President Xi pointed out that the core of studying combat issues is to clarify the characteristic rules and winning mechanisms of modern warfare. In today’s world, major changes unseen in a century are accelerating. Disruptive technologies represented by artificial intelligence are developing rapidly and widely used in the military field, accelerating the evolution of war forms towards intelligence. The corresponding war winning mechanism is also changing. “ Victory tends to smile at those who can foresee changes in the characteristics of war, rather than at those who wait for changes to occur before adapting”. Only by discovering changes in a timely manner, proactively responding to changes, and actively adapting to changes can we better grasp the initiative in future wars and remain invincible in future wars.
Outwitted
In the “intelligent warfare confrontation”, human intelligence has widely penetrated into the combat field and been transplanted into weapon systems. Global multi-dimensional and various types of intelligent combat platforms can quickly couple combat forces, build combat systems according to mission requirements, and independently implement coordinated operations, the mission ends and quickly returns to a state of readiness for war, showing a trend of intelligent autonomy. Whoever possesses the empowerment and gain advantage of intelligent technology in the combat system can design wars, lead the development of the battlefield, master battlefield initiative, and achieve “using wisdom to defeat clumsiness”. First, algorithms, computing power, and data determine system operational capabilities. Relying on intelligent algorithms and powerful computing power, it can quickly and efficiently analyze targets and match resource means, solve high-frequency cross-domain collaboration problems, achieve coordinated planning, parallel actions, and real-time evaluation, and greatly improve system operating speed and strike efficiency. Second, intelligent networks support cross-domain all-in-one action. The intelligent network information system provides basic support and link links for the combat system. Combat units and combat elements in different combat domains can be integrated into the entire combat system at any time “plug and play” to achieve rapid information transmission and sharing. Again, an intelligent weapon platform enables autonomous and flexible strikes. Intelligent technology achieves the organic combination of human strategy and machine’s autonomous perception, autonomous decision-making, and autonomous action by empowering weapon platforms, elements, and forces. Through “software defines the combat system structure and functions, and uses software to empower weapon platforms and ammunition, the platform can independently select and attack targets, and flexibly build a kill chain”.
Gathering is better than scattering
With the support of the “intelligent network information system”, the combat system has become an organic whole with a high degree of autonomous coordination, allowing the overall linkage of combat operations and the operational effectiveness index to be magnified, relying on the overall power of the system to win. First, the multiple elements of information, firepower, military power and cognition are linked together to release energy. With the injection of intelligent factors into the combat system, information, firepower, force and cognition will be given new quality capabilities, and based on the support of intelligent network information systems, software and hardware capabilities will be organically combined and physical and intangible means will be closely integrated to achieve combat effectiveness. maximize. Secondly, the multi-spatial multi-directional linkage of land, sea, air, space, network, electricity and other forces gathers forces to release energy. The seizure and control of battlefield control will rely more on the integrated linkage and cross-domain coordination of multi-domain space operations. By dispersing various combat forces deployed in a vast space, they will immediately gather advantages, forming a multi-domain, multi-directional energy release advantage for dimensionality reduction attacks in one domain, thereby taking control of battlefield initiative. Again, the multi-link linkage of detection, control, and evaluation gathers strength to release energy. Through the “ubiquitous Internet network”, cross-domain response to combat operations, cross-domain sharing of combat information, and cross-domain complementation of combat functions can be realized, and anti-virus networks can be dynamically adjusted or constructed according to the enemy’s circumstances and circumstances to achieve rapid system operation and concentrated energy release.
“Exquisite” is better than coarse
Intelligent warfare must be reasonably invested, effectively regulate combat forces, and be used as a means of warfare to achieve the goal of “refining the rough” and winning at the lowest cost. First, a precise target-information-driven system operates efficiently. Relying on various intelligent sensing platforms covering multi-dimensional and wide-area deployment, it detects and locates obstacles or targets in the battlefield environment. Precisely control the flow, flow, and velocity of information to achieve rational allocation of combat resources, coordinated and orderly combat operations, and precise release of combat energy. Second, precise breaching operations achieve a rapid transition between good and bad. The application of big data, big model analysis algorithms and other technologies can accurately analyze and judge combat systems “weak spots ”“ Achilles’ heel”, accurately guide the use of weapons and high-energy weapons such as lasers and hypersonic speeds, make the choice of precise strike methods more diverse, and can make the enemy Combat systems are instantly disabled. Again, precise strike evaluation supports the optimal superposition of combat effects. The target damage effect is accurately obtained through intelligent channels and means, and the conclusion is revised based on the human-computer interaction evaluation system. The commander can compare, interact, feedback, and correct the damage effect assessment conclusions with the information stored in the system knowledge base and his or her own professional knowledge to achieve the purpose of accurately assessing the impact effect of the target.
Faster than Slow
“The main speed of military intelligence”, the rapid development of military intelligence has greatly improved the speed of information transmission and the accuracy of weapon strikes, greatly reduced the time for reconnaissance and early warning, intelligence processing, command and decision-making, fire strike, and damage assessment, and accelerated “OODA” kill chain Cycle, new rapid-fire weapons such as hypersonic missiles, laser weapons, microwave weapons, and electromagnetic pulse weapons further push the rhythm of war to “instant kill”. Hybrid human-machine decision-making becomes the key to enemy action first. On the one hand, the new model of human-machine hybrid cloud-brain decision-making is based on the intelligent “network, cloud, terminal” system and integrates intelligent battlefield perception, decision-making and weapon control systems to quickly select combat plans and achieve instant decision-making advantages. On the other hand, the speed at which the kill chain is constructed becomes the basic yardstick for system confrontation. Under the empowerment of “intelligent technology”, the acquisition, processing and transmission time of battlefield information is greatly shortened. The intelligent platform uses algorithms to analyze battlefield spatial situations and target information in real time, and the time of the kill chain is shortened to seconds, thus achieving “destroy upon discovery”.
Toughness is better than crispness
War is not only a military contest, but also a competition between the country’s human, material and financial resources. Maintaining the lasting resilience of the combat system has become a key factor affecting the outcome of the operation. First, the large-scale use of low-cost unmanned intelligence platforms has become a completely new way of fighting. Unmanned intelligence platforms, micro-intelligent robot autonomous combat clusters, etc., dispersed to more small and low-cost combat platforms, can enhance the recovery speed and overall penetration of the combat system after damage, and achieve maximum combat benefits at a smaller cost. Secondly, the continued guarantee of intelligent resources becomes the key to the operation of the combat system. Various new weapons and new means such as unmanned combat platforms, intelligent algorithms, and cyber attacks are constantly emerging. Powerful computing power, advanced algorithms, and accurate data support have become the guarantee for the continued and stable operation of the system, and intelligent resources “timely, appropriately, applicable, and appropriately” continue to be effective. Guarantee has become an important influencing factor in the victory of intelligent warfare. Again, the operational system’s requirements for balance of offensive and defensive capabilities are getting higher and higher. The local area network, wide area network and even brain network behind the network and digitalization of the combat system leave room for opponents to launch attacks; the “cloud— network —end” structure of the combat system intelligent network information system, its data center, supercomputing center and other network infrastructure It will also be an important hub for opponents to focus on attacking and destroying.
Heart is better than things
Intelligent warfare is different from traditional warfare in which the main purpose is to eliminate the enemy’s effective power. It will pay more attention to weakening the enemy’s morale, disintegrating the enemy’s will, and destroying the enemy’s psychology. Smart technology has become a new way to influence the minds of all employees at all times. First of all, intelligent new media, new technologies and new means have created new ways for the psychological influence of public opinion. Enhanced consciousness and the development of information editing and other technologies have made the methods of conscious attack and defense more diverse, the methods of confrontation more varied, and the technological content higher. Use “intelligent weapons, intelligent technology and intelligent information struggle methods to carry out information attacks on the enemy, thereby forming psychological deterrence”. Secondly, intelligent and deep interaction makes obtaining data richer and more complete. Technologies such as AI face-changing, holographic projection, and audio-visual synthesis provide new means to implement intelligent manufacturing and confuse facts. Again, smart models, massive amounts of data, and high-performance servers provide new tools for quickly concocting information ammunition. Mental guidance and control can be closely coordinated with military, economic, and diplomatic forces to amplify the deterrent effect, constantly create pressure from public opinion to force the enemy to compromise, form psychological deterrence and make them hesitate to give in, change the enemy’s cognition through differentiation of value identity, and achieve subjugation without fighting.
More than single
The rapid development of science and technology has opened up new space for activities and interests for human society, but new security threats and challenges have followed suit, promoting the corresponding expansion of battlefield space and confrontation fields. Currently, wars are constrained and influenced by many factors such as politics, economy, diplomacy, military, technology, geography, and psychology. Unconventional mixed wars supported by military capabilities have become more intense. The competition space for hybrid warfare has extended to various fields such as politics, economy, diplomacy, culture, and military. It emphasizes the comprehensive use of national strategic resources and strategic tools to achieve traditional war goals and transcend traditional war methods. It has a special status and role. As intelligent technology matures, the threshold for intelligent warfare will show a downward trend. Participating parties may adopt an undeclared war approach to launch a variety of integrated economic warfare, diplomatic warfare, cyber warfare, public opinion warfare, psychological warfare, legal warfare, etc. Mixed warfare, mixed victory means giving priority to politics, economy, diplomacy, etc. on the basis of comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the opponent and one’s own side in all aspects Public opinion and other non-military tools and means that can use strengths and avoid weaknesses, use four taels to move a thousand pounds, pursue “no war” or “less war ”“small war” and subjugate others. As long as we deeply understand and accurately grasp the characteristic rules and operating mechanisms of future hybrid warfare, and creatively use clever and efficient strategic techniques, we can fully achieve the expected strategic results.
“Military academies were born and built for war”. At the opening ceremony of the 2019 military academy principals training camp, President Xi proposed a new era of military education policy, pointing out the direction for the military academies to cultivate high-quality, professional new military talents. At present, the form of war is accelerating towards informatization and intelligence. What kind of soldiers are needed to win future intelligent wars, and how military higher education can cultivate talents to adapt to intelligent wars are major issues before us.
The war form is accelerating towards intelligence
The form of war is a staged expression and state of war history that is mainly marked by the technical attributes of main battle weapons. So far, after experiencing cold weapon wars, hot weapon wars, and mechanized wars, war forms are accelerating their development towards information-based and intelligent wars. The increasingly widespread application of advanced technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and brain science in the military field is becoming an important driver of the new military revolution, giving birth to new unmanned, autonomous, and intelligent warfare forms, and changing the traditional The winning mechanism of war. In 2014, a foreign military think tank released a research report titled “War in the 20YY∶ Robot Era”, believing that a storm of military change marked by intelligent armies, autonomous equipment, and unmanned warfare is coming, and it will develop intelligent combat platforms, information systems and decision-making support systems, as well as new weapons such as directional energy, hypersonic speed, bionic, genetic, and nanometer By 2035, an intelligent combat system will be initially built, and by 2050, it will develop to an advanced stage, fully realizing intelligent or even unmanned combat platforms, information systems, and command and control. New weapons such as bionics, genes, and nanometers will enter the battlefield, and combat space will be further expanded. Expand to biological space, nanospatial space, and intelligent space.
In recent years, as people’s research on the human brain continues to deepen, brain-computer interface technology is becoming increasingly mature. In the future, the exchange of information between humans and the external world will no longer be limited to the senses. Direct information exchange between the brain and the outside world can also be achieved through chips. People and people, people and things are fully interconnected, and humans may transcend the Internet and the Internet of Things and enter the intelligent era supported by the Internet of Things. In the era of brain networking, soldiers’ brains are directly connected to combat platforms, information systems, and decision-making support systems. With the assistance of technologies such as quantum computing and cloud platforms, decisions will be made. The targets of attack will expand to human thoughts and actions, matter, energy, information and The mind is integrated. Some domestic experts believe that under the influence of artificial intelligence technology, the winning mechanism of future wars will shift from information-based warfare “information-led, system confrontation, precise strike, joint victory” to intelligent warfare “intelligent-led, autonomous confrontation, traceability Strike, cloud brain victory” transformation, following matter, energy, and information, cloud intelligence that integrates humans and machines becomes the key to determining the outcome of a war. The transformation of this “intelligent war form” is accelerating, and any hesitation may have unimaginable consequences.
However, it should be noted that man is always the most fundamental element, no matter how the war develops. The intelligent war form will promote changes in the functional role of military personnel, and will put forward higher requirements for military personnel’s ability quality. Cognitive ability may surpass knowledge and skills and become the core ability of military personnel.
Intelligent warfare requires military personnel to upgrade and reconstruct their comprehensive quality
According to the “talent growth cycle”, soldiers who are currently receiving higher education will become the main force in military combat training in more than 10 years, and will also become the first main force to meet the challenges of intelligent warfare. At present, our military’s higher education still has some shortcomings in the design of talent training goals. It does not pay enough attention to the ability to adapt to future changes in the intelligent battlefield. There is still a certain gap between talent training goals and the demand for intelligent warfare. On July 23, 2020, when President Xi inspected the Air Force Aviation University, he emphasized the need to adhere to cultivating people with moral integrity, educating people for war, strengthening military spirit education, strengthening the fighting spirit, and comprehensively laying a solid foundation for the ideological and political, military professional, scientific and cultural, and physical and psychological qualities of pilot students. Base. Implementing President Xi’s important instructions and benchmarking against the needs of future intelligent warfare, there is an urgent need to build a higher-level military talent training goal with thinking as the core, and accelerate the upgrading and reconstruction of the comprehensive quality of military personnel.
Intelligent warfare is a complex giant system that integrates multiple fields. Its intelligence-based characteristics and iterative and changeable development trends are changing the role of soldiers in war. Soldiers may gradually move from the front desk of the war to the backstage, from direct face-to-face combat to human-machine coordinated combat, and from front-line charging to back-end planning and design of the war. To be competent in functional roles such as human-machine collaboration, planning and designing wars, in addition to ideological, political and physical psychology requirements, in terms of military profession and science and culture, soldiers should focus on improving their knowledge and ability in the following five aspects: First, multi-disciplinary Integrate the knowledge structure, master the core principles of multiple intelligent war-related disciplines such as nature, military, cognitive psychology, and network intelligence, and be able to integrate knowledge across disciplines Guide military practice; the second is strong cognitive ability, with logical thinking, critical thinking, and systematic thinking abilities, and the ability to use scientific methods to analyze and infer combat problems; the third is human-machine collaboration ability, deeply grasp the characteristics and rules of intelligent warfare, and be proficient in operating Combat platforms, command and control systems, and decision-making support systems can control a variety of intelligent weapons and equipment to achieve efficient human-machine collaboration; fourth, innovative capabilities Have keen scientific and technological perception and strong creativity, and be able to grasp the forefront of science and technology, innovate combat styles, and master the laws of war development; fifth, self-growth ability, be able to accurately recognize oneself, reasonably plan military career, and freely use information means to acquire new knowledge, new technologies, new methods, constantly improve the knowledge structure, improve cognitive abilities, and better adapt to the complex and ever-changing development of military revolutions.
Find the focus of “paramilitary higher education reform”
At present, the superimposed advancement of informatization and intelligence has brought greater complexity to the talent training work of military academies. It is necessary to not only meet the needs of real-life information operations, but also lay the foundation for adapting to intelligent warfare. The following should be focused on Work.
Reconstructing the curriculum system. The curriculum system supports the formation of the talent knowledge structure. In order to “cultivate military talents that meet the needs of intelligent warfare and achieve the training goals of military major, science and culture, we should break the practice of designing curriculum systems with a single major as the background and establish a “general + direction” curriculum system”. General courses are based on existing natural science and public courses, adding courses such as mathematical logic, mathematical modeling, critical thinking, network basics, artificial intelligence, cognitive neuroscience, systems engineering, etc., and establishing a cross-field and cross-disciplinary horizontal course system, expand students’ knowledge, build the knowledge structure urgently needed for intelligent warfare, and lay a broad knowledge foundation for their lifelong growth. Direction courses are to establish a subject professional direction, set up a vertical course system of mathematical science, professional foundation, and professional positions, build a solid professional background, and cultivate students’ ability to use professional theories to solve complex combat training problems.“ The general knowledge ＋direction” curriculum system helps build a “T”-shaped knowledge structure to meet the needs of military talents to adapt to diverse and intelligent warfare.
Deepen classroom reform. Educational neuroscience believes that education is the reshaping of students’ brains, and classrooms are the main position for reshaping students’ neural networks. They play an irreplaceable role in the formation of high-level cognitive abilities required for intelligent warfare. Continuously deepening classroom reform is The current key task of military higher education. You have to see that a classroom with only knowledge understanding is far from a good classroom. All human behaviors, thoughts and emotions are controlled by the brain, and every knowledge, thought and emotion corresponds to the specific neural network of the brain. Therefore, classroom reform should focus on students’ learning and follow the cognitive laws of the human brain to attract and maintain attention as the starting point, establish a scientific thinking framework, and mobilize students to think proactively. Usually, the teaching method pointing to higher-order abilities has a general model —— problem-driven inspired teaching. Commonly used problem teaching methods, project teaching methods, and inquiry teaching methods all belong to this model. Therefore, the main way to promote classroom reform is to develop unknown, novel and questions and stories that students are interested in, design a thinking framework that points to logical reasoning, critical thinking, reflective ability, creative ability and learning ability, and inspire students to be guided by the framework. Actively think, supplemented by the output process of speaking and writing, and finally achieve the goal of internalizing knowledge understanding and forming high-level abilities.
Promoting comprehensive education. Modern educational theory not only regards the classroom as an important position in education, but also regards all time and space outside the classroom as an important resource for cultivating students. The time and space outside these classes not only support classroom teaching and promote the formation of intellectual abilities, but are also important places for cultivating non-intellectual abilities. Colleges and universities should make full use of these times and spaces, clarify specific training goals, and scientifically design education and training plans with a focus on going deep into the army, being close to actual combat, and highlighting practicality and creativity. Pay attention to giving full play to the management and education advantages of military academies, explore the establishment of student management models, and promote the cultivation of students’ leadership and management capabilities; continuously enrich the second classroom, build an innovation platform, create more independent practice opportunities, and enhance students’ innovative abilities; make full use of various large-scale activities, cultivate students’ competitive awareness and team collaboration capabilities; strengthen the construction of management cadre teams, improve scientific management and training capabilities, and be able to effectively guide students in time management and goal management Emotional management, psychological adjustment, habit development, etc., help students improve their self-management and independent learning abilities.
In short, education is a systematic project. The above are only three aspects that break through the shortcomings of talent training in the intelligent era. To truly solve the problem, military academies need to carry out systematic reforms in strategic planning, quality management, personnel quality, and teaching conditions. It can effectively support the achievement of talent training goals in all aspects, and this requires us to continue to explore and innovate, and continuously improve the level of running schools and educating people Efforts have been made to create a new situation in the construction and development of military academies.
Adhere to the integrated development of mechanized informatization and intelligence
——Seriously study, publicize and implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China
The report to the 20th CPC National Congress emphasized “upholding the integrated development of mechanization, informatization, and intelligence,” elevating the requirement for the integrated development of mechanization, informatization, and intelligence (hereinafter referred to as the “three modernizations”) to a new strategic level. To thoroughly study, publicize, and implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and strive to achieve the goals of the PLA’s centenary, we must focus on understanding and grasping the primary characteristics, profound mechanisms, basic principles, and strategic measures of the integrated development of the “three modernizations,” and effectively promote their implementation.
Recognize the main characteristics of the integrated development of the “three transformations”
Mechanization, informatization, and intelligence are progressive and interdependent. From a chronological perspective, the three transformations did not originate simultaneously. Without the prerequisites and foundations of the previous transformations, the subsequent transformations could not occur and develop. For example, without mechanization, there would be no informatization. Informatization requires the physical substance provided by mechanization. Without mechanized combat platforms and ammunition as carriers of information nodes, the “connectivity” of informatization would be lost. Informatization is the nucleus of intelligence. Without the sufficient computing power and data provided by advanced informatization, the next generation of artificial intelligence cannot achieve the chain breakthroughs it promises. Without a solid foundation of mechanization, a military cannot advance informatization, and without a solid foundation of mechanization and informatization, it cannot effectively advance intelligence.
Based on this understanding, it’s difficult to leapfrog mechanization and informatization to embrace intelligence. Generally speaking, the latter can only replace the former in specific areas, not completely replace or surpass it. If the foundation of the former’s core technologies, foundational areas, and key stages is not solid, bottlenecks and shortcomings will be difficult to address quickly. Not only will these bottlenecks be difficult to address with the latter, but their weak foundation will also hinder the latter’s development, hindering overall development. If we skip mechanization and informatization and shift our focus entirely to intelligence, haste may lead to failure.
Mechanization, informatization, and intelligence will overlap and coexist for a long time. The term “basic mechanization” generally refers to the fact that mechanization has reached a late stage of development, with its contribution to combat effectiveness having already experienced diminishing returns. Further investment in mechanization will significantly reduce the cost-effectiveness. This does not mean that there will be no more mechanization construction tasks; it simply means that the proportion of investment in informatization and intelligence will gradually decrease compared to informatization and intelligence. Informatization is not the end of mechanization; a certain degree of mechanization will continue during the informatization process. Similarly, intelligence is not the end of mechanization and informatization; a certain degree of informatization and mechanization will continue during the intelligence process. Each of the “three transformations” is only a construction focus for a specific historical period; no one “transformation” is exclusive to any given period.
Based on this understanding, we cannot pursue a “starting from scratch” approach, overthrowing mechanization and informatization in favor of intelligentization. The “three transformations” cannot be viewed in isolation. They are meant to be inclusive, integrated, and mutually exclusive, not selective. The subsequent transformation does not negate or terminate the previous one, nor does it mean discarding the achievements of the previous one and starting over with a new one. We must ensure a smooth transition and gradual upgrade of the combat system from mechanization to informatization and then to intelligentization. Taking intelligentization as an example, intelligentization does not mean completely overthrowing the existing informatized combat system and establishing a completely new, independent intelligent combat system.
Intelligent informationization uses the virtual to control the real, empowering and increasing efficiency in mechanization. The “real” here primarily refers to “hardware,” represented by physical entities such as combat platforms and ammunition, while the “virtual” primarily refers to “software,” centered around combat data and algorithms. While mechanization primarily relies on hardware development, informationization and intelligentization primarily rely on software development, optimizing and upgrading hardware and increasing its efficiency through software. In terms of development priorities, payloads surpass platforms, software surpasses payloads, and algorithms surpass software. Software costs in informationization and intelligentization far exceed hardware costs.
Based on this understanding, we must not pursue development that prioritizes hardware over software or creates a disconnect between the virtual and the real. In the era of intelligence, if the supporting software and core algorithms that serve as the “brains” of weapons and equipment lag behind, even the highest hardware performance indicators will be merely “inflated,” and it will be difficult to realize its combat potential in actual combat. Military combat practice demonstrates that in the era of intelligence, we should prioritize the development of general-purpose chips and core algorithms for military intelligence technology from the outset to avoid being caught in a passive position.
Clarify the profound mechanism of the integrated development of the “three transformations”
The integrated development of the “three transformations” is not a simple mixing, combination, or compounding of the “three transformations,” but rather a process of mutual inclusion, mutual penetration, and mutual promotion. From “you are you, I am me” to “you are in me, I am in you,” and then to “you are me, I am you,” achieving a seamless blend and unity, generating cumulative, aggregate, and multiplier effects, and achieving a qualitative leap in overall combat effectiveness. The integrated development of the “three transformations” primarily follows the following mechanisms:
Advantage-overlaying mechanism. Whether mechanization, informatization, or intelligentization, the supporting technology clusters for each “transformation” will give rise to a series of new weaponry and equipment, generate new combat forces, and ultimately form new combat capabilities with different operational mechanisms. The combined advantages of these new combat capabilities with existing combat capabilities can produce a systemic emergence effect, greatly enhancing the overall combat capability of the military; it can enrich one’s own combat means, methods, and approaches, and put the enemy in a dilemma of multiple difficulties.
Upgrade and expansion mechanism. Informatization, through the digital transformation and networking of various mechanized combat platforms, aggregates and upgrades mechanized combat systems into informationized combat systems, resulting in a qualitative leap in combat effectiveness. Intelligence can also be integrated with mechanization and informatization through upgrades and expansions. On the one hand, intelligent technologies are used to upgrade the control systems of mechanized combat platforms, continuously enhancing the autonomous combat capabilities of individual weapons and equipment. On the other hand, intelligent technologies are used to optimize and upgrade informationized combat systems, significantly enhancing their capabilities in information acquisition, transmission, processing, sharing, and security, and comprehensively improving the combat capabilities of the system.
A mechanism for addressing shortcomings and replacing them. The history of military development shows that as a particular “industry” develops, it often encounters bottlenecks that are difficult to resolve with its own technological system alone. This necessitates the urgent need for innovative solutions using the technical means and development strategies of other “industries.” Currently, machinery is becoming increasingly sophisticated and complex, making its design and control increasingly difficult. Informatization has led to an “information explosion,” making it increasingly difficult to quickly translate this information into decision-making information. These problems are difficult to effectively address within the technological systems of mechanization and informatization alone. However, the application of intelligent technology can effectively overcome bottlenecks in mechanical control and information processing capabilities. Furthermore, technological breakthroughs in the first “industry” can offset the shortcomings of the second. For example, hypersonic missiles can outpace the response capabilities of networked and informationized defense systems, enabling rapid penetration, which to some extent offsets an adversary’s information advantage.
Grasp the basic principles of the integrated development of the “three transformations”
In promoting the integrated development of the “three transformations”, we should focus on the following basic principles:
The principle of mutual promotion and symbiosis. Each “transformation” differs fundamentally in its combat effectiveness generation mechanisms and development goals. The simultaneous and parallel development of the three transformations presents both favorable conditions for mutual enhancement, mutual promotion, and mutual support, but also unfavorable factors such as competition over development areas, resource allocation, and investment volume. We must ensure that the three transformations form a healthy symbiotic relationship within the overall development process, avoiding conflicts, frictions, and constraints that could lead to a situation where 1+1+1 is less than 3, and strive to achieve systemic emergence and synergistic effects.
The principle of overall coordination. The importance of the “three transformations” is not ranked in order of importance. We should not emphasize one at the expense of the others. Instead, the three transformations should be considered as a system, coordinated and advanced as a whole. While informatization and intelligentization appear more advanced and complex, we should not assume that mechanization is low-end, simple, and easy to implement, or that the importance of mechanization can be ignored with the advent of informatization and intelligentization. On the one hand, if mechanization is not fully implemented, it will hinder progress and become a bottleneck restricting overall development. Similarly, without the sufficient computing power and data provided by full informatization, the next generation of artificial intelligence cannot achieve a series of breakthroughs. On the other hand, mechanization also has high-end cutting-edge fields such as hypersonic aircraft and deep-sea submersibles that can have a disruptive effect.
The principle of prioritizing key areas. Total investment in national defense and military development is limited. Given a relatively fixed overall budget, investing more in one area will inevitably result in less investment in others. We should accurately assess the contribution of each area to combat effectiveness over the coming period, identify the area that will most significantly increase combat effectiveness as the priority for development, rationally allocate resources in a prioritized manner, and scientifically determine the direction and amount of investment. Failure to prioritize the development of the “three areas” and applying a “sprinkle pepper” approach to each area can easily result in a low input-output ratio and may even cause military development to stray from its correct trajectory.
Strengthening strategic measures for the integrated development of “three transformations”
In practice, we should strive to change the inertial thinking of relying on latecomer advantages and unconsciously falling into the habit of following development, strive to get out of the passive catch-up development model, and turn to the pursuit of concurrent advantages and first-mover advantages. We should develop intelligence on the basis of existing mechanization and informatization, and at the same time use intelligence to drive mechanization and informatization to a higher level. We should use the integrated development of the “three transformations” as a powerful engine to promote the transformation and development of the military and achieve a comprehensive leap in the overall construction level.
We must effectively strengthen top-level design and overall coordination for the integrated development of the “three transformations.” We must fully recognize the long-term, complex, and arduous nature of the integrated development of the “three transformations,” adhere to the unity of technological and conceptual integration, and avoid simply applying the existing mechanization and informatization construction model to the integrated development of the “three transformations.” We must also avoid generalization and labeling of the “three transformations.” We must strengthen top-level design and overall coordination with strong organizational leadership, streamline multiple relationships, pool the strengths of all parties, and create a positive synergy.
Proactively plan key areas for the integrated development of the three transformations. First, address areas where one transformation affects and constrains the development of others. Quickly identify technical bottlenecks within each transformation, compile a list of these bottlenecks, and increase investment in focused research to address these shortcomings as quickly as possible. Second, address areas where one transformation could potentially offset the achievements of others. During the integrated development of the three transformations, even after one has become dominant, we should still prioritize developing new operational mechanisms within the others, potentially disrupting the strategic balance and generating disruptive impacts, potentially even offsetting the achievements of the others. Third, address areas where the three transformations intersect and intersect. The “edge zones, intersections, and junctions” of the three transformations are also crucial for rapidly generating new qualitative combat capabilities. Currently, we should particularly proactively plan for areas such as “ubiquitous network plus” and “artificial intelligence plus.”
(Author’s unit: Academy of Military Science, Institute of War Studies)
With the rapid development of intelligent technology and its widespread military application, intelligent warfare is becoming a new form of warfare after information warfare, while dissipative warfare has become a typical way of intelligent warfare. The so-called “dissipative warfare” refers to the combat method in which an intelligent warfare system achieves a comprehensive combat capability that integrates material consumption, energy release and information diffusion by enriching and integrating internally and suddenly emerging externally. Strengthening research on dissipative warfare will help us deeply reveal the winning mechanism of intelligent warfare and win the initiative in future war games.
Dissipation warfare is the inevitable result of the development of the times
Dissipative warfare is manifested in the comprehensive confrontation of physical domain, information domain and cognitive domain in the intelligent era. It is reflected in the high degree of unity in the form of political competition, economic competition, military offense and defense, cultural conflict and diplomatic checks and balances, reflecting the intelligent warfare system. The openness, complexity and emergence of.
Adapting to the requirements of the security situation in the intelligent era. Entering the era of intelligence, technologies such as wide networks, big data, large models, cloud computing, and deep learning are developing rapidly, and the connections between political groups, countries, and ethnic groups are even broader. Under the influence of multiple factors such as political pluralism, economic integration, social openness, and technological revolution, non-traditional security has emerged and become intertwined with traditional threats. Intelligent war subjects and categories have continued to expand, war time and space have continued to extend, and war and peace have followed each other like a shadow. And intertwined, the war system will further transcend local geographical restrictions, move from relatively closed to more open, and form a higher-level and larger-scale confrontation. Dissipative warfare emphasizes the comprehensive efforts of intelligent warfare systems in the physical domain, information domain and cognitive domain, and highly unifies and incorporates political competitions, economic competitions, military offensive and defensive, cultural conflicts and diplomatic checks and balances into the category of confrontation between ourselves and the enemy, adapting to the world. The requirements of the times as the security situation develops.
In line with the objective laws of the evolution of the war forms. The dissipation phenomenon of the war system has always existed since the emergence of war. However, before the emergence of intelligent war forms, due to technological constraints, it was always in a relatively low-level and simple state. War confrontation can only manifest itself in material consumption and energy. A certain form of dispersion and information diffusion. During the agricultural era, the forms of warfare were mainly represented by cold weapon warfare dominated by material elements and centered on the human body. During the industrialization era, the forms of warfare were mainly represented by thermonuclear weapons and mechanized warfare dominated by energy elements and centered on platforms. In the age of informatization, the forms of warfare are mainly characterized by information warfare dominated by information elements and centered on the network information system. Entering the era of intelligence, intelligent technology highly unifies the cognitive advantages, decision-making advantages and action advantages in the confrontation between ourselves and the enemy. In essence, it highly unifies matter, energy and information. Through intelligent empowerment, intelligent energy gathering, and Intelligent energy release has formed an intelligent war form dominated by intelligent elements and centered on intelligent algorithms The main form of expression is dissipative warfare that reflects the confrontation of complex systems of intelligent warfare.
With solid support of philosophical theoretical foundation. Social form is the matrix of war form. To explore and understand intelligent war, we must comprehensively examine the evolution of war form and the social form in which intelligent war is located based on the basic principles of historical materialism and dialectical materialism, and build a new concept of war. and contextual system. From a philosophical point of view, matter, energy and information are the three elements that make up the world. Matter embodies the existence of origin, energy embodies the existence of movement, and information embodies the existence of connection. The progressive alternation of the three dominates the evolution and operation of social forms and war forms. According to the negative principle of the negation of dialectical materialism, in the intelligent era after the information age, the elements that dominate society will take the turn of matter again after matter, energy, and information. However, this matter is formed after a highly informatized spiral. The main feature of new substances is that they have intelligent technical attributes. Thus, in essence, dissipative warfare is the highly unified nature of the intelligent element in terms of the characteristic advantages of matter, energy, and information in previous low-order war forms, and the highly unified nature of forms such as material consumption, energy release, and information diffusion prevalent in warfare, reflecting the typical characteristics of intelligent warfare.
Deeply grasp the inner essence of dissipative warfare
Dissipative warfare is based on the real world and covers the virtual world. It adapts to the rapid development of intelligent technology, the rise of non-traditional security threats, and the continuous expansion of the main body and scope of warfare, and presents many new features.
Antisynthetic game. As the intelligent war form accelerates to a higher depth and breadth, and the political, economic, cultural, diplomatic and other fields become more interconnected and influence more widely, the focus of war begins to shift from the military system to the social system, and the war stakeholders Confrontation will be reflected in various forms of comprehensive games such as political competition, economic competition, military offensive and defensive, cultural conflicts, and diplomatic checks and balances The war superiority pursued is no longer limited to the field of military confrontation. The winner of the war must adapt to the requirements of openness, complexity and emergence of the war system, and shift from the extensive consumption and use of a single substance, energy and information to the dissipation of the war system dominated by intelligent advantages, striving to win initiative and advantage in a multi-field comprehensive game.
Subjects cross-domain multivariate. The subjects of intelligent warfare are becoming increasingly general, and the potential forces of war that traditional warfare needs to mobilize will be in a state of normalized confrontation. Political forces, institutions and personnel of all kinds, together with troops and servicemen fighting on the battlefield in the traditional sense, constitute the main body of the war. Diversified war subjects will span the real and virtual domains and appear in multiple spatial domains such as land, sea, air, sky, electricity, and psychology, covering physical domains, information domains, cognitive domains, etc., and covering political, economic, cultural, diplomatic and other social domains. For example, “civilians in society can use smartphones to collect information on the military battlefield and transmit it to war stakeholders, causing the proliferation of key information about war, thereby affecting war decisions or the victory or defeat of a battle and battle”.
Enrichment. The virtual and real forces are one. Around the purpose of war, all possible real and virtual forces will be integrated with the support of intelligent technology, performing duties and acting according to regulations on parallel battlefields; with or without force. Unmanned combat forces will achieve a high degree of autonomy after going through the stages of manual operation, manual authorization, and human supervision, and can be deployed and combined with various types of manned forces on demand, effectively synergizing and coexisting in parallel under the constraints of common war rules; multi-party forces are integrated. Based on the broad contacts in various fields and the common purpose of the war system, all parties, including the party, government, military, police and civilians, closely cooperate and act in a unified manner between military operations and political, economic, diplomatic, public opinion and legal struggles to form a comprehensive combat force. In short, under the integrated planning of countries or political groups, the diverse participating forces in intelligent warfare, although physically dispersed, can focus on common war purposes to achieve logical concentration, instant enrichment, complementary advantages, and integration.
Efficacy cumulative emergence. The high-order war forms, while having new qualitative technical characteristics, still include the characteristic advantages of the low-order war forms. Dissipation warfare emphasizes continuous comprehensive confrontation in multiple domains, which includes both the consumption of ammunition, supplies, equipment and even combatants at the material level, as well as the continuous collection and release of energy levels, including through data, knowledge, algorithms at the information level. The diffusion and fusion of etc. have an unlimited impact on people’s thinking and cognition, value pursuit, moral concepts, emotional will, behavior patterns, etc. Under the normal deterrence of nuclear weapons, intelligent warfare has shown a downward trend of bleeding, but political isolation, economic blockade, cultural conflicts, diplomatic strangulation, etc. will become more severe and intense. When the role of various systems such as military, political, economic, cultural, and diplomatic systems continues to play, and the accumulation of effectiveness reaches a certain level, the war system will increase negative entropy, thereby achieving sudden changes in combat power and the emergence of system effectiveness, thereby gaining war advantages.
Fight a good dissipative war in the “select the right combat focus”
The intelligent warfare system maximizes the combat effectiveness of the system by enriching and integrating internally, suddenly emerging externally, increasing efficiency across domains, and dissipating intelligence. This is the winning mechanism contained in dissipative warfare. To win the victory in intelligent warfare, it is necessary to clarify the combat focus of dissipative warfare, identify the focus of war preparations based on the shortcomings and weaknesses of the opponent’s system.
Focusing on the openness of the system, closing off and isolating the opponent’s war system. Interrupting the exchange of material, energy and information between the adversary’s war system and the external battlefield environment, so that it lacks channels for the source of material, energy and information, and gradually moves towards isolation, closure and weakness. For example, “At the strategic level, political isolation is used to isolate the opponent’s war system, causing the system entropy to increase”. At the “campaign level”, methods such as cutting off data sources, destroying data backups, falsifying data, and tampering with information can be used to comprehensively use soft and hard means to force the war system to transform into a closed state, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the opponent’s system.
Focusing on the complexity of the system, it breaks down the adversary’s war system in different domains. The more and more closely connected the elements of an intelligent warfare system are, the less reliable the architecture will be. Using the principle that each layer in a complex system is relatively independent, strategic overall, campaign local and tactical action strategies can be formulated to achieve hierarchical and domain-based attack on the enemy’s war system. For example, “At the strategic level, the use of economic blockade greatly weakens the opponent’s war strength and development potential”. At the “campaign level”, we take advantage of the vulnerability of the combat system communication network, use network-to-electric composite attacks as the basic path and means, and use methods such as “destroying terminals, attacking elements, isolated groups, disconnecting networks, and breaking clouds” to break through the opponent’s combat system structure and promote The opponent’s war system “collapse”.
Focus on “system emergence and dismantle the system of evacuation of opponents”. Only when there are sudden changes and emergent effects in the intelligent warfare system can the system’s effectiveness be quickly formed and exerted, and the advantage of dissipative warfare be gained. It is not possible to form an emergence of advantages if only individual components or elements come into play. It is foreseeable that the current emerging technologies such as ChatGPT and more advanced intelligent technologies in the future will provide new ways of thinking to understand and discover the operating behaviors, states and laws of complex systems of war, as well as new means to explore objective laws and transform nature and society, the superior party in war confrontation will reduce the coupling degree of the opponent’s war system through a parallel confrontation method that combines virtuality and reality Achieving the purpose of dismantling the system of evacuation of enemy warfare.
As the world continued to actively combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the British newspaper The Guardian reported in late May 2021 that Fazze, a public relations and marketing agency with close ties to Russian officials, was accused of providing funding to influential YouTubers, bloggers, and other opinion leaders in France, Germany, and other European countries to spread false information claiming that vaccines like Pfizer (BNT) and AstraZeneca (AZ) had caused hundreds of deaths. The false information also criticized the EU vaccine procurement system for harming public health in European countries, with the goal of sowing public distrust of Western vaccines and shifting public acceptance toward Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. This is the most significant example of “perception warfare” in recent international history.
In fact, human society has always adhered to the principle of “conquering the enemy without fighting” as the guiding principle for optimal military operations. While traditional warfare still primarily takes place in physical space, victory requires the physical capture of cities and territories, as well as the destruction of enemy forces. However, as humanity’s understanding of the nature of war deepens, the use of information technology has become a new trend in warfare, enabling the achievement of traditional combat effectiveness without the need for physical engagement. Given the increasing attention paid to “information warfare” and “hybrid warfare,” this article discusses the closely related concept of “cognitive warfare,” exploring the emerging threats facing our country and our national defense response strategy.
Whether it’s what the US calls “hybrid warfare” or what Russia calls “information warfare,” the implications are quite similar: centered on the cognitive realm, the use of information to influence and manipulate targets, encompassing both peacetime public opinion and wartime decision-making. The rise of Nazi Germany after World War I was arguably the first modern regime to master the use of information to shape perceptions within its own country and even abroad. Its successful use of propaganda and lies, delivered through various communication technologies, was highly successful. Principles such as “repetition is power” and “negative information is more easily accepted and remembered than positive information” would later profoundly influence authoritarian governments, including Russia.
Using information capabilities to subvert national regimes
At the beginning of the 21st century, Russia began to pay attention to the situation where international discourse power was completely controlled by Western countries. It successively put forward theories such as “Information Warfare Theory” and “Sixth Generation Warfare Theory”, arguing that the sixth generation of warfare is a non-contact war that uses precision weapons and information warfare to traverse the battlefield. The purpose of war is no longer a devastating global war, but to achieve effects that cannot be achieved through traditional warfare by exploiting the enemy’s information capabilities to exploit its weaknesses, including changing social and cultural orientations and values, and thus subverting national regimes.
In 2005, Russia established the international news channel “Russia Today.” Initially focused on soft power propaganda, it shifted its focus after the 2008 Georgian War to attacking negative aspects of Western society and fostering conspiracy theories. The 2014 Ukraine crisis became a training ground for Russian information warfare forces. Using electronic jamming and cyber theft, they intercepted Ukrainian communications, inferring subsequent Ukrainian actions and releasing damaging information at critical moments. They also targeted sensitive issues in eastern Ukraine, including the status of ethnic Russians and economic downturn, distributing a large amount of carefully selected, targeted information to resonate with the public, influencing their perceptions and behavior and gaining control of media opinion. In terms of “cognitive warfare,” Russia’s approach has been successful, and has become a model for the Chinese Communist Party.
Manipulating “brain control” to control the public
In 2014, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) proposed the cognitive operational concept of “brain control,” building on its past “three warfares” of psychological warfare, legal warfare, and public opinion warfare, as well as Russia’s theoretical framework of “information warfare.” It states that a nation’s cognitive space is composed of the superposition of countless individuals, and that “brain control” uses national languages, propaganda media, and cultural products as weapons to comprehensively infiltrate and control the cognition, emotions, and consciousness of the general public and national elites, ultimately distorting, disintegrating, and reshaping their national spirit, values, ideology, history, and culture, thereby achieving the strategic goal of winning without fighting.
Therefore, the CCP’s “cognitive operations” fall under the broad category of psychological warfare. In the era of information globalization, it integrates information warfare, psychological warfare, and public opinion warfare, becoming the core of the CCP’s overall strategy. Since the 2016 military reform, it has been led by the newly formed “Strategic Support Force” and implemented at all political and military levels. On the one hand, the PLA has adopted American operational thinking in the field of “cognitive operations,” using units such as the 311 Base, the National University of Defense Technology, and the Academy of Military Sciences to develop tactics such as “psychological operations,” “ideological operations,” “consciousness manipulation,” and “strategic communication” to strengthen the “cognitive operations” capabilities jointly constructed by military-civilian integration and joint combat systems. On the other hand, it uses professional personnel to operate media platforms, shape the public opinion environment, and introduce “cognitive operations” into the actual combat application stage.
The CCP’s recent “cognitive warfare” offensive against Taiwan reveals its methods and tactics. First, the CCP primarily uses the internet to collect personal data from Taiwanese citizens, using big data databases to categorize information by target group, based on political leanings, age, occupation, and other factors. Second, it leverages intelligence gathering to launch targeted cognitive attacks on specific social media platforms, influencing the psychology of the targeted groups, particularly by releasing disinformation to weaken and distract Taiwanese society. Third, it employs online virtual organizations to set up fake social media accounts, infiltrate online communities, and disguise themselves as whistleblowers, deliberately spreading fabricated information to create confusion. Cybertroopers then massively repost and discuss this information, manipulating audience perceptions and creating a cycle of disrupting information retention, manipulating cognitive psychology, and altering thinking patterns.
Identify fake news and fight back together
At this stage, the CCP’s campaign for “brain control” over Taiwan aims to influence Taiwanese society’s cognition, distorting public opinion, devaluing democratic values, intensifying opposition, disrupting political conditions, and undermining public trust in the government. The following preventive measures can be taken within the national defense system:
1. Strengthening educational functions
Through national defense education in schools, institutions, and society, we will raise the public’s awareness of the threat posed by the CCP’s “cognitive warfare” and their ability to identify false information, and cultivate the habit of rationality, verification, and calmness.
2. Follow the constraints
Although there are currently no internationally accepted legal rules that can clearly define the extent to which cognitive warfare constitutes an act of war, making it even more difficult to hold people accountable, media platforms can still strengthen the review of their own reporting content in accordance with existing regulations, and the public can also refrain from spreading suspicious information and following the trend of tennis melee, so as to facilitate the establishment of information verification measures and mechanisms.
3. Combining Military and Civilian Strength
Incorporate information and communication-related institutions and industries into the national defense mobilization mechanism, coordinate in peacetime the review, analysis, and disposal of fake news, strengthen talent training and research cooperation, and enhance the capabilities of professional units of the government and the national army; in wartime, cooperate with the overall national actions and carry out countermeasures.
Currently, Taiwan already has the National Security Bureau’s National Security Operations Center responsible for responding to controversial information from hostile foreign forces. There’s also the non-profit Taiwan Fact-Checking Center. Facing the challenges of cognitive warfare, we must continue to integrate various sectors, strive for international intelligence exchange and experience sharing, optimize the media environment, collaborate across multiple channels, and instantly identify the authenticity and source of information, jointly building our offensive capacity to respond to cognitive warfare.
Conclusion
In reality, all countries around the world face threats related to cognitive warfare and information-based psychological warfare. However, democratic and free societies are by no means vulnerable to cognitive warfare attacks and must instead rely on diverse strategies and methods to protect them. We aim to establish a more comprehensive and substantive framework, build a powerful counterforce, and enhance the quality and discernment of our citizens, thereby gaining immunity from the CCP’s cognitive warfare campaign to seize control of our minds.
(The author is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Strategic Studies, Tamkang University)
Technology and war are always intertwined. While technological innovation is constantly changing the face of war, it has not changed the violent nature and coercive purpose of war. In recent years, with the rapid development and application of artificial intelligence technology, people have never stopped debating the impact of artificial intelligence on war. Compared with artificial intelligence (AI), general artificial intelligence (AGI) has a higher level of intelligence and is considered to be a form of intelligence equivalent to human intelligence. How will the emergence of AGI affect war? Will it change the violence and coercive nature of war? This article will discuss this issue with you with a series of thoughts.
Is AGI just an enabling technology?
Many people believe that although large models and generative artificial intelligence show the strong military application potential of AGI in the future, they are only an enabling technology after all, that is, they can only enable and optimize weapons and equipment, make existing equipment more intelligent, and improve combat efficiency, and it is difficult to bring about a real military revolution. Just like “cyber warfare weapons” were also highly expected by many countries when they first appeared, but now it seems a bit exaggerated.
The disruptive nature of AGI is actually completely different. It brings huge changes to the battlefield with a reaction speed and knowledge breadth far exceeding that of humans. More importantly, it has brought about huge disruptive results by promoting the rapid advancement of science and technology. On the battlefield of the future, autonomous weapons will be endowed with advanced intelligence by AGI, their performance will be generally enhanced, and they will become “strong at attack and difficult to defend” with their speed and cluster advantages. By then, the highly intelligent autonomous weapons that some scientists have predicted will become a reality, and AGI will play a key role in this. At present, the military application areas of artificial intelligence include autonomous weapons, intelligence analysis, intelligent decision-making, intelligent training, intelligent support, etc. These applications are difficult to simply summarize as “empowerment”. Moreover, AGI has a fast development speed and a short iteration cycle, and is in a state of continuous evolution. In future operations, AGI needs to be a priority, and special attention should be paid to the possible changes it brings.
Will AGI make war disappear?
Historian Geoffrey Blainey believes that “wars always occur because of misjudgments of each other’s strength or will”, and with the application of AGI in the military field, misjudgments will become less and less. Therefore, some scholars speculate that wars will decrease or disappear. In fact, relying on AGI can indeed reduce a large number of misjudgments, but even so, it is impossible to eliminate all uncertainties, because one of the characteristics of war is uncertainty. Moreover, not all wars are caused by misjudgments. Moreover, the inherent unpredictability and inexplicability of AGI, as well as people’s lack of experience in using AGI, will bring new uncertainties, making people fall into a thicker “fog of artificial intelligence”.
There are also rational problems with AGI algorithms. Some scholars believe that AGI’s mining and accurate prediction of important intelligence will have a dual impact. In actual operation, AGI does make fewer mistakes than humans, which can improve the accuracy of intelligence and help reduce misjudgments; but sometimes it may also make humans blindly confident and stimulate them to take risks. The offensive advantage brought by AGI leads to the best defense strategy being “preemptive strike”, which breaks the balance between offense and defense, triggers a new security dilemma, and increases the risk of war.
AGI has the characteristics of strong versatility and can be easily combined with weapons and equipment. Unlike nuclear, biological and chemical technologies, it has a low threshold for use and is particularly easy to spread. Due to the technological gap between countries, people are likely to use immature AGI weapons on the battlefield, which brings huge risks. For example, the application of drones in the latest local war practices has stimulated many small and medium-sized countries to start purchasing drones in large quantities. The low-cost equipment and technology brought by AGI are very likely to stimulate the occurrence of a new arms race.
Will AGI be the ultimate deterrent?
Deterrence is the ability to maintain a certain capability to intimidate an adversary from taking actions that go beyond its own interests. When deterrence is too strong to be used, it is the ultimate deterrence, such as the nuclear deterrence of mutually assured destruction. But what ultimately determines the outcome is “human nature,” which is the key that will never be missing in war.
Without the various trade-offs of “humanity”, will AGI become a formidable deterrent? AGI is fast but lacks empathy, is resolute in execution, and has an extremely compressed gaming space. AGI is a key factor on future battlefields, but it is difficult to accurately evaluate due to lack of practical experience, and it is easy to overestimate the opponent’s capabilities. In addition, in terms of autonomous weapon control, whether humans are in the loop and supervise the entire process, or are humans outside the loop and completely let go, this undoubtedly requires deep thought. Can the firing control of intelligent weapons be handed over to AGI? If not, the deterrent effect will be greatly reduced; if so, can the life and death of humans really be decided by machines that have nothing to do with them? In research at Cornell University, large war game simulation models often “suddenly use nuclear attacks” to escalate wars, even if they are in a neutral state.
Perhaps one day in the future, AGI will surpass humans in capabilities. Will we be unable to supervise and control it? Geoffrey Hinton, who proposed the concept of deep learning, said that he has never seen a case where something with a higher level of intelligence was controlled by something with a lower level of intelligence. Some research teams believe that humans may not be able to supervise super artificial intelligence. In the face of powerful AGI in the future, can we really control them? This is a question worth pondering.
Will AGI change the nature of war?
With the widespread use of AGI, will battlefields filled with violence and blood disappear? Some people say that AI warfare is far beyond the capabilities of humans and will push humans out of the battlefield. When AI turns war into a war fought entirely by autonomous robots, is it still a “violent and bloody war”? When opponents of unequal capabilities confront each other, the weak may not have the opportunity to act at all. Can wars be ended before the war through war games? Will AGI change the nature of war? Is an “unmanned” “war” still a war?
Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, said that all human behavior is mediated by language and affects our history. The Big Language Model is a typical AGI. The biggest difference between it and other inventions is that it can create new ideas and culture. “Artificial intelligence that can tell stories will change the course of human history.” When AGI touches the control of language, the entire civilization system built by humans may be subverted, and it does not even need to generate consciousness in this process. Like Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, will humans worship AGI as a new “god”?
AGI establishes a close relationship with humans through human language and changes human perceptions, making it difficult for humans to distinguish and discern, thus posing the danger of the will to war being controlled by people with ulterior motives. Harari said that computers do not need to send out killer robots. If necessary, they will let humans pull the trigger themselves. AGI accurately creates and polishes situation information and controls battlefield cognition through deep fakes. It can use drones to fake battlefield situations and build public opinion before the war. This has been seen in recent local wars. The cost of war will be greatly reduced, leading to the emergence of a new form of war. Will small and weak countries still have a chance? Can the will to war be changed without bloodshed? Is “force” no longer a necessary condition for defining war?
The form of war may be changed, but the essence remains. Whether war is “bloody” or not, it will still force the enemy to obey its will and bring a lot of “collateral damage”, but the way of confrontation may be completely different. The essence of war lies in the “human nature” deep in the heart, and “human nature” is determined by culture, history, behavior and values, etc. It is difficult to completely replicate it with some artificial intelligence technology, so we cannot outsource all ethical, political and decision-making issues to artificial intelligence, and we cannot expect artificial intelligence to automatically generate “human nature”. Artificial intelligence technology may be abused due to passionate impulses, so it must be under human control. Since artificial intelligence is trained by humans, it will not always be free of bias, so they cannot be completely separated from human supervision. In the future, artificial intelligence can become a creative tool or partner to enhance “tactical imagination”, but it must be “aligned” with human values. These issues need to be constantly thought about and understood in practice.
Will AGI revolutionize the theory of war?
Most subject knowledge is expressed in natural language. The large language model, which is a collection of human writings, can connect language writings that are difficult to be compatible with scientific research. For example, some people input classical masterpieces and even philosophy, history, politics, economics, etc. into the large language model for analysis and reconstruction. It is found that it can not only conduct a comprehensive analysis of all scholars’ views, but also put forward its “own views” without losing originality. Therefore, some people say that it is also possible to re-analyze and interpret war theories through AGI, stimulate human innovation, and drive major evolution and reconstruction of war theories and systems? Perhaps there will be certain improvements and developments in theory, but war science is not only theoretical, but also practical, but practicality and reality are what AGI cannot do at all. Can the classic war theory really be reinterpreted? If so, what is the meaning of the theory?
In short, AGI’s subversion of the concept of war will far exceed “mechanization” and “informatization”. People should boldly embrace the arrival of AGI, but also be cautious. Understand the concept so as not to be ignorant; conduct in-depth research so as not to fall behind; strengthen supervision so as not to be negligent. How to learn to cooperate with AGI and guard against AGI technology raids by opponents is what we need to pay attention to first in the future. (Rong Ming and Hu Xiaofeng)
Afterword
Looking to the future with an open mind
Futurist Roy Amara has a famous assertion that people tend to overestimate the short-term benefits of a technology but underestimate its long-term impact, which is later called “Amara’s Law”. This law emphasizes the nonlinear characteristics of technological development, that is, the actual impact of technology often takes a longer time scale to fully manifest, reflecting the pulse and trend of technological development and embodying human acceptance and longing for technology.
At present, in the process of the development of artificial intelligence from weak artificial intelligence to strong artificial intelligence, and from special artificial intelligence to general artificial intelligence, every time people think that they have completed 90% of the journey, looking back, they may have only completed less than 10% of the journey. The driving role of the scientific and technological revolution in the military revolution is becoming more and more prominent, especially the multi-faceted penetration of high-tech represented by artificial intelligence technology into the military field, which has led to profound changes in the mechanism, elements and methods of winning wars.
In the foreseeable future, intelligent technologies such as AGI will not stop iterating, and the cross-evolution of intelligent technologies and their enabling applications in the military field will become more diversified, perhaps going beyond the boundaries of human cognition of existing war forms. The development of science and technology is unstoppable and unstoppable. Whoever can see the trend and future of science and technology, the potential and power of science and technology with a keen eye and a clear mind, and see through the “fog of war”, will be more likely to seize the initiative to win.
This reminds us that we should have a broader perspective and thinking when exploring the development of future war forms, so that we can get closer to the underestimated reality. Where is AGI going? Where is intelligent warfare going? This is a test of human wisdom.
As one of the important representatives of the new round of scientific and technological revolution, artificial intelligence is the most cutting-edge topic in today’s scientific and technological field. AlphaGo Zero crushed its “AI predecessor” AlphaGo through self-learning, Baidu’s driverless car hit the road, and Apple’s mobile phone launched a new face recognition method… In recent years, the practical application of artificial intelligence has shown its huge driving force.
With the continuous advancement of artificial intelligence technology, how is artificial intelligence currently developing in the field of national defense? What role can artificial intelligence play in the field of national defense? How should artificial intelligence be developed in the future to better serve the field of national defense? Around these questions, the reporter interviewed Zhu Qichao, a researcher at the National University of Defense Technology.
Artificial intelligence has become a new focus of international competition——
Military powers are rushing to deploy
“From the perspective of the world situation, countries around the world, especially military powers, are rushing to deploy artificial intelligence. Government departments of the United States, Russia and other countries have all issued artificial intelligence-related strategies or plans, demonstrating that the country attaches great importance to artificial intelligence,” said Zhu Qichao.
Data shows that Russia’s “New Look Reform” that began in 2008 has made artificial intelligence a key investment area. In addition, Russia has also issued the “Concept of Developing a Military Science Complex by 2025”, emphasizing that artificial intelligence systems will become a key factor in determining the success or failure of future wars. In 2013, the European Union proposed a 10-year “Human Brain Project” to invest 1.2 billion euros in human brain research. In October 2016, the White House of the United States issued the “National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan” to build an implementation framework for the development of artificial intelligence in the United States.
In Zhu Qichao’s view, many countries are promoting the development and application of artificial intelligence in the field of national defense. From the initial drones to intelligent information processing systems, bionic robots, etc., artificial intelligence has gradually penetrated into various fields of national defense and the military.
In recent years, the United States has used a large number of drones and logistics robots in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since 2014, the U.S. military has focused on investing in intelligent unmanned systems as a disruptive technology field of the “Third Offset Strategy”. In April last year, the U.S. Department of Defense announced the establishment of an algorithmic warfare cross-functional team to apply artificial intelligence to defense intelligence collection and analysis. According to reports, the U.S. Department of Defense recently officially ordered the establishment of a new artificial intelligence research center to integrate all artificial intelligence-related work of the Department of Defense.
Other countries are also accelerating their pace in this field and promoting the intelligentization of their armies. The Russian Military Industrial Committee plans to achieve 30% robotization of Russian military equipment by 2025, and its army’s wheeled and tracked ground combat robots have been deployed in the Syrian battlefield. South Korea and Israel have developed and used border patrol machines with automatic surveillance and autonomous firing capabilities. Israel has deployed highly autonomous “Harpy” drones in its territory. The South Korean Ministry of Defense also recently stated that it will invest 7.5 billion won by 2020 to promote the use of artificial intelligence in intelligence reconnaissance, command and control and other fields.
“It can be foreseen that various types of intelligent unmanned systems and combat platforms will be increasingly used on the ground, in the air, on the surface, underwater, in space, in cyberspace, and in human cognitive space, profoundly changing the technical proportion of artificial intelligence in future wars,” said Zhu Qichao.
The application of artificial intelligence in the field of national defense is an inevitable trend——
The demand for national defense applications has broad prospects
Judging from the historical development trend and the needs of future wars, artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming the core driving force for a new round of military revolution, and the needs of future wars are increasingly calling for the military application of artificial intelligence. Gregory Allen, a researcher at the Center for a New American Security, emphasized in a report titled “Artificial Intelligence and National Security” that “the impact of artificial intelligence on the field of national security will be revolutionary, not just unique. Governments around the world will consider formulating extraordinary policies, perhaps as radical as when nuclear weapons first appeared.”
Throughout history, the world’s military changes have gone through the development process from the cold weapon era, the hot weapon era, the mechanization era to the information era. From smelting technology to gunpowder technology, mechanization technology, atomic energy technology, and then to information technology, the occurrence of the four military revolutions has been permeated with the core role of technological revolution. “Artificial intelligence is gradually moving towards the battlefield, which is bound to cause significant updates in weapons and equipment, combat styles, troop system organization and combat power generation mode, and thus trigger a profound military revolution.” Facing the development trend of artificial intelligence in the field of national defense, Zhu Qichao said.
In Zhu Qichao’s view, the demand for the use of artificial intelligence in national defense is very broad. At present, the trend of war transformation from mechanization and informatization to intelligence is becoming more and more obvious. The victory of future wars depends more and more on the information advantage, intellectual resources and decision-making speed of the army. Artificial intelligence has great potential in reducing the number of battlefield personnel, obtaining and analyzing intelligence information, and making quick decisions and responses. In 2016, the artificial intelligence program “Alpha” developed by the University of Cincinnati in the United States defeated senior US military pilots in a simulated air battle. The subversive significance of artificial intelligence technology for the military revolution has initially emerged.
“Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming an important driving force for promoting the informatization of national defense and the military, and is constantly improving the information processing capabilities, command and control efficiency, precision strike capabilities, and precise management and support capabilities in the defense field.” Zhu Qichao is very much looking forward to the use of artificial intelligence to enhance the intelligent application of national defense. He said that with the implementation of the military-civilian integration development strategy, new-generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence technology, big data technology, and cloud computing technology will play an increasingly important role in the defense field, promoting the continuous improvement of the level of national defense and military intelligence.
Beware of artificial intelligence becoming a “war poison”——
Humans are the leaders in the human-machine relationship
In recent years, with the development of artificial intelligence technology, various artificial intelligence-related combat concepts and equipment technology projects have emerged in the military field. However, Zhu Qichao believes that artificial intelligence-related technologies and applications are still in the early stages of rapid development, and the limitations of artificial intelligence military applications should not be ignored.
“First of all, artificial intelligence cannot replace human intelligence. When solving war problems outside the scope of programming, artificial intelligence requires human rational analysis ability, flexible adaptability, moral discernment, etc. Therefore, artificial intelligence research should be carried out under the premise of following the mechanism of winning wars.” He analyzed.
Zhu Qichao further explained that in the long run, we still need to be vigilant about the many security, legal, ethical and other issues that artificial intelligence may bring.
In terms of security, in a military confrontation environment, once the artificial intelligence system or weapons and equipment are attacked by the opponent through malicious code, virus implantation, command tampering and other means, it will lead to tactical failure or even catastrophic consequences; factors such as human error, machine failure, and environmental disturbances may also cause the system to lose its combat effectiveness.
In terms of law, the core principles of international armed conflict law – necessity, distinction, proportionality and humanity – will all face the problem of how to apply and adjust them. For example, battlefield robots cannot distinguish between soldiers and civilians, resulting in indiscriminate killing of innocent people, which poses a challenge to the principle of distinction.
In terms of ethics, due to the application of intelligent assessment and decision-making technology, drones, robots, etc., life and dignity, which are regarded as the highest value by humans, may be ignored or even trampled upon, while the commanders of wars are far away from the battlefield to enjoy the fruits of victory. Wars may become “video games” on the battlefield, which will impact the bottom line of human morality. Should human moral standards be embedded in increasingly intelligent machines, what kind of moral standards should be embedded, and how to embed them? These issues require extensive research and discussion by countries around the world.
In response to the security, legal, ethical and other issues that may arise in the application of artificial intelligence in the field of national defense, Zhu Qichao suggested that social security supervision and control should be strengthened to form a social governance model that adapts to the era of artificial intelligence; actively participate in international arms control discussions and negotiations on artificial intelligence, and contribute Chinese wisdom and solutions to address the security, legal and ethical issues brought about by artificial intelligence; firmly establish the idea that humans are the dominant force in the relationship between man and machine, achieve safe and effective control of artificial intelligence, and let it serve the peace and well-being of mankind, rather than making artificial intelligence an “accomplice of the devil.”
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Unmanned underwater vehicle
Unmanned submersibles, also known as unmanned underwater vehicles and unmanned underwater vehicles, are devices that travel underwater without a human operator and rely on remote control or automatic control. With the development of unmanned submersibles and related technologies, unmanned submersibles have been used to perform tasks such as minesweeping, reconnaissance, intelligence gathering, and ocean exploration. In future naval battles, they can also be used as underwater weapon platforms, logistics support platforms, and other equipment.
Advantages: Compared with submarines, unmanned underwater vehicles are unmanned combat platforms, so they can greatly reduce casualties in wars; they are small in size, and the application of other stealth high technologies makes their stealth performance higher than that of submarines; they are multifunctional and multi-purpose.
Limitations: Poor endurance limits the use of unmanned underwater vehicles; the lithium batteries used have technical defects such as easy catching fire; the navigation function still needs to be improved.
It can be foreseen that in the near future, underwater unmanned submersibles will play a huge role in future wars and will change the specific mode of future ocean warfare.
Battle Robot
Military combat robots are an emerging force on the battlefield, and they are used to assist human soldiers in combat. According to the different combat fields of military robots, they are mainly divided into underwater military robots, ground military robots, aerial military robots, and space military robots.
Advantages: Combat robots can greatly reduce the burden and casualties of human soldiers when performing low-intensity combat and dangerous tasks. In addition, they also have advantages such as high intelligence, all-round combat capabilities, strong battlefield survivability, and absolute obedience to orders.
Limitations: Combat robots do not have the ability to fight under complex conditions; today’s combat robots’ intelligence and environmental adaptability have not yet reached the level of being able to fight alone, and they rely heavily on the operation and command of human soldiers.
In the long run, as intelligence drives mechanization and informatization to a higher level and a higher level, combat robots have great development potential. They will be more intelligent, their weapon platforms will be more complex, their environmental adaptability and survivability will be stronger, and they will be able to participate in a variety of warfare modes.
Drone swarm
A drone swarm consists of a number of low-cost small drones equipped with multiple mission payloads. They follow the collective action patterns of insects such as bees and work together to complete specific combat missions under human command or supervision.
Advantages: During combat, drone swarms can be specialized and divided into different tasks, so they can perform a variety of tasks; each drone has a relatively single function, which can greatly reduce R&D and procurement costs; drone swarms can increase the number of battlefield sensors and attack weapons, allowing the army to have an advantage in the number of air equipment on local battlefields; a large number of drones can paralyze enemy air defense radars and consume the enemy’s limited number of high-cost air defense ammunition.
Limitations: As drone swarms have higher requirements for coordination and autonomy, a new command and control model needs to be established to manage large-scale swarms. Therefore, it faces the challenges of mastering key technologies such as collaborative combat algorithms, communication between swarm individuals, and remote command and control.
In the future, drone swarms will drive future air combat equipment to present characteristics such as cheaper airframes, autonomous platforms, and smaller payloads, which may have a revolutionary impact on the development ideas of future aviation equipment systems.
Intelligent warfare is an advanced stage in the development of human warfare. The increasing maturity of artificial intelligence technology is driving human society from an information society to an intelligent society, and intelligent warfare has emerged. In comparison, mechanized warfare enhances the functions of “hands and feet” based on mass-energy exchange, information warfare enhances the functions of “ears and eyes” based on electromagnetic induction, and intelligent warfare extends and develops the functions of “brain” based on brain-computer interaction, which will also be presented to the world in a brand new style.
Intelligent warfare involves both military affairs and mixed games in the fields of economy, diplomacy, public opinion, culture, etc. In the military field, intelligent warfare has gradually subverted the traditional form, presenting the characteristics of algorithmic combat command, unmanned combat forces, and diversified combat styles with the core of seizing “intelligence control”. However, at the war level, the scope of intelligent warfare has been further expanded, and the violence of war has been greatly reduced. The war process is the process of using intelligent algorithms to gradually replace the competitive games in various fields of human beings and gain advantages. On the one hand, the competitive games in various fields of national security gradually realize the auxiliary decision-making of artificial intelligence. Intelligent political warfare, diplomatic warfare, legal warfare, public opinion warfare, psychological warfare, financial warfare, and even more resource warfare, energy warfare, ecological warfare, etc. with intelligent characteristics will gradually step onto the stage of human warfare. For example, once artificial intelligence technology is applied to the financial field, the subsequent intelligent financial game will appear on the list of intelligent warfare. On the other hand, the advanced stage of information warfare has already presented the form of hybrid warfare. The military boundaries of war have been broken, and the hybrid nature will become increasingly prominent, becoming a kind of all-domain linkage confrontation involving national security. With the assistance of intelligent systems, one of the two hostile parties can easily create and use “accidental” events in the opponent’s society, triggering the “butterfly effect” in various fields such as ideology, diplomacy, economy, culture and technology, and then use intelligent military means when necessary to accelerate the process of destroying the enemy country. The high complexity of the future hybrid warfare environment, the strong confrontation of the game, the incompleteness of information and the uncertainty of boundaries provide a broader space for the application of artificial intelligence technology.
Virtual space has become an important battlefield in intelligent warfare, and the proportion of violent confrontation in physical space has declined. Intelligent warfare is carried out in the entire domain around the competition for intelligence advantage. Intelligence, as an abstract concept, mainly exists in the cognitive space of the human brain and computer chips. Whoever can win the intelligence advantage in virtual space can win the intelligent warfare. This advantage can surpass and subvert the information and energy advantages in traditional information and mechanized warfare. Some people even compare it to “in the face of intelligent warfare, information warfare is like a group of clumsy earthworms facing intelligent humans, and they will definitely lose.” This is just like what Comrade Mao Zedong once said about turning enemy commanders into “blind, deaf, and crazy people.” To win the intelligent war, we must turn our opponents into “fools.” It is not difficult to predict that with the trend of the increasing prosperity of human virtual space in the future, the intelligent confrontation in virtual space will determine the outcome of intelligent warfare to a certain extent. For example, the virtual war with intelligent characteristics between the enemy and us in the metaverse can even partially replace the violent and bloody war in the physical space, and the results of virtual combat can also be used as the basis for judging victory or defeat. The intelligent warfare system can “learn without a teacher”, “play against itself” and “learn by itself” in the metaverse, becoming a “strategist” and “good general” for people to conquer the virtual cognitive space.
The victory or defeat of intelligent warfare depends on the active shaping and full control of potential fighters, and the collapse of the combat process can even be ignored. Intelligent warfare is an opportunistic game between the intelligent systems of both sides in the process of dynamic evolution. Both sides are constantly analyzing and looking for each other’s weak links. Once a fighter appears, they will not give the opponent any chance to turn the tables. Controlling the fighter means winning, and the moment the fighter appears is the decisive moment for both sides. This is just like the battle between martial arts masters. The victory or defeat is often only a moment. The local defeat caused by the instantaneous confrontation may be seized by the opponent to drive the overall situation into a passive state, which will lead to a complete loss. Therefore, both sides of the intelligent war are doing two things around the fighter: one is to actively evolve a more complete war system to avoid omissions and mistakes, especially in order to prevent the opponent from discovering potential fighters, and even not to take the initiative to reveal flaws and use static braking. For example, artificial intelligence reinforcement learning can be used to repeatedly conduct virtual confrontations based on basic combat game rules, automatically generate war experience and lessons, self-innovate and optimize and upgrade its own security defense system; second, do everything possible to recognize and identify the weaknesses of the opponent’s system, find the immediate advantage window of war, so as to expand local advantages and create opportunities. In particular, in order to tap into potential opportunities, it will even actively shape the situation and induce the opponent to enter an unfavorable situation or process. For example, with the help of intelligent war games “fighting left and right, confrontation evolution”, “future fighters” can be discovered in virtual wars, so as to simultaneously guide the current physical space combat preparations. Therefore, the process of intelligent warfare is shorter. If the informationized war is planned before action, then the process of intelligent warfare is planned before victory. The hostile parties have long-term games in the high-dimensional strategic cognitive domain around the appearance of fighters. After the fighters appear and the victory is deduced, they immediately enter the low-dimensional tangible space physical domain to implement joint operations. The time process of the war shows the characteristics of long preparation time and short combat time.
With the accelerated application of cutting-edge technology in the military field, intelligent unmanned systems have become an important part of modern warfare. The world’s major military powers attach great importance to the application of intelligent unmanned system technology in the military field. In the future, intelligent unmanned systems will have a profound impact on combat methods and subvert the rules of war. As a culmination of cutting-edge science and technology (such as artificial intelligence, intelligent robots, intelligent perception, intelligent computing, etc.), intelligent unmanned systems represent the highest level of development of a country’s scientific and technological strength. Therefore, research in the field of intelligent unmanned systems can greatly promote the development of existing military and livelihood fields. At present, unmanned system equipment has emerged in military conflicts. For example, in the conflict between Turkey and Syria, Turkey used the Anka-S long-flight drone and the Barakta TB-2 reconnaissance and strike drone equipped by the Air Force to attack the Syrian government forces; the Russian Ministry of Defense also announced that militants in Syria used drones carrying explosives to launch a cluster attack on its military bases; in 2020, the United States used an MQ-9 “Reaper” drone to attack a senior Iranian military commander and killed him on the spot. Unmanned combat is coming, and intelligent unmanned systems, as a key weapon on the future battlefield, will determine the victory of the entire war.
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The development of intelligent unmanned systems will not only promote the upgrading and progress of existing military technology, but also drive the intelligent development of civilian technology, including intelligent transportation systems, smart home systems, intelligent manufacturing systems and intelligent medical systems. In order to develop intelligent unmanned systems more scientifically and rapidly, major scientific and technological powers have introduced a series of plans and routes for the development of intelligent unmanned systems, striving to seize the initiative and commanding heights in the development of intelligent unmanned systems. Related ones include the United States’ integrated roadmap for autonomous unmanned systems, Russia’s national weapons and equipment plan, the United Kingdom’s defense innovation technology framework, China’s new generation of artificial intelligence development plan, and Japan’s medium- and long-term technology plan. In recent years, from air to space, from land to sea, various types of intelligent unmanned systems have emerged in large numbers. The world’s major powers have gradually deployed intelligent unmanned systems into the military, and in some regional conflicts and anti-terrorism battlefields, the key role of intelligent unmanned systems is increasing. Therefore, this article will focus on the military needs of the future battlefield, based on the challenges of the actual complex environment faced by the future battlefield, analyze the key technologies required for the development and application of intelligent unmanned systems, and analyze the key technologies of individual enhancement and cluster enhancement from a military perspective, and explain the development trend of intelligent unmanned systems.
Current research status at home and abroad
The concept of intelligent unmanned system has only been proposed recently. At present, its research is still in its early stages, and there is no unified definition in the world. It is temporarily defined as: an organic whole composed of an unmanned platform and several auxiliary parts, with the ability to perceive, interact and learn, and capable of autonomous reasoning and decision-making based on knowledge to achieve the goal. Intelligent unmanned systems can be divided into three major parts: land unmanned systems, air unmanned systems and marine unmanned systems according to the spatial scope of their functions. Among them, land unmanned systems mainly include reconnaissance unmanned vehicles, transport unmanned vehicles, combat unmanned vehicles, obstacle removal unmanned vehicles, bomb disposal unmanned vehicles, unmanned vehicle formations and command systems, etc.; air unmanned systems mainly include reconnaissance drones, combat drones, logistics transport drones and drone formations, etc.; marine unmanned systems mainly include reconnaissance unmanned boats, combat unmanned boats, logistics transport unmanned boats, patrol search and rescue unmanned boats, reconnaissance unmanned submarines, combat unmanned submarines and shore-based support systems, etc. This section will explain the current research status of intelligent unmanned systems at home and abroad from the above three parts. ⒈ Current status of foreign intelligent unmanned system research ⑴ Land unmanned system Land unmanned systems are mainly used in intelligence collection, reconnaissance and patrol, mine clearance and obstacle removal, firepower strike, battlefield rescue, logistics transportation, communication relay and electronic interference. As the advantages of land unmanned systems in combat become more and more prominent, research on them has attracted more and more attention from various countries. The United States launched the “Joint Tactical Unmanned Vehicle” project in November 1993, which is the predecessor of the “Gladiator” unmanned combat platform project. In 2006, the United States completed the design of the entire system of the “Gladiator” unmanned combat platform and officially equipped the Marine Corps in 2007. The “Gladiator” tactical unmanned combat platform is the world’s first multi-purpose combat unmanned platform. It is equipped with sensor systems such as day/night cameras, GPS positioning systems, and acoustic and laser search systems. It is also equipped with machine guns, submachine guns, tear gas, sniper systems, biological and chemical weapons detection systems, etc. It can perform reconnaissance, nuclear and biological weapons detection, obstacle breakthrough, anti-sniper, firepower strike and direct shooting in different weather and terrain. The Gladiator unmanned combat platform is equipped with a highly mobile and survivable chassis. For this platform, a portable handheld control system has also been developed, and a series of development work has been completed around the technical issues of the control system’s anti-interference, network interoperability, miniaturization and ease of operation. However, due to the weak armor protection capability of the Gladiator unmanned combat platform and the poor concealment of its mission, its long-range reconnaissance and control system faces more interference. In addition, the US Army has also put some other land unmanned systems into service, such as the Scorpion robot and the Claw robot. In 2017, the US Army formulated the Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) Strategy, which provides a top-level plan for the construction of unmanned combat capabilities. Figure 1 shows the US land unmanned system.
Figure 1 US land unmanned system Israel, Russia, the United Kingdom and Germany have also successively carried out the development of land unmanned systems and developed a series of advanced products. The product list is shown in Table 1. For example, the “Guardian” series of autonomous unmanned vehicles developed by Israel can combine the sensors and fusion algorithms on board to autonomously detect and identify dangerous obstacles, and perform patrol, surveillance and small-scale fire strike tasks; the MARSA-800 unmanned vehicle developed by Russia can perform tasks such as transportation and logistics support, tracking and surveillance, and can realize autonomous path planning and avoid obstacles during the execution of tasks. The unmanned vehicle has been deployed on the Syrian battlefield. The United Kingdom and Germany also started research on land unmanned systems earlier. The United Kingdom launched a trolley bomb disposal robot in the 1960s, and later launched the Harris T7 tactile feedback robot for performing dangerous tasks such as bomb disposal and bomb disposal; the “Mission Master” ground armed reconnaissance unmanned vehicle developed by Germany’s Rheinmetall is mainly used to perform tactical surveillance, dangerous object detection, medical evacuation, communication relay and fire support tasks.
Table 1 Land unmanned systems of various countries
⑵ Aerial unmanned systems Aerial unmanned systems are mainly based on single drone platforms and drone clusters. Due to their advantages such as wide field of view, freedom of flight, and good equipment carrying capacity, drones are widely used in the military field and have played a great role in military conflicts in recent years. The main functions of aerial unmanned systems include: intelligence gathering, reconnaissance and surveillance, decoy target aircraft, target tracking, tactical strikes and air rescue. In 2000, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory proposed the concept of autonomous combat for unmanned aerial vehicles, quantified the degree of autonomy of unmanned aerial vehicles, and formulated a development plan. The quantitative content and development stage of the degree of autonomy of unmanned aerial vehicles are shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 Autonomous control level and the trend of autonomous
unmanned aerial vehicles In 2003, the United States merged the unmanned combat aircraft system projects of the Air Force and the Navy, launched the “Joint Unmanned Combat System” (J-UCAS) project, and began research on the unmanned combat aircraft X-47B. In 2006, the U.S. Navy proposed the “Navy Unmanned Combat Air System” (N-UCAS) project, which aims to introduce unmanned combat aircraft to the aircraft carrier-based aircraft wing and continue to conduct research on the X-47B. Between 2012 and 2014, the aircraft carrier catapult, landing, touch-and-go and other tests were completed many times, and the autonomous aerial refueling test was completed in 2015. The X-47B attack drone is an autonomously maneuverable, stealthy, and land-based and ship-based unmanned combat aircraft. It has the characteristics of high range and high flight time, and is equipped with advanced sensors such as illumination radar, optoelectronic guidance system, and aperture radar. Its main functions include intelligence reconnaissance, target tracking, electronic warfare interference, and firepower strikes. Other unmanned aerial systems developed by the United States, such as the Global Hawk, Predator, Hunter, and Raven, have also been in service in the military, as shown in Figure 3. The “Harpy” drone developed by Israel is equipped with anti-radar sensors, optoelectronic guidance systems and missiles, and can autonomously attack enemy radar systems, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 Aerial Unmanned Systems of Various Countries
A single aerial unmanned system is easily interfered with and attacked when performing a mission, resulting in mission failure, while an aerial unmanned system cluster can make up for this defect and give full play to the advantages of aerial unmanned systems. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the United States has successively launched the “Gremlins” low-cost drone project, the low-cost drone cluster project, the “Perdix” micro-drone airborne high-speed launch demonstration project, and the offensive swarm enabling tactics (OFFSET) project for aerial unmanned system clusters. By developing and testing the architecture, communication system and distributed control algorithm for unmanned system clusters, an autonomous control system for drone clusters has been developed, and cutting-edge scientific and technological technologies such as artificial intelligence, situational awareness, virtual reality and augmented reality have been used to enhance the comprehensive combat capability of aerial unmanned system clusters on the battlefield.
⑶ Marine unmanned systems Marine unmanned systems include two types: surface unmanned systems and underwater unmanned systems. Among them, surface unmanned systems mainly refer to surface unmanned boats (hereinafter referred to as “unmanned boats”), which are mainly used to perform tasks such as maritime search and rescue, reconnaissance and surveillance, firepower strikes, patrol security, electronic interference, logistics support and decoy target ships; underwater unmanned systems mainly refer to unmanned submersibles. Compared with manned submarines, they have the advantages of no casualties, high concealment and high autonomy, and are mainly used to perform intelligence collection, target monitoring, combat deterrence and firepower strikes. In 2018, the US Navy released the “Navy Department Unmanned System Strategic Roadmap”, and in 2019, it released the “Navy Artificial Intelligence Framework”, which provides route planning and guidance for the development of naval operations and marine unmanned systems. In terms of surface unmanned systems, the United States proposed the “American Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration Project” (ACTD), one of whose important tasks is to carry out research on the “Spartan Scout” unmanned boat. The project was completed in 2007 and tested in the Iraqi theater. The “Spartan Scout” unmanned boat is equipped with an unmanned driving system and a line-of-sight/beyond-line-of-sight communication system, as well as advanced sensors such as electro-optical/infrared search turrets, high-definition cameras, navigation radars, surface search radars, and global positioning system receivers, as well as weapons such as naval guns, anti-ship missiles, and anti-submarine sensors. It is mainly used to perform intelligence collection, target monitoring, information reconnaissance, anti-mine and maritime security tasks, and has a certain degree of autonomy. The “Sea Hunter” unmanned boat developed by the United States is equipped with sonar and optoelectronic sensors, as well as short-range and long-range radar detection systems and expandable modular sonar systems. It is mainly used to perform tasks such as identifying and monitoring suspicious targets and guiding fire strikes. The US marine unmanned system is shown in Figure 4. The “Protector” unmanned boat developed by Israel is mainly used to perform intelligence reconnaissance, suspicious target identification, tactical interception, electronic interference and precision strikes (Figure 4). The unmanned surface reconnaissance boat developed by Russia can perform rapid patrol tasks under the command of the mother ship and inspect and monitor designated areas to search for intelligence.
Figure 4 Marine unmanned systems of various countries
In terms of underwater unmanned systems, the nuclear-powered unmanned submarine “Poseidon” developed by Russia can carry conventional and nuclear warheads to perform reconnaissance and strategic nuclear strike missions, as shown in Figure 4. The “Knifefish” unmanned submarine developed by the United States can scan suspicious objects and search for intelligence by emitting low-frequency electromagnetic waves; the “Tuna”-9 unmanned submarine developed by the United States can carry a variety of standard payloads and can be used to perform offshore exploration, anti-mine, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and other tasks.
⒉ Current status of domestic intelligent unmanned system research In recent years, China’s military intelligent unmanned systems have developed rapidly. This article will explain the three aspects of land unmanned systems, air unmanned systems and marine unmanned systems. In terms of land unmanned systems, the National University of Defense Technology and Sany Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. jointly developed the “Desert Wolf” land unmanned light platform, which is powered by tracks and equipped with weapon systems such as grenade launchers and machine guns. It can be used to perform logistics transportation, wounded transportation, reconnaissance monitoring, firepower strikes and other tasks. The “Longma” series of unmanned vehicles developed by Sunward Intelligent Group have strong transportation and obstacle crossing capabilities. The “Shenxing-III” military ground intelligent robot system developed by Nanjing University of Science and Technology has strong autonomous navigation and intelligence reconnaissance capabilities. The unmanned nuclear reconnaissance vehicle jointly developed by the National University of Defense Technology and Harbin Institute of Technology has high mobility and armor protection capabilities. The weapon system it carries can perform fire strikes and has certain autonomous capabilities. In terms of aerial unmanned systems, the “Wing Loong” series of unmanned aerial vehicles developed by Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group has fully autonomous horizontal take-off and landing capabilities, cruise flight capabilities, air-to-ground coordination capabilities, and ground relay control capabilities. It is equipped with multiple types of optoelectronic/electronic reconnaissance equipment and small air-to-ground precision strike weapons, and can perform intelligence reconnaissance, target tracking, fire strikes and other tasks. The “Rainbow” series of unmanned aerial vehicles developed by China have medium-altitude and long-range navigation capabilities, can carry electronic jamming systems and a variety of weapon systems, and can perform fire strikes, intelligence reconnaissance, communication jamming, radio wave jamming and other tasks; the attack 11 type unmanned aerial vehicle developed has extremely strong stealth capabilities and can carry precision-guided missiles for ground attack missions. China’s aerial unmanned systems are shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5 China’s aerial unmanned systems
In terms of surface unmanned systems of marine unmanned systems, the “Tianxing No. 1” unmanned boat, developed by Harbin Engineering University, uses oil-electric hybrid power, with a maximum speed of more than 92.6km/h and a maximum range of 1,000km. It is currently the fastest unmanned boat in the world. The boat integrates technologies such as autonomous perception, intelligent control, and autonomous decision-making, and can achieve rapid situation information recognition and danger avoidance of the surrounding complex environment. It can be used to perform tasks such as meteorological information monitoring, landform mapping, alert patrol, intelligence reconnaissance, and firepower attack. The “Jinghai” series of unmanned boats developed by Shanghai University have semi-autonomous and fully autonomous operation capabilities, and can perform tasks such as target reconnaissance, ocean mapping, and water quality testing. The “Haiteng 01” intelligent high-speed unmanned boat developed by Shanghai Maritime University is equipped with sensors such as millimeter-wave radar, laser radar, and forward-looking sonar. It can perform suspicious target monitoring, underwater measurement, maritime search and rescue, and other tasks, and has fully autonomous and semi-autonomous navigation capabilities. The JARI intelligent unmanned combat boat developed by Jiangsu Automation Research Institute is equipped with detection equipment such as photoelectric detectors and four-sided phased arrays. At the same time, it is also equipped with weapon systems such as missiles and torpedoes, which can perform tasks such as intelligence collection, enemy reconnaissance, and precision firepower strikes. The “Lookout II” unmanned missile boat jointly developed by Zhuhai Yunzhou Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. and other units is equipped with a fully autonomous unmanned driving system and missiles and other weapons, which can perform tasks such as enemy reconnaissance, intelligence collection, and precision firepower strikes. China’s marine unmanned system is shown in Figure 6.
Figure 6 China’s marine unmanned system
In terms of underwater unmanned systems of marine unmanned systems, the “Devil Fish” unmanned submersible developed by Northwestern Polytechnical University is a bionic manta ray unmanned submersible that has completed a deep-sea test of 1025m. The “Wukong” full-sea depth unmanned submersible developed by Harbin Engineering University has successfully completed a deep dive and autonomous operation test of 10,896m. Deep-sea submersibles such as “Qianlong No. 1” and “Seahorse” developed by China have successfully completed deep-sea exploration missions.
⒊ Summary of the current state of technology At present, intelligent unmanned systems have been gradually applied to various fields of military applications, and with the development of cutting-edge science and technology, the application of intelligent unmanned systems in the military field will increase day by day. However, in the use of intelligent unmanned systems, autonomy and intelligence have not yet been fully realized. At present, the application status of intelligent unmanned system technology in the military field can be mainly divided into the following three parts:
① From the perspective of combat missions: combat missions have developed from simple reconnaissance and surveillance to mainstream confrontation operations; battlefield confrontation has changed from human confrontation to human-machine confrontation, and then to machine-machine confrontation; the application environment has changed from structured environment and laboratory environment to real battlefield environment, and will gradually develop into an augmented reality environment combining real environment and virtual reality in the future. ② From the perspective of command and control: the control method has developed from simple remote control and program control of a single machine to intelligent fusion and interactive control of human-machine, but autonomous control has not yet been fully realized; the system architecture has developed from specialization and singularity to generalization, standardization, and interoperability. ③ From the perspective of perception and decision-making: the decision-making method has changed from relying solely on people to relying mainly on people and supplemented by human-machine intelligent interactive decision-making; the perception method has changed from relying solely on sensors to obtain feature information and people to judge target attributes to target recognition and feature information acquisition based on artificial intelligence.
Key technologies of intelligent unmanned systems
As a culmination of multidisciplinary fields, intelligent unmanned systems involve many technologies, perform diverse tasks, and have complex and changeable application scenarios. For example, the air environment is rainy and foggy, with low visibility, strong winds, and light interference; the land environment has complex terrain, obstacles, interference, and dangerous pollution areas; the sea environment has wind and wave interference, ship swaying, inconspicuous targets, and irregular coastlines. Different environments and uses pose huge challenges to the research and performance of intelligent unmanned system technology. In order to adapt to the restricted and changing environment, the key technologies of intelligent unmanned systems can be summarized as autonomous perception and understanding technology in complex environments, multi-scenario autonomous skill learning and intelligent control technology, multi-task cluster collaboration technology, human-computer interaction and human-computer fusion technology, decision-making planning technology and navigation and positioning technology. This section will mainly use marine unmanned systems as examples to elaborate on the key technologies of intelligent unmanned systems.
⒈ Autonomous perception and understanding technology in complex environments Autonomous perception and scene understanding of the environment in complex environments is a prerequisite for intelligent unmanned systems to operate autonomously and form combat capabilities, which will directly affect whether the mission can be successfully completed. In view of the complexity and variability of the actual environment, especially the difficulties of wind and wave interference and ship shaking in the sea environment, intelligent unmanned systems need to complete the goals of autonomous target selection perception, obtain multimodal information, and abstract and complete understanding of information. Therefore, the autonomous perception and understanding technology of the environment of intelligent unmanned systems in complex environments needs to break through the autonomous perception technology of multimodal sensor fusion, as well as the complex scene target recognition and understanding technology.
⑴ Multimodal sensor fusion autonomous perception technology At present, the information acquisition sensors carried by intelligent unmanned systems mainly include navigation radar, millimeter wave radar, laser radar, optoelectronic payload, etc. A single sensor cannot directly obtain high-precision, dense three-dimensional scene information. It is necessary to study the autonomous environmental perception technology of multi-sensor fusion to provide support for scene understanding. Multi-sensor fusion is to carry out multi-level and multi-space information complementation and optimization combination processing of various sensors, and finally produce a consistent interpretation of the observed environment. In this process, it is necessary to make full use of multi-source data for reasonable control and use, and the ultimate goal of information fusion is to derive more useful information based on the separated observation information obtained by each sensor through multi-level and multi-faceted combination of information. By taking advantage of the mutual cooperation of multiple sensors, the data of all information sources are comprehensively processed to improve the intelligence of the entire sensor system. The natural environment of the ocean is more complex than that of land and air. Faced with special challenges such as violent swaying of ships, wind and wave interference, uneven lighting, and inconspicuous targets, the marine intelligent unmanned system needs to perform multi-sensor information fusion processing on the designated target based on the unique attributes of each sensor, and then combine the electronic chart information of the internal navigation unit of the unmanned system and the shore-based support system to build a multi-dimensional three-dimensional situation map of the sea surface environment, perform tracking, detection, identification and cognition tasks for the designated target, and finally realize the autonomous perception and complete understanding of the sea surface environment by the marine intelligent unmanned system.
⑵ Complex scene target recognition and understanding technology The key to the operation autonomy of intelligent unmanned systems lies in the ability to effectively understand the scene and target information, and accurate understanding of scene information mainly includes the construction of target semantic information and the description of scene text information. Compared with land and air environments, the natural marine environment faces unique difficulties such as wind and wave interference and violent swaying of the hull, which brings challenges to the intelligent unmanned system to fully understand the environmental information and accurately identify the designated target. Using sensors such as laser radar and high-definition cameras carried by intelligent unmanned systems, the original point cloud information and image feature information of the marine environment scene can be obtained. Using three-dimensional target detection methods based on point clouds, point clouds and image fusion, and three-dimensional scene semantic segmentation methods, etc., the intelligent unmanned system can fully recognize the scene information and accurately identify the designated target. There are mainly two types of point cloud-based methods: grid-based or voxel-based methods, and point-based methods. The grid-based or voxel-based method uses voxels or bird’s-eye views to convert the irregular point cloud of the acquired sea surface into a regular representation method, and then extracts the point cloud features. The point-based method directly extracts target features from the acquired original point cloud of the sea surface. The three-dimensional target detection method based on point cloud and image fusion combines the precise coordinates of the target in the sea scene obtained by the laser radar with the environmental texture and color information provided by the sea surface image, which is more conducive to the intelligent unmanned system to accurately identify and accurately and completely understand the target of the ocean scene.
⒉ Behavior decision-making and trajectory planning technology In actual and complex war scenes, for the complex mission environment and multiple tasks faced by intelligent unmanned systems, it is necessary to break through the behavior decision-making technology in multi-source heterogeneous environments, trajectory planning technology in dynamic/static environments, and trajectory tracking technology in complex scenes.
⑴ Behavior decision-making technology in multi-source heterogeneous environments Behavior decision-making is the key to the realization of autonomous control of intelligent unmanned systems. In the complex environment of different speeds, different relative distances, and different data types of unmanned boats, it is necessary to accurately extract effective information to make safe and reliable control instructions for the next decision of the unmanned boat. First, extract representative environmental feature information and establish a sufficient number of accurately calibrated learning data sets; then, construct a decision maker based on a deep neural network and use the established database for learning; finally, use machine learning algorithms to optimize the constructed decision maker to further improve the decision accuracy. ⑵Trajectory planning technology in dynamic/static environment Trajectory change is the most basic behavior of unmanned boats and unmanned submarines. In a complex battlefield environment, planning a feasible and reliable trajectory according to different environmental conditions is the key to the intelligent driving of unmanned boats and unmanned submarines. This technology mainly includes trajectory planning technology based on polynomials, trajectory planning technology based on multi-objective constraints, and trajectory planning technology based on positive and negative trapezoidal lateral acceleration.
⑶Trajectory tracking technology in complex scenes Tracking the planned ideal trajectory is an important task for unmanned boats and unmanned submarines. The key lies in solving the problem of high-precision and high-stability control when unmanned boats or unmanned submarines track target trajectories. The main solution is: according to the kinematic and dynamic models of unmanned boats and unmanned submarines, the corresponding actuator control quantity is output to achieve real-time and accurate tracking of the specified target, and under the premise of ensuring tracking accuracy, the autonomous intelligent steering of unmanned boats and unmanned submarines and the coordinated control of multiple actuators of each drive module are realized.
⒊Autonomous navigation and positioning technology The navigation and positioning system is a key component of the intelligent unmanned system, which can provide accurate and reliable information about the speed and position of unmanned boats or unmanned submarines. The navigation system is generally composed of gyroscopes, accelerometers, satellite receivers, etc., some of which are supplemented by visual modules, or are equipped with prior spatial position maps and physical information sensors based on actual complex environmental conditions. In order to achieve accurate execution of tasks, intelligent unmanned systems must break through navigation and positioning technology based on inertial/satellite deep information fusion, navigation and positioning technology based on inertial/astronomical information fusion, navigation technology based on visual tracking, and geophysical assisted navigation technology.
⑴ Navigation and positioning technology based on inertial/satellite deep information fusion This technology introduces the inertial information of the unmanned boat into the satellite carrier/code loop, and then uses fully autonomous, short-term, and high-precision inertial information to assist the update of satellite receiver signals, thereby realizing the complementary advantages and optimal fusion of the inertial navigation and satellite navigation of the unmanned boat.
⑵ Navigation and positioning technology based on inertial/astronomical information fusion The astronomical-based navigation system has the advantages of high autonomy and low susceptibility to interference. By using the information output by astronomical navigation and the information provided by the initial position, the position of the unmanned boat can be calculated. The fusion of inertial navigation information and astronomical navigation information can improve the robustness of astronomical navigation positioning. Inertial/astronomical combined positioning technology based on astronomical navigation assistance has become a key part of the field of autonomous navigation of unmanned systems.
⑶ Navigation technology based on visual tracking Due to the complexity of the actual battlefield environment, unmanned boats will be in a complex working environment and are easily interfered by the outside world, resulting in GPS denial, which makes the navigation system unable to be in a combined state. A single inertial navigation system has low accuracy and is prone to accumulating errors. Long-term pure inertial navigation will make the unmanned boat lose the ability to perform tasks. However, the vision-based method does not have time error accumulation. It only needs to extract the key features of the image obtained by the high-definition camera to obtain the position information of the unmanned boat and the unmanned submersible through visual algorithms and prior knowledge. The vision-based navigation algorithm is not easily interfered with, has strong robustness, and can make up for the error accumulation caused by pure inertial navigation in a GPS denial environment, and is widely used.
⑷ Geophysical assisted navigation technology Due to the unique environment of the ocean, unmanned submersibles need to sail underwater for a long time, resulting in the inability to obtain real-time and accurate satellite signals and astronomical information. In addition, due to problems such as weak underwater light, vision-based navigation methods are also limited. Therefore, by obtaining a priori spatial position map inside the ocean and using the field scene information obtained by the physical sensors carried by the unmanned submersible and matching them, high-precision autonomous navigation of the unmanned submersible can be achieved. The temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of the inherent geophysical properties of the surveyed ocean can be used to produce a geophysical navigation spatial position map. By matching the physical feature information obtained by the physical property sensor carried by the unmanned submersible with the pre-carried spatial position map, the high-precision positioning of the unmanned submersible can be obtained, and the high-precision autonomous navigation of the unmanned submersible can be realized.
⒋ Multi-scenario autonomous skill learning and intelligent control technology Multi-scenario intelligent control technology is a key technology for intelligent unmanned systems to solve complex, changeable and unstable control objects. It is an effective tool for intelligent unmanned systems to adapt to complex task requirements. In a complex marine environment, if intelligent unmanned systems want to complete real-time and accurate regional monitoring, target tracking, information acquisition and precision strikes, they must break through the autonomous skill learning technology of tasks, autonomous operation interactive control technology, and unmanned system motion control technology of human-like intelligent control.
⑴ Autonomous skill learning technology of tasks Autonomous skill learning refers to the process of learning based on prior knowledge or rules to complete tasks in the process of interaction between unmanned systems and the outside world. The autonomous learning of unmanned system operation skills is essentially a partial process of simulating human learning cognition. Intelligent unmanned systems use deep reinforcement learning-based technology to combine the perception ability of deep learning with the decision-making ability of reinforcement learning, and can achieve direct control from high-latitude raw data information input to decision output in complex sea environments. The autonomous skill learning of intelligent unmanned systems mainly includes three aspects: first, describing the complex environment of the ocean surface and the interior of the ocean, and obtaining the initial state data information of the surrounding environment; second, based on the description of the intelligent unmanned system and the complex environment of the ocean surface and the interior, mathematical modeling of deep reinforcement learning is carried out to obtain key information such as the state value function and control strategy function of the autonomous skill learning process; third, using the data information obtained by the interaction between the intelligent unmanned system and the complex environment of the ocean surface and the interior, the state value function and the control strategy function are updated to enable the marine intelligent unmanned system to learn a better control strategy.
⑵ Autonomous operation interactive control technology In the process of autonomous learning and control of tasks, the intelligent unmanned system needs to contact with the ocean surface and the complex internal environment to form a good coupling system to ensure the real-time and accurate acquisition of information on the ocean surface and the complex internal environment, and correctly and quickly carry out navigation planning, autonomous navigation control and autonomous collision avoidance of unmanned boats and unmanned submersibles. The tasks of the interactive control technology of autonomous operation of intelligent unmanned systems mainly include: the design of interactive rules and control strategies of intelligent unmanned systems; modeling methods of complex environments on the surface and inside of the ocean; online modeling and correction of the dynamics of unmanned boats, unmanned submarines and operating objects; dynamic generation and shared control methods of virtual force constraints in complex environments on the surface and inside of the ocean.
⑶ Motion control technology of unmanned systems with humanoid intelligent control The motion control technology of unmanned systems with humanoid intelligent control combines artificial intelligence with traditional control methods to solve the problem of stable and precise control of unmanned boats and unmanned submarines in actual complex marine battlefield environments. It mainly includes two aspects: the design of intelligent control algorithms for unmanned systems and the design of intelligent control strategies for unmanned systems. The design of intelligent control algorithms for unmanned systems mainly includes: hierarchical information processing and decision-making mechanisms; online feature identification and feature memory; open/closed-loop control, positive/negative feedback control, and multi-modal control combining qualitative decision-making with quantitative control; the application of heuristic intuitive reasoning logic. The design of intelligent control strategies for unmanned systems is to design reasonable solutions for unmanned boats or unmanned submarines to meet actual mission requirements.
⒌ Unmanned cluster collaborative control technology In actual combat scenarios, due to the complexity of the battlefield environment and the diversity of tasks, a single unmanned boat or unmanned submarine usually cannot meet the needs of actual tasks. The number of equipment carried by a single unmanned boat or unmanned submarine is limited, and the perception perspective and regional range are not comprehensive enough, resulting in insufficient precision and thoroughness in performing complete intelligence detection, target tracking, battlefield environment perception and comprehensive firepower strike tasks. Therefore, it has become an inevitable trend for a cluster of intelligent unmanned systems composed of multiple unmanned boats and unmanned submarines to collaboratively perform tasks. To complete the control of the intelligent unmanned system cluster, it is necessary to break through the local rule control technology of the intelligent unmanned system cluster, the soft control technology of the intelligent unmanned system cluster, the pilot control technology of the intelligent unmanned system cluster, and the artificial potential field control technology of the intelligent unmanned system.
⑴ Local rule control technology of intelligent unmanned system cluster The control technology based on local rules is the basic method for intelligent unmanned systems to control unmanned boats and unmanned submarines. It mainly lies in the designation of individual local control rules within the cluster of unmanned boats and unmanned submarines. Local rule control technology has achieved intelligent control of marine unmanned system clusters to a certain extent, but a large number of experiments are needed to obtain the parameters between the behavior of marine unmanned system clusters and the cluster model, and the values of the parameters are also very sensitive. Therefore, to achieve complete intelligent control of intelligent unmanned systems, other technologies are needed.
⑵ Soft control technology of intelligent unmanned system clusters The soft control technology of intelligent unmanned system clusters is mainly based on two requirements: First, in the intelligent unmanned system cluster, the control rules between individuals are very important. For example, the control and internal function of each unmanned boat and unmanned submarine are necessary conditions for the group behavior of the entire marine intelligent unmanned system cluster; second, the intelligent unmanned system cluster adopts a local communication strategy. With the increase of unmanned boats and unmanned submarines in the cluster system, it will not affect the state of the entire intelligent unmanned system cluster.
The soft control method is to add one or more new unmanned boats or unmanned submarines without destroying the individual rules of unmanned boats and unmanned submarines in the intelligent unmanned system cluster. These unmanned boats or unmanned submarines participate in the actions of the entire intelligent unmanned system cluster according to the same local rules, but they are controllable and can receive external instructions. After receiving the command, these unmanned boats or unmanned submarines will independently complete the corresponding tasks. The soft control method of the intelligent unmanned system cluster is to add a controllable unmanned boat and unmanned submarine on the basis of the local control rules of the unmanned system, so that it can affect the entire unmanned system cluster, and finally complete the control of the entire intelligent unmanned system group.
⑶ Intelligent unmanned system cluster navigation control technology The basic content of the intelligent unmanned system cluster navigation control technology is: under the premise that the individuals of the entire marine intelligent unmanned system cluster maintain local rules, a small number of unmanned boats and unmanned submarines in the cluster have more information and stronger information processing capabilities, and interact with other unmanned boats and unmanned submarines through local information to play a leading role, so as to achieve the purpose of controlling the entire intelligent unmanned system cluster.
⑷ Artificial potential field control technology of intelligent unmanned system In the control of intelligent unmanned system clusters, control technology based only on local rules is difficult to achieve accurate and real-time perception of the battlefield, as well as the collection and acquisition of intelligence information, tracking and identification of suspicious targets, and precise strikes on enemy areas. Artificial potential field control technology introduces the concept of potential field in physics into the control of intelligent unmanned system clusters, and uses potential functions to simulate the internal and external effects that affect a single unmanned boat or unmanned submarine. The single unmanned boat or unmanned submarine in the system cluster acts under the action of the potential function, and finally realizes the control of the entire intelligent unmanned system through the potential function.
⒍Natural human-computer interaction technology In the actual battlefield environment, intelligent unmanned systems face problems such as complex operation tasks, low level of operation intelligence, high training risks and costs, and low equipment use and maintenance efficiency. In this case, it is necessary to improve the controllability and intelligence of intelligent unmanned system equipment, and it is necessary to break through the human-computer interaction technology of intelligent unmanned systems, augmented reality and mixed reality technology of intelligent unmanned systems, and brain-computer interface technology of intelligent unmanned systems.
⑴Human-computer interaction technology of intelligent unmanned systems Human-computer interaction technology of intelligent unmanned systems refers to the command platform obtaining the image and voice information of officers and soldiers through image and voice sensors, and then using algorithms such as image segmentation, edge detection, and image recognition to extract key information such as gestures and eye gestures of officers and soldiers, and then using algorithms based on deep learning to obtain the voice information of officers and soldiers and pass it to the command platform, so as to issue the officers and soldiers’ instructions to lower-level combat units. The human-computer interaction technology of intelligent unmanned systems can improve the intelligence of task operations and the fault tolerance and robustness of the operation process, so that the officers and soldiers’ instructions can be issued to combat units more stably and effectively.
⑵Augmented reality and mixed reality technology of intelligent unmanned systems Augmented reality technology of intelligent unmanned systems is to superimpose computer-generated images on real complex combat environments, and mixed reality technology of intelligent unmanned systems is to present information of virtual scenes in actual combat scenes, and set up an interactive feedback information loop between the virtual world and officers and soldiers in a real combat environment, thereby increasing the officers and soldiers’ sense of reality in the combat environment experience. As an important development direction of immersive human-computer interaction technology, virtual reality and augmented reality for intelligent unmanned systems have a variety of different real combat application scenarios, which can effectively reduce the cost and risk of training and improve the use and maintenance efficiency of equipment during combat.
⑶ Brain-computer interface technology for intelligent unmanned systems The main function of the brain-computer interface is to capture a series of brain wave signals generated by the human brain when thinking. In actual combat environments, the brain-computer interface technology of intelligent unmanned systems extracts features and classifies the brain wave signals of commanders and fighters, thereby identifying the intentions of commanders and fighters and making corresponding decisions to cope with complex combat tasks and emergencies. The brain-computer interface technology of intelligent unmanned systems can enhance the cognitive and decision-making capabilities of commanders and fighters, greatly improve brain-computer interaction and brain control technology, and give commanders and fighters the ability to control multiple unmanned boats, unmanned submarines and other unmanned combat equipment while relying on thinking.
Future development trend of intelligent unmanned systems
Due to its advantages of unmanned, autonomous, and intelligent, intelligent unmanned systems will appear in every corner of the future battlefield. As they undertake more battlefield tasks, they will participate in different war scenarios, which will lead to a number of key problems for intelligent unmanned systems, restricting their development. The key problems faced by intelligent unmanned systems are mainly:
① Highly complex environment. The specific application environment of intelligent unmanned systems will face more and more factors. The numerous shelters in unstructured environments, the limited perception viewpoints and ranges, etc., put forward higher requirements on the environmental perception ability of intelligent unmanned systems. ② High game confrontation. The battlefield game of intelligent unmanned systems is an important means to gain battlefield advantages. The fierce mobile confrontation between the two sides of the war, as well as the many interferences caused by the enemy and the battlefield environment, have put forward new challenges to the mobile decision-making ability of intelligent unmanned systems. ③ High real-time response. In the future battlefield, the combat situation will change dramatically, the combat mode will be more flexible and changeable, and it is necessary to respond to battlefield emergencies in a timely manner, which puts forward new requirements for the real-time response ability of intelligent unmanned systems. ④ Incomplete information. In the future battlefield, due to the limitations of the battlefield environment and the existence of enemy interference, the information acquisition ability of the intelligent unmanned system will be restricted, resulting in incomplete situational awareness, loss and attenuation of battlefield situation information data, and the inability to fully obtain information on both sides of the enemy. ⑤ Uncertain boundaries. The unmanned combat mode of the intelligent unmanned system has subverted the traditional combat mode. The integration of land, sea, air and space in the future unmanned combat, as well as the social public opinion brought about by the high degree of integration with society, will have an impact on the unmanned combat of the intelligent unmanned system, thus causing uncertainty in the combat boundary.
Based on the various difficulties that will be faced above, the development of intelligent unmanned systems in the future will focus on two aspects: individual capability enhancement and cluster capability enhancement. Individual capability enhancement is mainly reflected in individual cognitive intelligence, individual autonomous operation and algorithm chipization; cluster capability enhancement is mainly reflected in improving interoperability through a universal architecture, as well as cross-domain collaborative operations, network security and human-machine hybrid intelligence.
⒈ Cognitive intelligence adapts to complex task environments In order to improve the adaptability of intelligent unmanned systems in highly complex environments, it is necessary to enhance the individual cognitive intelligence of intelligent unmanned systems. The enhancement of individual cognitive intelligence is mainly reflected in the transformation from individual perceptual intelligence to cognitive intelligence. The comprehensive acquisition of multi-source sensor information enables intelligent unmanned systems to have human semantic understanding, associative reasoning, judgment analysis, decision planning, emotional understanding and other capabilities. The development of individual cognitive intelligence of intelligent unmanned systems will be based on brain science and bionics, and will achieve intelligent understanding and accurate application of acquired information by combining knowledge graphs, artificial intelligence, knowledge reasoning, decision intelligence and other technologies, thereby improving the high real-time response capabilities of intelligent unmanned systems to emergencies.
⒉ Autonomous operation improves the task capability of single machines In order to solve the problem of highly complex tasks faced by intelligent unmanned systems in highly complex environments, it is necessary to improve the autonomous operation capabilities of single machines. This includes developing decision-making methods based on deep reinforcement learning, autonomous environmental perception and interaction methods based on multi-source information of vision and other sensors, autonomous motion planning methods for robots based on neurodynamics, and autonomous operation methods based on artificial intelligence, so as to improve the autonomous environmental modeling and positioning capabilities, autonomous decision-making capabilities, autonomous planning capabilities and autonomous control capabilities of individuals in intelligent unmanned systems, so that intelligent unmanned systems can adapt to complex environments and carry out autonomous operation tasks.
⒊ Algorithm chipization achieves high real-time response The complex environment faced by intelligent unmanned systems places high demands on algorithms and computing power. It is necessary to be able to accelerate computing in real time to achieve high real-time response to battlefield emergencies. To solve this problem, it is necessary to improve the chipization level of individual algorithms of intelligent unmanned systems, that is, to develop a new architecture of storage and computing integrated chips to improve the computing power of chips and the level of algorithm chipization. New chips based on artificial neural technology can be studied. By changing the binary computing method of digital chips and exchanging gradient signals or weight signals, the chips can work in a simulated neuron manner, simulating the parallel computing flow of the brain to effectively process large amounts of data, and obtaining the parallel computing capabilities of supercomputers, thereby greatly improving the computing power of chips and the level of algorithm chipization, and solving the problem of high real-time response of intelligent unmanned systems.
⒋ Universal architecture improves cluster interoperability In order to improve the adaptability of intelligent unmanned systems facing highly complex environments and the maintenance and support efficiency of intelligent unmanned systems, intelligent unmanned systems will continue to develop standardized command and control frameworks in the future, improve the intelligence of human-machine collaboration, and improve the modularity of the system. It is mainly reflected in:
① Developing a general artificial intelligence framework to support autonomous, precise, and real-time good coupling and collaboration between humans and machines; ② Improving the modularity and component interchangeability of intelligent unmanned systems to support rapid maintenance and configuration upgrades of intelligent unmanned systems and their members in future battlefields; ③ Improving the level of data transmission integration and the anti-interference capability of data transmission on future battlefields to reduce the rate of data interception.
⒌ Cross-domain collaboration breaks the boundaries of cluster applications
In order to improve the adaptability of intelligent unmanned systems in highly complex environments and solve the problem of uncertain boundaries during combat, it is necessary to improve the cross-domain collaborative combat capabilities of intelligent unmanned systems to make up for the lack of capabilities in a single combat domain. Through the cross-domain collaborative combat of intelligent unmanned systems, the advantages of various components can be complemented. That is, by utilizing the advantages of large search range and long communication distance of air unmanned systems, as well as long endurance and strong stability of land unmanned systems and marine unmanned systems, the advantages of different components are combined to increase the multi-dimensional spatial information perception capabilities of intelligent unmanned systems, and form a heterogeneous multi-autonomous collaborative system, thereby improving the ability of intelligent unmanned systems to complete complex tasks.
⒍ Secure network guarantees reliable application of clusters Intelligent unmanned systems face the problems of incomplete information and high game confrontation on future battlefields. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the network security protection capabilities of intelligent unmanned systems in high confrontation environments, improve flexibility in dealing with highly complex and highly variable tasks, and improve stability in the face of high-intensity network attacks. The improvement of network security protection capabilities in adversarial environments is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
① Plan reasonable data permissions to ensure data security and flexibility of task execution; ② Improve information protection capabilities, develop and upgrade information protection products for intelligent unmanned systems, and record response decisions for information explosion situations; ③ Increase the network’s deep defense capabilities, unify network security standards and levels, build network defense autonomy, and improve the network’s ability to resist attacks under network attacks.
⒎ Human-machine hybrid intelligence improves adversarial capabilities In order to solve the problem of high real-time response faced on future battlefields and improve the adaptability of intelligent unmanned systems in highly complex environments, it is necessary to combine the advantages of humans and machines to form a new hybrid intelligent mode of human-machine collaboration, that is, to develop human-machine hybrid intelligence for intelligent unmanned systems. Human-machine hybrid intelligence of intelligent unmanned systems is a new intelligent scientific system that combines physics and biology in which human, machine, and environmental systems interact. In response to the problems of high-complexity environments and high real-time responses faced by intelligent unmanned systems on future battlefields, the development of human-machine hybrid intelligence in the future is mainly reflected in the following aspects: ① Information intelligence input. At the input end of information acquisition, the information data objectively collected by the sensors of the unmanned system equipment is combined with the subjective perception information of the combat commanders to form a multi-dimensional information acquisition and information input method. ② Intelligent information fusion. After obtaining multi-dimensional data information, a new data understanding method is constructed by integrating the computer’s calculation data with the information cognition of the combat commanders. ③ Intelligent information output. After the data information is fused and processed, the computer’s calculation results are matched with the value decisions of the combat commanders to form an organically combined probabilistic and regularized optimization judgment.
IV. Conclusion Due to its autonomy, intelligence and unmanned characteristics, intelligent unmanned systems will play an increasingly important role in the future battlefield. The development of intelligent unmanned systems will also drive the development of intelligent computing, intelligent transportation, intelligent manufacturing, smart medical care, brain-like science and other disciplines. In the future, we should be guided by the mission requirements of actual complex battlefield environments, combine advanced technologies in cutting-edge disciplines such as artificial intelligence, and make overall top-level planning for intelligent unmanned systems; verify reliable airborne intelligent perception and intelligent computing equipment on different unmanned system combat platforms in land, air and marine unmanned systems, and develop reliable and stable key technologies such as unmanned system autonomous control, intelligent perception, intelligent decision-making and intelligent interaction, overcome the key difficulties of intelligent unmanned systems, and continuously improve the autonomous control, intelligent perception and intelligent decision-making capabilities of intelligent unmanned systems.
Modern warfare practice has proved that high-tech has become the core combat power and has promoted the rapid advancement of warfare towards intelligence. Especially under the guidance of new technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, and supported by algorithms and computing power technologies, the degree of military intelligence is gradually deepening, and the characteristics of intelligent battlefield warfare are becoming more and more apparent.
The combat space is developing towards full-domain multi-dimensional integration
The widespread application of artificial intelligence technology in the military field will integrate combat units distributed in different battlefield spaces, accelerate the expansion of combat space, cross-domain linkage, and simultaneously exert efforts in multi-dimensional battlefield space and focus on multiple combat capabilities at the same time, so as to achieve precise energy concentration and release in the entire domain.
The pan-connection of data cloud networks has expanded the combat space in the information domain. With the development of new-generation information technologies such as big data and cloud computing, information domain operations will penetrate various combat spaces, and modular combat units dispersed in space will be connected into a decentralized distributed combat system. When combat missions change or certain nodes are damaged, by adding new nodes or upgrading other nodes, the original combat functions can be maintained or new combat functions can be formed. Relying on information infrastructure, the combat system presents the characteristics of distribution, self-organization, and self-synchronization, which greatly improves the reliability, anti-destruction, and flexibility of the combat system. The combat system has developed from a task-based, static-oriented direction to a capability-based, dynamic-oriented direction.
Intelligent weapons and equipment expand the physical domain combat space. With the development and application of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, autonomous control, and the Internet of Things, weapons and equipment are becoming more and more intelligent, more powerful, and more widely used. The battlefield of intelligent combat has expanded from traditional land, sea, and air to near-space, polar regions, deep space, deep sea, and underground.
The human brain and computer complement each other to expand the cognitive domain space. With the integrated development of artificial intelligence and cognitive science, human brain intelligence and artificial intelligence promote each other, which can realize the complementary advantages of human brain logical thinking and computer high-speed computing. In intelligent warfare, the cognitive domain combat space will become the main battlefield, and “brain control” and “brain control” will become the focus of future wars.
Combat forces are developing towards mixed human-machine formations
In intelligent warfare, new types of unmanned combat forces will become the main combat force and a new growth point for the military’s combat effectiveness. New types of unmanned combat forces such as space, network, electromagnetic and intelligent ammunition will directly participate in combat, achieving a seamless link from strategy to tactics, and forming a multi-dimensional, all-domain attack and defense, and rapid assault overall force.
Combat force formations are organized in a variety of styles. Human-machine mixed formations. According to different tasks, combined with unmanned combat forces with different functions, reasonable human-machine formations are carried out to give full play to human subjective initiative on the one hand, and the special functions of unmanned combat forces on the other hand, so as to achieve the best combination to achieve combat objectives. Autonomous formation of unmanned forces. In intelligent warfare, unmanned tactical units, as the smallest combat units, can autonomously form combat groups or teams according to combat mission requirements to attack or defend targets. They can also automatically coordinate and cooperate according to changes in battlefield environment and tasks to ensure the achievement of unified combat objectives.
Combat command develops towards autonomous intelligence
In intelligent warfare, the application of high-tech in the military field with artificial intelligence as the core has had a profound impact on combat command and even triggered disruptive changes.
Command information acquisition is more autonomous. The sensor platform of the intelligent battlefield can implement intelligent fusion processing of multi-source intelligence with “large volume, multiple types, fast transmission speed and low value density”, obtain valuable data from massive data, and automatically transmit it to the command and control center to provide information support for commanders’ decision-making.
Human-machine collaboration in command and decision-making. In intelligent warfare, the use of intelligent robot systems to assist in decision-making has greatly reduced the burden on commanders, freeing them from heavy tasks and allowing them to concentrate on studying operations and command. They can hand over some tedious intelligence information judgment, identification and disposal work to artificial intelligence-assisted decision-making systems, giving full play to the role of human-machine integration, reasonable division of labor and mutual complementation, greatly improving the commanders’ command efficiency.
Dynamic planning. An intelligent system based on artificial intelligence technology and intelligent human-machine interface technology can speed up the pace of updating battlefield dynamic information and quickly propose suggestions for adjusting and improving plans, which will help commanders update mission plans in a timely manner and improve the troops’ ability to act quickly.
Agile control response. With the support of artificial intelligence technology and sensor technology, the ability of intelligent control of troops will be further improved in the future. Specifically, intelligent weapons and equipment can use sensors similar to human vision and hearing to track and detect targets, and process the information obtained and provided by the command information system through computers similar to the human brain, so as to achieve autonomous analysis, identification, judgment, and make corresponding decisions, thereby regulating the attack on the target.
Combat equipment is becoming more intelligent
With the widespread use of artificial intelligence technology in the field of military equipment, intelligent combat platforms and systems, intelligent ammunition and intelligent weapons and equipment have been successively equipped in the army. Combat equipment will develop from manned equipment as the main and unmanned equipment as the auxiliary to manned/unmanned equipment coordination and unmanned equipment as the main direction. UAVs, unmanned combat vehicles, unmanned ships, unmanned spacecraft, military robots and intelligent individual systems will become the main force of intelligent combat. They have good combat performance, fast response speed, strong mobility and high combat accuracy, which plays a key role in seizing the initiative in war and even affects the entire war process.
The entire process of technological infiltration war
Intelligent warfare in modern warfare is supported by Internet technology, unmanned technology, data processing and prediction technology, target recognition and search technology, and artificial intelligence technology. Various high-tech platforms and systems are increasingly likely to replace human actions in various combat links such as intelligence reconnaissance, efficient command, precise action, and comprehensive support in war. These intelligent combat platforms or systems also have super computing, recognition, and autonomous control capabilities, especially the ability to complete urgent, difficult, and dangerous tasks under harsh conditions that are difficult for humans to complete. This trend is attracting more and more interest and investment from military powers.
