech, especially intelligent technology and its impact on war, study the new characteristics, new styles and new mechanisms of intelligent warfare, study the winning strategies of intelligent warfare and combat, and accelerate the construction of a combat theory system with the characteristics of our army and in line with the laws of modern warfare. We should seek breakthroughs in scientific and technological innovation, focus on independent innovation and original innovation in national defense science and technology, take the military application of high-tech, especially artificial intelligence technology, as the main direction, accelerate the implementation of major strategic projects in national defense science and technology and weapons and equipment, accelerate the development of strategic, cutting-edge and disruptive technologies, accelerate the upgrading and replacement of weapons and equipment and the development of intelligent weapons and equipment, strive to achieve the transformation from following and running side by side to running side by side and leading, and provide stronger scientific and technological support for the transformation and construction of our army’s combat effectiveness.
(Author’s unit: Joint Operations College of National Defense University)
Source: Liberation Army News Author: Yuan Yi, Xu Jinhua, Li Zhifei Editor-in-charge: Wang Feng 2020-12-01 10:xx:xx
introduction
The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, while emphasizing the need to accelerate the modernization of national defense and the armed forces and achieve the unity of enriching the country and strengthening the military, pointed out the need to accelerate the integrated development of mechanization, informationization, and intelligence (hereinafter referred to as the “three modernizations”), thereby raising the requirements for the integrated development of the “three modernizations” to a strategic level. We must conscientiously implement the spirit of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, carry out scientific strategic positioning, strategic planning, and strategic deployment for the integrated development of the “three modernizations”, and vigorously promote the integrated development of the “three modernizations” to expand in depth and breadth. We must accurately grasp the essential connotation of the integrated development of the “three modernizations”.
The era background of the integrated development of the “three transformations”
The parallel advancement, mutual promotion and integrated development of the “three transformations” have profound historical inevitability and are the only way for our military to modernize national defense and the armed forces in the future.
The integrated development of the “three transformations” is in line with the concept of mechanization and informatization. Since the late 1990s, our army has promptly proposed to promote the integrated development of mechanization and informatization. At that time, the war situation was changing from mechanization to informatization. National defense and military construction must take the path of leapfrog development. There is no need to wait until the entire process of mechanization construction of the military of developed countries is completed before engaging in informatization. We should strive to promote the integrated development of mechanization and informatization. We must strive to leapfrog certain stages of mechanization development, and at the same time learn from the mistakes and lessons of mechanization and informatization construction of the military of developed countries, and take as few detours as possible. The experience and lessons learned from the integrated development of national defense and military mechanization and informatization provide valuable experience for how to coordinate the integrated development of the “three transformations” at this stage.
The integrated development of the “three transformations” reflects the reality of the current “multiple forms of warfare”. In today’s world, a new wave of military revolution characterized by military intelligence is sweeping across the world, and the armies of major countries in the world are striding towards the threshold of intelligence. However, due to the imbalance in the development of scientific and technological levels and military strength among countries in the world, several local wars and armed conflicts in the world have shown the characteristics of “multiple forms of warfare” of mechanization, informationization, and intelligence. In the Syrian War, low-end, cheap civilian pickup trucks danced with high-end, expensive stealth aircraft, crudely made homemade rockets and high-precision cruise missiles flew together, and the highly informationized and intelligent U.S. and Russian armies, the highly mechanized Syrian and Turkish armies, and the opposition with a very low mechanization level, jointly performed an alternative “hybrid war” on the Syrian battlefield, in which mechanized warfare, informationized warfare, and elementary intelligent warfare overlapped with each other.
The integrated development of the “three modernizations” is in line with the stage characteristics of the current national social and economic development. my country’s path to modernization is very different from that of Western developed countries. Western developed countries have a “serial” development process, with industrialization, urbanization, agricultural modernization, and informatization developing in sequence, and it took more than 200 years to develop to the current level. my country’s development must be a “parallel” process, with industrialization, informatization, urbanization, and agricultural modernization developing in an overlapping manner. The national social and economic foundation is the basic support for national defense and military construction. It is precisely the “parallel” development characteristics of my country’s current social economy that determine that national defense and military construction must adopt the “three modernizations” integrated development mode.
The integrated development of the “three transformations” is adapted to the current level of development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence in the military. After long-term efforts, our military has basically achieved mechanization, and has made significant progress in informatization construction, but is also facing opportunities and challenges of intelligence. The special national and military conditions make it impossible and impossible for our military to copy the development path of the Western developed countries represented by the US military. “Step-by-step” development may lead to the loss of the historical opportunity of promoting intelligence to accelerate the completion of mechanization and informatization, and leading and promoting the development of mechanization and informatization to a higher stage.
The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that “we should accelerate the development of intelligent military and improve the joint combat capability and all-domain combat capability based on the network information system”, “basically realize mechanization by 2020, make significant progress in informatization construction, and greatly enhance strategic capabilities”, and “strive to basically realize the modernization of national defense and the army by 2035, and build the people’s army into a world-class army in an all-round way by the middle of this century.” On the eve of the August 1st Army Day this year, President Xi Jinping proposed the strategic idea of ”accelerating the integrated development of mechanization, informatization and intelligence” when presiding over the 22nd collective study of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on strengthening national defense and military modernization. The Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee further emphasized and deployed this, and incorporated it into the 14th Five-Year Plan and the 2035 Vision Goals for implementation, marking that the requirements for the integrated development of the “three transformations” have been elevated to a strategic level and have become an important guiding ideology for leading national defense and military construction.
The essential connotation of the integrated development of the “three transformations”
The “integration” in the “three transformations” does not mean mixing, combining or compounding. The word “integration” in the physical sense means melting or melting into one; in the psychological sense, it means that after a certain collision or contact, different individuals or groups tend to merge into one in terms of cognition, emotion or attitude. The integrated development of the “three transformations” in national defense and military construction refers to the coordinated mutual tolerance, mutual penetration and mutual promotion of mechanization, informationization and intelligence, from “you are you and I am me” to “you have me and I have you”, and then to “you are me and I am you”, reaching the level of perfect integration and unity, and thus producing a superposition effect, aggregation effect and multiplication effect, and realizing a leap in the overall combat capability.
The basic laws and main characteristics of the integrated development of the “three transformations”. The main ones are: First, the “three transformations” are progressive and orderly dependent. From a chronological perspective, the “three transformations” did not originate at the same time. Without the previous “transformation” as a premise, foundation and input, there would be no occurrence and development of the latter “transformation”. The previous “transformation” provides an important material basis for the latter “transformation”. Second, the “three transformations” overlap and penetrate each other. Informatization is not the end of mechanization. There is still a certain degree of mechanization in the process of informatization. Intelligence is not the end of mechanization and informatization. There is still a certain degree of informatization and mechanization in the process of intelligence. Third, intelligence and informatization can enhance the efficiency of mechanization through virtual control. The “real” here mainly refers to the hardware represented by physical entities such as combat platforms and ammunition, and the “virtual” mainly refers to software with combat data, algorithms, etc. as the core. Mechanization is mainly based on hardware construction, while informatization and intelligence are mainly based on software construction. “Software defines everything”, and hardware is optimized, upgraded, empowered and made more efficient through software. With the in-depth development of the integration of the “three transformations”, the construction priority will be that load will surpass platform, software will surpass load, and algorithm will surpass software.
The internal mechanism and driving mechanism of the integrated development of the “three transformations”. The main ones are: First, the superposition of advantages. Practice has proved that no matter whether it is mechanization, informatization or intelligence, the supporting technology group of each “transformation” will give birth to new weapons and equipment, generate new combat forces, and ultimately form new combat capabilities with different combat mechanisms. These new combat capabilities and the original combat capabilities are combined with advantages to produce a system outflow effect and greatly enhance the overall combat capability of the army.
The second is upgrading and expansion. Informatization aggregates and upgrades mechanized combat systems into informationized combat systems through digital transformation and networking of various mechanized combat platforms, making a qualitative leap in combat effectiveness. Intelligence can also be integrated with mechanization and informatization through upgrading and expansion. On the one hand, intelligent technology is used to upgrade the “brain” of the combat platform – the control system, and promote the control mode of unmanned combat platforms such as drones, unmanned boats, and unmanned ground vehicles, in accordance with the human direct operation mode, human assistance mode, human authorization mode, fully autonomous mode, and machine adaptive mode. After some old combat platforms are upgraded through informatization and intelligent transformation, they can also realize remote control operation and cooperate with manned platforms. On the other hand, the use of intelligent technology to optimize and upgrade the informationized combat system has greatly enhanced its capabilities in information acquisition, transmission, processing, sharing, security and other aspects, and the system’s combat capability has been comprehensively improved again.
The third is to make up for shortcomings and replace them. From the history of military construction, in the process of deepening development of a certain “ization”, bottleneck problems that are difficult to solve by relying solely on its own technical system often appear, and other “ization” technical means and development ideas are urgently needed to find a new way to solve them. At present, machinery is becoming more and more sophisticated and complex, and the difficulty of design and control is increasing; informatization leads to “information explosion”, massive data is generated, rapidly diffused, true and false are mixed, and it is increasingly difficult to quickly transform into useful information. These problems are difficult to be effectively solved within the technical system of mechanization and informatization itself. To break through the bottleneck of mechanical control capabilities and information processing capabilities, the use of intelligent technical means is an important option. Conversely, the technological breakthroughs and applications produced by the previous “ization” may also offset the shortcomings of the latter “ization”. For example, the speed of hypersonic missiles can exceed the reaction capability of the informationized defense combat system and achieve rapid penetration; high-energy microwave weapons can directly destroy networks and electronic equipment, etc., which to a certain extent offset the opponent’s information advantage.
Information Network: The Key to Winning the Cognitive War
■Zhai Chan
introduction
In today’s era of information and intelligent integration, information networks, with their advantages of deep reach, wide popularity, and strong interactivity, will play an irreplaceable and important role in cognitive warfare. With the support of information networks, cognitive warfare will be more powerful and more scalable. A deep understanding of the mechanism, laws, basic forms, methods and means of cognitive warfare of the role of information networks will help to timely control the initiative of cognitive warfare and lay the foundation for victory.
The Mechanism and Laws of Information Networks and Cognitive Warfare
The essence of cognitive warfare in the role of information networks is to provide massive amounts of information through core algorithms, create biased cognitive scenarios, and influence the thinking and cognition of people and intelligent machines. This process integrates the operating rules of information networks and the internal mechanisms of thinking and cognition, has strong predictability, and is the underlying structure and key point that must be grasped in information network cognitive warfare.
The stickiness effect based on path dependence. The highly developed information network in today’s society provides a platform that people cannot live without for learning, working, living, entertainment, military construction, combat and military struggle preparation, forming an interconnected path dependence between each other. This platform uses information as the core and the network as the medium. Through invisible stickiness, it connects different groups of people, societies, countries and the military together, connecting the entire world into a closely connected global village. Objectively, it also provides a bridge and a link for conducting cognitive operations, influencing the opponent’s thinking and cognition, and winning cognitive wars. In 2009, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered an “Internet Freedom” speech, advocating the “Internet Freedom” strategy, attempting to use the channel formed by people’s high dependence on the Internet to influence the thinking and cognition of the people of the opponent country, especially the younger generation, and spread American values.
Interactive influence based on information exchange. Education believes that interactive communication can effectively overcome the cognitive barriers formed by one-way information transmission, reach consensus, form empathy, and strengthen empathy through mutual information exchange, emotional integration, and mutual needs. A big difference between information networks and traditional communication media is that they provide a carrier that can interact and communicate on a large scale, at a fast pace, and with high efficiency. In this carrier, the party with strong information can repeatedly confirm the influence, adjust methods and strategies, and intervene in the thinking and cognition of the other party through the interactive mechanism provided by the carrier, based on the other party’s thought fluctuations, emotional changes, attitude feedback, etc. For a long time, the United States has maintained a “engagement + containment” strategy toward China. One very important consideration is that this kind of engagement can effectively overcome the communication barriers and information gaps formed by simple blockade and confrontation, enhance the interaction between the two governments and peoples, and thus find opportunities to open gaps and influence our ideas and ideologies. Although this strategy takes place in the traditional field, it is inherently consistent with the interactive influence mechanism of information networks based on information exchange.
The seductive influence based on the preset scene. The concealment, virtuality and permeability of the information network allow its controllers to create extremely deceptive, tempting and inflammatory information scenes through water army flooding, information filtering and “fishing in troubled waters” and other technical and strategic means, so that the opponent is deeply trapped in it without knowing it, and instead develops towards the preset process and results. This directional manipulation of the information network can subtly and efficiently influence, infect and shape the opponent’s thinking and cognition, so that the opponent is unconsciously led by the rhythm, and the combat effect is far better than the confrontation. On the eve of the Iraq War, the US media spread false information such as the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq through the Internet and other platforms, accusing the Saddam regime of collusion with al-Qaeda, rampant corruption, and unprovoked harm to the Iraqi people. At the same time, they tried every means to cover up the truth, filter out the anti-war voices of their own people, and strive to create an atmosphere that the Saddam regime is evil and hateful and that the whole of America is united in hatred of the enemy.
The basic form of cognitive warfare in the role of information networks
The laws of war and the mechanism of victory determine the basic form of war. The laws and mechanisms of cognitive warfare based on information networks inherently determine the external forms of this war. The most basic and representative ones include information confusion warfare, misleading thinking warfare, and will-destroying warfare.
Information confusion warfare. It is to infuse the network with a large amount of complex information that combines the real and the fake, which is both true and illusory, so that the enemy’s information network capacity is overloaded, malfunctions, and disordered operations, or causes specific audiences to become “deaf, blind, and insensitive”, have cognitive abilities blocked, and their thinking, cognition, and decision-making judgments are hindered. This form of warfare is often used in the early stages of combat and in opaque battlefields. The party with information advantage can make the enemy fall into a state of panic and bewilderment, resulting in perception failure, loss of thinking, and self-disorder. Bloomberg reported that the Space Force, the sixth branch of the U.S. military that was recently established, plans to purchase 48 jammer systems by 2027, aiming to disrupt satellite signals “in the event of a conflict with a major power.” Many national militaries generally feel that the information they receive is not too little but too much. The massive amount of information coming from all directions has put tremendous pressure on situation perception and analysis and judgment.
Misleading thinking warfare. This is to form a biased information scene by instilling specific information that contains the intentions of the party controlling the information network, misleading, deceiving and influencing the thinking of specific countries, armies and people, causing them to deviate from the correct development track and deviate in a direction that is beneficial to oneself and detrimental to the enemy. It is the highest level and common practice of cognitive attack. This kind of misleading is based on strong external pressure, on specious strategies, and on information mixed with water as a weapon. It targets the opponent’s thinking characteristics and weak links, and implements clear-cut deception, causing the opponent to lose his way in tension and panic, and fall into the “trap” unknowingly. In recent years, while implementing the great power competition strategy, some countries have used cyber trolls to fabricate false situations, create false information, and spread true rumors to fan the flames around our country and encourage some countries that have historical grievances with our country and frictions with our country in reality to seek trouble. The purpose is to induce us to divert our attention, weaken the investment of resources and strength in the main strategic direction, deviate from the track of great power rejuvenation, and seek to reap the benefits of the two fishermen.
Will-destroying war. Futurist Alfred Toffler said that whoever controls the human mind controls the entire world. War is ultimately a confrontation between people. People’s psychological activities largely affect their mental state, which in turn affects their will to fight. Will-destroying war is different from traditional warfare that indirectly affects people’s will through material destruction. It directly affects the psychological activities, mental state and thinking decisions of key figures, thus affecting military morale, fighting will and combat actions. With the development of science and technology and social progress, the intervention in people’s will has entered the stage of “technology + strategy” from the traditional strategy-based intervention. More than a decade ago, scientists developed a “sound beam” weapon that uses an electromagnetic network to emit extremely narrow sound waves from hundreds of meters away, interfering with the enemy’s judgment and even causing mental confusion among strong-willed soldiers. In recent years, studies have shown that artificial speech synthesis technology based on brain wave signals can extract signals from the brain and synthesize speech that humans can directly understand.
Information networks are the main means of cognitive warfare
“Technology + strategy” constitutes the basic means of modern cognitive warfare. As a product of modern scientific and technological development, the information network’s means of effecting cognitive warfare are also mainly reflected in “technology + strategy”. This provides us with a basic entry point for understanding and grasping the ways and scientific paths of information network’s effect on cognitive warfare, thereby winning the war.
Big data construction. As the core component of the information network, data is not only the carrier of information, but also the “new oil” driven by the value of the information network, and the basic ammunition for cognitive warfare. Through massive data, complex information scenarios are constructed for my use, or the opponent’s cognitive confusion, or misleading and deceiving thinking, or destroying beliefs and wills are formed, which constitutes the basic logic of cognitive warfare in the information network. In this logical framework, data is undoubtedly the most basic resource and the most core element. A few years ago, authoritative departments calculated that the world produces about 2.5 exabytes (EB) of data every day, of which only 20% is structured data that can be directly used, and the remaining 80% needs to be analyzed, identified, and screened. These data resources, which are growing exponentially, provide an inexhaustible supply of “data ammunition” for constructing data information scenarios and conducting cognitive warfare.
Intelligent push. In the information network era, intelligent push has become a convenient channel for people to absorb external information, gain identification of thinking, emotional resonance, and influence the thinking and cognition of others. Using advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence to collect, organize, and analyze people’s thinking habits and behavioral preference data to form personalized and customized perception push can produce an “echo wall” of social cognitive trends and an information cocoon that shackles people. At the same time, it is also conducive to empathizing with others, understanding the thinking trends and possible actions of opponents, and taking targeted countermeasures. In our daily lives, we all have the experience of receiving a large amount of similar information after shopping online or searching for certain types of information. This intelligent push method is applied to cognitive operations, which can easily enable the information leader to use information network data to conduct forward-looking analysis and judgment on the decisions and actions that may be made by the command and decision-making level of the combat target, and induce them to make the decision-making actions they hope to see or make corresponding response measures in advance.
Emotional infiltration. Freud said that we are not pure wisdom or pure souls, but a collection of impulses. In the information network space, the concepts that can be widely and quickly disseminated are often not calm, rational, and objective thinking and analysis, but mostly impulsive and irrational emotional mobilization. This is determined by the fast pace of information dissemination and news release. The cognitive need to respond quickly to this information, in turn, leads to the reflexive, impulsive, and emotional response of “fast thinking”, which transforms seemingly isolated social cases into highly coercive and inflammatory psychological hints and behavioral drives, and explosively promotes irrational decision-making and actions. In June 2009, a diplomatic cable disclosed by WikiLeaks described the lavish banquets held by the family of Tunisia’s Ben Ali regime and described the regime as a corrupt and tyrannical “mafia”. This deepened the resentment of the country’s citizens and became an important driving force behind the “Jasmine Revolution” that overthrew the Ben Ali regime.
