As a high-intensity, targeted training closely aligned with actual combat, realistic combat training plays a crucial role in enhancing the combat effectiveness of the armed forces and is an inevitable choice for adapting to the evolving nature of warfare and responding to complex security threats. In the intelligent era, the deep integration of military technology, the suddenness of war outbreaks, and the rapid pace of offensive and defensive transitions are becoming increasingly prominent, posing systemic challenges to realistic combat training in areas such as demand guidance, environment construction, tactical innovation, and technological empowerment. To this end, we should focus on building a new training management model that accurately maps needs, deeply embeds adversaries, makes tactics flexible and effective, and deeply integrates technology, so as to achieve resonance between training scenarios and combat environments, dynamic coupling between training content and combat actions, and precise alignment between training results and actual combat needs, thereby comprehensively improving the overall quality and efficiency of combat-oriented training.
The need to meet the demands of “combat” necessitates intensive training based on specific plans.
In the intelligent era, the diversification of weapons, equipment, and combat methods has brought more variables to combat operations. Realistic training must be aligned with actual combat needs, calibrate training objectives through testing in real scenarios, continuously enhance the flexibility of combat plans, and improve the adaptability of troops.
Operational guidance calibrates training targets. As a form of training closely aligned with actual combat, realistic training can only achieve maximum effectiveness by closely adhering to the needs of intelligent warfare, transforming abstract operational concepts into concrete training topics, and deconstructing strategic and operational requirements into quantifiable and assessable tactical indicators. Emphasis should be placed on battlefield adaptability training in complex and ever-changing battlefield environments, strengthening training on challenging issues such as cyber and electronic warfare, autonomous coordination, and the integration of new technologies, to ensure that a proactive battlefield advantage is always maintained. Training content should be dynamically optimized by closely monitoring cutting-edge operational concepts, continuously promoting the interaction and coupling of actual combat and training, and consistently maintaining a high level of combat readiness training.
Practice refines and strengthens the resilience of operational plans. Intelligent warfare is fast-paced and rapidly changing; only through repeated verification and refinement in realistic training can the feasibility and adaptability of operational plans be guaranteed. A multi-functional, intelligent, and professional training ground system should be constructed to continuously refine key aspects such as command and decision-making, force deployment, and operational coordination in scenario-based training, constantly testing the resilience of the command chain, the robustness of coordination mechanisms, and the sustainability of the support system. In fact, testing and improving operational plans through realistic training is timeless. Prior to the Normandy landings, the Allied forces conducted Exercise Tiger at Slapton Beach to improve combat skills, enhance combat experience, and test coordination efficiency. Despite a series of oversights and errors, serious deficiencies in command and communication, landing and unloading were also discovered. By revising and improving the combat plan and addressing the shortcomings, the actual combat casualty rate was greatly reduced, laying a solid foundation for the successful implementation of the final landing operation.
Mission-driven training strengthens capabilities. High-intensity, near-real combat training effectively exposes weaknesses and deficiencies, forcing units to develop targeted measures and ultimately boosting combat capabilities. Close attention should be paid to the specific tasks undertaken by the troops, such as reconnaissance and surveillance, information warfare, force projection, and unmanned operations. Problems should be identified during exercises and practical training, and countermeasures should be developed according to local conditions to address weaknesses in combat capabilities. Before the Hundred Regiments Offensive during the War of Resistance Against Japan, a unit of the Eighth Route Army, recognizing its weak railway sabotage capabilities, conducted targeted intensive training focusing on reconnaissance and surveillance, explosives demolition, and dismantling and transportation. This significantly improved the unit’s railway sabotage capabilities, laying a crucial foundation for victory.
Based on the standard of “war”, we insist on independent confrontation.
In the intelligent era, intelligent unmanned equipment is being used extensively, new combat forces with new characteristics are constantly emerging, and the features of hybrid games and system confrontation are becoming more prominent. This requires that combat-oriented training must be based on actual combat standards and targeted confrontation training must be carried out against strong adversaries.
Reconstructing cognitive benchmarks through re-enactment of enemy situations. Accurate understanding of the operational target system and the adversary’s combat capabilities is not only a prerequisite for winning intelligent warfare but also the foundation for planning and organizing effective combat-oriented training. We must closely monitor the adversary, comprehensively, accurately, and systematically grasp the latest military intelligence dynamics regarding their operational theories, command methods, tactics, operational deployments, and the performance of key weapons and equipment. Furthermore, we must deeply study countermeasures, cultivate the ability to win, and ensure that we anticipate the enemy’s moves and achieve surprise victories in wartime. We should systematically deconstruct the future battlefield environment, starting from multiple dimensions such as the strategic domain, physical domain, network domain, and electromagnetic domain, and use multiple methods to construct a training environment that matches information-based and intelligent warfare, providing strong support for key training subjects and seeking winning strategies.
Red-Blue competition drives a qualitative leap in capabilities. In the context of intelligent warfare, combat-oriented training places greater emphasis on targeted and intense confrontation, requiring the creation of simulated “Blue Force” forces to higher standards, the design of appropriate training content, and the effective implementation of adversarial red-Blue confrontation training. It is essential to focus on tactical confrontation training, operational confrontation exercises, and in-depth strategic game-based confrontation simulations, ensuring their effective implementation at all levels of combat-oriented training. Emphasis should be placed on both virtual simulation confrontation exercises and live-fire confrontation exercises, combining virtual and real elements to provide strong support for combat-oriented training. The training should not only present the size and weaponry of the adversary but also reflect their tactical applications and systemic operations, providing a reliable and credible “touchstone” for combat-oriented training.
Extreme training is essential for honing systemic capabilities. Only by benchmarking against actual combat and organizing realistic training with the standards and intensity of “war” can we objectively assess the combat effectiveness of the troops and promote the improvement of their systemic capabilities. Based on specific enemy situations and complex battlefields, we must deeply anticipate unforeseen circumstances, starting with the most difficult, complex, and passive situations. We should create numerous dangerous, stalemate, difficult, critical, and dire situations to cultivate the confidence and courage to fight and win, and the ability to adapt and achieve victory in perilous circumstances, thereby comprehensively testing and refining the troops’ combat capabilities.
Anchoring “Battle” Effectiveness Innovations in Tactics and Combat Methods
Combat operations in the intelligent era exhibit some new characteristics, emphasizing information dominance and system integration, as well as precise control and accurate energy release. This also requires combat-oriented training to focus on combat effectiveness and seek more effective methods and measures for innovative tactics and maneuvers.
Training and research should be integrated to drive tactical innovation. Effective tactics are often gradually refined and formed through actual combat training. By leveraging the “tempering” process of realistic combat training, weaknesses in tactical application can be exposed to the greatest extent, prompting the innovation and improvement of tactics and methods. Based on the fundamental orientation of practicality and effectiveness, we should strengthen the innovative application of tactics and training methods, deeply analyze combat patterns, capability chains, key nodes, force organization, and tactical means in theoretical research and practical exercises, accelerate the integration of new domains and new quality systems, and ensure the effective implementation of new combat concepts, tailoring “trump cards” and “tactical sets” for countering and defeating the enemy.
Realistic combat training drives the testing of tactics. Tactics that remain at the theoretical level have no vitality; only tactics that have undergone repeated testing in realistic combat can quickly adapt to the future battlefield. Therefore, realistic combat training places greater emphasis on tactics originating from practice, being tested in practice, and being applied to practice. Through repeated simulation training, deduction exercises, and live-fire drills, scientific and applicable command principles, action points, and support essentials should be formed. Tactics should be tested, enriched, and improved in practice to fully adapt to future informationized and intelligent warfare.
Advancing the evolution of tactics in accordance with the times. No matter how times change, surprise and flexibility remain the “soul” of tactical application and the prerequisite for gaining the initiative on the battlefield. In the intelligent era, new equipment and tactics supported by model algorithms are constantly emerging. Only by keeping pace with the trends of military reform, proactively analyzing the laws of war and the mechanisms of victory, and being one step ahead in discovering and updating tactics, can we ensure that we can deploy our forces and exert our strength one step ahead of the enemy in wartime. Recent local conflicts have repeatedly demonstrated to us the practical application of new operational concepts and the continuous emergence of new tactics and methods. We should focus on strong enemy targets, confront threats and challenges head-on, actively adapt to changes, and proactively seek changes. Based on operational concepts such as flexible mobility and asymmetric enemy control, we should develop and design strategies and tactics to defeat the enemy and comprehensively improve our battlefield adaptability.
Strengthen technological capabilities in line with the trends of “warfare”.
In the intelligent era, the extensive and in-depth application of new-generation military technologies has not only accelerated the pace of warfare, changed the form of war, and given rise to new threats, but also provided more options for combat-oriented training.
Knowledge reshaping elevates cognitive thinking. Cognitive thinking reflects the depth of understanding of warfare and the degree of adaptability to the battlefield. Therefore, some consider cognitive thinking a key foundational element of command ability. In the intelligent era, only those with keen technological awareness and battlefield perception can accurately grasp the battlefield situation, precisely control forces, and flexibly manage actions to gain a combat advantage. It is crucial to strengthen the learning of the latest technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and blockchain, and through targeted training, systematically master the characteristics and laws of informationized and intelligent warfare, establish a systemic warfare mindset, and enhance technological effectiveness for realistic combat training.
Simulation interaction optimizes environmental conditions. Virtual simulation technology not only has advantages in reducing material input and lowering safety risks, but also in constructing intelligent warfare scenarios to improve training quality. Emphasis should be placed on utilizing virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality technologies to construct highly immersive and interactive virtual battlefield spaces, providing trainees with realistic visual, auditory, and tactile experiences. Emphasis should also be placed on leveraging intelligent wearable devices, sensor arrays, and virtual simulation systems to construct training scenarios that closely resemble actual combat, supporting trainees in battlefield awareness and action simulation training, and comprehensively improving the quality of combat-oriented training.
Intelligent empowerment revitalizes data and information. In the intelligent era, the multidimensionality of the environment, the diversity of force equipment, and the variety of offensive and defensive confrontations have led to a massive surge of combat training data, making its management and application a major challenge in training practice. Data mining technology should be fully utilized, leveraging big data, algorithms, and large models to transform the vast amounts of scattered behavioral, physiological, and environmental data generated in training practice into quantifiable, traceable, and optimizable digital resources. This will enable the centralized delivery and innovative application of training information. Based on this, a closed-loop management system for training information—”decision-planning-collection-processing-evaluation”—can be established to drive the transformation of combat training from generalized, extensive management to intelligent, precise management.
Since the beginning of the new century, the rapid development of intelligent technologies, with artificial intelligence (AI) at its core, has accelerated the process of a new round of military revolution, and competition in the military field is rapidly moving towards an era of intellectual dominance. Combat elements represented by “AI, cloud, network, cluster, and terminal,” combined in diverse ways, constitute a new battlefield ecosystem, completely altering the mechanisms of victory in warfare. AI systems based on models and algorithms will be the core combat capability, permeating all aspects and stages, playing a multiplicative, transcendent, and proactive role. Platforms are controlled by AI, clusters are guided by AI, and systems are made to decision by AI. Traditional human-centric tactics are being replaced by AI models and algorithms, making intellectual dominance the core control in future warfare. The stronger the intelligent combat capability, the greater the hope of subduing the enemy without fighting.
[Author Biography] Wu Mingxi is the Chief Scientist and Researcher of China Ordnance Industry Group, Deputy Secretary-General of the Science and Technology Committee of China Ordnance Industry Group, and Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Committee of China Ordnance Science Research Institute. His research focuses on national defense science and technology and weaponry development strategies and planning, policies and theories, management and reform research. His major works include “Intelligent Warfare – AI Military Vision,” etc.
Competition in the Age of Intellectual Property
The history of human civilization is a history of understanding and transforming nature, and also a history of understanding and liberating oneself. Through the development of science and technology and the creation and application of tools, humanity has continuously enhanced its capabilities, reduced its burdens, freed itself from constraints, and liberated itself. The control of war has also constantly changed, enriched, and evolved with technological progress, the expansion of human activity space, and the development of the times. Since the 19th century, humanity has successively experienced the control and struggle for land power, sea power, air power, space power, and information power. With the rapid development of intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data, cloud computing, bio-interdisciplinary technologies, unmanned systems, and parallel simulation, and their deep integration with traditional technologies, humanity’s ability to understand and transform nature has been transformed in terms of epistemology, methodology, and operational mechanisms. This is accelerating the major technological revolutions in machine intelligence, bionic intelligence, swarm intelligence, human-machine integrated intelligence, and intelligent perception, intelligent decision-making, intelligent action, intelligent support, as well as intelligent design, research and development, testing, and manufacturing, thus accelerating the evolution of warfare towards the control and struggle for intellectual power.
The rapid development of intelligent technology has garnered significant attention from major countries worldwide, becoming a powerful driving force for the leapfrog development of military capabilities. The United States and Russia have placed intelligent technology at the core of maintaining their strategic status as global military powers, and significant changes have occurred in their development concepts, models, organizational methods, and innovative applications. They have also carried out substantive applications and practices of military intelligence (see Figure 1).
In August 2017, the U.S. Department of Defense stated that future AI warfare was inevitable and that the U.S. needed to “take immediate action” to accelerate the development of AI warfare technologies. The U.S. military’s “Third Offset Strategy” posits that a military revolution, characterized by intelligent armies, autonomous equipment, and unmanned warfare, is underway; therefore, they have identified intelligent technologies such as autonomous systems, big data analytics, and automation as key development directions. In June 2018, the U.S. Department of Defense announced the establishment of the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, which, guided by the national AI development strategy, coordinates the planning and construction of the U.S. military’s intelligent military system. In February 2019, then-President Trump signed the “American Artificial Intelligence Initiative” executive order, emphasizing that maintaining U.S. leadership in AI is crucial for safeguarding U.S. economic and national security, and requiring the federal government to invest all resources in promoting innovation in the U.S. AI field. In March 2021, the U.S. National Security Council on Artificial Intelligence released a research report stating that, “For the first time since World War II, the technological advantage that has been the backbone of U.S. economic and military power is under threat. If current trends do not change, China possesses the power, talent, and ambition to surpass the United States as the global leader in artificial intelligence within the next decade.” The report argues that the United States must use artificial intelligence swiftly and responsibly to prepare for these threats in order to safeguard national security and enhance defense capabilities. The report concludes that artificial intelligence will transform the world, and the United States must take a leading role.
Russia also attaches great importance to the technological development and military application of artificial intelligence. The Russian military generally believes that artificial intelligence will trigger the third revolution in the military field, following gunpowder and nuclear weapons. In September 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin publicly stated that artificial intelligence is the future of Russia, and whoever becomes the leader in this field will dominate the world. In October 2019, Putin approved the “Russian National Strategy for the Development of Artificial Intelligence until 2030,” aiming to accelerate the development and application of artificial intelligence in Russia and seek a world-leading position in the field.
In July 2017, the State Council of China issued the “New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan,” which put forward the guiding ideology, strategic goals, key tasks and safeguard measures for the development of new generation artificial intelligence towards 2030, and deployed efforts to build a first-mover advantage in the development of artificial intelligence and accelerate the construction of an innovative country and a world-class science and technology power.
Other major countries and military powers around the world have also launched their own artificial intelligence development plans, indicating that the global struggle for “intellectual power” has fully unfolded. Land power, sea power, air power, space power, information power, and intellectual power are all results of technological progress and products of their time, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, and some theories are constantly expanding with the changing times. From the development trend of control over warfare since modern times, it can be seen that information power and intellectual power involve the overall situation, carrying greater weight and influence. In the future, with the accelerated pace of intelligent development, intellectual power will become a rapidly growing new type of battlefield control with greater strategic influence on the overall combat situation.
The essence of military intelligence lies in leveraging intelligent technologies to establish diverse identification, decision-making, and control models for the war system. These models constitute artificial intelligence (AI), the core of the new era’s intellectual power struggle. The war system encompasses: equipment systems such as individual units, clusters, manned/unmanned collaborative operations, and multi-domain and cross-domain warfare; combat forces such as individual soldiers, squads, detachments, combined arms units, and theater command; operational links such as networked perception, mission planning and command, force coordination, and comprehensive support; specialized systems such as network attack and defense, electronic warfare, public opinion control, and infrastructure management; and military industrial capabilities such as intelligent design, research and development, production, mobilization, and support. AI, in the form of chips, algorithms, and software, is embedded in every system, level, and link of the war system, forming a systematic brain. Although AI is only a part of the war system, its increasingly powerful “brain-like” functions and capabilities “surpassing human limits” will inevitably dominate the overall situation of future warfare.
Battlefield Ecosystem Reconstruction
Traditional warfare involves relatively independent and separate combat elements, resulting in a relatively simple battlefield ecosystem, primarily consisting of personnel, equipment, and tactics. In the intelligent era, warfare is characterized by significant integration, correlation, and interaction among various combat elements. This will lead to substantial changes in the battlefield ecosystem, forming a combat system, cluster system, and human-machine system comprised of an AI brain, distributed cloud, communication networks, collaborative groups, and various virtual and physical terminals—collectively known as the “AI, Cloud, Network, Cluster, Terminal” intelligent ecosystem (see Figure 2). Among these, AI plays a dominant role.
AI Brain System. The AI brain system of the intelligent battlefield is a networked and distributed system that is inseparable from and interdependent with combat platforms and missions. It can be classified in several ways. Based on function and computing power, it mainly includes cerebellum, swarm brain, midbrain, hybrid brain, and cerebrum; based on combat missions and stages, it mainly includes sensor AI, combat mission planning and decision-making AI, precision strike and controllable destruction AI, network attack and defense AI, electronic warfare AI, intelligent defense AI, and integrated support AI; based on form, it mainly includes embedded AI, cloud AI, and parallel system AI.
The cerebellum mainly refers to the embedded AI in sensor platforms, combat platforms, and support platforms, which mainly performs tasks such as battlefield environment detection, target recognition, rapid maneuver, precision strike, controlled destruction, equipment support, maintenance support, and logistical support.
“Swarm brain” mainly refers to the AI that enables intelligent control of unmanned swarm platforms on the ground, in the air, at sea, in the water, and in space. It mainly performs tasks such as collaborative perception of the battlefield environment, swarm maneuver, swarm attack, and swarm defense. The key components include algorithms for homogeneous swarm systems and algorithms for heterogeneous systems such as manned-unmanned collaboration.
The midbrain mainly refers to the AI system of the command center, data center, and edge computing of the front-line units on the battlefield. It mainly performs dynamic planning, autonomous decision-making, and auxiliary decision-making for tactical unit combat missions under online and offline conditions.
Hybrid brain mainly refers to a hybrid decision-making system in which commanders and machine AI collaborate in combat operations of organized units. Before the battle, it mainly performs human-based combat mission planning; during the battle, it mainly performs adaptive dynamic mission planning and adjustment based on machine AI; and after the battle, it mainly performs hybrid decision-making tasks oriented towards counter-terrorism and defense.
The “brain” primarily refers to the model, algorithm, and tactical libraries of the theater command center and data center, playing a key supporting role in campaign and strategic decision-making. Due to the abundant data, various battlefield AI systems can be trained and modeled here, and then loaded into different mission systems once mature.
In future battlefields, there will be other AIs of different functions, types, and sizes, such as sensor AI, which mainly includes image recognition, electromagnetic spectrum recognition, sound recognition, speech recognition, and human activity behavior recognition. With the rapid development and widespread application of intelligence, AIs of all sizes will exist throughout society, serving the public and society in peacetime, and potentially serving the military in wartime.
Distributed cloud. Military cloud differs from civilian cloud. Generally speaking, a military cloud platform is a distributed resource management system that uses communication networks to search, collect, aggregate, analyze, calculate, store, and distribute operational information and data. By constructing a distributed system and a multi-point fault-tolerant backup mechanism, a military cloud platform possesses powerful intelligence sharing capabilities, data processing capabilities, resilience, and self-healing capabilities. It can provide fixed and mobile, public and private cloud services, achieving “one-point collection, everyone sharing,” greatly reducing information flow links, making command processes flatter and faster, and avoiding redundant and decentralized construction at all levels.
From the perspective of future intelligent warfare needs, military cloud needs to construct at least a four-tiered system: tactical front-end cloud, troop cloud, theater cloud, and strategic cloud. Based on operational elements, it can also be divided into specialized cloud systems such as intelligence cloud, situational awareness cloud, firepower cloud, information warfare cloud, support cloud, and nebula.
1. Front-end cloud primarily refers to computing services provided by units, squads, and platforms, including information perception, target identification, battlefield environment analysis, autonomous and assisted decision-making, and operational process and effect evaluation. The role of front-end cloud is mainly reflected in two aspects. First, it facilitates the sharing and collaboration of computing and storage resources among platforms, and the interactive integration of intelligent combat information. For example, if a platform or terminal is attacked, relevant perception information, damage status, and historical data will be automatically backed up, replaced, and updated through a networked cloud platform, and the relevant information will be uploaded to the higher command post. Second, it provides online information services and intelligent software upgrades for offline terminals.
2. Military cloud primarily refers to the cloud systems built at the battalion and brigade level for operations. Its focus is on providing computing services such as intelligent perception, intelligent decision-making, autonomous action, and intelligent support in response to different threats and environments. The goal of military cloud construction is to establish a networked, automatically backed-up, distributed cloud system connected to multiple links with higher-level units. This system should meet the computing needs of different forces, including reconnaissance and perception, mobile assault, command and control, firepower strikes, and logistical support, as well as the computing needs of various combat missions such as tactical joint operations, manned/unmanned collaboration, and swarm offense and defense.
3. Theater Cloud primarily provides battlefield weather, geographical, electromagnetic, human, and social environmental factors and information data for the entire operational area. It offers comprehensive information on troop deployments, weaponry, movement changes, and combat losses for both sides, as well as relevant information from higher command, friendly forces, and civilian support. Theater Cloud should possess networked, customized, and intelligent information service capabilities. It should interconnect with various operational units through military communication networks (space-based, airborne, ground-based, maritime, and underwater) and civilian communication networks (under secure measures) to ensure efficient, timely, and accurate information services.
4. Strategic cloud is mainly established by a country’s defense system and military command organs. It is primarily based on military information and covers comprehensive information and data related to defense technology, defense industry, mobilization support, economic and social support capabilities, as well as politics, diplomacy, and public opinion. It provides core information, assessments, analyses, and suggestions such as war preparation, operational planning, operational schemes, operational progress, battlefield situation, and battle situation analysis; and provides supporting data such as strategic intelligence, the military strength of adversaries, and war mobilization potential.
The various clouds mentioned above are interconnected, exhibiting both hierarchical and horizontal relationships of collaboration, mutual support, and mutual service. The core tasks of the military cloud platform are twofold: first, to provide data and computing support for building an AI-powered intelligent warfare system; and second, to provide operational information, computing, and data support for various combat personnel and weapon platforms. Furthermore, considering the needs of terminals and group operations, it is necessary to pre-process some cloud computing results, models, and algorithms into intelligent chips and embed them into weapon platforms and group terminals, enabling online upgrades or offline updates.
Communication networks. Military communication and network information constitute a complex super-network system. Since military forces primarily operate in land, sea, air, space, field maneuver, and urban environments, their communication networks encompass strategic and tactical communications, wired and wireless communications, secure communications, and civilian communications. Among these, wireless, mobile, and free-space communication networks are the most crucial components of the military network system, and related integrated electronic information systems are gradually established based on these communication networks.
Military communications in the mechanized era primarily followed the platform, terminal, and user, satisfying specific needs but resulting in numerous silos and extremely poor interconnectivity. In the information age, this situation is beginning to change. Currently, military communication networks are adopting new technological systems and development models, characterized by two main features: first, “network-data separation,” where information transmission does not depend on any specific network transmission method—”network access is all that matters”—any information can be delivered as long as the network link is unobstructed; second, internet-based architecture, utilizing IP addresses, routers, and servers to achieve “all roads lead to Beijing,” i.e., military networking or grid-based systems. Of course, military communication networks differ from civilian networks. Strategic and specialized communication needs exist at all times, such as nuclear button communications for nuclear weapons and command and control of strategic weapons, information transmission for satellite reconnaissance, remote sensing, and strategic early warning, and even specialized communications in individual soldier rooms and special operations conditions. These may still adopt a mission-driven communication model. Even so, standardization and internet connectivity are undoubtedly the future trends in military communication network development. Otherwise, not only will the number of battlefield communication frequency bands, radios, and information exchange methods increase, leading to self-interference, mutual interference, and electromagnetic compatibility difficulties, but radio spectrum management will also become increasingly complex. More importantly, it will be difficult for platform users to achieve automatic communication based on IP addresses and routing structures, unlike email on the internet where a single command can be sent to multiple users. Future combat platforms will certainly be both communication user terminals and also function as routers and servers.
Military communication network systems mainly include space-based communication networks, military mobile communication networks, data links, new communication networks, and civilian communication networks.
1. Space-Based Information Networks. The United States leads in the construction and utilization of space-based information networks. This is because more than half of the thousands of orbiting platforms and payloads in space are American-owned. Following the Gulf War, and especially during the Iraq War, the US military accelerated the application and advancement of space-based information networks through wartime experience. After the Iraq War, through the utilization of space-based information and the establishment of IP-based interconnection, nearly 140 vertical “chimneys” from the Gulf War period were completely interconnected horizontally, significantly shortening the “Out-of-Target-Action” (OODA) loop time. The time from space-based sensors to the shooter has been reduced from tens of hours during the Gulf War to approximately 20 seconds currently using artificial intelligence for identification.
With the rapid development of small satellite technology, low-cost, multi-functional small satellites are becoming increasingly common. As competition intensifies in commercial launches, costs are dropping dramatically, and a single launch can carry several, a dozen, or even dozens of small satellites. If miniaturized electronic reconnaissance, visible light and infrared imaging, and even quantum dot micro-spectroscopy instruments are integrated onto these satellites, achieving integrated reconnaissance, communication, navigation, meteorological, and mapping functions, the future world and battlefield will become much more transparent.
2. Military Mobile Communication Networks. Military mobile communication networks have three main uses. First, command and control between various branches of the armed forces and combat units in joint operations; this type of communication requires a high level of confidentiality, reliability, and security. Second, communication between platforms and clusters, requiring anti-jamming capabilities and high reliability. Third, command and control of weapon systems, mostly handled through data links.
Traditional military mobile communication networks are mostly “centralized, vertically focused, and tree-like structures.” With the acceleration of informatization, the trend towards “decentralized, self-organizing networks, and internet-based” is becoming increasingly apparent. As cognitive radio technology matures and is widely adopted (see Figure 3), future network communication systems will be able to automatically identify electromagnetic interference and communication obstacles on the battlefield, quickly locate available spectrum resources, and conduct real-time communication through frequency hopping and other methods. Simultaneously, software and cognitive radio technology can be compatible with different communication frequency bands and waveforms, facilitating seamless transitions from older to newer systems.
3. Data Links. A data link is a specialized communication technology that uses time division, frequency division, and code division to transmit pre-agreed, periodic, or irregular, regular or irregular critical information between various combat platforms. Unless fully understood or deciphered by the enemy, it is very difficult to interfere with. Data links are mainly divided into two categories: dedicated and general-purpose. Joint operations, formation coordination, and swarm operations primarily utilize general-purpose data links. Satellite data links, UAV data links, missile-borne data links, and weapon fire control data links are currently mostly dedicated. In the future, generalization will be a trend, and specialization will decrease. Furthermore, from the perspective of the relationship between platforms and communication, the information transmission and reception of platform sensors and internal information processing generally follow the mission system, exhibiting strong specialization characteristics, while communication and data transmission between platforms are becoming increasingly general-purpose.
4. New Communication Technologies. Traditional military communication primarily relies on microwave communication. Due to its large divergence angle and numerous application platforms, corresponding electronic jamming and microwave attack methods have developed rapidly, making it easy to carry out long-range interference and damage. Therefore, new communication technologies such as millimeter waves, terahertz waves, laser communication, and free-space optical communication have become important choices that are both anti-jamming and easy to implement high-speed, high-capacity, and high-bandwidth communication. Although high-frequency electromagnetic waves have good anti-jamming performance due to their smaller divergence angle, achieving precise point-to-point aiming and omnidirectional communication still presents certain challenges, especially under conditions of high-speed maneuvering and rapid trajectory changes of combat platforms. How to achieve alignment and omnidirectional communication is still under technological exploration.
5. Civilian Communication Resources. The effective utilization of civilian communication resources is a strategic issue that must be considered and cannot be avoided in the era of intelligentization. In the future, leveraging civilian communication networks, especially 5G/6G mobile communications, for open-source information mining and data correlation analysis to provide battlefield environment, target, and situational information will be crucial for both combat and non-combat military operations. In non-combat military operations, especially overseas peacekeeping, rescue, counter-terrorism, and disaster relief, the military’s dedicated communication networks can only be used within limited areas and regions, raising the question of how to communicate and connect with the outside world. There are two main ways to utilize civilian communication resources: one is to utilize civilian satellite communication resources, especially small satellite communication resources; the other is to utilize civilian mobile communication and internet resources.
The core issue in the interactive utilization of military and civilian communication resources is addressing security and confidentiality. One approach is to employ firewalls and encryption, directly utilizing civilian satellite communications and global mobile communication infrastructure for command and communication; however, the risks of hacking and cyberattacks remain. Another approach is to utilize emerging technologies such as virtualization, intranets, semi-physical isolation, one-way transmission, mimicry defense, and blockchain to address these challenges.
Collaborative swarms. By simulating the behavior of bee colonies, ant colonies, flocks of birds, and schools of fish in nature, this research studies the autonomous collaborative mechanisms of swarm systems such as drones and smart munitions to accomplish combat missions such as attacking or defending against enemy targets. This can achieve strike effects that are difficult to achieve with traditional combat methods and approaches. Collaborative swarms are an inevitable trend in intelligent development and a major direction and key area of intelligent construction. No matter how advanced the combat performance or how powerful the functions of a single combat platform, it cannot form a collective or scalable advantage. Simply accumulating quantity and expanding scale, without autonomous, collaborative, and orderly intelligent elements, is just a disorganized mess.
Collaborative swarms mainly comprise three aspects: first, manned/unmanned collaborative swarms formed by the intelligent transformation of existing platforms, primarily constructed from large and medium-sized combat platforms; second, low-cost, homogeneous, single-function, and diverse combat swarms, primarily constructed from small unmanned combat platforms and munitions; and third, biomimetic swarms integrating human and machine intelligence, possessing both biological and machine intelligence, primarily constructed from highly autonomous humanoid, reptile-like, avian-like, and marine-like organisms. Utilizing collaborative swarm systems for cluster warfare, especially swarm warfare, offers numerous advantages and characteristics.
1. Scale Advantage. A large unmanned system can disperse combat forces, increasing the number of targets the enemy can attack and forcing them to expend more weapons and ammunition. The survivability of a swarm, due to its sheer number, is highly resilient and resilient; the survivability of a single platform becomes less important, while the overall advantage becomes more pronounced. The sheer scale prevents drastic fluctuations in combat effectiveness, because unlike high-value manned combat platforms and complex weapon systems such as the B-2 strategic bomber and advanced F-22 and F-35 fighter jets, the loss of a low-cost unmanned platform, once attacked or destroyed, results in a sharp decline in combat effectiveness. Swarm operations can launch simultaneous attacks, overwhelming enemy defenses. Most defensive systems have limited capabilities, able to handle only a limited number of threats at a time. Even with dense artillery defenses, a single salvo can only hit a limited number of targets, leaving some to escape. Therefore, swarm systems possess extremely strong penetration capabilities.
2. Cost Advantage. Swarm warfare, especially bee warfare, primarily utilizes small and medium-sized UAVs, unmanned platforms, and munitions. These have simple product lines, are produced in large quantities, and have consistent quality and performance requirements, facilitating low-cost mass production. While the pace of upgrades and replacements for modern weapons and combat platforms has accelerated significantly, the cost increases have also been staggering. Since World War II, weapons development and procurement prices have shown that equipment costs and prices have risen much faster than performance improvements. Main battle tanks during the Gulf War cost 40 times more than those during World War II, while combat aircraft and aircraft carriers cost as much as 500 times more. From the Gulf War to 2020, the prices of various main battle weapons and equipment increased several times, tens of times, or even hundreds of times. In comparison, small and medium-sized UAVs, unmanned platforms, and munitions with simple product lines have a clear cost advantage.
3. Autonomous Advantage. Under a unified spatiotemporal reference platform, through networked active and passive communication and intelligent perception of battlefield targets, individual platforms in the group can accurately perceive the distance, speed, and positional relationships between each other. They can also quickly identify the nature, size, priority, and distance of target threats, as well as their own distance from neighboring platforms. With pre-defined operational rules, one or more platforms can conduct simultaneous or wave-based attacks according to the priority of target threats, or they can attack in groups simultaneously or in multiple waves (see Figure 4). Furthermore, the priority order for subsequent platforms to replace a damaged platform can be clearly defined, ultimately achieving autonomous decision-making and action according to pre-agreed operational rules. This intelligent combat operation, depending on the level of human involvement and the difficulty of controlling key nodes, can be either completely autonomous, or semi-autonomous, with human intervention.
4. Decision-making advantage. The future battlefield environment is becoming increasingly complex, with combatants vying for dominance in intense strategic maneuvering and confrontation. Therefore, relying on humans to make decisions in a high-intensity confrontation environment is neither timely nor reliable. Thus, only by entrusting automated environmental adaptation, automatic target and threat identification, autonomous decision-making, and coordinated action to collaborative groups can adversaries be rapidly attacked or effective defenses implemented, thereby gaining battlefield advantage and initiative.
The coordination group brings new challenges to command and control. How to implement command and control of the cluster is a new strategic issue. Control can be implemented in a hierarchical and task-based manner, which can be roughly divided into centralized control mode, hierarchical control mode, consistent coordination mode, and spontaneous coordination mode. [1] Various forms can be adopted to achieve human control and participation. Generally speaking, the smaller the tactical unit, the more autonomous action and unmanned intervention should be adopted; at the level of organized unit operations, since the control of multiple combat groups is involved, centralized planning and hierarchical control are required, and human participation should be limited; at the higher strategic and operational levels, the cluster is only used as a platform weapon and combat style, which requires unified planning and layout, and the degree of human participation will be higher. From the perspective of mission nature, the operation and use of strategic weapons, such as nuclear counterattacks, requires human operation and is not suitable for autonomous handling by weapon systems. When conducting offensive and defensive operations against important or high-value targets, such as decapitation strikes, full human participation and control are necessary, while simultaneously leveraging the autonomous functions of the weapon systems. For offensive operations against tactical targets, if the mission requires lethal strikes and destruction, limited human participation is permissible, or, after human confirmation, the coordinated group can execute the operation automatically. When performing non-strike missions such as reconnaissance, surveillance, target identification, and clearance, or short-duration missions such as air defense and missile defense where human involvement is difficult, the coordinated group should primarily execute these tasks automatically, without human involvement. Furthermore, countermeasures for swarm operations must be carefully studied. Key research should focus on countermeasures against electronic deception, electromagnetic interference, cyberattacks, and high-power microwave weapons, electromagnetic pulse bombs, and artillery-missile systems, as their effects are relatively significant. Simultaneously, research should be conducted on countermeasures such as laser weapons and swarm-to-swarm tactics, gradually establishing a “firewall” that humans can effectively control against coordinated groups.
Virtual and physical terminals. Virtual and physical terminals mainly refer to various terminals linked to the cloud and network, including sensors with pre-embedded intelligent modules, command and control platforms, weapon platforms, support platforms, related equipment and facilities, and combat personnel. Future equipment and platforms will be cyber-physical systems (CPS) and human-computer interaction systems with diverse front-end functions, cloud-based back-end support, virtual-physical interaction, and online-offline integration. Simple environmental perception, path planning, platform maneuverability, and weapon operation will primarily rely on front-end intelligence such as bionic intelligence and machine intelligence. Complex battlefield target identification, combat mission planning, networked collaborative strikes, combat situation analysis, and advanced human-computer interaction will require information, data, and algorithm support from back-end cloud platforms and cloud-based AI. The front-end intelligence and back-end cloud intelligence of each equipment platform should be combined for unified planning and design, forming a comprehensive advantage of integrated front-end and back-end intelligence. Simultaneously, virtual soldiers, virtual staff officers, virtual commanders, and their intelligent and efficient interaction with humans are also key areas and challenges for future research and development.
Qualitative change in the form of warfare
Since modern times, human society has mainly experienced large-scale mechanized warfare and smaller-scale informationized local wars. The two world wars that occurred in the first half of the 20th century were typical examples of mechanized warfare. The Gulf War, the Kosovo War, the Afghanistan War, the Iraq War, and the Syrian War since the 1990s fully demonstrate the form and characteristics of informationized warfare. In the new century and new stage, with the rapid development and widespread application of intelligent technologies, the era of intelligent warfare, characterized by data and computing, models and algorithms, is about to arrive (see Figure 5).
Mechanization is a product of the industrial age, focusing on mechanical power and electrical technology. Its weaponry primarily manifests as tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, aircraft, and ships, corresponding to mechanized warfare. Mechanized warfare is mainly based on classical physics, represented by Newton’s laws, and large-scale socialized production. It is characterized by large-scale, linear, and contact warfare. Tactically, it typically involves on-site reconnaissance, terrain surveys, understanding the opponent’s forward and rear deployments, making decisions based on one’s own capabilities, implementing offensive or defensive maneuvers, and assigning tasks, coordinating operations, and ensuring logistical support. It exhibits clear characteristics such as hierarchical command and control and sequential temporal and spatial operations.
Information technology, a product of the information age, focuses on information technologies such as computers and network communications. Its equipment primarily manifests as radar, radios, satellites, missiles, computers, military software, command and control systems, cyber and electronic warfare systems, and integrated electronic information systems, corresponding to the form of information warfare. Information warfare is mainly based on the three laws of computers and networks (Moore’s Law, Gilder’s Law, and Metcalfe’s Law), emphasizing integrated, precise, and three-dimensional operations. It establishes a seamless and rapid information link from sensor to shooter, seizing information dominance and achieving preemptive detection and strike. Tactically, it requires detailed identification and cataloging of the battlefield and targets, highlighting the role of networked perception and command and control systems, and placing new demands on the interconnectivity and other information functions of platforms. Due to the development of global information systems and diversified network communications, information warfare blurs the lines between front and rear lines, emphasizing horizontal integration of reconnaissance, control, strike, assessment, and support, as well as the integration and flattening of strategy, campaign, and tactics.
Intelligentization is a product of the knowledge economy era. Technologically, it focuses on intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, cognitive communication, the Internet of Things, biological cross-disciplinary, hybrid enhancement, swarm intelligence, autonomous navigation and collaboration. In terms of equipment, it mainly manifests as unmanned platforms, intelligent munitions, swarm systems, intelligent sensing and database systems, adaptive mission planning and decision-making systems, combat simulation and parallel training systems, military cloud platforms and service systems, public opinion early warning and guidance systems, and intelligent wearable systems, which correspond to the form of intelligent warfare.
Intelligent warfare, primarily based on biomimetic, brain-like principles, and AI-driven battlefield ecosystems, is a new combat form characterized by “energy mobility and information interconnection,” supported by “network communication and distributed cloud,” centered on “data computing and model algorithms,” and focused on “cognitive confrontation.” It features multi-domain integration, cross-domain offense and defense, unmanned operation, cluster confrontation, and integrated interaction between virtual and physical spaces.
Intelligent warfare aims to meet the needs of nuclear and conventional deterrence, joint operations, all-domain operations, and non-war military operations. It focuses on multi-domain integrated operations encompassing cognitive, informational, physical, social, and biological domains, exhibiting characteristics such as distributed deployment, networked links, flattened structures, modular combinations, adaptive reconfiguration, parallel interaction, focused energy release, and nonlinear effects. Its winning mechanisms overturn traditions, its organizational forms undergo qualitative changes, its operational efficiency is unprecedentedly improved, and its combat power generation mechanisms are transformed. These substantial changes are mainly reflected in the following ten aspects.
The Winning Mechanism Dominated by AI. Under intelligent conditions, new combat elements represented by “AI, cloud, network, cluster, and terminal” will reshape the battlefield ecosystem, completely changing the winning mechanism of war. Among them, AI systems based on models and algorithms are the core combat capability, permeating all aspects and links, playing a multiplicative, transcendent, and proactive role. Platforms are controlled by AI, clusters are guided by AI, and systems are made by AI. The traditional human-based combat methods are being replaced by AI models and algorithms. Algorithmic warfare will play a decisive role in war, and the combat system and process will ultimately be dominated by AI. The right to intelligence will become the core control in future warfare.
Different eras and different forms of warfare result in different battlefield ecosystems, with entirely different compositions of combat elements and winning mechanisms. Mechanized warfare is platform-centric warfare, with “movement” as its core and firepower and mobility as its dominant forces, pursuing energy delivery and release through equipment. Combat elements mainly include: personnel + mechanized equipment + tactics. The winning mechanism is based on human-led decision-making in the operational use of mechanized equipment, achieving victory with superior numbers, overwhelming smaller forces, and controlling slower forces, with comprehensive, efficient, and sustainable mobilization capabilities playing decisive or important roles. Informationized warfare is network-centric warfare, with “connectivity” as its core and information power as its dominant force, pursuing energy aggregation and release through networks. Combat elements and their interrelationships mainly consist of “personnel + informationized equipment + tactics” based on network information. Information permeates personnel, equipment, and tactics, establishing seamless information connections “from sensor to shooter,” achieving system-wide and networked combat capabilities, using systems against localized forces, networks against discrete forces, and speed against slow forces, becoming a crucial mechanism for achieving victory in war. Information plays a multiplier role in equipment and combat systems, but the platform remains human-centric. Information assists in decision-making, but most decisions are still made by humans. Intelligent warfare is cognitive-centric warfare, with “computation” at its core and intelligence as the dominant force. Intelligence will carry more weight than firepower, mobility, and information power, pursuing the use of intelligence to control and dominate capabilities, using the virtual to overcome the real, and achieving victory through superiority. The side with more AI and whose AI is smarter will have greater initiative on the battlefield. The main combat elements and their interrelationships are: AI × (cloud + network + swarm + human + equipment + tactics), which can be simplified to an interconnected and integrated battlefield ecosystem composed of “AI, cloud, network, swarm, and terminal” elements. In the future, AI’s role in warfare will become increasingly significant and powerful, ultimately playing a decisive and dominant role.
Emphasizing the leading role of AI does not deny the role of humans in warfare. On the one hand, human intelligence has been pre-emptively utilized and endowed into AI; on the other hand, at the pre-war, post-war, and strategic levels, for a considerable period of time and in the foreseeable future, AI cannot replace humans.
Modern warfare is becoming increasingly complex, with combat operations moving at ever faster paces. The ability to quickly identify and process massive amounts of information, respond rapidly to battlefield situations, and formulate decisive strategies is far beyond human capability and exceeds the limits of current technology (see Tables 1 and 2). As AI becomes more widely applied and plays a more significant role in warfare, operational processes will be reshaped, and the military kill chain will be accelerated and made more efficient. Rapid perception, decision-making, action, and support will become crucial factors for victory in future intelligent warfare.
In the future, intelligent recognition and pattern recognition of images, videos, electromagnetic spectrum, and voice will enable rapid and accurate target identification from complex battlefield information gathered by air, land, and sea sensor networks. Utilizing big data technology, through multi-source, multi-dimensional directional search and intelligent correlation analysis, not only can various targets be accurately located, but also human behavior, social activities, military operations, and public opinion trends can be precisely modeled, gradually improving the accuracy of early warning and prediction. Based on precise battlefield information, each theater and battlefield can adaptively implement mission planning, autonomous decision-making, and operational process control through extensive parallel modeling and simulation training in virtual space. AI on various combat platforms and cluster systems can autonomously and collaboratively execute tasks around operational objectives according to mission planning, and proactively adjust to changes that may occur at any time. By establishing a distributed, networked, intelligent, and multi-modal support system and pre-positioned deployment, rapid and precise logistics distribution, material supply, and intelligent maintenance can be implemented. In summary, through the widespread application of intelligent technologies and the proactive and evolving capabilities of various AI systems, the entire operational process—including planning, prediction, perception, decision-making, implementation, control, and support—can be re-engineered to achieve a “simple, fast, efficient, and controllable” operational workflow. This will gradually free humanity from the burdens of arduous combat tasks. Operational workflow re-engineering will accelerate the pace, compress time, and shorten processes on the future battlefield.
The winning mechanism dominated by AI is mainly manifested in combat capabilities, methods, strategies, and measures. It fully integrates human intelligence, approaches human intelligence, surpasses human limits, leverages the advantages of machines, and embodies advancement, disruption, and innovation. This advancement and innovation is not a simple extension or increase in quantity in previous wars, but a qualitative change and leap, a higher-level characteristic. This higher-level characteristic is reflected in intelligent warfare possessing “brain-like” functions and many “capabilities that surpass human limits” that traditional warfare lacks. As AI continues to optimize and iterate, it will one day surpass ordinary soldiers, staff officers, commanders, and even elite and expert groups, becoming a “super brain” and a “super brain group.” This is the core and key of intelligent warfare, a technological revolution in the fields of epistemology and methodology, and a high-level combat capability that humanity can currently foresee, achieve, and evolve.
The role of cyberspace is rising. With the progress of the times and the development of technology, the operational space has gradually expanded from physical space to virtual space. The role and importance of virtual space in the operational system are gradually rising and becoming increasingly important, and it is increasingly deeply integrated with physical space and other fields. Virtual space is an information space based on network electromagnetics constructed by humans. It can reflect human society and the material world from multiple perspectives, and can be utilized by transcending many limitations of the objective world. It is constructed by the information domain, connected by the physical domain, reflected by the social domain, and utilized by the cognitive domain. In a narrow sense, virtual space mainly refers to the civilian Internet; in a broad sense, virtual space mainly refers to cyberspace, including various Internet of Things, military networks, and dedicated networks. Cyberspace is characterized by being easy to attack but difficult to defend, using software to fight hard, integrating peacetime and wartime, and blurring the lines between military and civilian sectors. It has become an important battlefield for conducting military operations, strategic deterrence, and cognitive confrontation.
The importance of cyberspace is mainly reflected in three aspects: First, through network information systems, it connects dispersed combat forces and elements into a whole, forming a systematic and networked combat capability, which becomes the foundation of information warfare; second, it becomes the main battlefield and basic support for cognitive confrontation such as cyberspace, intelligence, public opinion, psychology, and consciousness; and third, it establishes virtual battlefields, conducts combat experiments, realizes virtual-real interaction, and forms the core and key to parallel operations and the ability to use the virtual to defeat the real.
In the future, with the accelerated upgrading of global interconnection and the Internet of Things, and with the establishment, improvement and widespread application of systems such as space-based networked reconnaissance, communication, navigation, mobile internet, Wi-Fi, high-precision global spatiotemporal reference platforms, digital maps, and industry big data, human society and global military activities will become increasingly “transparent,” increasingly networked, perceived, analyzed, correlated, and controlled (see Figure 6). This will have a profound, all-round, and ubiquitous impact on military construction and operations. The combat system in the intelligent era will gradually expand from closed to open, and from military-led to a “source-open and ubiquitous” direction that integrates military and civilian sectors.
In the era of intelligentization, information and data from the physical, informational, cognitive, social, and biological fields will gradually flow freely. Combat elements will achieve deep interconnection and the Internet of Things. Various combat systems will evolve from basic “capability combinations” to advanced “information fusion, data linking, and integrated behavioral interaction,” possessing powerful all-domain perception, multi-domain fusion, and cross-domain combat capabilities, and the ability to effectively control important targets, sensitive groups, and critical infrastructure anytime, anywhere. A report from the U.S. Army Joint Arms Center argues that the world is entering an era of “ubiquitous global surveillance.” Even if the world cannot track all activities, the proliferation of technology will undoubtedly cause the potential sources of information to grow exponentially.
Currently, network-based software attacks have acquired the capability to cause physical damage, and cyberattacks by militarily advanced countries possess operational capabilities such as intrusion, deception, interference, and sabotage. Cyberspace has become another important battlefield for military operations and strategic deterrence. The United States has already used cyberattacks in actual combat. Ben Ali of Tunisia, Gaddafi of Libya, and Saddam Hussein of Iraq were all influenced by US cyberattacks and WikiLeaks, causing shifts in public opinion, psychological breakdowns, and social unrest, leading to the rapid collapse of their regimes and having a disruptive impact on traditional warfare. Through the Snowden revelations, a list of 49 cyber reconnaissance projects across 11 categories used by the United States was gradually exposed. Incidents such as the Stuxnet virus’s sabotage of Iranian nuclear facilities, the Gauss virus’s mass intrusion into Middle Eastern countries, and the Cuban Twitter account’s control of public opinion demonstrate that the United States possesses powerful monitoring capabilities, as well as soft and hard attack and psychological warfare capabilities over the internet, closed networks, and mobile wireless networks.
The war began with virtual space experiments. The US military began exploring combat simulation, operational experiments, and simulation training in the 1980s. Later, the US military pioneered the use of virtual reality, wargaming, and digital twin technologies in virtual battlefields and combat experiments. Analysis shows that the US military conducted combat simulations in military operations such as the Gulf War, the Kosovo War, the Afghanistan War, and the Iraq War, striving to find the optimal operational and action plans. It has been reported that before Russia intervened militarily in Syria, it conducted pre-war exercises in its war labs. Based on the experimental simulations, it formulated the “Center-2015” strategic exercise plan, practicing “mobility and accessibility in unfamiliar areas” for combat in Syria. After the exercise, Russian Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov emphasized that the primary means would be political, economic, and psychological warfare, supplemented by long-range precision air strikes and special operations, ultimately achieving political and strategic objectives. Practice shows that the process of Russia’s intervention in Syria was largely consistent with these experiments and exercises.
In the future, with the application and development of virtual simulation, mixed reality, big data, and intelligent software, a parallel military artificial system can be established, allowing physical forces in the physical space to map and iterate with virtual forces in the virtual space. This will enable rapid, high-intensity adversarial training and supercomputing that are difficult to achieve in the physical space. It can also engage in combat and games against highly realistic “blue force systems,” continuously accumulating data, building models and algorithms, and ultimately using the optimal solutions to guide the construction and combat of physical forces, achieving the goal of virtual-real interaction, using the virtual to control the real, and winning with the virtual. On January 25, 2019, DeepMind, Google’s AI team, and Blizzard Entertainment, the developer of StarCraft, announced the results of the December 2018 match between AlphaSTAR and professional players TLO and MANA. In the best-of-five series, AlphaSTAR won both matches 5-0. AlphaSTAR completed the training workload that would take human players 200 years in just two weeks, demonstrating the enormous advantages and bright prospects of simulated adversarial training in virtual space.
The combat style is dominated by unmanned operations. In the era of intelligentization, unmanned warfare will become the basic form, and the integration and development of artificial intelligence and related technologies will gradually push this form to an advanced stage. Unmanned systems represent the full pre-positioning of human intelligence in the combat system and are a concentrated manifestation of the integrated development of intelligence, informatization, and mechanization. Unmanned equipment first appeared in the field of drones. In 1917, Britain built the world’s first drone, but it was not used in actual combat. With the development of technology, drones were gradually used in target drones, reconnaissance, and reconnaissance-strike integrated operations. Since the beginning of the 21st century, unmanned technologies and equipment have achieved tremendous leaps and major breakthroughs in exploration and application due to their advantages such as mission-centric design, no need to consider crew requirements, and high cost-effectiveness. They have shown a rapid and comprehensive development trend, and their application scope has expanded rapidly, covering various fields such as air, surface, underwater, ground, and space.
In recent years, technologies such as artificial intelligence, bionic intelligence, human-machine integrated intelligence, and swarm intelligence have developed rapidly. With the help of satellite communication and navigation, and autonomous navigation, unmanned combat platforms can effectively achieve remote control, formation flight, and swarm collaboration. Currently, unmanned combat aerial vehicles, underwater unmanned platforms, and space-based unmanned autonomous robots have emerged one after another. Bipedal, quadrupedal, multi-legged, and cloud-based intelligent robots are developing rapidly and have entered the fast lane of engineering and practical application, with military applications not far off.
Overall, unmanned warfare in the era of intelligentization will enter three stages of development. The first stage is the initial stage, characterized by manned dominance and unmanned support, where “unmanned warfare under manned leadership” means that combat behavior is completely controlled and dominated by humans before, during, and after the operation. The second stage is the intermediate stage, characterized by manned support and unmanned dominance, where “unmanned warfare under limited control” means that human control is limited, auxiliary, but crucial throughout the entire combat process, and in most cases, the autonomous action capabilities of the platform can be relied upon. The third stage is the advanced stage, characterized by manned rules and unmanned action, where “unmanned warfare with manned design and minimal control” means that humans conduct overall design in advance, clarifying autonomous behavior and rules of the game under various combat environments, and the execution phase is mainly entrusted to unmanned platforms and unmanned forces for autonomous execution.
Autonomous behavior or autonomy is the essence of unmanned warfare and a common and prominent feature of intelligent warfare, manifested in many aspects.
First, the autonomy of combat platforms, mainly including the autonomous capabilities and intelligence level of unmanned aerial vehicles, ground unmanned platforms, precision-guided weapons, underwater and space robots.
Second, the detection system is autonomous, which mainly includes automatic search, tracking, association, aiming, and intelligent recognition of information such as images, voice, video, and electronic signals.
Thirdly, there is autonomous decision-making, the core of which is AI-based autonomous decision-making within the combat system. This mainly includes automatic analysis of the battlefield situation, automatic planning of combat missions, automated command and control, and intelligent human-machine interaction.
Fourthly, autonomous coordination in combat operations, which initially includes autonomous coordination between manned and unmanned systems, and later includes autonomous unmanned swarms, such as various combat formations, bee swarms, ant swarms, fish swarms, and other combat behaviors.
Fifth, autonomous network attack and defense behaviors, including automatic identification, automatic tracing, automatic protection, and autonomous counterattack against various viruses and network attacks.
Sixth, cognitive electronic warfare, which automatically identifies the power, frequency band, and direction of electronic interference, automatically hops frequencies and autonomously forms networks, and engages in active and automatic electronic interference against adversaries.
Seventh, other autonomous behaviors, including intelligent diagnosis, automatic repair, and self-protection.
In the future, with the continuous upgrading of the integration and development of artificial intelligence and related technologies, unmanned operations will rapidly develop towards autonomy, biomimicry, swarming, and distributed collaboration, gradually pushing unmanned warfare to an advanced stage and significantly reducing direct confrontation between human forces on the battlefield. Although manned platforms will continue to exist in the future, biomimetic robots, humanoid robots, swarm weapons, robot armies, and unmanned system warfare will become the norm in the intelligent era. Since unmanned systems can replace human beings in many combat domains and can accomplish tasks autonomously, unmanned combat systems will always be there to protect humans before they suffer physical attacks or injuries. Therefore, unmanned combat systems in the intelligent era are humanity’s main protective barrier, its shield and shield.
All-domain operations and cross-domain offense and defense. In the era of intelligent warfare, all-domain operations and cross-domain offense and defense are also a fundamental style of combat, manifested in many combat scenarios and aspects. From land, sea, air, and space to multiple domains including physical, information, cognitive, social, and biological domains, as well as the integration and interaction of virtual and physical elements, from peacetime strategic deterrence to wartime high-confrontation, high-dynamic, and high-response operations, the time and space span is enormous. It involves not only physical space operations and cyberspace cyber offense and defense, information warfare, public opinion guidance, and psychological warfare, but also tasks such as global security governance, regional security cooperation, counter-terrorism, and rescue, and the control of critical infrastructure such as networks, communications, power, transportation, finance, and logistics.
Since 2010, supported by advancements in information and intelligent technologies, the U.S. military has proposed concepts such as operational cloud, distributed lethality, multi-domain warfare, algorithmic warfare, mosaic warfare, and joint all-domain operations. The aim is to maintain battlefield and military superiority by using system-wide systems against localized ones, multi-functional systems against simpler ones, multi-domain systems against single-domain ones, integrated systems against discrete ones, and intelligent systems against non-intelligent ones. The U.S. military proposed the concept of multi-domain warfare in 2016 and joint all-domain operations in 2020, aiming to develop cross-service and cross-domain joint operational capabilities, ensuring that each service’s operations are supported by all three services, and possessing all-domain capabilities against multi-domain and single-domain ones.
In the future, with breakthroughs in key technologies for the cross-disciplinary integration of artificial intelligence and multidisciplinary collaboration, multi-domain integration and cross-domain offense and defense based on AI and human-machine hybrid intelligence will become a distinctive feature of intelligent warfare. This will be achieved across functional domains such as physics, information, cognition, society, and biology, as well as geographical domains such as land, sea, air, and space.
In the intelligent era, multi-domain and cross-domain operations will expand from mission planning, physical collaboration, and loose coordination to heterogeneous integration, data linking, tactical interoperability, and cross-domain offensive and defensive integration.
First, multi-domain integration. Based on different battlefields and adversaries in a multi-domain environment, different combat styles, combat procedures and missions are planned in accordance with the requirements of joint operations, and unified as much as possible. This achieves the overall planning and integration of information, firepower, defense, support and command and control, and the integration of combat capabilities at the strategic, operational and tactical levels, forming the capability of one-domain operations and multi-domain joint rapid support.
Second, cross-domain offense and defense. Supported by a unified network information system, and through a unified battlefield situation and data information exchange based on unified standards, the information links for cross-domain joint operations reconnaissance, control, strike, and assessment are completely opened up, enabling seamless integration of operational elements and capabilities at the tactical and fire control levels, as well as collaborative actions between services, cross-domain command and interoperability.
Third, the entire process is interconnected. Multi-domain integration and cross-domain offense and defense are treated as a whole, with coordinated design and interconnectedness throughout. Before the war, intelligence gathering and analysis are conducted, along with public opinion warfare, psychological warfare, propaganda warfare, and necessary cyber and electronic warfare attacks. During the war, special operations and cross-domain actions are used to carry out decapitation strikes, key point raids, and precise and controllable strikes (see Figure 7). After the war, defense against cyberattacks on information systems, elimination of negative public opinion’s impact on the public, and prevention of enemy damage to infrastructure are addressed through post-war governance, public opinion control, and the restoration of social order across multiple areas.
Fourth, AI support. Through combat experiments, simulation training, and necessary test verification and real-world testing, we continuously accumulate data, optimize models, and establish AI combat models and algorithms for different combat styles and adversaries, forming an intelligent brain system to better support joint operations, multi-domain operations, and cross-domain offense and defense.
Human-AI hybrid decision-making. The continuous improvement, optimization, upgrading, and perfection of the AI brain system in intelligent battlefields will enable it to surpass humans in many aspects. The human-dominated command, control, and decision-making model of human warfare for thousands of years will be completely transformed. Humans commanding AI, AI commanding humans, and AI commanding AI are all possible scenarios in warfare.
Distributed, networked, flattened, and parallel structures are key characteristics of intelligent combat systems. The centralized, human-centric single-decision-making model is gradually being replaced by decentralized or weakly centralized models based on AI, such as unmanned systems, autonomous swarms, and manned-unmanned collaboration. Hybrid compatibility among these models is becoming a development trend. The lower the operational level and the simpler the mission, the more prominent the role of unmanned and decentralized systems; the higher the level and the more complex the mission, the more important human decision-making and centralized systems become. Pre-war decision-making is primarily human, supplemented by AI; during war, AI is primarily AI, supplemented by human; post-war, both are used, with hybrid decision-making becoming the dominant approach (see Table 3).
In the future battlefield, combat situations will be highly complex, rapidly changing, and exceptionally intense. The convergence of various information sources will generate massive amounts of data, which cannot be processed quickly and accurately by the human brain alone. Only by achieving a collaborative operation mode of “human brain + AI,” based on technologies such as combat cloud, databases, network communication, and the Internet of Things, can “commanders” cope with the ever-changing battlefield and complete command and control tasks. With the increasing autonomy of unmanned systems and the enhancement of swarm and system-wide AI functions, autonomous decision-making is gradually emerging. Once command and control achieve different levels of intelligence, the Out-of-Loop (OODA) loop time will be significantly reduced, and efficiency will be significantly improved. In particular, pattern recognition for network sensor image processing, “optimization” algorithms for combat decision-making, and particle swarm optimization and bee swarm optimization algorithms for autonomous swarms will endow command and control systems with more advanced and comprehensive decision-making capabilities, gradually realizing a combat cycle where “humans are outside the loop.”
Nonlinear amplification and rapid convergence. Future intelligent warfare will no longer be a gradual release of energy and a linear superposition of combat effects, but rather a rapid amplification of multiple effects such as nonlinearity, emergence, self-growth, and self-focusing, and a rapid convergence of results.
Emergence primarily refers to the process by which each individual within a complex system, following local rules and continuously interacting, generates a qualitative change in the overall system through self-organization. In the future, while battlefield information will be complex and ever-changing, intelligent recognition of images, voice, and video, along with processing by military cloud systems, will enable “one-point collection, multi-user sharing.” Through big data technology, it will be rapidly linked with relevant information and integrated with various weapon fire control systems to implement distributed strikes, swarm strikes, and cyber psychological warfare. This will allow for “detection and destruction,” “aggressive attacks at the first sign of trouble,” and “numerical superiority generating psychological panic”—these phenomena constitute the emergence effect.
The emergent effects of intelligent warfare are mainly reflected in three aspects: first, the acceleration of the kill chain caused by the speed of AI decision-making chain; second, the combat effect caused by the numerical advantage of manned and unmanned collaborative systems, especially swarm systems; and third, the rapid swarm emergence behavior based on network interconnection.
As military intelligence develops to a certain stage, the combined effects of advanced AI, quantum computing, IPv6, and hypersonic technologies will result in combat systems exhibiting nonlinear, asymmetric, self-growing, rapid-response, and uncontrollable amplification and operational effects. This is particularly evident in unmanned, swarm, cyber warfare, and cognitive confrontation. The emergence of intelligence from collective ignorance, increased efficiency through sheer numbers, nonlinear amplification, and other emergent effects will become increasingly prominent. AI-driven cognitive, informational, and energy confrontations will intertwine and rapidly converge around a target, with time becoming increasingly compressed and the speed of confrontation accelerating. This will manifest as a dramatic amplification of multiple effects and a rapid convergence of outcomes. Energy shockwaves, rapid-fire combat, AI terminators, public opinion reversals, social unrest, psychological breakdowns, and the chain reaction of the Internet of Things will become prominent characteristics of intelligent warfare.
In unmanned swarm attacks, assuming roughly the same platform performance, the Lanchester equation applies: combat effectiveness is proportional to the square of the number of units; quantity advantage translates to quality advantage. Network attack and defense, and psychological and public opinion effects, follow Metcalfe’s Law, being proportional to the square of the number of interconnected users, with nonlinear and emergent effects becoming more pronounced. The quantity and intelligence of battlefield AI determine the overall level of intelligence in the combat system, impacting battlefield intelligence control and influencing the outcome of war. In the era of intelligent warfare, how to manage the interrelationships between energy, information, cognition, quantity, quality, virtuality, and physicality, and how to skillfully design, control, utilize, and evaluate nonlinear effects, are major new challenges and requirements for future warfare.
In the future, whether it is a reversal of public opinion, psychological panic, swarm attacks, mass operations, or autonomous combat by humans outside the ring, their emergence effects and strike effects will become relatively common phenomena and easy-to-implement actions, forming a capability that is compatible with deterrence and actual combat. It is also a form of warfare that human society must strictly manage and control.
An organically symbiotic relationship between humans and equipment. In the era of intelligence, the relationship between humans and weapons will undergo fundamental changes, becoming increasingly distant physically but increasingly closer in thought. The form of equipment and its development and management models will be completely transformed. Human thought and wisdom will be deeply integrated with weaponry through AI, fully integrated in the early stages of equipment development, optimized and iterated during the use and training phase, and further upgraded and improved after combat verification, in a continuous cycle of progress.
First, with the rapid development of technologies such as network communication, mobile internet, cloud computing, big data, machine learning, and bionics, and their widespread application in the military field, the structure and form of traditional weapons and equipment will be completely changed, exhibiting diverse functions such as front-end and back-end division of labor and cooperation, efficient interaction, and adaptive adjustment. They will be complex entities integrating mechanics, information, networks, data, and cognition.
Secondly, while humans and weapons are gradually becoming physically detached, they are also becoming increasingly integrated into an organic symbiotic entity in terms of mindset. The gradual maturation of drones and robots is shifting their focus from assisting humans in combat to replacing them, with humans taking a more backseat. The integration of humans and weapons will take on entirely new forms. Human thought and wisdom will participate in the entire lifecycle of design, research and development, production, training, use, and support. Unmanned combat systems will perfectly combine human creativity and intellect with the precision, speed, reliability, and fatigue resistance of machines.
Third, profound changes are taking place in equipment development and management models. Mechanized equipment becomes increasingly outdated with use, while information technology software becomes increasingly new, and intelligent algorithms become increasingly sophisticated with use. Traditional mechanized equipment is delivered to the troops using a “pre-research—development—finalization” model, resulting in a decline in combat performance over time and vehicle hours. Information technology equipment is a product of the combined development of mechanization and informatization; the platform remains the same, but the information system is constantly iterated and updated with the development of computer CPUs and storage devices, exhibiting a step-by-step development characteristic of “information-led, software-driven hardware, rapid replacement, and spiral ascent.” Intelligent equipment, based on mechanization and informatization, continuously optimizes and improves training models and algorithms with the accumulation of data and experience, showing an upward curve of becoming stronger and better with use over time and frequency. Therefore, the development, construction, use, training, and support models for intelligent equipment will undergo fundamental changes.
Evolving through learning and confrontation. Evolution will undoubtedly be a defining characteristic of future intelligent warfare and combat systems, and a commanding height in future strategic competition. Combat systems in the intelligent era will gradually acquire adaptive, self-learning, self-confrontational, self-repairing, and self-evolving capabilities, becoming an evolvable ecosystem and game-theoretic system.
The most distinctive and unique feature of intelligent combat systems lies in the combination of human-like and human-like intelligence with the advantages of machines, achieving “superhuman” combat capabilities. The core of this capability is that numerous models and algorithms improve and refine with use, possessing an evolutionary function. If future combat systems resemble the human body, with the brain as the command and control center, the nervous system as the network, and the limbs as weapons and equipment controlled by the brain, like a living organism, possessing self-adaptive, self-learning, self-defense, self-repair, and self-evolutionary capabilities, then we believe it possesses the ability and function of evolution. Because intelligent combat systems are not entirely the same as living organisms, while a single intelligent system is similar to a living organism, a multi-system combat system is more like an “ecosystem + adversarial game system,” more complex than a single living organism, and more adversarial, social, collective, and emergent.
Preliminary analysis suggests that with the development and application of technologies such as combat simulation, virtual reality, digital twins, parallel training, intelligent software, brain-inspired chips, brain-like systems, bionic systems, natural energy harvesting, and novel machine learning, future combat systems can gradually evolve from single-function, partial-system evolution to multi-functional, multi-element, multi-domain, and multi-system evolution. Each system will be able to rapidly formulate response strategies and take action based on changes in the battlefield environment, different threats, different adversaries, and its own strengths and capabilities, drawing upon accumulated experience, extensive simulated adversarial training, and models and algorithms built through reinforcement learning. These strategies will then be continuously revised, optimized, and self-improved through practical warfare. Single-mission systems will possess characteristics and functions similar to living organisms, while multi-mission systems, like species in a forest, will have a cyclical function and evolutionary mechanism of mutual restraint and survival of the fittest, possessing the ability to engage in game-theoretic confrontation and competition under complex environmental conditions, forming an evolvable ecological and game-theoretic system.
The evolution of combat systems mainly manifests in four aspects: First, the evolution of AI. With the accumulation of data and experience, it will inevitably be continuously optimized, upgraded, and improved. This is relatively easy to understand. Second, the evolution of combat platforms and cluster systems, mainly moving from manned control to semi-autonomous and autonomous control. Because it involves not only the evolution of platform and cluster control AI, but also the optimization and improvement of related mechanical and information systems, it is relatively more complex. Third, the evolution of mission systems, such as detection systems, strike systems, defense systems, and support systems. Because it involves multiple platforms and multiple missions, the factors and elements involved in the evolution are much more complex, and some may evolve quickly, while others may evolve slowly. Fourth, the evolution of the combat system itself. Because it involves all elements, multiple missions, cross-domain operations, and confrontations at various levels, its evolutionary process is extremely complex. Whether a combat system can evolve cannot rely entirely on its own growth; it requires the proactive design of certain environments and conditions, and must follow the principles of biomimicry, survival of the fittest, mutual restraint, and full-system lifecycle management to possess the function and capability for continuous evolution.
Intelligent design and manufacturing. In the era of intelligentization, the defense industry will shift from a relatively closed, physical-based, and time-consuming research and manufacturing model to an open-source, intelligent design and manufacturing model that can rapidly meet military needs.
The defense industry is a strategic industry of the nation, a powerful pillar of national security and defense construction. In peacetime, it primarily provides the military with advanced, high-quality, and reasonably priced weaponry and equipment. In wartime, it is a crucial force for operational support and a core pillar for ensuring victory. The defense industry is a high-tech intensive sector. The research and development and manufacturing of modern weaponry and equipment are technology-intensive, knowledge-intensive, systemically complex, and highly integrated. The development of weapons and equipment such as large aircraft carriers, fighter jets, ballistic missiles, satellite systems, and main battle tanks typically takes ten, twenty, or even more years before finalization and delivery to the armed forces, involving large investments, long cycles, and high costs. From the post-World War II period to the end of the last century, the defense industrial system and capability structure were products of the mechanized era and warfare. Its research, testing, manufacturing, and support were primarily geared towards the needs of the military branches and industry systems, mainly including weaponry, shipbuilding, aviation, aerospace, nuclear, and electronics industries, as well as civilian supporting and basic industries. After the Cold War, the US defense industry underwent strategic adjustments and mergers and reorganizations, generally forming a defense industrial structure and layout adapted to the requirements of informationized warfare. The top six defense contractors in the United States can provide specialized combat platforms and systems for relevant branches of the armed forces, as well as overall solutions for joint operations, making them cross-service and cross-domain system integrators. Since the beginning of the 21st century, with the changing demands of system-of-systems and information-based warfare and the development of digital, networked, and intelligent manufacturing technologies, the traditional development model and research and production capabilities of weapons and equipment have begun to gradually change, urgently requiring reshaping and adjustment in accordance with the requirements of informationized warfare, especially intelligent warfare.
In the future, the defense science and technology industry will, in accordance with the requirements of joint operations, all-domain operations, and the integrated development of mechanization, informatization, and intelligence, shift from the traditional focus on service branches and platform construction to cross-service and cross-domain system integration. It will also shift from relatively closed, self-contained, independent, fragmented, physical-based, and long-cycle research, design, and manufacturing to open-source, democratic crowdsourcing, virtual design and integration verification, adaptive manufacturing, and rapid fulfillment of military needs (see Figure 8). This will gradually form a new innovation system and intelligent manufacturing system that combines hardware and software, virtual and real interaction, intelligent human-machine-object-environment interaction, effective vertical industrial chain connection, horizontal distributed collaboration, and military-civilian integration. Joint design and demonstration by multiple military and civilian parties, joint research and development by supply and demand sides for construction and use, iterative optimization based on parallel military systems in both virtual and real environments, and improvement through combat training and real-world verification—a model of simultaneous research, testing, use, and construction—is the basic mode for the development and construction of intelligent combat systems and the generation of combat power.
Wu Mingxi 8
The risk of spiraling out of control. Since intelligent warfare systems theoretically possess the ability to self-evolve and reach “superhuman” levels, if humans do not pre-design control programs, control nodes, and a “stop button,” the result could very well be destruction and disaster. A critical concern is that numerous hackers and malicious warmongers may exploit intelligent technology to design uncontrollable warfare programs and combat methods, allowing numerous machine brains (AIs) and swarms of robots to fight adaptively and self-evolving according to pre-set combat rules, becoming invincible and relentlessly advancing, ultimately leading to an uncontrollable situation and irreparable damage. This is a major challenge facing humanity in the process of intelligent warfare and a crucial issue requiring research and resolution. This problem needs to be recognized and prioritized from the perspective of a shared future for all humanity and the sustainable development of human civilization. It requires designing rules of war, formulating international conventions, and regulating these systems technically, procedurally, ethically, and legally, implementing mandatory constraints, checks, and management.
The above ten transformations and leaps constitute the main content of the new form of intelligent warfare. Of course, the development and maturity of intelligent warfare is not a castle in the air or a tree without roots, but is built upon mechanization and informatization. Without mechanization and informatization, there is no intelligence. Mechanization, informatization, and intelligence form an organic whole, interconnected and mutually reinforcing, iteratively optimizing and leapfrog developing. Currently, mechanization is the foundation, informatization is the guiding principle, and intelligence is the direction. Looking to the future, mechanization will remain the foundation, informatization will provide support, and intelligence will be the guiding principle.
A Bright Future
In the time tunnel of the new century, we see the train of intelligent warfare speeding along. Will humanity’s greed and technological might lead us into a more brutal darkness, or will it propel us towards a more civilized and enlightened future? This is a major philosophical question that humanity needs to ponder. Intelligentization is the future, but it is not everything. Intelligentization can handle diverse military tasks, but it is not omnipotent. Faced with sharp contradictions between civilizations, religions, nations, and social classes, and with extreme events such as thugs wielding knives, suicide bombings, and mass riots, the role of intelligentization remains limited. Without resolving global political imbalances, unequal rights, unfair trade, and social contradictions, war and conflict will be inevitable. Ultimately, the world is determined by strength, and technological, economic, and military strength are extremely important. While military strength cannot determine politics, it can influence it; it cannot determine the economy, but it can bring security for economic development. The stronger the intelligent warfare capabilities, the stronger its deterrent and war-preventing function, and the greater the hope for peace. Like nuclear deterrence, it plays a crucial role in preventing large-scale wars to avoid terrible consequences and uncontrolled disasters.
The level of intelligence in warfare, in a sense, reflects the progress of civilization in warfare. The history of human warfare, initially a struggle between groups for food and habitation, has evolved into land occupation, resource plunder, expansion of political power, and domination of the spiritual world—all fraught with bloodshed, violence, and repression. As the ultimate solution to irreconcilable contradictions in human society, war’s ideal goal is civilization: subjugation without fighting, minimal resource input, minimal casualties, and minimal damage to society… However, past wars have often failed to achieve this due to political struggles, ethnic conflicts, competition for economic interests, and the brutality of technological destructive methods, frequently resulting in the utter destruction of nations, cities, and homes. Past wars have failed to achieve these ideals, but future intelligent warfare, due to technological breakthroughs, increased transparency, and deeper mutual sharing of economic benefits, especially as the confrontation of human forces gradually gives way to confrontation between robots and AI, will see decreasing casualties, material consumption, and collateral damage. This presents a significant possibility of achieving civilization, offering humanity hope. We envision future warfare gradually transitioning from the mutual slaughter of human societies and the immense destruction of the material world to wars between unmanned systems and robots. This will evolve into deterrence and checks and balances limited to combat capabilities and overall strength, AI confrontations in the virtual world, and highly realistic war games… The energy expenditure of human warfare will be limited to a certain scale of unmanned systems, simulated confrontations and experiments, or even merely the energy needed to wage a war game. Humanity will transform from the planners, designers, participants, leaders, and victims of war into rational thinkers, organizers, controllers, observers, and adjudicators. Human bodies will no longer suffer trauma, minds will no longer be frightened, wealth will no longer be destroyed, and homes will no longer be devastated. Although this beautiful ideal and aspiration may always fall short of harsh reality, we sincerely hope that this day will arrive, and arrive as soon as possible. This is the highest stage of intelligent warfare development, the author’s greatest wish, and humanity’s beautiful vision!
(Thanks to my colleague, Researcher Zhou Xumang, for his support and assistance in writing this paper. He has unique thoughts and insights into the development and construction of intelligent systems.)
Notes
[1] Robert O. Walker et al., 20YY: War in the Age of Robots, translated by Zou Hui et al., Beijing: National Defense Industry Press, 2016, p. 148.
The Era of Intelligent War Is Coming Rapidly
Wu Mingxi
Abstract: Since the entry into the new century, the rapid development of intelligent technology with artificial intelligence (AI) at the core has accelerated the process of a new round of military revolution. The competition in the military field is going rapidly to the era of intelligent power. The operational elements represented by “AI, cloud, network, group and end” and their diverse combinations constitute a new battlefield ecosystem, and the winning mechanism of war has changed completely. multiplier, transcendence and active role. The platform has AI control, the cluster has AI guidance, and the system has AI decision-making. The traditional human-based combat method is replaced by AI models and algorithms, and intelligent dominance becomes the core of future war. The stronger the intelligent combat capability, the more hopeful the soldiers may win the war without firing a shot.
Abstract: Since the entry into the new century, the rapid development of intelligent technology with artificial intelligence (AI) at the core has accelerated the process of a new round of military revolution. The competition in the military field is going rapidly to the era of intelligent power. The operational elements represented by “AI, cloud, network, group and end” and their diverse combinations constitute a new battlefield ecosystem, and the winning mechanism of war has changed completely. The AI system based on models and algorithms will be the core combat capability, running through all aspects and links and playing a multiplier, transcendence and active role. The platform has AI control, the cluster has AI guidance, and the system has AI decision-making. The traditional human-based combat method is replaced by AI models and algorithms, and intelligent dominance becomes the core of future war. The stronger the intelligent combat capability, the more hopeful the soldiers may win the war without firing a shot.
An Analysis of the New Changes in the Ways to Win in Intelligent Warfare
■Wang Ronghui
President Xi Jinping pointed out that the core of studying warfare is to understand the characteristics, laws, and winning mechanisms of modern warfare. From the clash of bronze swords to the roar of tank engines and the saturation attacks of unmanned “swarms,” each leap in the form of warfare has profoundly changed the way wars are won. In the long era of cold weapons, firearms, and mechanized warfare, attrition warfare used the offsetting of national wealth and resources to exhaust the opponent’s will to resist. However, the new military revolution, led by the information technology revolution and accelerating towards the intelligent era, is pushing the way wars are won to a completely new dimension—dissipation warfare, which transforms the traditional method of war, which is mainly based on the consumption of materials and energy, into a comprehensive method of war that integrates the offsetting of materials, the offsetting of energy, and the confrontation of information.
The war of attrition is an iron law of traditional warfare.
In the long years before and during the Industrial Age, wars were primarily based on the struggle for material and energy resources, and the balance of power often tipped in favor of the side that could withstand greater material and energy losses.
The war of attrition is a major winning tactic in traditional warfare. In cold weapon warfare, the focus of confrontation lies in the number of soldiers, their physical endurance, and the competition of metal weapons and food reserves. The outcome of the war often depends on the size of the army and the strength of the logistical chain. For example, the siege warfare that was common in ancient times was essentially a war of attrition between the defender’s supplies and the attacker’s manpower and equipment. In firearms warfare, the use of gunpowder did not reduce the attrition of war; on the contrary, it pushed it to a new level. The dense charges of line infantry in the Napoleonic Wars, and the brutal trench warfare of Verdun and the Somme in World War I, all exemplified the nature of attrition warfare—trading space for steel and flesh. Mechanized warfare, with the advent of tanks, airplanes, and aircraft carriers, pushed the scale of material and energy consumption to its peak. In World War II, the Battle of Kursk on the Soviet-German front and the brutal Battle of Iwo Jima in the Pacific were the ultimate clashes between a nation’s industrial capacity and its military’s ability to withstand casualties.
The war of attrition is essentially a contest of material and energy resources. It’s a contest of size and reserves—static or slowly accumulating factors such as population size, resource reserves, industrial capacity, and troop strength. Its primary objective is to destroy the enemy’s manpower, war materials, and seize their territory and resources; essentially, it’s a contest of material and energy resources between the opposing sides. Klausewitz’s assertion that “war is a violent act that forces the enemy to submit to our will” is fundamentally based on the logic of violent attrition. The winning mechanism of a war of attrition is that victory belongs to the side that can more sustainably convert material resources into battlefield lethality and can withstand greater losses.
The war of attrition has revealed significant historical limitations in practice. From the long-term experience of traditional warfare, the fundamental limitations of the war of attrition manifest in the enormous loss of life and material wealth, the unbearable high costs to society, and the waste of vast amounts of energy and resources on non-critical targets, indiscriminate bombardment, and large-scale but inefficient charges. When both sides are evenly matched in strength and determined, the outcome is difficult to predict, leading to repeated back-and-forth battles and easily resulting in a protracted quagmire of attrition, as seen on the Western Front of World War I. Faced with increasingly networked and information-based modern warfare systems, the attrition model relying on large-scale firepower coverage is insufficient for accurately targeting the opponent’s key nodes and functional connections, resulting in diminishing returns.
The information technology revolution gave rise to the prototype of dissipative warfare
The information technology revolution in the second half of the 20th century injected a disruptive variable into the form of warfare. Information began to surpass matter and energy, becoming the core element of victory, and information warfare took center stage in history.
The focus of information warfare has shifted. The Gulf War is considered a milestone in information warfare, where multinational forces, relying on reconnaissance aircraft, early warning aircraft, electronic warfare systems, precision-guided weapons, and C4ISR systems, achieved overwhelming information superiority, realizing “one-way transparency” on the battlefield. The focus of this war was no longer on the complete annihilation of the opponent’s massive ground forces, but rather on the systematic destruction of its command and control systems, air defense systems, communication hubs, and logistical supply lines, leading to the rapid collapse of the opponent’s overall combat capability and plunging them into a chaotic state of fragmented operations and command failure. This marks a shift in the focus of warfare from “hard destruction” in the physical domain to “system disruption” and functional paralysis in the information domain.
The methods of winning in informationized warfare have changed. Informationized warfare alters the way and objectives of material and energy utilization through information superiority. The winning strategy is no longer simply about “consuming” the opponent’s materials and energy, but rather about guiding the flow of materials and energy through efficient information flow, precisely targeting the “key links” of the enemy’s operational system. This aims to achieve maximum chaos, disorder, functional collapse, and overall effectiveness reduction in the enemy system with minimal material and energy input. Therefore, informationized warfare is beginning to pursue “entropy increase,” or increased disorder, in the enemy’s operational system, causing it to move from order to disorder. This indicates that dissipative warfare, reflecting the complex system confrontation of intelligent warfare, is beginning to emerge.
Dissipation warfare is a typical form of intelligent warfare.
With the rapid development of intelligent technology and its widespread application in the military, intelligent warfare is becoming a new form of warfare after information warfare, and dissipation warfare is becoming a typical mode of intelligent warfare.
Dissipation warfare has adapted to the demands of the modern world security landscape. In the era of intelligence, the rapid development and application of intelligent technologies such as broadband networks, big data, cloud computing, brain-computer interfaces, intelligent chips, and deep learning have broadened connections between countries and nations. Non-traditional security threats have emerged and intertwined with traditional security threats, leading to a continuous expansion of the subject and scope of intelligent warfare. The time and space of warfare are constantly extending, and the warfare system is shifting from relatively closed to more open, forming a higher-level and broader-ranging confrontation. Dissipation warfare, as a winning strategy in the intelligent era, is becoming increasingly prominent.
Dissipation warfare reflects the historical development of methods for winning wars. Dissipation warfare has always existed, but before the advent of intelligent warfare, due to technological constraints, it remained in a relatively rudimentary and simple form, where the confrontation could only be manifested as a confrontation between one of the elements of matter, energy, or information. Cold weapon warfare was primarily a confrontation centered on the human body and dominated by material elements; firearms and mechanized warfare was primarily a confrontation centered on platforms and dominated by energy elements; and information warfare is primarily a confrontation centered on network information systems and dominated by information elements. Entering the intelligent era, intelligent technology highly unifies the cognitive, decision-making, and action advantages in the confrontation between enemies and ourselves. In essence, it highly unifies matter, energy, and information. By empowering, gathering, driving, and releasing energy with intelligence, it forms an intelligent warfare form dominated by intelligent elements and centered on intelligent algorithms. Its typical form is dissipation warfare, which reflects the complex system confrontation of intelligent warfare.
Dissipation warfare embodies the resilience of complex warfare systems. From the perspective of the winning mechanism, to gain a competitive advantage, it is necessary to construct a closed loop of dissipation warfare that enables rapid “perception, decision-making, action, and evaluation” based on the fundamental principles of “negative entropy infusion, threshold determination, phase transition triggering, and victory control.” This continuously increases the enemy’s entropy value in a dynamic hybrid game, causing the enemy to lose its overall combat capability. From the perspective of the path to victory, dissipation warfare emphasizes the comprehensive use of material attrition, energy confrontation, and information confrontation. Internally, it “establishes order” to achieve logical concentration, immediate accumulation, complementary advantages, and integrated strengths to form comprehensive combat power. Externally, it “increases entropy” by continuously exerting its effects through military, political, economic, technological, cultural, and diplomatic components until the effectiveness accumulates to a certain level, resulting in “rise and fall” and achieving a sudden change in combat power and the emergence of systemic effectiveness. In terms of its basic characteristics, dissipative warfare is characterized by comprehensive confrontation and competition, multiple subjects across domains, complex and diverse forms, integrated and concentrated forces, and the emergence of accumulated effectiveness. The core of the confrontation has evolved from the destruction of the physical domain and the control of the information domain to a game of disrupting and maintaining the “orderliness” inherent in the complex system of intelligent warfare.
Dissipation warfare encompasses various forms of intelligent warfare. Beyond the traditional attrition warfare across land, sea, air, space, cyberspace, and electronic domains, dissipation warfare also includes various forms of conflict employed by one or more countries against their adversaries in multiple social spheres. These include political isolation and encirclement, economic and financial blockades, disruption of technological supply chains, cultural strategic export, authoritative media campaigns to seize the initiative in discourse, manipulation of public opinion through trending events, AI-assisted social media information warfare, and the use of proxies to establish multilateral battlefields. The diverse forms of dissipation warfare allow it to be conducted in both war and peacetime. Sun Tzu’s Art of War principle, “Victorious armies first secure victory and then seek battle,” takes on new meaning in the context of war preparation in the intelligent age.
The shift in winning strategies from war of attrition to war of dissipation
Dissipative warfare manifests itself in the comprehensive confrontation across multiple domains, including the physical and information domains, in the intelligent era. It embodies a high degree of unity among political contests, economic competition, military offense and defense, cultural conflicts, and diplomatic checks and balances, reflecting the openness, complexity, and emergence of intelligent warfare systems.
The evolution from a war of attrition to a war of dissipation represents a comprehensive and profound transformation. The basis for victory has shifted from relying on the stock of resources such as population, mineral deposits, and industrial base to relying on information superiority, intelligent algorithm superiority, network structure superiority, and the ability to dynamically control the flow of energy and information. The target of action has shifted from focusing on destroying physical entities such as soldiers, tanks, and factories to focusing on dismantling the “function” and “order” of the war system. The pursuit of effectiveness has shifted from the absolute destruction and annihilation of manpower to the pursuit of highly efficient “asymmetric paralysis,” that is, inducing the greatest chaos and incompetence of the enemy’s combat system at the lowest cost on one’s own side, pursuing “paralysis” rather than “destruction.” The focus of war has shifted from confrontation mainly in the physical domains such as land, sea, and air to a comprehensive game in multiple domains such as the physical domain and the information domain. While the physical domain still exists, it is often determined by the advantages of higher-dimensional domains.
The evolution from war of attrition to war of dissipation reflects a change in the decisive advantage. In the era of intelligent warfare, victory will no longer simply belong to the side with the largest steel torrent, but will inevitably belong to the side that can more efficiently “establish order” and “induce entropy”—that is, the side that can maintain a highly ordered and efficient operation of its own war system, while precisely and intelligently dismantling the order of the enemy’s system, forcing it into irreversible “entropy increase” and chaos. To gain a decisive advantage in war, we must adapt to the openness, complexity, and emergence of intelligent warfare systems, shifting from the extensive consumption and utilization of single materials, energy, and information to a war system where intelligent advantages dominate dissipation, and striving to gain the initiative and advantage in comprehensive multi-domain games.
The evolution from war of attrition to war of dissipation is an inevitable trend driven by the tide of technological revolution. Technology is the core combat capability and the most active and revolutionary factor in military development. Currently, intelligent technology is developing rapidly. Only by proactively embracing the wave of intelligence and firmly grasping the key to victory in the accurate understanding, intelligent control, and efficient dissipation of the complex system of warfare can we remain invincible in the ever-changing landscape of future global competition and the profound transformation of warfare.
The nature of warfare is rapidly evolving towards intelligence. The intelligent transformation of the military is not merely a simple accumulation of technologies, but a systemic change supported by data, algorithms, and computing power. These three elements mutually empower and organically integrate, forming the technological foundation for generating new combat capabilities. To accelerate the intelligent development of the military, we must deeply grasp the technological logic of intelligent transformation, solidify the data foundation, activate the algorithm engine, and strengthen computing power support to provide a solid guarantee for winning future intelligent wars.
Operational data: the “digital cornerstone” of intelligent transformation
Data is the “lifeblood” of intelligence. Without the accumulation of high-quality, large-scale, and multi-dimensional operational data, the transformation of military intelligence will be like water without a source or a tree without roots. In intelligent warfare, all activities across the entire chain, including battlefield perception, command and decision-making, and combat operations, are essentially processes of data generation, flow, processing, and application. The completeness, accuracy, and timeliness of operational data directly determine the perception precision, decision-making speed, and strike accuracy of intelligent systems, and are an indispensable cornerstone for the intelligent transformation of the military field.
The core value of operational data lies in breaking through the “fog of war” and enabling a shift from experience-driven to data-driven approaches. In traditional warfare, commanders primarily rely on battlefield reconnaissance, intelligence analysis, and combat experience to make decisions. Limited by the breadth and depth of information acquisition, these decisions often carry a degree of subjectivity and limitation. However, in the era of intelligent warfare, a single reconnaissance drone can transmit 5GB of image data per second, and satellite networks constantly track tens of thousands of ground targets, resulting in a geometrical increase in the rate of battlefield data generation. This operational data, originating from multiple domains including land, sea, air, space, cyber, electronic, and psychological domains, can, after standardized processing and in-depth analysis, construct a transparent battlefield situation across all domains, providing commanders with precise decision-making support.
Building a comprehensive operational data resource system requires focusing on key aspects of the entire lifecycle governance. In the data acquisition phase, it’s essential to base data acquisition on the needs of all-domain operations, broaden data source channels, and achieve full coverage of data in both traditional and new domains. Traditional domains should focus on land, sea, and air battlefields, accurately collecting data on troop deployments, equipment performance, and terrain. New domains should extend to outer space, deep sea, polar regions, and cyberspace, prioritizing the collection of data on space target trajectories, deep-sea environmental parameters, and cyberspace situational awareness. In the data fusion and processing phase, a unified data standard system must be established to address prominent issues such as multiple values for a single data point and inconsistent formats, achieving interconnectivity between data from different sources and of different types. In the data sharing phase, a sound cross-domain sharing mechanism must be established, along with tiered and categorized sharing rules, breaking down service-specific barriers, departmental boundaries, and network isolation to build a ubiquitous, all-encompassing, and interconnected data sharing environment, maximizing the utilization of data resources.
To fully leverage the multiplier effect of combat data, the key lies in cultivating data-driven thinking and building a strong professional team. Data-driven thinking is the prerequisite for activating data value. It is essential to guide officers and soldiers to develop the habit of “thinking with data, speaking with data, managing with data, and making decisions with data,” abandoning traditional thinking patterns based on experience and intuition. In operational planning, quantitative analysis should be based on data; in training evaluation, precise measurement should be based on data standards; and in equipment development, iterative optimization should be supported by data. Simultaneously, efforts should be focused on building a professional data talent team, clarifying the responsibilities of each position, and connecting the entire process from data generation to data application. Through various means such as academic training, on-the-job experience, and specialized training, the professional skills of officers and soldiers in data collection, processing, analysis, and application should be improved, creating a composite talent team that understands both military operations and data technology, providing talent support for releasing the value of data.
Specialized Algorithms: The “Digital Engine” of Intelligent Transformation
If data is the “fuel” of intelligence, then algorithms are the “engine” that transforms fuel into power. Specialized algorithms, as the core driving force of military intelligence, are the key link in realizing the transformation of data into knowledge, knowledge into decision-making, and decision-making into combat effectiveness. In intelligent warfare, the quality of algorithms directly determines the reaction speed, decision-making accuracy, and combat effectiveness of the combat system, becoming the engine of intelligent transformation in the military field.
The core advantage of algorithms lies in reconstructing the operational chain and achieving rapid iteration of the OODA loop. In traditional warfare, the chain of observation, judgment, decision-making, and action is lengthy and often struggles to adapt to rapidly changing battlefield situations due to limitations in human processing capabilities. Intelligent algorithms, however, can leverage machine learning, deep learning, and other technologies to process massive amounts of operational data in seconds, perform real-time analysis, and uncover patterns, significantly shortening the decision-making cycle. In simulation tests, foreign military AI command systems generated multiple complete operational plans in a very short time, demonstrating response speed and decision-making efficiency far exceeding that of human command teams, fully showcasing the enormous advantages of algorithms in accelerating the decision-making process. In combat operations, algorithms can span the entire chain, from reconnaissance and perception, command and decision-making, fire strikes, and effect assessment, constructing an autonomous, closed-loop “kill chain.” From target identification to threat ranking, from plan generation to fire allocation, from strike implementation to damage assessment, algorithms can autonomously complete a series of complex tasks, achieving a “detect and destroy” operational effect.
Enhancing the practical application effectiveness of algorithms requires strengthening technological innovation and scenario empowerment. In terms of technological innovation, it is essential to keep pace with the development trends of artificial intelligence and accelerate the military application transformation of cutting-edge algorithms. Focusing on emerging technologies such as generative AI, neuromorphic computing, and brain-computer interfaces, we should explore pathways for the deep integration of algorithms with military needs. Regarding scenario empowerment, we must build diverse typical scenarios for algorithms based on actual combat requirements, develop specialized algorithms for target recognition, situational assessment, and virtual training, overcome bottlenecks in information processing in complex electromagnetic environments, promote the modularization and lightweight transformation of algorithms, and rapidly integrate them with command and control systems and unmanned equipment systems. This will allow algorithms to continuously iterate and optimize in specific tasks within typical scenarios, transforming algorithmic advantages into practical combat capabilities.
Strengthening algorithm security is crucial for ensuring the steady and sustainable development of intelligent transformation. While algorithms enhance combat effectiveness, they also face security risks such as tampering, deception, and misuse, potentially leading to serious consequences like “algorithmic runaway.” It is essential to establish an algorithm security review mechanism to conduct full-process security assessments of algorithm models in military intelligent systems, focusing on their reliability, transparency, and controllability to prevent algorithmic bias and logical vulnerabilities. Strengthening the research and development of algorithmic countermeasures technologies is also vital. This involves improving the anti-interference and anti-attack capabilities of our own algorithms while mastering techniques to interfere with and deceive enemy algorithms, thus gaining the initiative in algorithmic confrontation. Simultaneously, it is crucial to emphasize algorithmic ethics, clearly defining the boundaries and rules of algorithm application to ensure that algorithm development and use comply with international laws and ethical standards, avoiding any violations of war ethics.
Supercomputing Power: The “Digital Energy” for Intelligent Transformation
Computing power is the fundamental capability supporting data processing and algorithm execution, much like the “energy support” for intelligent systems. In the transformation towards military intelligence, the explosive growth of data and the increasing complexity of algorithms have placed unprecedented demands on computing power. The scale, speed, and reliability of supercomputing power directly determine the operational efficiency and combat effectiveness of military intelligent systems, becoming the driving force behind the intelligent transformation of the military field.
The core role of computing power lies in overcoming performance bottlenecks and supporting the efficient operation of complex intelligent tasks. The demand for computing power in intelligent warfare exhibits an “exponential growth” characteristic: an advanced AI command system needs to run thousands of algorithm models simultaneously when processing battlefield data across the entire domain; a swarm of drones performing collaborative combat missions requires real-time interaction and decision-making calculations involving massive amounts of data; a large-scale virtual combat training exercise needs to simulate the interactive behaviors of tens or even hundreds of thousands of combat units. The completion of these complex tasks is inseparable from powerful computing power. Without sufficient computing power, even the highest quality data cannot be processed quickly, and even the most advanced algorithms cannot operate effectively. Currently, computing power has become a crucial indicator for measuring the level of military intelligence; whoever possesses stronger computing power holds the initiative in intelligent warfare.
Building a computing power system adapted to the needs of intelligent transformation requires creating a collaborative computing power layout across the cloud, edge, and terminal. In the cloud, distributed cloud computing centers need to be constructed to build a computing power foundation that covers the entire domain and is elastically scalable. Relying on infrastructure such as big data centers and supercomputing centers, various computing resources should be integrated to form a large-scale, intensive computing power supply capability. At the edge, computing power should be deployed more readily, enhancing the autonomous computing capabilities of the battlefield. For special scenarios such as forward positions, naval vessels, and air platforms, miniaturized, low-power, and highly reliable edge computing nodes should be developed to transfer some computing tasks from the cloud to the edge. This reduces reliance on communication links and data transmission latency, and ensures that combat units can autonomously complete basic tasks such as target identification, path planning, and coordination even in extreme environments such as communication interruptions or signal blackouts, thus improving the system’s survivability. At the terminal, the built-in computing power of equipment should be strengthened to improve the intelligence level of individual combat platforms. By embedding high-performance AI chips into platforms such as drones, unmanned vehicles, and missile weapons, equipment is endowed with the ability to autonomously perceive, make decisions, and act, making it an intelligent unit with independent combat capabilities and laying the foundation for cluster collaboration and system-on-system confrontation.
Enhancing the combat readiness of computing power support requires strengthening technological innovation and security protection. In terms of technological innovation, it is crucial to keep pace with the development trends of computing power technology and accelerate the military application of new computing technologies. Focusing on cutting-edge areas such as quantum computing, photonic computing, and neuromorphic computing, we must break through the performance bottlenecks of traditional computing architectures and develop disruptive new computing power equipment. Simultaneously, we must strengthen the construction of computing power networks, building high-bandwidth, low-latency, and interference-resistant computing power transmission networks. By integrating technologies such as 5G, 6G, and satellite communication, we can ensure computing power collaboration and data interaction between the cloud, edge, and terminals, achieving seamless connection and efficient scheduling of computing power resources. In terms of security protection, we must establish a computing power security system to prevent the risks of attacks, hijacking, and misuse of computing power resources. By adopting technologies such as encrypted computing and trusted computing, we can ensure the security and privacy of data during the computing process; strengthen the physical and network protection of computing power facilities, and build a multi-layered, all-round protective barrier to ensure that the computing power system can operate stably in wartime and is not subject to enemy interference or damage.
“Order Dispatch”: Precise Targeting of New Patterns
introduction
As Lenin said, “Without understanding the times, one cannot understand war.” In recent years, the widespread application of information and intelligent technologies in the military field has promoted the deep integration of technology and tactics. Relying on intelligent network information systems, it has given rise to “order-based” precision strikes. Commanders and command organs can generate strike requirements in a formatted manner according to combat missions. The decision-making system intelligently matches strike platforms, autonomously plans action paths, and scientifically selects strike methods based on personalized requirements such as strike time, operational space, and damage indicators, thereby rapidly and accurately releasing strike effectiveness.
The operational characteristics of “order dispatch” type precision strike
As the informatization and intelligence of weapons and ammunition continue to improve, the cost of modern warfare is also constantly increasing. How to achieve the highest cost-effectiveness ratio with limited strike resources and maximize combat effectiveness has become a central issue for commanders and command organs in operational planning. “Order-based” precision strikes can provide a “feasible solution” for this.
Real-time, precise, and targeted strikes. Modern warfare places greater emphasis on structurally disrupting enemy operational systems, achieving operational objectives through the rapid and precise release of combat effectiveness. This requires commanders and command organs to seize fleeting “windows of opportunity” to strike high-value, nodal, and critical targets within an enemy’s operational system before the enemy can react. The traditional “detection-guided-strike-assessment” operational loop is time-consuming and ineffective. Therefore, “order-based” precision strikes rely on advanced intelligent network information systems, without pre-determining strike platforms. Target lists are released in real-time, and auxiliary decision-making systems rapidly assess the strike performance of various weapon platforms and the expected damage to targets. Tasks are autonomously allocated to strike platforms, rapidly linking and controlling multi-domain firepower, autonomously closing the kill chain, and conducting rapid strikes against key targets.
Multi-domain coordinated strike. The advantage of modern precision strike over traditional firepower lies in its information-based and intelligent combat system. It requires no human intervention and autonomously completes tasks such as reconnaissance, control, strike, and assessment based on a closed strike chain. This not only saves strike costs and reduces resource waste but also enables adaptive coordination based on unified operational standards. Therefore, “order-based” precision strikes require firepower forces distributed across various operational domains to establish a unified standard grid. Once a demand is issued from one point, multiple points can respond and coordinate globally, flexibly concentrating forces and firepower, using multiple means to rapidly and multi-domain convergence, and determining the strike direction, sequence, and method for each strike platform while on the move. Through system integration, time is effectively saved, enabling multi-domain precision strikes against key enemy nodes and critical parts of core targets, fully leveraging the combined power of the integrated combat effectiveness of various operational units.
The key to victory lies in swift and decisive action. Modern warfare is a “hybrid war” conducted simultaneously across multiple domains, where the interplay and confrontation of new domains and new types of forces, such as information, aerospace, and artificial intelligence, are becoming increasingly pronounced. This necessitates that both sides be able to detect and act faster than the enemy, crippling their operational systems and reducing their operational efficiency. On the one hand, it is crucial to pinpoint key nodes in the enemy’s system and launch timely and precise strikes; on the other hand, it is essential to conceal one’s own intentions and strike forces, striking swiftly and unexpectedly. “Order-based” precision strikes perfectly meet these two requirements. Supported by network information systems, they intelligently integrate firepower from various domains, achieving multi-source information perception, data interconnection, and multi-domain coordinated strikes. This enables seamless and high-speed operation of “target perception—decision and command—firepower strike—damage assessment,” resulting in a high degree of information and firepower integration and the rapid achievement of operational objectives.
The system of “order dispatch” type precision strike
”Order dispatch” precision strikes compress action time and improve strike effectiveness by building an efficient closed strike chain, enabling various fire strike platforms to better integrate into the joint fire strike system and provide rapid and accurate battlefield fire support. Its key lies in the “network” and its focus is on the “four” systems.
Multi-domain platform access network. Supported by information and intelligent technologies, an integrated information network system with satellite communication as the backbone is established. Firepower strike platforms distributed across multiple domain battlefields are integrated into the combat network to create a battlefield “cloud.” Different combat modules are distinguished, and “sub-network clouds” such as “reconnaissance, control, strike, and assessment” are established. Relying on an integrated communication network, the “sub-network clouds” are linked to the “cloud.” This can enhance the firepower strike platform’s capabilities in all domains, all times, on the move, autonomous networking, and spectrum planning, and realize network interconnection between firepower platforms, domain combat systems, and joint combat systems, as well as the interconnection and interoperability of internal strike forces.
Joint reconnaissance and sensing system. This system leverages various reconnaissance and surveillance forces within the joint operations system to achieve all-weather, multi-directional, and high-precision battlefield awareness of the operational area. This requires constructing a ubiquitous, multi-dimensional reconnaissance and sensing force system encompassing physical and logical spaces, tangible and intangible spaces. It involves widely deploying intelligent sensing devices to form an intelligence data “cloud.” Through this intelligence data “cloud,” the system analyzes the enemy situation, identifies key points in the enemy’s operational system and time-sensitive targets, updates reconnaissance information in real time, and displays target dynamics.
Intelligent Command and Decision-Making System. Relying on a new command and control system with certain intelligent control capabilities, this system constructs various planning and analysis models, expands functions such as intelligent intelligence processing, intelligent mission planning, automatic command generation, and precise action control, and expands and improves databases such as target feature database, decision-making knowledge base, and action plan database. It strengthens the system support capabilities for mission planning, action decision-making, and control during combat organization and implementation, enhances planning and decision-making and combat action control capabilities, clarifies “how to fight, where to fight, and who will fight,” and achieves precise “order dispatch.”
Distributed fire strike system. Relying on intelligent network information systems, on the one hand, it integrates multi-dimensional fire strike platforms across land, sea, air, and space, enhancing functions such as intelligent target identification and remote-controlled strike, enabling various combat modes such as remote-controlled operations, manned-unmanned collaborative operations, and flexible mobile operations; on the other hand, it can construct a low-cost fire strike platform mainly composed of low-altitude and ultra-low-altitude unmanned strike platforms such as racing drones and loitering munitions. By adding different functional combat payloads, it can closely coordinate with high-end fire strike platforms to carry out tasks such as battlefield guidance, precision strikes, and fire assessment, efficiently completing “orders”.
Autonomous Damage Assessment System. This system, built upon reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities within the joint operations system, autonomously assesses the effectiveness of attacks on targets after the firepower platform has completed its strike. It conducts real-time, dynamic, objective, and systematic analysis and evaluation of the target’s external condition and degree of functional loss, and promptly transmits relevant information back to decision-making and command centers at all levels via video images. The assessment centers then determine “how well it went” and whether the expected damage requirements were met. If not, operational actions can be adjusted in a timely manner for supplementary strikes, providing strong support for maximizing operational effectiveness.
The planning and implementation of “order dispatch” style precision strikes
The “order dispatch” style of precision strike is similar to the operation of ride-hailing services. Through a series of processes such as formatted “order” generation, intelligent target matching, and autonomous route planning, it autonomously completes the “OODA” combat cycle, making its actions more efficient, its strikes more precise, and its collaboration closer.
Real-time reporting of firepower requirements allows combat units to submit orders on demand. Reconnaissance elements distributed across different operational areas and multi-dimensional battlefield spaces are acquired through radar, optical, infrared, and technical reconnaissance methods, forming battlefield target intelligence information across a wide area and multiple sources. This information is transmitted to the battlefield information network via intelligence links, and is constantly relayed to combat units. Combat units then perform correlation processing, multi-source comparison and verification, and comprehensively compile battlefield target information to generate precise mission orders. Combat units analyze target value and connect to the decision-making platform as needed, constructing a closed-loop strike chain based on these orders, and submitting mission orders in real time, achieving dynamic optimization and precise adaptation.
The decision-making center intelligently “dispatches” fire support missions, differentiating them from actual fire strike missions. Through the battlefield information network and relying on an intelligent mission planning system, the center can automatically analyze the mission “order” information data submitted by combat units. Based on the nature, coordinates, movement status, and threat level of battlefield targets, it automatically generates mission requirements such as the type and quantity of ammunition needed for fire strike operations, the strike method, and damage indicators, forming a fire support mission “order.” By intelligently matching the optimal fire support platform and connecting link nodes as needed, the center conducts intelligent command-based “order dispatch,” delivering the orders instantly to the standby fire support platforms.
Optimal target matching is performed continuously, and firepower platforms swiftly “accept orders.” Multiple firepower platforms distributed across the battlefield respond rapidly to these orders via the battlefield information network. The platforms autonomously establish links with combat units, mutually verifying their identities before directly establishing a guided strike chain. They coordinate firepower strikes, adjusting strike methods and firing parameters in a timely manner based on target damage and battlefield target dynamics before conducting further strikes until the assigned mission is completed. Firepower platforms consistently adhere to the principle of “strike-relocate-strike-relocate,” completing strike missions and rapidly relocating to new positions, maintaining a state of constant readiness and receiving orders online in real time. After the mission concludes, the guided strike chain between the firepower platform and the combat unit is automatically terminated.
Multi-source damage information acquisition and real-time assessment by the evaluation center. Utilizing a comprehensive range of long-range, intelligent, and information-based reconnaissance methods, including satellite, radar, and drone reconnaissance, multi-domain, three-dimensional reconnaissance is conducted to acquire real-time target fire damage information, providing accurate assessments for precision fire strikes. A comprehensive assessment of damage effects is performed, quantitatively and qualitatively evaluating the strike results, distinguishing between physical, functional, and systemic damage states, and promptly feeding back to the decision-making center. Based on the damage assessment results, timely adjustment suggestions are made to modify fire strike plans, optimize operational actions, and achieve precise control of fire strikes. This facilitates commanders’ accurate control of the operational process and efficient command and control of fire strike effectiveness.
The era of intelligent warfare has begun. Intelligent command and information systems will become the “central nervous system” of future intelligent combat command and control, serving as a supporting means for intelligent combat command and control. Accelerating the construction of intelligent command and information systems is an inherent requirement for the development of military intelligence. Only by clarifying the essence of intelligent command and information system development, grasping the key points of intelligent command and information system research and development, and exploring the essentials of intelligent command and information system development can we better promote the construction and development of intelligent command and information systems and gain a competitive advantage in future intelligent warfare.
Clarify the key points of the development of intelligent command and information systems
Intelligent command and information systems are an inevitable choice in the development of warfare towards informationized and intelligent warfare, a natural outcome of the technological revolution, and a contemporary demand for the intelligent development of the military. Clarifying the key points of intelligent command and information system development helps to grasp the direction of its construction and establish long-term goals.
Promoting the intelligent evolution of warfare. In future intelligent warfare, the battlefield situation will change rapidly and the battlefield environment will be complex and harsh. In order to gain the initiative on the battlefield, “intellectual superiority” will become the new commanding height. Intelligent command and information systems are undoubtedly an important support for future combat command and operations. Their intelligent development can help promote the intelligent evolution of warfare and is an important foundation for gaining the initiative and seeking victory in intelligent warfare.
Supporting Intelligent Innovation in Combat Concepts. Future intelligent warfare requires corresponding combat command concepts, and intelligent command information systems are a crucial foundation for the practical application of these concepts, serving as the fertile ground for their innovation and development. New intelligent combat command concepts such as human-machine hybrid command formations, data-driven command activities, open development command models, and intelligent convergence command processes all rely on the support of intelligent command information systems. These systems will act as an extension of the human brain, breaking through the physiological limits of the human body and achieving the organic integration of the art of combat command and intelligent technology.
Promoting the intelligent transformation of combat methods. The widespread application of artificial intelligence technology in the military field has brought about significant changes in the mechanisms of combat victory. Intelligence has surpassed firepower and information power to become the primary factor determining the outcome of war. The development and construction of intelligent command and control information systems will promote the transformation of combat methods towards intelligence, shifting combat methods from the “combat network + precision-guided weapons” of the information age to the “intelligent Internet of Things + manned/unmanned combat platforms” of the intelligent age. Correspondingly, the basic combat style is evolving from “network-centric warfare” to “cognition-centric warfare”.
Focus on the key points of intelligent command and information system research and development
Command and information systems are a product of the information warfare era. With the rapid development of military intelligence and the research and practical application of intelligent warfare mechanisms, the intelligent upgrading and construction of command and information systems is urgently needed. Emphasis should be placed on key functional development aspects to create a completely new intelligent command and information system.
“Super-brain-based” decision-making. In future intelligent warfare, the battlefield information data is massive and complex, and commanders are easily overwhelmed by the “sea of information,” leading to confusion and affecting command and decision-making. With the emergence of intelligent decision-making technology and “cloud brains” and “digital advisors,” a new decision-making model based on the collaboration of “human brain + artificial intelligence” is quietly taking shape. Intelligent command information systems will break through the limits of human intelligence, acting as an extension of the human brain to assist commanders in their work, transforming war decision-making from purely human brain-based decision-making to super-brain-based command and decision-making combining “human brain + artificial intelligence.”
“All-dimensional” situational awareness. Future intelligent warfare will be characterized by multi-dimensional space, diverse forces, varied tactics, and accelerated pace. A comprehensive and flexible grasp of the battlefield situation will be fundamental to commanders’ decision-making. The integrated, intelligent, and dynamic presentation of the all-dimensional battlefield situation across multiple domains is an inevitable requirement for the development of command information systems. Command information systems are expanding their perception, understanding, integration, and prediction of battlefield situations, such as target identification, threat level assessment, operational action prediction, and future battle trajectory forecasting, from land, sea, air, space, electromagnetic, and cyberspace to the cognitive and social domains, achieving “all-dimensional” situational awareness.
“Intelligent connectivity” is crucial for future intelligent warfare. This will involve numerous intelligent command and control platforms and intelligent weapon platforms, connected by intelligent information and communication systems. Like the nerves and blood vessels of the human body, intelligent information and communication systems act as a link and lubricant in intelligent warfare. Therefore, it is essential to establish a comprehensive, uninterrupted intelligent information network to support the connectivity and control of intelligent equipment, enabling intelligent optimization of the network structure, intelligent reorganization to withstand network damage, and intelligent anti-interference capabilities. This will ensure intelligent collaborative operations between platforms and maximize overall combat effectiveness.
“Unmanned” Autonomous Collaboration. The extensive use of drones in recent local conflicts worldwide, playing a crucial role in determining the course of war, has attracted widespread attention. Unmanned weaponry is the material foundation of intelligent warfare, leading to disruptive combat styles such as intrusive lone-wolf operations, manned/unmanned collaborative system sabotage operations, independent operations by unmanned system formations, and drone swarm operations. While unmanned warfare is human-led, with machines granted a degree of autonomy from the backend, enabling unmanned operations on the front lines, the unmanned battlefield is constantly evolving. Disruptions to human-machine collaboration will become commonplace. Therefore, the command and control systems of unmanned intelligent equipment platforms must be more intelligent, capable of autonomous collaborative operations based on operational objectives.
“Proactive” information defense. Intelligent warfare will inevitably face diverse and multi-dimensional information attacks from powerful adversaries. The level of information security protection capabilities directly affects the outcome of the battle for “intellectual dominance” on the battlefield and is a key aspect of the construction of intelligent command information systems. Therefore, proactive measures should be taken to actively formulate and improve network protection strategies, enrich intrusion detection capabilities and authentication and identification methods, strengthen the application of advanced information security technologies, enhance the anti-interference and anti-interference capabilities of various wireless transmission methods, and build strong intelligent traceability and countermeasure capabilities to effectively curb information attacks.
Exploring the key points of intelligent command and information system development
The development of intelligent command and information systems is not merely a matter of technological innovation; it also requires further liberating our thinking and updating our concepts. To advance the development of intelligent command and information systems, we must change the traditional approach of simply adding hardware, building large networks, and collecting and storing various types of data. We must break through existing hierarchical structures, create open and service-oriented systems, and target the needs of intelligent combat command and action, exploring and researching the key aspects of intelligent command and information system development.
Innovation Concept. Guided by innovative thinking, and drawing on the development strategies of intelligent command and information systems for building a strong military, we will explore a development path with our own characteristics, tailored to actual needs. We must break away from traditional “chimney” approaches, adhere to top-level design and overall planning of the command and information system, unify interfaces, protocols, and standards, and form an open and sustainable system architecture. We must adhere to a system development approach that combines research, development, and application, formulating short-term, medium-term, and long-term development strategies to standardize the direction of system construction and development. We must adhere to iterative upgrades and optimization strategies to continuously improve the intelligence level of various subsystems, including command and control, intelligence reconnaissance, communication, information warfare, and comprehensive support, ensuring the continuous and healthy development of the intelligent command and information system.
Focusing on Key Capabilities. Concentrating on building key capabilities of intelligent command and information systems is crucial for intelligent warfare to leverage intelligence to achieve victory, and is key to gaining the “right to win” in intelligent warfare. Algorithms, computing power, and data are not only the intrinsic driving force and support for the development of artificial intelligence, but also the core capability requirements and advantages of intelligent command and information systems. The development of intelligent command and information systems must adhere to algorithmic innovation research to improve the system’s cognitive, speed, and decision-making advantages; accelerate the research and development of next-generation computers, such as quantum computers, to provide stronger computing power support for intelligent command and information systems; and deeply mine the deeper and broader information value from massive combat data resources to seek the initiative in victory.
Collective Efforts to Overcome Challenges. The construction and development of intelligent command and information systems is one of the major projects in military intelligence. It is a complex and collaborative project involving multiple fields, disciplines, departments, and units. The construction and development of intelligent command and information systems must adhere to the spirit of collective wisdom, collaborative problem-solving, and pioneering innovation. It should target strategic and forward-looking fields such as sensors, quantum information, network communication, integrated circuits, key software, big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain. It should be driven by high-tech advancements and the demands of intelligent warfare, conducting in-depth research and exchanges across multiple fields, levels, and forms to continuously break through, innovate, and upgrade, making the functions of intelligent command and information systems more complete and intelligent.
Collaborative Development. To deeply promote the construction and development of intelligent command and information systems, it is essential to fully absorb advanced local technological achievements and integrate into the global trend of artificial intelligence innovation. Currently, artificial intelligence technology is booming worldwide, accumulating strong development momentum and technological advantages. Artificial intelligence technology has strong versatility in application, and its technological achievements have broad prospects for transformation and application, making it an important pathway to the construction and development of intelligent command and information systems. It is necessary to research and formulate general technical standards, break down barriers, overcome obstacles, and facilitate military-civilian cooperation to achieve the sharing and linkage of technological achievements. Through collaboration, it is also crucial to cultivate and shape new types of military personnel, enabling them to continuously adapt to the needs of various positions under intelligent conditions and fully leverage the effectiveness of intelligent command and information systems.
Operational coordination is a key element in modern warfare for achieving system-of-systems operations, unleashing overall effectiveness, and achieving operational objectives. In recent years, with breakthroughs in military science and technology, particularly artificial intelligence, the empowering and efficiency-enhancing role of technology has become increasingly prominent. While profoundly changing the nature of warfare and operational styles, it has also given rise to a new operational coordination model—autonomous coordination. Currently, we should scientifically grasp the opportunities and challenges of the new military revolution, dynamically coordinate the development of autonomous coordination, and thus accelerate the transformation and upgrading of operational methods.
Transforming towards intelligent empowerment and autonomous collaboration
Future warfare will be a comprehensive confrontation between opposing sides employing “human + intelligent equipment.” Limited by military technology, system platforms, and combat capabilities, traditional combat coordination, with its fixed cycles and low fault tolerance, is no longer suitable for the rapidly changing modern battlefield. With the powerful support of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data, the autonomy and automation of combat coordination will be greatly enhanced, and intelligently empowered autonomous coordination will become key to victory.
Wide-area ubiquitous collaboration. In recent years, the profound development of communication and intelligent technologies, along with the accumulation and superposition of data, algorithms, and computing power, has promoted the interconnection and aggregation of people, machines, things, and energy. This has extended the military Internet of Things (IoT) to many fields such as situational awareness, command and control, information and fire strikes, and logistical support. While promoting the iterative upgrading of combat capabilities, it has also provided more options for modern combat collaboration. It is foreseeable that the military IoT will shine on the future battlefield, serving not only as a key infrastructure supporting combat operations but also as a crucial hub for maintaining combat collaboration. Based on this, ubiquitous warfare characterized by wide-area dispersion of forces, modular organizational structures, and highly coordinated actions will emerge, characterized by being omnipresent, ubiquitous, and autonomous without control.
Deep human-machine collaboration. In the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Azerbaijani army leveraged its drone advantage to build a strong battlefield advantage, marking the beginning of “robot warfare.” In future warfare, unmanned combat forces such as drones, unmanned vehicles, and unmanned ships are rapidly moving from back-end support to the front lines, becoming the “protagonists” of the battlefield. Compared to traditional combat collaboration, manned-unmanned intelligent collaboration exhibits characteristics such as decentralized command, de-division of labor in combat processes, advanced skill operation, and blurred lines between the front and rear, placing greater emphasis on human-machine collaboration and algorithmic victory. Especially in recent years, intelligent unmanned swarms have emerged as a powerful force, strongly impacting the modern battlefield. Faced with these new situations and changes, we should comprehensively utilize swarm formation algorithms, formation control algorithms, and complex scenario optimization algorithms to promote networked communication and intelligent collaboration between unmanned and manned systems, facilitating the integrated operation of the intelligence chain, command chain, mobility chain, strike chain, and support chain, and accelerating the generation of comprehensive precision-based combat capabilities.
Data-driven collaboration. The traditional operational collaboration model under hierarchical command is no longer suitable for the multi-dimensional and fast-paced nature of modern warfare. In future warfare, intelligence is key, and data is king. The deep integration of big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence enables the storage, analysis, fusion, and application of massive amounts of battlefield data, making command and control more scientific and operational collaboration more efficient. Leveraging powerful resource integration, computing power, and data analysis capabilities, battlefield intelligence can be rapidly integrated, battlefield situation awareness can be achieved in real time, collaborative plans can be efficiently formulated, and threat levels can be assessed instantly. This allows for the integrated planning of predicting combat actions, analyzing typical scenarios, deploying combat forces, and allocating combat resources, thereby comprehensively improving the overall effectiveness of command and control, firepower strikes, and integrated support, and driving a revolutionary change in operational collaboration.
Towards Multi-Domain Collaborative Autonomous Evolution
Future warfare will feature complex and diverse participating forces, a mix of advanced and less sophisticated weaponry, and a hybrid application of combat methods. It will exhibit distinct characteristics such as intelligent, dynamically decentralized command and control, intelligent and wide-area deployment of combat forces, and intelligent allocation and dynamic differentiation of combat missions. It is foreseeable that multi-domain联动 (interconnected and autonomous) collaboration will become a crucial component of operational coordination.
System self-restructuring and collaboration. Future warfare will involve a multi-domain battlefield space that combines virtual and real elements, with diverse military operations interacting and constraints and collaboration shifting randomly. Only an engineered and systematic organizational model can adapt to the complex needs of multi-domain collaboration. The essence of this collaboration model is to form a wide-area holographic support architecture for system self-restructuring and collaboration. Specifically, this means emphasizing the concept of system-of-systems warfare, comprehensively resolving practical contradictions in organizational system construction, institutional mechanism establishment, and collaborative rule formulation; focusing more on the system integration effect, achieving beyond-visual-range and cross-domain collaborative operations for combat units across a wide area; emphasizing efficient and flexible command, refining command relationships and clarifying command responsibilities from multiple dimensions; and paying more attention to data-driven precision, integrating network system platforms at all levels to establish a dynamic optimization network for reconnaissance, control, strike, assessment, and support missions. Once this collaboration model is formed, it will undoubtedly be able to analyze and predict typical confrontation scenarios based on the operational environment, adversaries, and missions, dynamically select action collaboration links, and plan operational actions across various domains in an integrated manner.
Tactical Adaptive Collaboration. Recent local wars have repeatedly demonstrated that the complexity and systemic nature of operational collaboration have increased exponentially due to the extension of operational data and information sharing to the tactical level. Only by achieving efficient processing, integration, and sharing of operational data and information can adaptive and autonomous collaboration among operational users be guaranteed. This collaborative model places greater emphasis on scientific planning and innovative methods to form a universal battlefield situation map with full-dimensional coverage. It supports hierarchical, cross-level, and cross-domain sharing and collaboration among users deployed across a wide area, enabling command elements and operational units to jointly perceive the battlefield situation and ensuring self-synchronous operations within a unified strategic intent, operational guidance, and collaborative planning framework. This collaborative model further emphasizes vertical integration of strategy, operations, and tactics, and horizontal integration of land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. It provides powerful information sharing services in detection, early warning, and surveillance, and promotes the extension of operational-level joint operations to tactical-level joint operations through information media. This collaborative model further highlights the standardized operation of command and control, and the use of cutting-edge technologies such as big data and cloud computing to promote the connection of operational command levels, cross-domain linkage, element interaction, and situational awareness sharing. It achieves intelligent collaboration among command systems, weapon platforms, and sensors, and implements the key to victory through speed.
Complementary and Synergistic Advantages. In future warfare, operations in space, cyberspace, and other domains will be deeply integrated into the traditional battlefield, requiring higher standards and more stringent planning and design for the overall operation. Only by clarifying the complementary relationships and proportions of input and output across different operational domains, and then outlining the operational relationships for cross-domain collaboration, can we bridge the gaps in domain operations and achieve multi-dimensional battlefield complementarity. Essentially, this is also a concentrated reflection of the concept of war effectiveness. From another perspective, in a war, when local battlefield advantages are not obvious or harbor hidden dangers, overall victory can still be achieved by gaining local advantages in other domains to compensate and achieve comprehensive superiority. In future informationized and intelligent warfare, this will be even more prominent and complex, requiring comprehensive strategies targeting military, political, public opinion, legal, psychological, and diplomatic fields, leveraging each other to fully unleash maximum operational effectiveness; requiring close cooperation between traditional and new-type forces, building an integrated operational system based on network information systems, and maximizing overall effectiveness through synergistic advantages.
Towards Dynamic Coupling and Autonomous Collaborative Transition
In the era of artificial intelligence, with the profound changes in information technology and weaponry, combat operations place greater emphasis on breaking down traditional force formations, integrating the functions of traditional platforms, and dismantling traditional offensive and defensive boundaries, so as to achieve all-weather dynamic control of combat operations through dynamic coupling and autonomous collaboration.
Dynamic convergence and coordination. Future warfare will see more intense adversarial confrontations and more volatile battlefield situations, rendering the static, extensive, and methodical coordination methods of the past inadequate. It is imperative to pay close attention to key operational nodes, closely monitoring the overall situation, anchoring operational tasks, and focusing on operational objectives. This requires assessing the situation, seizing opportunities, and swiftly changing coordination partners, flexibly adjusting coordination strategies, and autonomously negotiating coordinated actions based on predetermined coordination rules. It is important to note that this coordination method based on key operational nodes particularly emphasizes the ability of combat forces to overcome structural barriers and organically aggregate operational effectiveness. Through the flexible structure of the coordination organization, conflicts can be self-coupled and autonomously resolved, gaps in cooperation can be bridged, and the precise release of the combined forces of the operational system can be promoted.
Dynamic control and coordination. The battlefield situation in future warfare is constantly changing, and the course of operations often deviates from the predetermined plan, resulting in significant uncertainty. This implicitly requires us to break through traditional operational thinking and closely monitor changes in the battlefield situation to implement real-time, flexible, and autonomous coordination of the operational process. This coordination method, through real-time assessment of changes in the battlefield situation, the extent of damage to enemy targets, and the scale and effectiveness of operational operations, enables rapid command and control and precise coordination in areas such as force projection, fire support, and comprehensive support, ensuring that we always maintain the initiative on the battlefield. This coordination method requires relying on advanced intelligent auxiliary means to quickly divide the operational phases, predict the duration of operational operations, analyze the overall deployment of operational forces, calculate the allocation of operational resources, and accordingly precisely control the decision-making cycle and operational rhythm, accurately coordinating troop actions and the operational process to ensure effective response to various randomness and uncertainties in combat.
Dynamic Response and Coordination. The unpredictable nature of future warfare, coupled with the profound effects of asymmetric warfare, hybrid games, and system emergence, means that planned operations will inevitably encounter various unforeseen circumstances during execution. Therefore, dynamic coordination in response to unforeseen situations is an effective strategy for resolving these contradictions. This coordination method emphasizes dynamically adjusting actions based on different situations. When unforeseen circumstances arise in a local battlefield or operation, with minimal impact on the overall operation and sufficient time, the operational system automatically responds, partially adjusting operational deployments and actions to ensure the achievement of expected operational objectives. When multiple urgent and non-urgent situations coexist on the battlefield and partially affect the overall situation, operations are dynamically and instantly coordinated according to the principle of prioritizing urgent matters, pushing the battle situation in our favor. When multiple major unexpected situations or unforeseen changes occur in the overall battle situation, coordination is carried out according to the principle of prioritizing primary directions and then secondary directions, rapidly generating new coordinated response measures to effectively address various unforeseen battlefield situations. (Wu Siliang, Jia Chunjie, Hou Yonghong)
Looking back on its glorious combat history, the People’s Army has consistently adhered to the absolute leadership of the Party, proposing and implementing a comprehensive set of strategies and tactics for people’s war. These strategies and tactics are a crucial weapon for the People’s Army to defeat the strong with the weak and to conquer the enemy. Over the past 98 years, with the changing times and evolving forms of warfare, the specific content and manifestations of the strategies and tactics for people’s war have continuously evolved. To confront the challenges of information-based and intelligent warfare, we must firmly grasp the essential requirements and value orientations of the strategies and tactics for people’s war amidst the rapidly evolving global trends and practices, unifying the inherently unchanging laws of conduct with the external realities of change, and continuously innovating and developing the strategies and tactics for people’s war in the new era.
President Xi Jinping emphasized that no matter how the situation develops, the magic weapon of people’s war must never be lost. However, we must grasp the new characteristics and new requirements of people’s war in the new era, innovate its content, methods and approaches, and unleash its overall power. Currently, facing profound challenges brought about by changes in science and technology, warfare, and our adversaries, we must not only inherit and carry forward the fine traditions of people’s war, but also be sensitive to changes, actively respond to them, and proactively seek change. We must accurately grasp the inherent requirements of the strategies and tactics of people’s war in the new era, consciously update our thinking and concepts, and innovate strategic guidance, so that this magic weapon of defeating the enemy can be demonstrated on future battlefields.
Adhere to relying on the people and deeply rooted
In the long practice of revolutionary war, the people are the most profound force for victory. The people are the primary force behind the strategies and tactics of people’s war, a magic weapon for victory. People’s war has its roots deeply rooted in the people, and its confidence comes from the people. Regardless of how the times change or how the war evolves, relying closely on the people and fully mobilizing them will always be the fundamental condition and the only way to carry out people’s war. Developing the strategies and tactics of people’s war in the new era requires adhering to the mass perspective of history and the fundamental requirement that soldiers and civilians are the foundation of victory. We must integrate the traditional strategic advantages of people’s war with the mass line, broaden the sources of vitality for the strategies and tactics of people’s war, draw strategic wisdom and tactical methods from the people, and develop an intellectual advantage for people’s war in the new era. We must solidly carry out national defense education throughout the nation, continuously foster a strong sense of patriotism, inspire patriotism, strengthen awareness of potential dangers, and enhance national defense awareness. We must guide the masses to actively care about and support national defense, thereby infusing powerful spiritual strength into people’s war in the new era. We must focus on promoting high-quality population development, comprehensively improve the cultural, scientific, and innovative qualities of the entire population, accelerate the development of a modern human resource base of high quality, sufficient in volume, optimized in structure, and rationally distributed, and promote the shift of the dominant force in people’s war from quantitative to qualitative. Further improve the national defense mobilization system and mechanism, promote the establishment of a rapid response system that is connected with the national emergency response mechanism and integrated with the joint combat system, fully tap and gather the unlimited war potential contained in the people, and give full play to the resource aggregation and value-added effect.
Focus on overall planning and full-area offense and defense
In the long-term practice of revolutionary warfare, the strategies and tactics of people’s war require the comprehensive mobilization of diverse forces and resources in the political, economic, cultural, diplomatic, and military sectors, and the integrated use of various forms of struggle and methods of operation. This holistic approach compensates for local deficiencies and disadvantages, ultimately defeating powerful adversaries. Modern warfare is not only a fierce confrontation in the military sphere, but also a comprehensive struggle in the political, economic, and diplomatic spheres, exhibiting the distinct characteristics of hybrid warfare. To develop the strategies and tactics of people’s war in the new era, we must establish a broad systemic mindset, relying on the national strategic system and supported by the joint operations system, explore the implementation methods of people’s war strategies and tactics, and win the total war of people’s war in the new era. We should fully leverage the advantages of the new national system, relying on the integrated national strategic system and capabilities, efficiently aggregate superior resources across the board, fully activate the country’s national defense potential, and weave various forces and resources into a network. We should integrate and plan the subsystems of people’s war, including leadership, organization, personnel, command, technology, equipment, and support, to maximize the effectiveness of holistic linkage and systemic operation, and achieve the maximum benefits of all-round effort and multiplied energy. We must strengthen comprehensive coordination across the physical, information, and social domains, focusing on seeking breakthroughs in new domains and new qualities, and making achievements in new dimensions such as unmanned warfare, human-machine collaborative warfare, network and electronic warfare, space and deep-sea warfare, and intelligent and autonomous warfare. Military and non-military means must be coordinated, integrating various forms of struggle, including political, economic, diplomatic, public opinion, and military. Comprehensive measures must be implemented to effectively wage diplomatic offensive and defensive battles, financial and trade battles, psychological defense battles, and public opinion and legal battles. We must leverage the combined effectiveness of political offensives and armed strikes to effectively fight the political and military battles.
Strengthen active defense and take the initiative
Through the long practice of revolutionary warfare, the People’s Army has developed a comprehensive strategic philosophy of active defense, emphasizing, for example, the unity of strategic defense and offensive action in campaigns and battles, the principles of defense, self-defense, and preemptive strike, and the principle of “if no one offends me, I will not offend; if someone offends me, I will certainly offend.” Active defense is fundamentally defensive, its essence lies in activeness, and its inherent characteristic is proactiveness. Currently, profound changes have taken place in the international, national, and Party, military, and political landscapes. The strategies and tactics of people’s war in the new era generally adhere to the fundamental principle of defense and are not aimed at hegemony, aggression, or oppression of other countries. Consequently, they will win the support and endorsement of the vast majority of the Chinese people, as well as the understanding and assistance of peace-loving and justice-loving countries and peoples around the world. Developing the strategies and tactics of people’s war in the new era must adapt to the times and circumstances. We must adhere to a defensive national defense policy, implement the military strategic guidelines of the new era, excel at observing and analyzing issues from a political perspective, and be adept at considering and applying strategies from regional and global perspectives to consolidate the political foundation for victory in people’s war. We must persist in neither provoking trouble nor fearing it, strengthen the regular and diversified use of military force, firmly and flexibly carry out military struggle, and while adhering to the strategic preemptive strike, we must not give up campaign and combat offensives under favorable conditions and when necessary. We must advance steadily, make progress within stability, and be proactive within stability, effectively shape the security situation, contain crises and conflicts, and firmly grasp the initiative in the struggle.
Highlight new quality dominance and technological empowerment
In the long practice of revolutionary warfare, while emphasizing that victory in war is primarily determined by people, not objects, the People’s Army has also placed great emphasis on the research and development of advanced military technology, particularly weaponry. Comrade Mao Zedong once emphasized that without modern equipment, it would be impossible to defeat the armies of imperialism. The technological content of modern warfare has undergone a qualitative leap, with advanced technologies and new weaponry such as artificial intelligence, big data, quantum computing, unmanned aerial vehicles, and brain control being widely applied in the military. While the people remain the decisive force in determining victory in war, the manifestation of this power has undergone significant changes. Science and technology are core combat power, and People’s War will place greater emphasis on the application of scientific and technological means and rely even more heavily on the wisdom and creativity of the people. Developing the strategies and tactics of People’s War in the new era should prioritize winning information-based and intelligent warfare. We should deeply study the essential characteristics, winning mechanisms, and strategies and tactics of high-end warfare, accelerate the shift from “winning by numbers” to “winning by talent,” and from “winning by manpower” to “winning by intelligence,” effectively enhance our ability to win through scientific and technological empowerment and digital intelligence, and truly unleash the crucial role of science and technology and talent in People’s War in the new era. We will accelerate the development of high-tech industries, vigorously strengthen the construction of new forces in new domains such as ocean, space, cyberspace, artificial intelligence, and quantum technology, increase military-civilian collaboration in high-tech fields, accelerate the transformation and application of new productive forces into new combat capabilities, and promote the expansion of war potential reserves into emerging fields and the focus on new forces. We will integrate and coordinate military and civilian scientific and technological advantages, shifting the focus from traditional support and guarantee elements such as human and material resources to new support and guarantee elements such as information, technology, and intelligence. We will build information, resource, and technology pools with profound foundations and rich reserves, actively cultivate capable, strong, and professional professional support units, and continuously expand the breadth and depth of people’s participation in the war and scientific and technological support.
Emphasis on flexibility, maneuverability, innovation and checks and balances
In the long-term practice of revolutionary warfare, the strategies and tactics of People’s War are highly flexible and maneuverable. Their most essential requirement is to prioritize self-reliance, attacking the enemy without being attacked by them. Based on the actual situation of both sides, we fight the battles based on our weapons, against the enemy, and at the right time and place. We identify the enemy’s weaknesses and vulnerabilities, leverage our strengths and advantages, and defeat the enemy with our own strengths, always seizing the initiative on the battlefield. Flexible and maneuverable strategies and tactics are the magic weapon for defeating an enemy with superior equipment with inferior equipment. “You fight yours, I fight mine” is a summary and generalization of the long-term experience of China’s revolutionary war and the soul and essence of the strategies and tactics of People’s War. Developing the strategies and tactics of People’s War in the new era must grasp the methodological requirements of asymmetric checks and balances, leverage innovative operational concepts, adhere to the mechanisms of victory in modern warfare, and continuously develop practical and effective tactics to defeat the enemy. We must proceed from the actual circumstances of both sides, gaining a deep understanding of operational missions, adversaries, and the evolving operational environment. We must thoroughly grasp the concepts, elements, and methods of victory, objectively analyze and study the strengths and weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages of both sides, know the enemy and ourselves, adapt to the situation, and flexibly utilize various combat forces and methods, striving to achieve maximum results at the lowest cost. We must adhere to the principle of “attacking the enemy without being attacked by them,” capitalize on strengths and avoid weaknesses, avoid the real and attack the weak, attack where the enemy is least prepared, and attack where they must be defended. We must proactively create opportunities, flexibly maneuver the enemy, and fight wherever we are most advantageous and wherever we are most skilled. We must adhere to the principle of “using what we can to defeat what we cannot,” advancing the research and application of military theory, operational guidance, tactics, and training methods in a timely manner, innovating core operational concepts, and developing new types of combat methods. We must fight against the enemy’s tactics, targeting their weaknesses, and leveraging our military’s strengths, thus creating new winning advantages in people’s war through asymmetric checks and balances.
Emphasis on accumulating small things into big things and focusing on unity of purpose
Throughout the long practice of revolutionary warfare, our army has been at an overall disadvantage for considerable periods. Therefore, the strategies and tactics of people’s war emphasize leveraging strength against weakness locally, persisting in accumulating small victories into larger ones, and concentrating forces to wage annihilation campaigns. This has become a key strategy for the people’s army to defeat powerful foes. Compared to previous eras, modern warfare often unfolds across multiple dimensions and domains, providing greater scope for implementing this strategy of “accumulating small victories into larger ones.” Developing the strategies and tactics of people’s war in the new era requires strengthening the concept of “dispersed in appearance, yet focused in spirit; dispersed in form, yet united in strength.” This involves dynamically consolidating and uniting the numerous combat forces distributed across the multidimensional battlefield. Through the fusion of capabilities and immediate optimization, we can launch rapid localized focused-energy attacks, wide-area guerrilla harassment, and deliver annihilating and destructive strikes against key enemy locations. This not only creates a hammering effect, but also continuously wears down the enemy, gradually depriving them of the initiative on the battlefield. This highly integrated distributed warfare emphasizes the wide-area dispersion of troop deployment and the discrete distribution of capabilities. Based on the needs of achieving operational intent, objectives, and missions, it prioritizes the best operational elements, units, and forces. Through the integration of operational capabilities and the accumulation of operational impacts, it aggregates optimal operational effects, unleashes maximum operational potential, maximizes operational effectiveness, and achieves optimal operational results. This distributed warfare has evolved from “geographical dispersion” to “dynamic coupling across all domains and dimensions”: no longer limited to the physical dispersion of personnel and equipment, it extends to multi-dimensional battlefields such as cyber, electromagnetic, and cognitive. Relying on data links, artificial intelligence, and distributed command systems to achieve cross-domain collaboration, it significantly enhances battlefield survivability and multiplies strike effectiveness.
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.
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