Defeating dozens of top Go players in a man-machine battle, defeating a retired US Air Force pilot in a simulated air combat… In recent years, artificial intelligence has been like an omnipotent “magician”, creating endless miracles, shocking many people and constantly refreshing people’s imagination.
As a technical science dedicated to simulating, extending and expanding human intelligence, artificial intelligence has long surpassed scientists’ initial imagination and entered a “booming period” of rapid development. It is profoundly changing the way of production and life of human beings, and promoting the social form to accelerate from digitalization and networking to intelligence. At the same time, the widespread use of artificial intelligence technology in the military field will fundamentally change the winning mechanism and combat methods of modern warfare, give birth to new combat means and combat ideas, and promote the war form to accelerate into the intelligent era.
In intelligent warfare, intelligent equipment, intelligent command, intelligent maintenance, and intelligent combat methods are all conceivable – “fake news” created by artificial intelligence is everywhere in the entire process of war preparation, conduct and conclusion, and it is “false and true”; the role of inanimate intelligent entities and robot fighters in intelligent warfare is prominent, and artificial intelligence combat forces such as “cloud brain”, “digital staff” and “virtual warehouse” used for information support, command and control, effect evaluation and logistics support will play an increasingly important role in future wars. Intelligent machines and intelligent weapons will become the main force on future battlefields; remote and precise Specific, miniaturized, and large-scale unmanned attacks will become the main form of attack. “Man-to-man” warfare will expand to “machine autonomous warfare” warfare; intelligent swarm attrition warfare, cross-domain mobile warfare, and cognitive control warfare will become basic combat types; decentralized deployment of humans and machines, autonomous coordination, and concentrated energy offensive and defensive operations will become the basic principles of cross-domain integration and global operations; the “observation-judgment-decision-action” link will be greatly shortened, the combat rhythm will be faster, the actions will be more precise, and the efficiency will be higher; upgrading and training artificial intelligence systems and various unmanned combat platforms through continuous confrontation exercises will become an important way to enhance combat effectiveness. Intelligence will surpass firepower, mobility, and information power and become the most critical factor in determining the outcome of a war. As a result, the meaning of battlefield control will need to be redefined, new topics will be added to international arms negotiations, and textbooks on intimidation theory will need to be rewritten.
The world’s military powers, represented by the United States, have foreseen the broad application prospects of artificial intelligence technology in the military field. They believe that future wars will be intelligent wars and future arms competitions will be intelligent competitions. They have also laid out a series of research plans in advance, hoping to seize the initiative in the military application of artificial intelligence and strive to open up a “generation gap” with potential opponents. In recent years, NASA, the Department of Defense and various military services have deployed a series of artificial intelligence technology research projects in the military field. The U.S. Department of Defense has also proposed the establishment of a “Joint Artificial Intelligence Center” to jointly promote artificial intelligence projects with the U.S. military and 17 intelligence agencies, and coordinate the planning and construction of an intelligent military system supported by military technology and military applications. Russia also sees artificial intelligence as the commanding heights of future military competition. The Russian military is stepping up the development of humanoid robots that can drive vehicles and build robot troops that can fight side by side with human soldiers. Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “Artificial intelligence is not only the future of Russia, but also the future of all mankind. It contains huge opportunities and threats that are difficult to predict today.” Countries such as the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and India are also increasingly paying attention to the development and application of artificial intelligence in the military field.
Today, the pace of military application of artificial intelligence may be difficult to stop. Faced with the new situation, we need to firmly grasp the major historical opportunities for the development of artificial intelligence, judge the general trend, take the initiative to plan, grasp the direction, seize the initiative, and effectively safeguard national security. At the same time, from the perspective of the future and destiny of mankind, the international community should establish a mechanism to prevent the excessive military application of artificial intelligence as soon as possible. After all, the power of human beings to create civilization should not become a tool to destroy civilization, and scientific and technological progress should be a blessing for the benefit of mankind, rather than a death knell that threatens human survival and development.
The rapid development and widespread application of artificial intelligence technology are profoundly changing human production and lifestyles, bringing huge opportunities to the world while also bringing unpredictable security challenges. It is particularly noteworthy that the military application of artificial intelligence technology may have far-reaching impacts and potential risks in terms of strategic security, governance rules, and moral ethics.
AI security governance is a common issue facing mankind. With the widespread application of AI technology in various fields, all parties are generally concerned about the risks of AI military applications and even weaponization.
Against the backdrop of diverse challenges facing world peace and development, all countries should uphold a common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable global security concept and, through dialogue and cooperation, seek consensus on how to regulate the military applications of AI and build an effective governance mechanism to prevent the military applications of AI from causing significant damage or even disasters to humanity.
Strengthening the regulation of the military application of artificial intelligence and preventing and controlling the risks that may arise will help enhance mutual trust among countries, maintain global strategic stability, prevent an arms race, alleviate humanitarian concerns, and help build an inclusive and constructive security partnership and practice the concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind in the field of artificial intelligence.
We welcome all parties including governments, international organizations, technology companies, research institutes and universities, non-governmental organizations and individual citizens to work together to promote the safe governance of artificial intelligence based on the principle of extensive consultation, joint construction and sharing.
To this end, we call for:
– In terms of strategic security, all countries, especially major powers, should develop and use artificial intelligence technology in the military field with a prudent and responsible attitude, not seek absolute military advantage, and prevent exacerbating strategic misjudgments, undermining strategic mutual trust, triggering escalation of conflicts, and damaging global strategic balance and stability.
– In terms of military policy, while developing advanced weapons and equipment and improving legitimate national defense capabilities, countries should bear in mind that the military application of artificial intelligence should not become a tool for waging war and pursuing hegemony, and oppose the use of the advantages of artificial intelligence technology to endanger the sovereignty and territorial security of other countries.
– In terms of legal ethics, countries should develop, deploy and use relevant weapon systems in accordance with the common values of mankind, adhere to the people-oriented principle, uphold the principle of “intelligence for good”, and abide by national or regional ethical and moral standards. Countries should ensure that new weapons and their means of warfare comply with international humanitarian law and other applicable international law, strive to reduce collateral casualties, reduce human and property losses, and avoid the misuse of relevant weapon systems and the resulting indiscriminate killing and injury.
– In terms of technical security, countries should continuously improve the security, reliability and controllability of AI technology, enhance the security assessment and control capabilities of AI technology, ensure that relevant weapon systems are always under human control, and ensure that humans can terminate their operation at any time. The security of AI data must be guaranteed, and the militarized use of AI data should be restricted.
– In terms of R&D operations, countries should strengthen self-discipline in AI R&D activities, and implement necessary human-machine interactions throughout the weapon life cycle based on comprehensive consideration of the combat environment and weapon characteristics. Countries should always insist that humans are the ultimate responsible party, establish an AI accountability mechanism, and provide necessary training for operators.
– In terms of risk management, countries should strengthen supervision of the military application of artificial intelligence, especially implement hierarchical and classified management to avoid the use of immature technologies that may have serious negative consequences. Countries should strengthen the research and judgment of the potential risks of artificial intelligence, including taking necessary measures to reduce the risk of proliferation of military applications of artificial intelligence.
——In rule-making, countries should adhere to the principles of multilateralism, openness and inclusiveness. In order to track technological development trends and prevent potential security risks, countries should conduct policy dialogues, strengthen exchanges with international organizations, technology companies, technology communities, non-governmental organizations and other entities, enhance understanding and cooperation, and strive to jointly regulate the military application of artificial intelligence and establish an international mechanism with universal participation, and promote the formation of an artificial intelligence governance framework and standard specifications with broad consensus.
– In international cooperation, developed countries should help developing countries improve their governance level. Taking into account the dual-use nature of artificial intelligence technology, while strengthening supervision and governance, they should avoid drawing lines based on ideology and generalizing the concept of national security, eliminate artificially created technological barriers, and ensure that all countries fully enjoy the right to technological development and peaceful use.
Through the smoke of war, we can see that today’s war has evolved from the bloody fights of ignorant barbarism and the battles of conquering cities to the precise beheadings dominated by information and the fierce competition on the battlefield of intelligence. This objective fact tells us that war, as a specific complex social phenomenon, will present different war forms and winning mechanisms in different historical periods. As American futurist Alvin Toffler pointed out, “artificial intelligence is like the missiles and satellites before. Whether you are prepared or not, it will enter the historical stage of human civilization war.” President Xi Jinping clearly pointed out: “If we do not understand the winning mechanism of modern warfare, we will only be able to see through a mirror and miss the point.” The winning mechanism of war refers to the way in which various factors of war play a role in order to win the war, as well as the laws and principles of their mutual connection and interaction. Compared with the traditional information warfare, the winning mechanism of future intelligent warfare has undergone significant changes.
The confrontation mode has changed from “system confrontation” to “algorithm game”, and the algorithm advantage dominates the war advantage
Algorithms are strategic mechanisms for solving problems. In fact, “algorithms” are a series of clear instructions for solving problems, and are clear steps to solve a certain type of problem according to certain rules. In future wars, the side that has the advantage of algorithms will be able to quickly and accurately predict battlefield situations, innovate the best combat methods, and achieve the war goal of “winning before fighting.”
Algorithms are the key to dominating intelligent warfare. First, algorithmic advantage dominates cognitive advantage. After big data is processed by high-performance and efficient algorithms, massive amounts of data are quickly converted into useful intelligence. Therefore, the party with algorithmic advantage can dispel the “battlefield fog” caused by the failure to process data in a timely manner, making cognition more profound. Second, algorithmic advantage dominates speed advantage. Compared with classical algorithms, quantum algorithms have achieved an exponential acceleration effect. In addition, quantum computers have increased from 1 quantum bit in 2003 to 1,000 quantum bits in 2015, and their computing efficiency is 100 million times faster than that of classical computers, making artificial intelligence a qualitative leap. Third, algorithmic advantage dominates decision-making advantage. With its high-speed and accurate calculations, the algorithm replaces human “deep thinking” and repeated exploration, thereby accelerating knowledge iteration. Mastering super-powerful algorithms can quickly propose flexible and diverse combat plans and countermeasures in response to changes in the enemy’s situation, constantly disrupting the enemy’s established intentions and deployments.
Algorithms are the core of the leap in war effectiveness. First, wars are more efficient. With the support of algorithms, the reaction speed of artificial intelligence is hundreds or thousands of times that of humans. In 2016, the “Alpha” intelligent software developed by the United States reacted 250 times faster than humans and controlled a third-generation aircraft to defeat a manned fourth-generation aircraft in a simulated air battle. Second, war endurance is stronger. Artificial intelligence is not limited by physiological functions and can continuously perform repetitive and mechanical tasks. In September 2016, an F-16 fighter jet reached 8 times the gravity overload during training, causing the pilot to lose consciousness. However, before the aircraft hit the ground, the onboard “automatic collision avoidance system” automatically pulled the aircraft up, avoiding the tragedy. Third, the war ends better. With the support of massive data and supercomputing capabilities, AI’s judgment and prediction results are more accurate. The US military’s search and killing of Osama bin Laden, which combined manned and unmanned equipment, is a successful example.
The elements of combat are changing from “information-led” to “machine-led”, and machine-led combat is reshaping the combat process.
In the future, intelligent technology will penetrate all elements and processes of war. The Internet of Things, the Internet of Intelligence and the Internet of Brains will become the foundation of war. The four domains of physical domain, information domain, cognitive domain and social domain will be deeply integrated, making the battlefield holographically transparent, with humans controlling the war and no humans fighting on the battlefield. Intelligent weapons and equipment will reshape the combat process from “sensor to shooter”.
Smart eyes “detect”. “Detection” means intelligent intelligence detection. It can virtualize collaborative networking, self-organized dynamic scheduling, automatic multi-source intelligence mining, and order-based on-demand use of multi-dimensional sensors such as land, sea, air, space, and electricity, to the greatest extent possible to dispel the “war fog” caused by insufficient or redundant information and open the “smart eyes” to see through intelligent warfare.
Loop “control”. “Control” refers to intelligent command and control. Focusing on the core of decision-making advantage, the “man-in-the-loop” human-machine collaborative technology is used. According to the autonomy of the machine, three decision-making and control methods are adopted: “man-in-the-loop”, “man-on-the-loop” and “man-out-of-the-loop”, to form a comprehensive advantage with superior decision-making quality and action speed.
Intelligent “fighting”. “Fighting” means intelligent offensive and defensive operations. Relying on the advantages of system structure and algorithm, it mobilizes multi-dimensional, manned and unmanned combat platforms in real time, quickly couples combat forces, builds combat systems on demand, focuses on targets, and independently implements “distributed” and “swarm” collaborative operations. After the battle, it quickly decouples and waits for battle, so that the troops are in a state of flux and gather and disperse at random. At the end of 2015, Russia deployed 6 tracked unmanned combat vehicles, 4 wheeled unmanned combat vehicles and 1 drone to support the Syrian government forces in their assault on the strongholds of Islamic extremist forces, and won the world’s first offensive battle dominated by unmanned combat vehicles. About 70 extremist militants were killed in the battle, while only 4 Syrian government forces were injured.
The decision-making method changes from “human brain decision-making” to “intelligent decision-making”, and intelligent decision-making optimizes combat operations
With the emergence of intelligent decision-making technology and “cloud brain”, “digital staff” and “virtual warehouse”, war decision-making has evolved from simple human brain decision-making to human-machine hybrid decision-making, cloud brain intelligent decision-making and neural network decision-making.
Human-machine hybrid decision-making. Reasonable division of labor and interactive collaboration between humans and machines is the best solution to explore and solve problems. The advantages of the human brain lie in creativity, flexibility, and initiative; the advantages of machines lie in speed, high precision, and fatigue resistance. High-level decision-making and other highly artistic tasks are handled by the human brain, while big data calculations are completed by machines. Human-machine interaction enables machines to “listen” to human language, “see” human movements and expressions, and “understand” human emotions and intentions, and present the calculation process and results in a way that is easy for people to understand.
Cloud brain intelligent decision-making. In the future intelligent warfare, there will be a metaphorical center of “brain”, and distributed combat units will be linked through the cloud brain. This cloud brain is not only a physical information, physiological information and psychological information center, but also a military command center. Cloud brain decision-making is based on the intelligent “network, cloud, terminal” system. “Network” is an intelligent combat infrastructure network that integrates intelligent battlefield perception, decision-making and weapon control systems. “Cloud” is built on the “network” and is based on the intelligent resource service layer. It is not only a “resource pool” that integrates various combat resources, but also an “intelligent cloud” that provides intelligent services for combat operations. Due to the coupling of multiple centers, networking and decision-making can be quickly established even if it is bombarded with information. “End” refers to the combat resource end. The discrete intelligence and networked intelligence in the combat process can not only make autonomous decisions, but also provide distributed intelligent resources for the war system, enabling the new war system to emerge with collective intelligence.
Neural network decision-making. In July 2018, Russia developed fully automatic artificial neural network software that can destroy as soon as it is found. The intelligent decision-making tool developed by the US military aims to shorten the decision-making cycle and improve decision-making efficiency. The application of neural networks was once limited to tactical-level calculations, and it was difficult to make qualitative analysis and decisions on macroscopic and complex strategic situations. “AlphaGo” has made a breakthrough in the field of Go by simulating the working mechanism of human brain neural networks. In the future, the super self-evolution and strategic decision-making capabilities of deep neural networks will realize the “man-out-of-the-loop” combat cycle.
The combat style has changed from “breaking the chain and destroying the body” to “extreme combat”, which subverts traditional combat methods.
Extreme warfare has broken through the boundaries of traditional warfare, overturned traditional combat patterns, greatly increased the effectiveness of warfare, and brought about truly all-weather, all-time, all-dimensional, and all-domain intelligent warfare.
Break through the limits of human physiology and thinking. First, the combat space and domain are greatly expanded. In the future, intelligent combat will be three-dimensional, full-dimensional, and full-domain combat. The combat space will expand from the traditional space domain to the extremes of the polar regions, deep sea, and space, especially to the cognitive domain and information domain. Penetrate and penetrate other domains, and the combat domain will become more blurred. Second, the combat process is greatly accelerated. Unmanned autonomous combat greatly compresses the “observation-judgment-decision-action” cycle, and develops from the “instant destruction” of information warfare to the “instant destruction” of intelligent warfare. The victory of intelligent warfare is achieved by advancing the warning time, shortening the decision-making time, and extending the combat actions forward, so as to achieve the effect of preemptive layout and preemptive strike. Third, combat actions are extremely flexible. In intelligent warfare, artificial intelligence can propose extremely rich combat plans, and unmanned combat platforms can quickly switch between different functional roles, making combat actions more bold and adventurous, and tactics more unexpected. Even if one of the combat elements loses its function, the “decentralized” function will ensure that the group function is not affected.
Subvert the traditional combat style. The first is invasive lone wolf combat. That is, a single unmanned system fights independently. The second is manned and unmanned collaborative system sabotage warfare. That is, based on intelligent unmanned systems, through mixed combat with manned and unmanned equipment, the combat objectives can be quickly achieved. The third is the independent combat of unmanned system formations. Multiple unmanned systems constitute combat units, which can perform complex tasks such as multi-target attacks. The fourth is mother ship swarm cluster combat. With the mother ship as the transport carrier and command center, a manned and unmanned mixed cluster combat style is formed.
It has the combat effectiveness of “nuclear power”. Intelligent warfare has brought the characteristics and potential of intelligent robots to the extreme, resulting in combat effectiveness close to the limit. First, the target is small and difficult to detect. For example, miniaturized stealth robots are difficult to detect by radar and sound. The hybrid drone embedded with the “optical electrode” chip in the “Dragonfly” by the United States is smaller, lighter and more stealthy, with a flight time of up to several months. Second, it is difficult to confront and the cost is high. For example, a beetle-sized micro-drone can directly crash into the target’s head as long as it scans the human face, and the ammunition it carries is enough to penetrate the brain. Third, the cost is low and the damage is great. In the future, the use of intelligent weapons in extreme combat will have the power of nuclear weapons, especially the extremely large-scale intelligent weapon equipment, extremely low-cost robot automatic production, and extremely flexible robot swarm combat, which may surpass the maximization of nuclear weapon explosion power.
Artificial intelligence technology is an important support for improving strategic capabilities in emerging fields. In recent years, it has developed rapidly and has been widely used in the military field, constantly giving rise to new asymmetric advantages, and profoundly changing the basic form, combat methods and winning mechanisms of future wars. We should have a deep understanding of artificial intelligence as a revolutionary technological driving force, accurately recognize changes, respond to changes scientifically, and actively seek changes, strive to explore ways to win future wars, and gain the initiative in the accelerating intelligent war.
Information mechanism
Knowing yourself and the enemy will ensure victory in a hundred battles. Quickly and effectively mastering all-round information is the primary prerequisite for winning a war. Artificial intelligence can realize intelligent perception of battlefield situations, intelligent analysis of massive data, and intelligent processing of multiple information, and can form a “transparent” advantage on the battlefield.
Autonomous implementation of battlefield perception. By embedding intelligent modules into the wartime reconnaissance system, various reconnaissance node units can realize random networking, ad hoc coordination, and organic integration, and can autonomously capture battlefield information in all directions and dimensions, build a relatively “transparent” digital battlefield environment and combat situation, and then dispel the “fog” of war and present the combat scene in a panoramic manner.
Accurately identify massive amounts of data. Relying on intelligent technologies such as precise sensing technology and analytical recognition technology, it accurately judges, analyzes, compares, and integrates diversified voice, text, pictures, videos, and other data to obtain faster, more complete, more accurate, and deeper battlefield situation results, far exceeding the speed and accuracy of human brain processing.
Efficient response to key information. Based on intelligent technologies such as combat cloud, big data, and the Internet of Things, it can quickly discover large quantities of non-standardized and heterogeneous intelligence data, autonomously discover symptoms, identify intentions, analyze trends, find patterns, and respond to commanders’ needs for key information in real time and accurately.
Synchronous sharing of integrated situation. The intelligent control system can optimize and integrate various reconnaissance and surveillance systems distributed in different spaces and frequency domains such as land, sea, air, space and radio networks, and play an important hub role in sharing information and unified cognition, building a situation based on “one picture”, “one network” and “one chain”, so that all combat units can synchronously share the required information from different spaces, distances and frequencies in all domains and at all times, realizing intelligent sharing.
Decision-making mechanism
Those who can plan for victory before the battle have made more calculations. Scientific and accurate decision-making is a prerequisite for winning a war. Artificial intelligence can conduct dynamic battlefield simulation and deduction, quickly give feasible decisions, greatly shorten the decision-making cycle of combat planning, and form a decision-making advantage.
Intelligent strategic situation analysis. The decision-making support system that incorporates artificial intelligence technology has functions such as information collection, query management, data processing, and correlation analysis. It can effectively break through the limitations of human analysis capabilities, maximize the separation of false and true, correlation verification, and link thinking, and automatically conduct big data analysis such as enemy situation, our situation, and battlefield environment, forming comparative data on related forces and weapons, which can efficiently assist combat commanders and help commanders quickly make combat decisions.
Intelligent optimization of combat plans. Relying on the intelligent combat simulation system, it automatically generates multiple sets of intuitive plans and programs based on the pre-input combat missions and strike target information, comprehensively evaluates their advantages and disadvantages and potential risks, and selects the plan that is most conducive to realizing the commander’s intention for the commander to make the final decision. After receiving the combat missions and target requirements from the superior, each combat unit will further screen the battlefield target information in combination with the tasks and requirements of its own level, and independently formulate the best plan and program at its own level to maximize combat effectiveness.
Intelligent prediction of decision-making effectiveness. The intelligent decision-making auxiliary system relies on intelligent technologies such as big data, high-performance computing, and neural network algorithms to give the command and control system a more advanced “brain-like” ability, which can think more rationally about unexpected situations on the battlefield and quickly come to a relatively objective combat result.
Power control mechanism
The dominant position is to control power by taking advantage of the situation. Seizing control power is the key factor to win the war. Artificial intelligence can “transplant” part of human intelligence to weapons, making the combination of humans and weapon systems more and more close. The deep interaction between humans and machines has changed the traditional control elements, endowed new control connotations, and can help gain new control advantages.
The dominance of the domain is expanding to the high frontier. In the future, highly intelligent unmanned systems will be able to carry out a variety of combat missions even in harsh conditions such as high temperature, extreme cold, high pressure, lack of oxygen, toxicity, radiation, and in extreme environments such as extreme height, extreme distance, extreme depth, extreme micro, extreme darkness, and extreme brightness. The competition for dominance of the combat domain and combat space will extend to the high frontier, the far frontier, and the deep frontier.
The right to control information is expanding to multiple means. The traditional way to seize the right to control information is to control the channels of information acquisition, processing, and distribution by attacking the enemy’s reconnaissance and early warning system and destroying its command and control system. However, information warfare under the guidance of artificial intelligence uses information itself as “ammunition”, and the means to seize the right to control information are more diverse.
The network control power is expanding to distributed. The network information system built based on intelligent technology provides a ubiquitous network “cloud” to aggregate battlefield resources of various terminals and provide services, which can realize modular organization and automatic reorganization of combat forces. The traditional purpose of disconnecting the network and destroying the chain by striking key nodes will no longer be achieved. It is inevitable to respond to the “decentralized” battlefield with an intelligent distributed strike mode.
The power to control the brain is expanding to new dimensions. Brain-like technology and simulation technology are gradually militarized, forming new areas of competition and confrontation. The focus has shifted from focusing on confrontation in the physical and information domains to more emphasis on influencing and controlling the opponent’s psychology. Technologies such as virtual reality and audio-visual synthesis can confuse the real with the fake. “Core attack” can quietly change the enemy’s command and control system algorithm. “Brain control” can directly control the enemy’s decision-making. By controlling and influencing the enemy’s psychology, thinking, and will, the goal of stopping and winning the war can be achieved at the lowest cost.
Mechanism of action
The key to victory in war is speed. Taking unexpected actions against the enemy is the key to victory in war. Artificial intelligence can improve the intelligence level of weapons and equipment, command and control systems, and action decisions, making mobile response capabilities faster and joint strike capabilities more accurate, creating a super action advantage.
The speed of action is “killed in seconds”. The intelligent combat system can see, understand, learn and think, effectively shortening the “OODA” cycle. Once an “opportunity” is found, it will use intelligently controlled hypersonic weapons, kinetic weapons, laser weapons, etc. to quickly “kill” the target at a long distance.
Action style is “unmanned”. “Unmanned + intelligent” is the future development direction of weapons and equipment. Low-cost unmanned vehicles, drones, unmanned submarines and other unmanned autonomous equipment, with the support of cluster autonomous decision-making systems, can plan the task division of each unit according to combat targets, and unmanned devices can accurately dock, autonomously combine, and covertly penetrate to carry out cluster saturation attacks on the enemy.
The action space is “fuzzy”. In future wars, using interference means to carry out soft strikes on the enemy’s intelligent combat systems and intelligent weapons, and using intelligent weapons to delay or influence the enemy’s decision-making and psychology will become the key to victory. Most of these actions are completed unconsciously or silently, presenting a “fuzzy” state where the enemy and us are invisible, the boundaries between the front and the rear are unclear, and it is difficult to distinguish between the visible and the invisible.
The action deployment is “stealth”. The intelligent command system and weapon equipment have bionic and stealth properties. As long as they are deployed in advance in possible combat areas during peacetime preparations or training exercises, they can be hidden and dormant and ready for combat. Once they are activated in time in wartime, they can launch a sudden attack on the enemy, which will help to quickly seize the initiative in the war.
System Mechanism
Five things and seven strategies determine victory or defeat. Future wars will be full-domain, full-system, full-element, full-process system confrontations, and a stable and efficient combat system is the basic support for winning the war. With the continuous expansion of the application of artificial intelligence in the military field, the combat system is becoming more and more intelligent, and the full-domain integrated combat system will produce a strong system advantage.
There are more means of “detection”. Intelligent combat clusters rely on network information systems to connect with various large sensors, electronic warfare systems and other human-machine interaction platforms, use the detection and perception equipment of each combat unit to obtain battlefield data, give play to the self-organizing characteristics of intelligent groups, strengthen real-time detection and support for joint combat systems and back-end intelligence analysis, and can achieve full-domain detection, joint early warning, and coordinated verification, forming a multi-dimensional, full-domain coverage of large-area joint detection intelligence system.
The scope of “control” is wider. The use of intelligent unmanned combat platforms can break through the logical limits of human thinking, the physiological limits of the senses, and the physical limits of existence, and replace humans to enter traditional life restricted areas such as the deep sea, space, polar regions, and strong radiation areas, and stay there for a long time to implement “unconventional warfare”, thereby further expanding the combat space and having the ability to continuously repel opponents in a wider range of fields.
The speed of “fighting” is faster. With the support of intelligent network information system, the intelligence chain, command chain and killing chain are seamlessly connected, the speed of information transmission, decision-making speed and action speed are accelerated simultaneously, and the intelligent combat units can be flexibly organized, autonomously coordinated and quickly strike. All of these make the time utilization efficiency extremely high and the battlefield response speed extremely fast.
The “evaluation” is more accurate. Using intelligent technologies such as experiential interactive learning and brain-like behavioral systems, the intelligent combat evaluation system can autonomously complete the collection, aggregation, grading and classification of multi-means action effect evaluation information, accurately perceive battlefield actions based on big data and panoramic images, dynamically identify combat processes and correct defects, predict complex battlefield changes, and make comprehensive plans and flexibly respond.
The “security” is more efficient. The widespread application of intelligent comprehensive security systems represented by equipment maintenance expert systems and intelligent sensing equipment can efficiently respond to security needs in various domains, intelligently plan security resources, and ensure that the “cloud” aggregates various battlefield resources, effectively improving the comprehensive security capabilities of the networked battlefield.
Artificial intelligence is a general term for cutting-edge technology groups such as big data, automated decision-making, machine learning, image recognition and space situational awareness. It can liberate the “cognitive burden” of human intelligence and physical energy, and enable technology users to gain the advantages of foresight, preemption and preemptive decision-making and action. As a “force multiplier” and “the foundation of future battles”, artificial intelligence will fundamentally reshape the future war form, change the country’s traditional security territory, impact the existing military technology development pattern, reconstruct the future combat system and military force system, and become an important dominant force on the future battlefield.
With the rapid development of technology and the continuous acceleration of competition, major countries have launched their own artificial intelligence development plans, and accelerated the promotion of organizational mechanism reform, scientific and technological research and development, and tactical and combat innovation, promoting the military use of artificial intelligence and seizing the commanding heights of future wars.
Accelerate organizational form innovation
Promote technology transformation and application
Unlike traditional technologies, the research and development and transformation of artificial intelligence have their own characteristics. The institutional settings and operation methods of the traditional national defense system are difficult to adapt to the needs of the rapid development of artificial intelligence. To this end, the armed forces of relevant countries have vigorously carried out organizational system reform and innovation, breaking the institutional barriers in the process of artificial intelligence technology research and development, and accelerating the transformation and application of related technologies.
Emphasize “connection between the near and the far”. The United Kingdom, with the “Defense Data Office” and the “Digital Integration and Defense Artificial Intelligence Center” as the main body, integrates route planning, specification setting, technology governance and asset development, and removes administrative obstacles that restrict the development and application of artificial intelligence technology. The United States, relying on the “Strategic Capabilities Office” and the “Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer”, uses the Army Future Command as a pilot to integrate decentralized functions such as theoretical development, technology research and development, and equipment procurement, focusing on strengthening the innovative application of existing platforms in a “potential tapping and efficiency increase” manner, while buying time for the medium- and long-term technological innovation of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, so as to effectively balance practical needs and long-term development.
Attach importance to “research and use conversion”. The application of artificial intelligence in the military field will have a profound impact on battlefield combat methods, tactical and combat selection, and other aspects. Russia has established institutions such as the “Advanced Research Foundation” and the “National Robotics Technology Research and Development Center” to guide the design, research and development and application of artificial intelligence technology in the Russian military to improve the practical conversion rate of scientific research results. The United States has established the “Joint Artificial Intelligence Center” and relied on the “National Mission Plan” and “Service Mission Plan” to coordinate military-civilian collaborative innovation and scientific and technological achievements transformation, and promote the widespread application of artificial intelligence in the U.S. Department of Defense and various services.
Focus on “military-civilian integration”. Russia has established institutions such as the “Times Science and Technology City” in Anapa and other places, relying on the “Advanced Research Foundation” to fully absorb military and civilian talents, actively build scientific and technological production clusters and research clusters, and effectively expand the two-way exchange mechanism of military and civilian talents. The United States has established institutions such as the “Defense Innovation Experimental Group” in Silicon Valley and other places, relying on the “Defense Innovation Committee”, so that the latest achievements in technological innovation and theoretical development in the field of artificial intelligence can directly enter high-level decision-making. France has established innovative defense laboratories, defense innovation offices and other technical research and development institutions in the Ministry of Defense, aiming to solicit private capital investment and defense project cooperation to improve scientific research efficiency.
Highlight the “combination of science and technology”. The Israel Defense Forces has established a digital transformation system architecture department, which fully demonstrates new technologies, new theories, and new concepts based on the specific effects of various systems organically integrated into various services and arms, so as to determine the corresponding technology research and development priorities and strategic development directions. The United States has enhanced the overall management of national defense technology innovation and application by re-establishing the position of Deputy Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering and creating the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Officer. It has also relied on theoretical methods such as red-blue confrontation, simulation and deduction, and net assessment analysis to conduct practical tests on various new ideas, concepts, and methods, so as to select the focus of various technology research and development and the direction of strategic and tactical research, and achieve a benign interaction between technology development and theoretical innovation.
Project establishment for military needs
Seize the opportunity for future development
In recent years, various military powers have aimed at the research and development of cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies, and have widely established projects in the fields of situational awareness, data analysis, intelligence reconnaissance, and unmanned combat, intending to seize the opportunity for future development.
Situational awareness field. Situational awareness in the traditional sense refers to the collection and acquisition of battlefield information by means of satellites, radars, and electronic reconnaissance. However, under the conditions of “hybrid warfare” with blurred peace and war, integration of soldiers and civilians, internal and external linkage, and full-domain integration, the role of situational awareness in non-traditional fields such as human domain, social domain, and cognitive domain has received unprecedented attention. The US “Computable Cultural Understanding” project aims to process multi-source data through natural language processing technology to achieve cross-cultural communication; the “Compass” project aims to extract cases from unstructured data sources, integrate key information, and respond to different types of “gray zone” operations. The French “Scorpion” combat system project aims to use intelligent information analysis and data sharing platforms to improve the fire support effectiveness of the French army’s existing front-line mobile combat platforms to ensure the safety of operational personnel.
Data analysis field. Relying on artificial intelligence technology to improve intelligent data collection, identification analysis and auxiliary decision-making capabilities can transform information advantages into cognitive and operational advantages. Russia’s “Combat Command Information System” aims to use artificial intelligence and big data technology to analyze the battlefield environment and provide commanders with a variety of action plans. The UK’s “THEIA Project” and France’s “The Forge” digital decision support engine are both aimed at enhancing information processing capabilities in command and control, intelligence collection, and other aspects, and improving commanders’ ability to control complex battlefields and command effectiveness.
Intelligence reconnaissance field. Compared with traditional intelligence reconnaissance, using artificial intelligence algorithms to collect and process intelligence has the advantages of fast information acquisition, wide content sources, and high processing efficiency. The Japanese Self-Defense Forces’ satellite intelligent monitoring system is designed to identify and track foreign ships that may “infringe” its territorial waters near key waters. The U.S. military’s “Causal Exploration of Complex Combat Environments” project aims to use artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to process multi-source information and assist commanders in understanding the cultural motivations, event roots, and relationships behind the war; the “Marvin” project uses machine learning algorithms and face recognition technology to screen and sort out various suspicious targets from full-motion videos, providing technical support for counter-terrorism and other operations.
Unmanned combat field. In some technologically advanced countries, unmanned combat systems are becoming more mature and equipment types are becoming more complete. The Israeli military’s M-RCV unmanned combat vehicle can perform a variety of tasks such as unmanned reconnaissance, firepower strikes, and transport and recovery of drones in all-terrain and all-time conditions. The Russian military’s “Outpost-R” drone system, which has the ability to detect and strike in one, can detect, track, and strike military targets in real time. It also has certain anti-reconnaissance and anti-interference capabilities, and has been tested on the battlefield. The U.S. military’s “Future Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System” project aims to comprehensively improve the U.S. Army’s effectiveness in performing combat missions such as reconnaissance and surveillance, auxiliary targeting, battle damage assessment, and communication relay.
Adapting to the transformation of future battlefields
Continuously exploring new tactics
In order to adapt to the tremendous changes in the battlefield environment in the intelligent era, relevant countries have explored a series of new tactics by improving the participation efficiency of artificial intelligence in key military decisions and actions.
Algorithmic warfare, that is, relying on big data and artificial intelligence technology, fully utilizing the powerful potential of combat networks, human-machine collaboration, and autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons, so that the “observation-adjustment-decision-action” cycle of the side always leads the opponent, thereby destroying the enemy’s combat plan and achieving preemptive strike. In December 2015, the Russian army relied on unmanned reconnaissance and intelligent command information systems to guide ground unmanned combat platforms to cooperate with Syrian government forces, and quickly eliminated 77 militants within the target range at the cost of 4 minor injuries. In 2021, the U.S. Air Force conducted a test flight of the first intelligent drone “Air Borg”, marking the U.S. military’s algorithmic warfare further moving towards actual combat.
Unmanned warfare, guided by low-cost attrition warfare of saturated quantity attack and system attack and defense operations, strives to achieve all-round situation tracking, dynamic deterrence and tactical suppression of the enemy’s defense system through human-machine collaboration and group combat mode. In May 2021, the Israeli army used artificial intelligence-assisted drone swarms in the conflict with the Hamas armed group, which played an important role in determining the enemy’s position, destroying enemy targets, and monitoring enemy dynamics. In October 2021 and July 2022, the US military launched drone targeted air strikes in northwestern Syria, killing Abdul Hamid Matar, a senior leader of al-Qaeda, and Aguer, the leader of the extremist organization “Islamic State”.
Distributed warfare, relying on the unlimited command and control capabilities of artificial intelligence and new electronic warfare means, uses shallow footprints, low-feature, fast-paced forces such as special forces to form small groups of multi-group mobile formations, disperse and infiltrate the combat area in a multi-directional and multi-domain manner, continuously break the enemy’s system shortcomings and chain dependence, and increase the difficulty of its firepower saturation attack. In this process, “people are in command and machines are in control”. In recent years, the US military has successively launched a number of “distributed combat” scientific research projects such as “Golden Tribe” and “Elastic Network Distributed Mosaic Communication”.
Fusion warfare, relying on network quantum communication and other means, builds an anti-interference, high-speed “combat cloud” to eliminate the technical barriers of data link intercommunication, interconnection and interoperability between military services and achieve deep integration of combat forces. In 2021, the joint common basic platform developed by the US Joint Artificial Intelligence Center officially has initial operational capabilities, which will help the US military break data barriers and greatly improve data sharing capabilities. During the NATO “Spring Storm” exercise held in Estonia in 2021, the British Army used artificial intelligence technology to conduct intelligent analysis and automated processing of battlefield information of various services, which improved the integration between services and enhanced the effectiveness of joint command and control.
(Author’s unit: National University of Defense Technology)
Modern war presents the explosive growth of battlefield information and new combat style. With the continuous emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and edge computing, a new generation of command information system is coming. Based on the international fourth generation command information system, this paper imagines the overall architecture of the fifth generation command information system, expounds the technical characteristics of its knowledge center, intelligent enabling, cloud edge integration, independent evolution and resilience adaptation, analyze its key technologies, continuously improves the battlefield information advantage, and transforms to the battlefield cognitive advantage, decision-making advantage and action advantage.
Abstract
Modern war presents the explosive growth of battlefield information and new combat style. With the continuous emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and edge computing, a new generation of command information system is coming. Based on the international fourth generation command information system, this paper imagines the overall architecture of the fifth generation command information system, expounds the technical characteristics of its knowledge center, intelligent enabling, cloud edge integration, independent evolution and resilience adaptation, analyze its key technologies, continuously improves the battlefield information advantage, and transforms to the battlefield cognitive advantage, decision-making advantage and action advantage.
Download CitationsZHANG Zhi-hua , WANG Fan . The Fifth Generation Command Information System and Its Intelligent Technology. Command Control and Simulation . 2021, 43(5): 1-7 https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1673-3819.2021.05.001
Previous Article Next Article In his report to the 19th CPC National Congress, President Xi Jinping clearly pointed out that “we should accelerate the development of military intelligence and improve the joint combat capability and all-domain combat capability based on network information systems”
[ 1 ] . This statement indicates that future wars will be based on networked and intelligent system operations. The fifth-generation command information system will focus on intelligence, strengthen battlefield information advantages, and strive for battlefield cognitive advantages, decision-making advantages, and action advantages. According to relevant reports, the international command information system has gone through four stages of development
[ 2 ] and is evolving towards the fifth-generation command information system. The system architecture is developing towards intelligence, knowledge, cloud edge, and service. The fourth-generation system in the world mainly uses networking, service, and cloud to build an overall coordinated command information system
[ 2 ] , which meets the needs of coordinated operations to a certain extent and achieves information advantages. However, with the explosive growth of battlefield information, it is difficult to transform the system information advantage into the commander’s cognitive and decision-making advantages. With the emergence of new combat styles such as unmanned combat and cyber warfare, in order to adapt to the complexity and nonlinear characteristics of combat command, the command information system must break through cognitive technology and provide accurate battlefield situation cognition and planning and decision-making capabilities. The fifth-generation command information system is envisioned to be centered on artificial intelligence, edge computing, and cloud brain technology to enhance battlefield cognitive advantages, decision-making advantages, and action advantages, support combat command to move from the information domain to the cognitive domain, and realize capabilities such as information knowledge, intelligent decision-making, agile command and control, multi-domain collaboration, and edge services.
1 New Concept of Command and Control
1.1 Intelligent command and control
Intelligent command and control is to use artificial intelligence methods to achieve the transformation from “information-based, network-centric” to “intelligent, knowledge-centric”, and assist commanders in solving perception, understanding, and cognitive problems in the command field. The system architecture and technical architecture of the command information system will change. The system will apply corresponding intelligent technologies around functional domains such as situation, command, control, and support to improve the cognitive and decision-making efficiency of combat command. Foreign militaries pay great attention to the intelligent application of combat command. Since 2007, the US DARPA has published three white papers on national and military development strategies for artificial intelligence, and has launched plans such as “Deep Green”
[ 3 ⇓ – 5 ] , “The High-Tech Holy Grail of the Third Offset Strategy”, and “Commander’s Virtual Staff”. In the field of intelligence perception and tactical decision-making, it has launched artificial intelligence projects such as “Insight”, “Xdata”, “Deep Learning”, “Deep Text Search and Filtering”, “Distributed Battlefield Management”, “Human-Machine Collaboration”, “Mind’s Eye”, “Trace”, “Human-Machine Collaboration”, “X-Plan”, “Cognitive Electronic Warfare”, and “AlphaAI Air Combat”, realizing the ability to deeply understand battlefield intelligence, predict situation cognition, and automatically generate and deduce tactical plans. Since then, the U.S. military has also set up projects such as “Autonomous Negotiation Formation”, “Big Dog”, and “Hummingbird” to improve the manned and unmanned collaborative control capabilities. Overall, the U.S. military currently has the world’s leading level of intelligent combat command. In addition, Germany, France, Russia and other countries have also conducted extensive research in intelligent information perception and processing, intelligent autonomous unmanned combat platforms, etc., and have achieved fruitful research results
With the development of military technology, traditional large-scale cluster combat methods are gradually transformed into small-scale asymmetric combat. Combat activities at the tactical edge will play an important role in war. The tactical edge is also known as the “first tactical mile”
[ 9 ] . It is far away from the command center and has limited communication, computing, and service resources. It is usually composed of combat platforms, tactical units, and special forces. In order to gain information and decision-making advantages, command units at all levels use ubiquitous networks, micro-clouds, and other technologies to achieve information and resource sharing. Mobile computing devices at the tactical edge use fog computing methods to integrate into larger combat units and form micro-clouds under self-organizing networks. The large amount of situation information obtained by the tactical edge is calculated, stored, and shared in the tactical micro-cloud, which simplifies the scale of interaction with the command center, improves the timeliness of information interaction, and solves the problem of insufficient service capabilities at the tactical frontier in the past.
1.3 Multi-Domain Battle Command and Control
In 2016, the U.S. Army proposed the concept of “multi-domain warfare”
[ 10 ] , taking “synchronous cross-domain firepower” and “all-domain mobility” as core elements, promoting the high integration of combat elements, enhancing all-domain strike capabilities, and attempting to eliminate the “anti-access/area denial” capabilities of China, Russia and other countries. It mainly has the following three characteristics
[ 10 ] . First, the combat domain is expanded in multiple dimensions, enabling the U.S. Army to deploy forces from the ground to multiple combat domains such as sea, air, electricity, and the Internet, and has the ability to integrate with other services. Second, the combat elements are highly integrated, and the various services and combat functional domains can share information, coordinate tactics, and synchronize actions, which promotes the transformation of joint services to the integration of combat capability elements. Third, the command chain is developing in a flat direction, and the command mechanism is efficient and flexible. It is necessary to have centralized planning and decentralized execution, and to share information and instructions with various command nodes and individual soldiers, extend the tactical command chain, and realize rapid, multi-line, and multi-domain combat command.
1.4 Mosaic Combat Command and Control
In 2017, DARPA proposed the concept of “mosaic warfare”
[ 11-12 ] , which takes into account both ” threat-based” and “capability-based” equipment construction methods, and flexibly combines sensors, command and control nodes, combat platforms, and cooperative manned and unmanned systems in multiple combat domains on demand to form a mission system. System integration uses a building block approach to dynamically link dispersed fine-grained systems together to form a combat system similar to a “mosaic block”. “Mosaic warfare” uses intelligent decision-making tools to provide distributed situational awareness and adaptive planning and control, assist in combat mission planning, and implement distributed combat management. “Mosaic warfare” requires the replacement of fixed combat force composition with adaptive system reorganization, and the combat command has a resilient and adaptable information system that can customize physically dispersed mixed combat units on demand and meet various dynamic and collaborative combat requirements
2. Transformation of the Characteristics of the Fifth Generation Command Information System
1) The system shifts from network-centric to knowledge-centric. The network-centric approach brings battlefield information advantage, which is then transformed into cognitive advantage and decision-making advantage. The information sharing between systems shifts to knowledge-centric intelligence sharing, which promotes the transformation of the entire command system into decision-making and action advantage.2) The cloud architecture is transformed into cloud-edge-end integration. Expand the original cloud resource sharing capabilities
[ 2 ] and extend them to the platforms, teams, and individual soldiers at the tactical edge, realize the integrated hybrid service capabilities of the battlefield center cloud, mobile cloud, and edge micro-cloud in a mobile environment, and enhance the tactical frontier resource service capabilities.3) Transformation from scheduled integration to resilient adaptability. Currently, the system is deployed and operated according to preset rules. When the mission changes, it must be regulated according to the pre-planned plan. In the future, battlefield systems are vulnerable to attacks and paralysis, requiring the system to have the ability to self-reconstruct, resilient and adaptable when disturbances occur to ensure that the core mission is uninterrupted
[ 13-14 ] .4) Transformation from computational intelligence to cognitive intelligence. Intelligence is manifested in computational intelligence, perceptual intelligence, and cognitive intelligence. Currently, computational intelligence provides a tactical deterministic solution method. In the future battlefield, intelligent technology must be used to improve the accuracy and real-time degree of cognition in terms of massive intelligence processing, situational awareness, and decision-making reasoning.5) Performance changes from fixed fixed to autonomous learning evolution. The system’s algorithm and performance are generally determined and fixed during the design period, and performance improvement is achieved through upgrading and transformation. Intelligent systems have the ability of self-learning and self-evolution, and can learn algorithms for situational awareness and intelligent decision-making online to improve system performance.6) Construction shifts from capability-based to knowledge-based. Command information systems are generally constructed based on capability elements, and system integration is integrated based on capability elements. Intelligent systems pay more attention to the intellectual construction of the system, focusing on the construction of system knowledge, rules, algorithms, and data.7) The interaction mode will shift to human-machine fusion intelligent interaction. Human-machine fusion intelligent perception, anthropomorphic interaction, intention-oriented intelligent human-machine interface interaction, wearable human-machine fusion computing, and fusion and linkage interaction will become the main interaction mode of future systems, and the human-machine control system will progress towards human-machine fusion.8) The separation of combat and training has shifted to the integration of combat, training, exercise and research. The fifth-generation command information system tightly couples combat command and tactical training, and has parallel simulation and reasoning capabilities. It can not only update intelligent algorithms, but also conduct combat and tactics confrontation research, obtain tactical data, and promote algorithm learning. Exercise training has developed from war game simulation to battlefield virtual game.
3 Overall Architecture Concept
The overall architecture of the future fifth-generation command information system should be a command information system that is knowledge-centric, human-machine integrated, intelligently empowered, cloud-edge integrated, autonomously evolving, and resilient and adaptable. The following article mainly describes the overall system from the perspectives of system architecture, service architecture, and technical architecture
[ 15 ] . The system architecture mainly refers to the composition of the system’s logical elements and their relationships, the service architecture describes the integration model of information and computing resources between systems, and the technical architecture describes the system’s technical reference model.
3.1 System Architecture Concept
The system is changing from “information-based, network-centric” to “intelligent, knowledge-centric”, while extending to the tactical edge. Based on the original system integration, the system integrates knowledge and algorithms, applies intelligent technology in functional domains such as situation, command, control, and support, and improves the cognition and decision-making efficiency of combat command. The system architecture is envisioned as follows:
Figure 1 Conceptualization of the fifth-generation command information system architecture
第五代指揮資訊系統架構概念
The fifth-generation system expands the functional domain of parallel deduction and learning training on the basis of functional elements such as situational awareness, command decision-making, action control, support and guarantee, and information services to meet the needs of combat branch evaluation and algorithm learning. In terms of situational awareness, it covers computational intelligence, perceptual intelligence, and cognitive intelligence, mainly completing battlefield intelligence processing and target identification, understanding and predicting the situation, having state and momentum, and improving information advantage; in terms of command decision-making, it is mainly based on cognitive intelligence, which can machine tactical reasoning, generate plans and plans, and improve decision-making level; in terms of action control, it is mainly based on computational intelligence and cognitive intelligence, completing task monitoring and temporary tactical control, and providing action optimization strategies based on knowledge reasoning, such as command guidance, firepower coordination, and unmanned cluster intelligent control; in terms of comprehensive guarantee, it is mainly based on computational intelligence, completing the optimal allocation of battlefield resources under prior knowledge and rules; in terms of parallel deduction and learning training, it combines command and control with simulation training, trains personnel and algorithms in peacetime, and conducts parallel plan deduction in wartime.In addition, the fifth-generation system has an autonomous evolving learning mechanism: first, autonomous learning within the node to optimize the algorithm and knowledge base; second, the nodes share intelligent algorithms and knowledge through the command cloud to collaboratively complete the evolution. Each node can upload the learned algorithms and knowledge to the command cloud to update the algorithms and knowledge of the knowledge center; third, the system issues instructions to tactical nodes, weapon nodes, detection nodes, and combat support nodes, and collects execution feedback. These feedback results can be used to learn and evolve the algorithm.Between the fifth-generation systems, based on the original comprehensive integration based on the cloud/end architecture, an integrated sharing method for knowledge and intelligent algorithms has been added. Each command information system uploads intelligent algorithms and knowledge rules to the knowledge center for plug-and-play sharing by heterogeneous nodes such as battlefield detection, command, and weapons. The command information system can obtain existing intelligent knowledge from the knowledge center and conduct secondary learning and training in combination with its own battlefield data to improve algorithm capabilities. The command cloud will eventually form an intelligent knowledge center for the battlefield, and a battlefield knowledge network will be formed between the intelligent command information systems.
3.2 Concept of cloud-edge-device service architecture
In the future, ubiquitous network connections will extend from command units to various squads, individual soldiers, and platforms at the tactical edge. The fifth-generation command information system will use fog computing and distributed computing technologies to build tactical mobile clouds, squad micro-clouds (Cloudlet), and individual task group pico-clouds (Pico-Cloud) based on cloud architecture technology
[ 9 , 16 ] , forming tactical frontier mobile cloud service capabilities, realizing the hybrid service capabilities of battlefield centralized combat clouds, mobile tactical clouds, and edge micro-clouds and pico-clouds, forming an integrated resource service structure of “cloud, edge, and end”, and quickly building command chains and strike chains.
Concept of cloud-edge-end service architecture of the fifth-generation command information system
第五代指揮資訊系統雲端端服務架構構想
The cloud-edge-end integrated service capability supports the fifth-generation system to achieve dynamic aggregation and release of combat resources through “cloud deployment, cloud aggregation, cloud attack, and cloud dissipation”, thereby improving the combat effectiveness of the entire system
[ 17 ] . The centralized combat cloud is deployed in the command center in a fixed cloud manner
[ 16 ] to provide services for various combat nodes; air, land, and sea tactical clouds provide information, algorithms, computing, and storage services under mobile conditions for aircraft, ships, armored forces, and other forces at the tactical frontier, thereby improving the resource sharing level at the tactical frontier
[ 9 , 16 , 18-19 ] ; in tactical edge military operations, micro-clouds and pico – clouds are constructed. Micro-clouds are deployed in fog computing on vehicles, aircraft, and boats within one hop of the communication distance of the frontier contact unit, expanding the tactical information processing and sharing capabilities of the frontier unit personnel. When individual soldiers and units cannot access micro-clouds, mobile ad hoc networks and distributed computing technologies can be used to construct pico-clouds to support dynamic information aggregation and resource sharing end-to-end under weak connections at the tactical edge, thereby extending the command chain.
3.3 Technical Architecture Concept
The fifth-generation command information system will extend the war from the physical domain and information domain to the cognitive domain, and will change the way of command and control. Its technical architecture is as follows:
Technical architecture of the fifth-generation command information system
第五代指揮資訊系統技術架構
The fifth generation command information system adds tactical edge services and intelligent computing environments based on the networked computing environment of the fourth generation command information system, which is compatible with the system architecture and meets the intelligent requirements of the system. The tactical edge service computing environment provides micro-cloud and pico-cloud basic computing, storage, and information service platforms for weakly connected terminals; the intelligent computing environment provides intelligent services for situation, decision-making, control, and human-computer interaction.The intelligent technology environment layer includes the following five parts. The intelligent computing hardware platform is equipped with AI acceleration processors such as GPU, FPGA, and TPU to adapt to the computing power required by deep learning. Some algorithms use brain-like chips with neuron processing mechanisms or solidified dedicated intelligent computing chips; the intelligent data management platform mainly manages data, samples, cases, models, and knowledge; the deep learning framework integrates the runtime library and basic algorithm library of deep learning and reinforcement learning; the traditional artificial intelligence computing framework includes traditional algorithm support libraries such as spark and bigflow for search and solution, data mining, and parallel processing; intelligent services include application-oriented intelligent algorithm service libraries, such as intelligent interactive recognition, valuation network calculation, and strategy network calculation services, which provide solution interfaces for application development.The intelligent application layer mainly provides functional elements such as intelligent situational awareness, planning and decision-making, action control and information services, human-computer interaction, learning and training. It is the system’s main functional interface for users and the core problem that intelligence needs to solve.The fifth-generation system technology architecture model mentioned above mainly uses cloud computing and intelligent technology support services to achieve the sharing of situations, instructions, algorithms and knowledge between systems, and supports system autonomous evolution, algorithm upgrades and knowledge updates. System intelligence can be divided into levels 0 to 4
[ 20 ] . Level 0: full manual control; Level 1: computing intelligence, deterministic complex tactical calculations and information automation processing; Level 2: having certain perceptual intelligence, able to understand, evaluate and predict battlefield situations; Level 3: having cognitive intelligence, able to provide machine decision-making and decision-making deduction capabilities; Level 4: having human-machine integration and symbiosis capabilities, and the core algorithm can self-learn and self-evolve. At present, the intelligence level of the fourth-generation system is generally at level 1, and situation understanding and command decisions are still controlled by humans. The intelligence of the fifth-generation system can reach the fourth level through three stages. The first stage is to realize the ability to perceive, understand and evaluate the battlefield situation; the second stage is to build a knowledge base of tactics and enable machine decision-making based on rules, knowledge and algorithms; the third stage is to realize machine self-learning and self-evolution of core tasks, and have the function of autonomous decision-making, reaching a highly intelligent level of human-machine integration
4 Key technologies of the system and its intelligent concept
The key technologies of the fifth-generation command information system mainly solve the above – mentioned problems of intelligence, cloud – edge-end integration, and system resilience and adaptability. The key technologies of the system and its intelligent concept is the following
Key technologies of the system and its intelligent concept
系統關鍵技術及智慧化理念
The key technologies of the fifth-generation command information system cover all aspects of the command and control OODA loop, and can support the system’s intelligence, resilience, and edge command and control requirements in terms of detection, decision-making, control, and strike, thereby building a precise perception chain, rapid control chain, precise strike chain, and agile service chain, extending to the tactical edge and improving command effectiveness.
1) Situational Awareness Machine Analysis TechnologyIntelligence compilation and analysis technology.
Use big data, deep learning, knowledge graphs and other technologies to perform intelligent information correlation matching, text semantics intelligent analysis, and public opinion intelligent search and extraction to obtain valuable intelligence from massive, multi-source, and heterogeneous battlefield information.
Multiple target rapid recognition technology. Using deep learning methods, a multi-layer CNN convolutional neural network is constructed, and sample feature parameter learning is used to complete feature extraction and rapid target recognition of optical, infrared, electromagnetic, and acoustic information.Situation recognition and understanding technology. Analyze the enemy’s combat intentions and combat capabilities, use the reinforcement learning valuation network technology to simulate the commander’s situation recognition process, and combine the CNN nonlinear battlefield situation fitting ability to establish a mapping from situation images to situation understanding
Situation machine prediction and assessment technology. Based on situation understanding, the enemy’s tactical behavior is estimated. First, the strategy network is used to obtain the enemy’s activity rules, and then the parallel deduction method is used to perform multi-branch situation deduction. Finally, a prediction network is constructed to predict the situation.
Combat mission space and strategy modeling technology. Modeling the state and action strategy of the combat mission space and determining the description method of the mission state, strategy, and feedback are the basis for deep reinforcement learning to make decisions.Mission planning machine decision-making technology. Use operations optimization to complete target analysis and task allocation. Use deep reinforcement learning and swarm intelligence algorithms to machine plan force composition, firepower configuration, and collaborative paths. Tactical planning tends to be rule-based reasoning and easy to break through; campaign planning tends to be knowledge-based reasoning based on experience, involving the art of command, and is more difficult to break through.
Parallel simulation technology for combat plans. With reference to the parallel simulation technology of the “deep green” system the Monte Carlo search tree and game test method are used to simulate enemy combat behavior, rehearse and evaluate the action process, and accumulate feedback reward and punishment functions for learning, training, and decision optimization.
Intelligent generation technology of combat plans. Using intelligent perception algorithms such as natural language understanding, voice command recognition, and sketch recognition, combined with the extraction of elements from the task model, the knowledge graph is used to automatically extract the plan to generate combat plans and command sequences .
Rapid decision-making technology on the spot. Based on the current situation, using the learning data accumulated by the game platform, automatically matching the most appropriate plan adjustment, making dynamic decisions on the plan based on Monte Carlo tree search and transfer learning algorithms, reverse reinforcement learning, and enhancing the generalization ability of the plan.3) Intelligent motion control technologySituation-based improvisation control technology. According to the effects and deviations of combat operations, the resources, paths, and coordination modes of the mission are dynamically adjusted, and parallel simulation multi-branch deduction and reinforcement learning technology are used to correct the deviations, thus realizing tactical “feedforward” control .
Swarm intelligence collaborative control technology. Promote the maximization of the overall effectiveness of battlefield intelligent bodies in collaborative operations, use ant colony and bee colony control algorithms and deep reinforcement learning methods to build a global tactical value network, establish an effect feedback model, and perform strategic control based on the value network.Firepower collaborative control technology. Improve the speed and accuracy of friend-or-foe identification, firepower allocation, and collaborative dispatch, use swarm intelligence and deep reinforcement learning algorithms to automatically plan, coordinate and optimize the strike chain, and have a certain degree of autonomous decision-making ability.
Multi-domain cluster system autonomous collaborative machine planning technology. Use branch search solution, knowledge reasoning, and deep reinforcement learning to plan and allocate collaborative tasks for manned/unmanned systems, and use swarm intelligence optimization algorithms to plan collaborative trajectories for unmanned and manned platforms.Multi-domain cluster system autonomous collaborative command and control technology. It monitors the missions of unmanned clusters and provides autonomous collaborative command and guidance. It uses swarm intelligence algorithms to detect conflicts and avoid collisions among multiple unmanned platforms, and coordinates grouping, routing, and load.
5) Intelligent information service technology.
Intelligent battlefield information sharing technology uses reinforcement learning and semantic association technology to analyze users’ information needs and preferences, generate information needs based on users’ differentiated characteristics, and intelligently push tactical information to users.
Human-computer fusion intelligent perception interaction technology. Construct multi-channel human-computer interaction methods including sketches, spoken language, gestures, head postures, expressions, eye movements, etc., and provide natural, sensitive, accurate and anthropomorphic interaction strategies . Intention-oriented intelligent human-computer interface technology. Using FCM fuzzy cognitive interactive reasoning technology, infer the user’s interactive intention, and organize the interactive interface output by integrating different means such as spoken language, gestures, sketches, and natural language according to the user’s interface needs and interaction preferences.Smart wearable human-machine fusion technology. It uses edge computing technology and new human-machine interaction methods such as voice, gestures, eye movements, brain-computer interfaces, and augmented reality to provide soldiers with smart wearable devices that have a collaborative, integrated, and linked human-machine interaction mode.
7) Virtual gaming and training evaluation technology.
The combat virtual game technology builds a game confrontation test platform, conducts combat knowledge modeling, and uses parallel simulation, branch decision, differential confrontation and other technologies to conduct red-blue confrontation, which not only trains tactics and methods, but also collects tactical data.Machine training and evaluation technology uses the data accumulated by the game platform and the experience of personnel to model, adopts small sample transfer learning technology to train and optimize the algorithm, replays the real data afterwards, performs transfer learning optimization on the decision model, and updates the decision plan.
8) System resilience adaptive reconstruction technology.
Environmental perception and autonomous fault detection technology. Under soft and hard damage, it can detect the main faults and analyze abnormal correlations, predict the occurrence of faults that affect task execution, evaluate the impact of faults on tasks, and realize active perception and rapid location of system resources and faults.System self-healing and reconstruction intelligent technology. When key nodes of the system fail, an adaptive mechanism is used to reallocate resources, achieve capacity regeneration, and continuously ensure the completion of core tasks. The system changes from a fault repair method with preset rules and manual participation to an intelligent system reconstruction method.
9) Tactical edge computing technology.
Mobile micro-cloud service platform technology. Deployed in fog computing mode on vehicles, aircraft, and boats within one hop of the enemy, it provides shared processing capabilities for combat teams and expands the tactical information processing capabilities of team members.Pi-cloud resource sharing technology under weak connection ad hoc network. Based on the individual soldier ad hoc network, the Pi-cloud is constructed using distributed computing technology to support end-to-end autonomous collaborative information sharing and resource sharing between individual soldier mobile devices under weak connection to meet tactical edge needs.
5 Development ideas and ideas
1) Gradually progress in stages, starting with the easy and then moving on to the difficult. In the first stage, image, voice, gesture, face recognition, and natural language understanding are applied to intelligence analysis; in the second stage, deep learning and reinforcement learning are applied to situational awareness and command decision-making; in the third stage, cloud computing is used to realize a knowledge-centered, intelligently empowered system.
2) Select intelligent algorithms for application. Focusing on the application of deep learning in situation and deep reinforcement learning in planning and decision-making, select appropriate tactical backgrounds to verify intelligent algorithms. Tactical-level planning of paths, firepower, tasks, etc. can be used as breakthroughs.
3) Strengthen the construction of knowledge engineering in the field of combat command. Expert rules, military regulations, and actual combat data are the basis of intelligent command. The existing combat rules should be modeled and represented in a knowledge-based manner, and the input and output mapping relationship between knowledge representation and deep learning should be established. The research on knowledge learning and knowledge reasoning methods should be strengthened .
4) Establish a virtual confrontation game platform to accumulate data. Intelligent algorithms require a large number of learning samples. The ways to accumulate samples are: Establish a confrontation game platform to conduct war games, human-machine confrontation, and red-blue confrontation to accumulate data; Collect tactical data from actual combat exercises and build models as training samples.
6 Conclusion
This paper proposes the overall and intelligent concept of the fifth-generation command information system, constructs a new generation of command information system architecture with “intelligent empowerment, human-machine integration, cloud-edge integration, autonomous evolution, cloud-intelligence sharing, and resilience and adaptability”, analyzes its key technologies and capability characteristics, and attempts to achieve cognitive advantages, decision-making advantages, and action advantages based on the fourth-generation system in the world .
There are not many technical verifications for the fifth-generation system in the world, so we should not rush for quick success and still need to conduct sufficient research.
Wars in different eras have different characteristics, and the “fog of war” that accompanies them is constantly changing. Often when people feel that they have basically seen the way to win through multi-faceted exploration, the next war presents new uncertainties. Local wars such as the Syrian War and the India-Azerbaijan conflict have demonstrated the multifaceted and complex nature of modern warfare from different perspectives. It can be seen that although traditional firepower warfare is still on the stage, the characteristics of intelligence have already emerged; although the combat type is still an offensive and defensive struggle, the combat guidance, environmental conditions, and specific methods of play have undergone profound changes. Wars are accelerating their evolution towards intelligence. The battlefield space has expanded from land, sea, air, space, electricity, and the Internet to space, polar regions, deep sea, and cognitive confrontations. The game competition has changed from military confrontation to multi-dimensional competitions such as politics, economy, science and technology, and public opinion. The participating forces have developed from the two warring parties to global attention and multi-dimensional intervention. Information intelligence has moved from auxiliary support to comprehensive dominance, full penetration, and full coverage. The combat unit has evolved from scale optimization to small, micro, and sophisticated, and the form is scattered and capable. Intelligence and hybrid have become basic trends. In the face of evolving wars and new uncertainties, we need to be sensitive to change and respond proactively, accumulate momentum and forge ahead in the midst of change, so as to achieve leadership and surpass others and seize the opportunity to win.
Enhance the hybrid nature of war based on the “pan-variability”. War is the continuation of politics and has never been a simple military confrontation. In the era of intelligence, visible struggles and invisible struggles coexist, battlefields with gunpowder smoke and silent battles coexist, and gray areas, hybrid warfare, and marginal conflicts coexist. In the face of fierce and complex competitive game situations, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of a hybrid warfare system with military as the cornerstone. First, enrich strategic options. Closely follow the characteristics of the times, strengthen the exploration of the characteristics and laws of non-military confrontation and the construction of power means, implement relevant preparations, and form comprehensive advantages. Secondly, enhance invisible strength. Attach importance to geopolitical, cultural, psychological and other aspects of research, and form an effective discourse system through think tank exchanges, academic promotion, cultural integration, legal construction, media propaganda and other means to influence the other party’s cognition in a silent way. Thirdly, unite the forces of peace. Take the construction of a united front in the new era as an important means of hybrid confrontation, unite all forces that can be united, and enhance international influence and appeal.
Enhance the flexibility of tactics based on the “smart change” of the battlefield. Looking at recent local wars and conflicts, due to factors such as the regional dimension and the strength of both sides, the traces of traditional warfare are still relatively obvious, but intelligent and unmanned warfare has irreversibly come to the fore. It can be foreseen that comprehensive intelligent warfare is not far away, the extension range of weapons and equipment will be farther and wider, the combat perspectives of the opposing sides will be larger and wider, and the degree of hinge fusion between the physical domain, network domain, and cognitive domain will be deeper. The battlefield with deep “smart change” calls for concepts and tactics that are adapted to it. We should accelerate the promotion of intelligent thinking, intelligent technology, and intelligent network aggregation and empowerment to form a flexible closed link with fast perception, fast decision-making, fast judgment, fast action, and fast feedback, based on “OODA” and the kill chain to beat the slow with the fast and change with change. Relying on intelligent computing power and intelligent algorithms, we design wars in advance, build various models, and innovate tactics and training methods in peacetime. In wartime, we analyze the battle situation in real time, keenly seize opportunities, and make precise decisions and actions. We use “military + technology”, “theory + experiment”, and “algorithm + tactics” to integrate the art of strategy with intelligent technology to achieve a combination of the strange and the orthodox, take the lead in rapid changes, and win by intelligence.
Enhance the plasticity of forces based on the “micro-change” of units. One of the important characteristics of modern warfare is that large systems support elite combat, and combat units are becoming increasingly miniaturized, integrated, and modular. We must focus on the combat unit, the end of combat effectiveness, and forge a “sharp knife” and “sharp blade” that is small, fine, micro, and strong to adapt to intelligent warfare. On the one hand, strengthen its ability to integrate into the system and connect all parties, rely on ubiquitous access to information networks, and achieve decentralized combat and energy concentration through flexible matching and rapid reorganization; on the other hand, strengthen its independent decision-making and improvisation capabilities, improve robustness and self-recovery, and be able to survive, respond to emergencies, and fight in extreme situations. It is possible to explore the formation of a “micro-unit” concept force, implement a flexible organization, do not fix the number of personnel, and do not restrict the field. Advanced combat theories, new combat formations, and new weapons and equipment can be tested and verified in advance, so as to explore ways to achieve cloud combat, cloud joint, cloud energy gathering, and self-combination at the end of the strike chain.
Enhance strategic bottom line based on deterrence “evolution”. Deterrence has a long history like war. With the in-depth application of intelligent technology and weapons and equipment, the connotation and extension, force means, form and effect of deterrence are changing. Although traditional nuclear deterrence is still the cornerstone of bottom line, new deterrence capabilities have been quietly formed, requiring higher determination, strength, wisdom, and strategy. Focusing on the role of deterrence in blocking the enemy invisibly in peacetime, controlling the situation at the key in times of crisis, and winning the final victory in wartime, we should focus on strengthening the strong and making up for the weak, opening up new areas, and long-term strategy to maximize the strategic value of deterrence. First, we should give equal importance to conventional and unconventional, accelerate the development of new weapons and new forces, and achieve the predetermined deterrence intention through actual combat training and actual combat deployment, supplemented by the expression and transmission of strategic will. Secondly, we should continue to study new combat concepts and new combat theories, and promote the transformation of theories from “soft” to “hard” through academic exchanges, think tank collisions, and multi-track and multi-layer confrontations, and transform them into real deterrence. Thirdly, accelerate the transformation of science and technology into the military field, increase research efforts in cloud computing, blockchain, quantum technology, etc., and strive to form a potential deterrent to opponents.
National Defense University Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee is a very important meeting held at a critical period of comprehensively promoting the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation with Chinese-style modernization. It focuses on studying and deploying the issues of further comprehensively deepening reform and promoting Chinese-style modernization, and makes strategic deployments for continuously deepening national defense and military reforms, drawing a blueprint for the new journey of relaying reforms to strengthen the military and constantly creating a new situation in national defense and military modernization. All levels of the military should earnestly study and implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, unify their thoughts, wills and actions, and thoroughly implement the strategy of reforming and strengthening the military, so as to provide strong guarantees for achieving the goal of building the army for 100 years as scheduled and basically realizing national defense and military modernization.
Reform is a key move in designing and shaping the future of the military
Reform and opening up are the most prominent features and the most magnificent aura of contemporary China. The military field is the field with the most intense competition and confrontation, and it is also the field with the most innovative vitality and the most need for reform and innovation. Whether a military can possess an unremitting spirit of reform and a pioneering and enterprising spirit of innovation is an important indicator of its ability to win. Deepening the reform of national defense and the military is the only way to strengthen the military. The driving force for strengthening the military lies in reform, the way out lies in reform, and the future also lies in reform.
The strength of the People’s Army comes from reform and innovation, and the victory of the People’s Army comes from reform and innovation. The history of the growth and development of the People’s Army is a history of reform and innovation. From the establishment of a complete set of principles and systems for building the army under the absolute leadership of the Party during the Agrarian Revolution, to the implementation of the policy of streamlining the military during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression; from the establishment of five major field armies during the War of Liberation, to the repeated adjustments to the system and organization after the founding of New China, to the massive reduction of millions of troops in the new era of reform and opening up and socialist modernization… The People’s Army has been fighting and reforming, building and reforming, and has become stronger and stronger. From the “Sixteen-Character Formula” of the Red Army period, to the “Protracted War” of the Anti-Japanese War, from the “Ten Military Principles” of the Liberation War, to the “piecemeal” of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, to the continuous adjustment of military strategic policies after the founding of New China… The People’s Army learned war from war, explored laws from practice, and wrote a vivid chapter of continuous innovation in the art of war leadership in the history of world military. Along the way, reform and innovation have always been an important magic weapon for our army to grow from small to large, from weak to strong, and continuously from victory to victory. Deepening the reform of national defense and the military is the requirement of the times to realize the Chinese Dream and the dream of a strong military, the only way to strengthen the military, and a key move to determine the future of the military. At present, it is a period of hard struggle to achieve the goal of building the army for 100 years. In order to defend national sovereignty, security, and development interests with stronger capabilities and more reliable means, and to provide strategic support for comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese-style modernization, it is necessary to continue to deepen the reform of national defense and the military.
Only reformers can make progress, and only innovators can become strong. President Xi Jinping stressed that “the new military revolution has provided us with a golden opportunity. We must seize the opportunity and work hard to not only keep up with the trend and the times, but also strive to be at the forefront of the times.” In today’s world, the new military revolution is surging, the intelligent warfare form is gradually showing its true face in the practice of war, and the new military technology and weapons and equipment system are further affecting the rules of war. All these require us to maintain a keen sense of reform and cutting-edge innovative thinking, base ourselves on the actual development of our army, focus on the needs of preparing for war, think deeply about the new force structure and winning logic necessary to win modern wars, rely on reform to continuously optimize the military system, improve the effectiveness of military governance in line with actual combat requirements, and go all out to fight a tough battle to achieve the goal of building the army for the centenary.
Comprehensively deepening reform has achieved great changes in the People’s Army in the new era
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core has, with great political courage and wisdom, pushed forward the theory and practice of reform of socialism with Chinese characteristics to a new breadth and depth. In the new era and new journey, we must insist on deepening reform to gain creativity, cohesion and combat effectiveness, and insist on the unchanged direction, unswerving path and unreduced efforts, and continuously push forward the modernization of national defense and the army with better strategies, higher efficiency and faster speed, and resolutely complete the mission and tasks of the new era entrusted by the Party and the people.
Grasp the overall changes in deepening national defense and military reforms. Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the People’s Army has adhered to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implemented Xi Jinping’s Thought on Strengthening the Army, and taken the Party’s goal of strengthening the army in the new era as its guide. It has comprehensively implemented the strategy of reform and strengthening the army, and has thoroughly resolved the institutional obstacles, structural contradictions, and policy issues that have long constrained national defense and army building, promoted the reform of the leadership and command system, the reform of the scale structure and force composition, and the reform of military policies and systems, and achieved historic achievements in deepening the reform of national defense and the army. The People’s Army has achieved an overall revolutionary reshaping; the new system, structure, pattern, and appearance have made our army’s winning advantage more prominent, its innovative vitality continuously released, and its morale more uplifting. Practice has fully proved that as long as we unswervingly continue to deepen the reform of national defense and the military, we will be able to create a new situation in the modernization of national defense and the military.
Adhere to the ideological guidance of deepening the reform of national defense and the military. President Xi’s series of important strategic thoughts on deepening the reform of national defense and the military, which are directional, fundamental, and overall, have profoundly clarified the contemporary significance, essential attributes, fundamental guidance, goals and tasks, core requirements, important directions, strategic measures, and scientific methods of deepening the reform of national defense and the military. To carry out the reform of national defense and the military to the end, we must adhere to Xi Jinping’s Thought on Strengthening the Military as the general guidance and general compliance, and consistently use Xi Jinping’s Thought on Strengthening the Military to arm the minds of officers and soldiers, further unify thoughts, deepen understanding, and use it to guide reform practice, further work on resolving deep-seated contradictions and problems, promote the implementation of reform arrangements, and realize the determination and intentions of the Party Central Committee, the Central Military Commission, and President Xi at a high standard.
Advancing national defense and military modernization requires continued reform
President Xi stressed: “On the road ahead, the People’s Army must be brave in reform and good at innovation, and never become rigid or stagnant at any time or under any circumstances.” The People’s Army is a strong backing for national security. The deeper the reform goes, the more it must take responsibility, move forward steadily and courageously, and there must be no slackness or rest. It is necessary to continue to deepen the reform of national defense and the army to provide security guarantees and strategic support for comprehensively promoting the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation with Chinese-style modernization.
The cause of strengthening the military is inspiring, and the goal of strengthening the military inspires fighting spirit. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee made strategic arrangements for deepening the implementation of the strategy of reform and strengthening the military. This is not only a call to action for continued reform and attack, but also a drumbeat for determination to strengthen the military. We must focus our efforts on implementing the strategy of reform and strengthening the military, and continuously push forward the cause of strengthening the military in the new era. The mission is imminent, and the goal calls. The goal of strengthening the military depicts the goal map, roadmap and development map for strengthening and revitalizing the military. It is the soul and main line that runs through the deepening of national defense and military reform. The promotion of reform must not deviate from the goal of strengthening the military for a moment or a single moment. The goal of strengthening the military must always be used to measure, regulate and correct, providing a strong impetus for advancing the modernization of national defense and the military.
A strong country must have a strong military, and a strong military must reform. National defense and military modernization are important components of China’s modernization. Further deepening reform and promoting China’s modernization will inevitably put forward new and higher requirements for deepening national defense and military reform. On the one hand, with the increase in the breadth and depth of the practice of China’s modernization, the new progress of comprehensively deepening reform requires our military construction to accelerate and build high quality in improving quality and efficiency. We must uphold the core position of innovation in our military construction and promote national defense and military modernization through reform and innovation. On the other hand, with the practice of modern warfare, especially the militarization of artificial intelligence, the profound changes in the internal mechanism of war and the mode of winning, etc., all require national defense and military reform to seize the opportunity and act in response to the times, and make greater efforts to enhance our military’s joint combat capability based on the network information system and the all-domain combat capability. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee made major strategic arrangements around the continued deepening of national defense and military reforms, and proposed a number of important reform measures involving the optimization and adjustment of systems, mechanisms, and institutions, which are highly contemporary, forward-looking, and targeted. All levels of the military must earnestly study and implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, focus on improving the leadership and management system and mechanism of the People’s Army, deepen the reform of the joint combat system, deepen cross-military and local reforms, and constantly create a new situation in strengthening and revitalizing the army.
We should follow the general trend of reform and gather strong forces. To thoroughly implement the strategy of reform and strengthening the military, we need unity of purpose and unity of purpose. We should persist in using the Party’s innovative theories to unite our hearts and minds and strengthen our foundations, arm our heads with Xi Jinping’s thoughts on strengthening the military, unify our thoughts and actions with the decisions of the Party Central Committee, the Central Military Commission and Chairman Xi, and take on the responsibility of thoroughly implementing the strategy of reform and strengthening the military with a high degree of historical consciousness and a strong sense of mission, further consolidate the consensus on reform, strengthen the will to reform, and enhance the confidence in reform. We should focus on summarizing and applying the successful experience of national defense and military reform, deeply grasp the characteristics and laws of reform and strengthening the military, use reform to solve the problems encountered in development, and continuously promote the modernization of national defense and the military to break through obstacles. Party members and cadres in the military, especially leading cadres, must be good promoters and doers of reform, take the lead in tackling tough problems with practical actions, work hard and fast, and make great strides forward in the journey of building a world-class military in an all-round way.
●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)
