Modern warfare practice has proved that high-tech has become the core combat power and has promoted the rapid advancement of warfare towards intelligence. Especially under the guidance of new technologies such as big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, and supported by algorithms and computing power technologies, the degree of military intelligence is gradually deepening, and the characteristics of intelligent battlefield warfare are becoming more and more apparent.
The combat space is developing towards full-domain multi-dimensional integration
The widespread application of artificial intelligence technology in the military field will integrate combat units distributed in different battlefield spaces, accelerate the expansion of combat space, cross-domain linkage, and simultaneously exert efforts in multi-dimensional battlefield space and focus on multiple combat capabilities at the same time, so as to achieve precise energy concentration and release in the entire domain.
The pan-connection of data cloud networks has expanded the combat space in the information domain. With the development of new-generation information technologies such as big data and cloud computing, information domain operations will penetrate various combat spaces, and modular combat units dispersed in space will be connected into a decentralized distributed combat system. When combat missions change or certain nodes are damaged, by adding new nodes or upgrading other nodes, the original combat functions can be maintained or new combat functions can be formed. Relying on information infrastructure, the combat system presents the characteristics of distribution, self-organization, and self-synchronization, which greatly improves the reliability, anti-destruction, and flexibility of the combat system. The combat system has developed from a task-based, static-oriented direction to a capability-based, dynamic-oriented direction.
Intelligent weapons and equipment expand the physical domain combat space. With the development and application of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, autonomous control, and the Internet of Things, weapons and equipment are becoming more and more intelligent, more powerful, and more widely used. The battlefield of intelligent combat has expanded from traditional land, sea, and air to near-space, polar regions, deep space, deep sea, and underground.
The human brain and computer complement each other to expand the cognitive domain space. With the integrated development of artificial intelligence and cognitive science, human brain intelligence and artificial intelligence promote each other, which can realize the complementary advantages of human brain logical thinking and computer high-speed computing. In intelligent warfare, the cognitive domain combat space will become the main battlefield, and “brain control” and “brain control” will become the focus of future wars.
Combat forces are developing towards mixed human-machine formations
In intelligent warfare, new types of unmanned combat forces will become the main combat force and a new growth point for the military’s combat effectiveness. New types of unmanned combat forces such as space, network, electromagnetic and intelligent ammunition will directly participate in combat, achieving a seamless link from strategy to tactics, and forming a multi-dimensional, all-domain attack and defense, and rapid assault overall force.
Combat force formations are organized in a variety of styles. Human-machine mixed formations. According to different tasks, combined with unmanned combat forces with different functions, reasonable human-machine formations are carried out to give full play to human subjective initiative on the one hand, and the special functions of unmanned combat forces on the other hand, so as to achieve the best combination to achieve combat objectives. Autonomous formation of unmanned forces. In intelligent warfare, unmanned tactical units, as the smallest combat units, can autonomously form combat groups or teams according to combat mission requirements to attack or defend targets. They can also automatically coordinate and cooperate according to changes in battlefield environment and tasks to ensure the achievement of unified combat objectives.
Combat command develops towards autonomous intelligence
In intelligent warfare, the application of high-tech in the military field with artificial intelligence as the core has had a profound impact on combat command and even triggered disruptive changes.
Command information acquisition is more autonomous. The sensor platform of the intelligent battlefield can implement intelligent fusion processing of multi-source intelligence with “large volume, multiple types, fast transmission speed and low value density”, obtain valuable data from massive data, and automatically transmit it to the command and control center to provide information support for commanders’ decision-making.
Human-machine collaboration in command and decision-making. In intelligent warfare, the use of intelligent robot systems to assist in decision-making has greatly reduced the burden on commanders, freeing them from heavy tasks and allowing them to concentrate on studying operations and command. They can hand over some tedious intelligence information judgment, identification and disposal work to artificial intelligence-assisted decision-making systems, giving full play to the role of human-machine integration, reasonable division of labor and mutual complementation, greatly improving the commanders’ command efficiency.
Dynamic planning. An intelligent system based on artificial intelligence technology and intelligent human-machine interface technology can speed up the pace of updating battlefield dynamic information and quickly propose suggestions for adjusting and improving plans, which will help commanders update mission plans in a timely manner and improve the troops’ ability to act quickly.
Agile control response. With the support of artificial intelligence technology and sensor technology, the ability of intelligent control of troops will be further improved in the future. Specifically, intelligent weapons and equipment can use sensors similar to human vision and hearing to track and detect targets, and process the information obtained and provided by the command information system through computers similar to the human brain, so as to achieve autonomous analysis, identification, judgment, and make corresponding decisions, thereby regulating the attack on the target.
Combat equipment is becoming more intelligent
With the widespread use of artificial intelligence technology in the field of military equipment, intelligent combat platforms and systems, intelligent ammunition and intelligent weapons and equipment have been successively equipped in the army. Combat equipment will develop from manned equipment as the main and unmanned equipment as the auxiliary to manned/unmanned equipment coordination and unmanned equipment as the main direction. UAVs, unmanned combat vehicles, unmanned ships, unmanned spacecraft, military robots and intelligent individual systems will become the main force of intelligent combat. They have good combat performance, fast response speed, strong mobility and high combat accuracy, which plays a key role in seizing the initiative in war and even affects the entire war process.
The entire process of technological infiltration war
Intelligent warfare in modern warfare is supported by Internet technology, unmanned technology, data processing and prediction technology, target recognition and search technology, and artificial intelligence technology. Various high-tech platforms and systems are increasingly likely to replace human actions in various combat links such as intelligence reconnaissance, efficient command, precise action, and comprehensive support in war. These intelligent combat platforms or systems also have super computing, recognition, and autonomous control capabilities, especially the ability to complete urgent, difficult, and dangerous tasks under harsh conditions that are difficult for humans to complete. This trend is attracting more and more interest and investment from military powers.
●To understand the laws of intelligent warfare, we must grasp the foundation of intelligence and autonomy, the key of building a war knowledge and action system, and the essence of the changes in the connotation of war power.
●War leaders must examine intelligent warfare dynamically, keenly capture the new elements spawned by intelligent warfare, correctly analyze the changes in the relationship between the new elements, and constantly re-understand intelligent warfare.
President Xi pointed out that we should seriously study the military, war, and how to fight, and grasp the laws of modern warfare and the laws governing war. Today, the intelligent characteristics of war are becoming increasingly prominent, and intelligent warfare has already shown its early form. In order to seize the initiative in future intelligent warfare, we should actively follow the development of modern warfare, keep close to the actual military struggle preparations, proactively understand the laws of intelligent warfare, deeply grasp its guiding laws, focus on answering questions such as “what is it” and “how to do it”, and constantly innovate war and strategic guidance.
Answering the question “What is it?” and understanding the laws of intelligent warfare
Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out: “The laws of war are a problem that anyone who directs a war must study and must solve.” Today, as intelligent warfare begins to emerge, we should proactively understand “what” intelligent warfare is. Otherwise, we will not be able to solve “how to do it,” let alone control future wars.
The laws of intelligent warfare are the reconstruction of the war knowledge and action system. The laws of intelligent warfare, like the laws of cold weapon warfare, hot weapon warfare, mechanized warfare, and information warfare, are the inherent and essential connections between the elements of war. The difference is that it has new elements and new modes of composition between elements. It is essentially the reconstruction of the war knowledge and action system caused by the intelligent revolution. Today, to understand the laws of intelligent warfare, we must grasp the foundation of intelligence and autonomy, grasp the key to building a war knowledge and action system, and grasp the essence of the change in the connotation of war power. Mastering these laws can overcome the chaos and uncertainty in future wars and find order and certainty from them. This is the objective requirement for dealing with intelligent warfare.
The laws of intelligent warfare are the basis of the laws of war guidance. In “Problems of Strategy in China’s Revolutionary War”, Mao Zedong first analyzed the characteristics of China’s revolutionary war and revealed the laws of war, and then “derived our strategies and tactics from this”, that is, the laws of war guidance; in “On Protracted War”, he first explained “what it is”, and then turned to the question of “how to do it”, reflecting a logical order of the cognitive process. Today, the study of intelligent warfare should still follow this order, and neither put the cart before the horse, nor reverse the order; nor add, reduce or replace links. On the basis of mastering the fundamental law of intelligent autonomy, we must reveal the laws of war guidance such as autonomous perception, autonomous planning, autonomous implementation, autonomous linkage, and autonomous evaluation.
If you don’t understand the laws of intelligent warfare, you can’t guide the war. “Sun Bin’s Art of War” points out: “Know, win” and “Don’t know, don’t win.” Tao is the law of war. If you master it and act in accordance with it, you can win; otherwise, you will lose. Mao Zedong also emphasized: “If you don’t know the laws of war, you don’t know how to guide the war, and you can’t win the war.” Similarly, mastering the laws of intelligent warfare is the premise for correctly guiding intelligent warfare. Otherwise, it is inevitable to be confused by the superficial phenomena of intelligent warfare. Today, we need to analyze the basic, long-term and subversive impact of intelligent technology groups on war, and study what intelligent warfare looks like? What are the laws? How should it be fought? These are all major issues that must be answered in the guidance of intelligent warfare.
Solve the “how to do it” problem and reveal the guiding principles of intelligent warfare
The guiding laws of intelligent warfare are the medium for guiding practice by using the laws of intelligent warfare, playing the role of “bridge” and “boat”. We should solve the problem of “how to do it” on the basis of answering “what is it” and propose the “swimming skills” of intelligent warfare.
The guiding laws of intelligent warfare are the laws of applying the laws of war. The purpose of understanding the laws of war is to apply them. Marx pointed out: “Philosophers only interpret the world in different ways, but the problem is to change the world.” Similarly, intelligent warfare itself forces commanders to discover the laws. Once discovered, they will combine initiative and use the laws to serve winning the war, which will inevitably lead to the emergence of guiding laws for intelligent warfare. Today, war is the continuation of politics, which is still the law of intelligent warfare. From this, it can be concluded that intelligent warfare must obey the guiding laws that serve politics; soldiers and civilians are the basis of victory, which is still the law of intelligent warfare. From this, it can be concluded that the guiding laws of mobilizing the people in the broadest possible way are derived, and so on. These guiding laws for intelligent warfare are derived from the laws of war and are “swimming skills in the sea of intelligent warfare.”
Give full play to the active role of people in intelligent warfare. Engels said: “It is people, not guns, who win the battle.” The guiding laws of intelligent warfare are the laws of practice and use. It is not a simple “transfer” or “copying” of the laws of intelligent warfare, but it can be transformed into the guiding laws of war with the addition of people’s subjective initiative. Today, military talents who master artificial intelligence are not only the operators of intelligent weapons, but also the creators of artificial intelligence. People still occupy a dominant position in the intelligent human-machine system and are the decisive factor in the victory or defeat of intelligent warfare. Commanders should give full play to their initiative on the basis of mastering the laws of intelligent warfare and adhere to the “technology + strategy” combat theory generation model, so as to change from answering “what is” to solving “how to do”.
The laws governing intelligent warfare are constantly evolving. War is a “chameleon”. Intelligent warfare itself will also go through different stages such as germination, development, and maturity, which will inevitably lead to the development of laws governing intelligent warfare. War leaders must dynamically examine intelligent warfare, keenly capture the new elements of intelligent warfare, correctly analyze the changes in the relationship between the new elements, and constantly re-recognize intelligent warfare. We must keep up with the historical process of the accelerated advancement of war forms towards intelligence, grasp the direction of development of intelligent warfare and the pulse of the times, push the research on the laws governing intelligent warfare to a new level, and seize strategic initiative and opportunities on future battlefields.
Keep a close eye on the “initiative” and continue to innovate intelligent warfare and strategic guidance
As the military is ever-changing, water is ever-changing. As intelligent warfare has already arrived, we must follow the laws and guidance of intelligent warfare, keep close to the actual military struggle preparations, strengthen research on opponents and enemy situations, take the initiative to design “when”, “where” and “who to fight”, innovate war and strategic guidance, and firmly grasp the strategic initiative of future wars.
You fight yours, I fight mine. The highest realm of the art of war guidance is that you fight yours, I fight mine. “Each fights his own” requires commanders to use their own forces independently and autonomously in future intelligent wars, no matter how complex and difficult the environment is. In particular, enemies with high-tech equipment may cause a temporary local situation where the enemy is active and we are passive. At this time, we must use comprehensive means such as politics, economy, and diplomacy to make up for the disadvantages in weapons with an overall favorable situation, quickly reverse this situation, and restore the active position. If you are led by the nose by your strategic opponent, you may suffer a great loss.
Seize the opportunity and use the troops according to the time. The Six Secret Teachings pointed out: “The use depends on the opportunity.” Jomini emphasized: “The whole art of war lies in being good at waiting for the opportunity to act.” On the one hand, if the time is not right, do not force it. Be cautious about the opportunity, and have great patience before the opportunity comes to prevent strategic blind action. On the other hand, the time will not come again, so don’t miss the opportunity. Be good at seizing the opportunity, and once you encounter a favorable opportunity, you must resolutely use it and avoid being timid. It should be pointed out that we should look at the issue of the maturity of the opportunity dialectically. The future intelligent war is changing rapidly, requiring quick decision-making, but in the face of uncertain factors, we must make careful decisions. Sometimes making a decision early may be more effective than making a more perfect decision tomorrow. Therefore, we must dare to take a little risk, otherwise we will sit back and watch the loss of the opportunity for success.
Different domains are different, and operations are based on the local conditions. Clausewitz pointed out: “War is not like a field full of crops, but like a field full of trees. When harvesting crops, you don’t need to consider the shape of each crop, and the quality of the harvest depends on the quality of the sickle; when chopping down trees with an axe, you must pay attention to the shape and direction of each tree.” Different strategic spaces lead to different wars, and war guidance is also different. At present, the battlefield space is constantly expanding from traditional spaces such as land, sea and air to new spaces such as space and the Internet. War leaders should explore new intelligent war laws and guidance laws based on the characteristics of multi-domain, three-dimensional, and networked.
Aim at the opponent and win by taking advantage of the enemy. The Art of War by Sun Tzu states: “Follow the enemy and decide the battle.” Jomini also said: “No matter who you are, if you don’t understand the enemy, how can you know how to act?” Looking to the future, smart strategists should classify combat targets into primary combat targets and general combat targets, actual combat targets and potential combat targets according to their importance and urgency, and comprehensively and objectively understand the strategic intentions, force deployment, combat concepts, etc. of different combat targets, propose new intelligent war guidance laws that can give full play to the advantages of their own combat power, and implement correct war actions.
In short, the laws of intelligent warfare are the laws of the cognitive process, solving the problem of “what”; the guiding laws are the laws of the practical process, solving the problem of “how”. The two are dialectically unified and inseparable, forming a complete chain of understanding and guiding intelligent warfare. “Victory is not repeated, but should be formed in infinity.” Today, war and strategic leaders should, based on objective conditions, deeply explore and flexibly apply the laws of intelligent warfare and the laws of war guidance, and innovate war and strategic guidance in line with the times.
(Author’s unit: Academy of Military Science, Institute of War Studies)
Source: Liberation Army DailyAuthor: Hao Jingdong Niu Yujun Duan FeiyiEditor-in-charge: Wang Feng2021-03-16 10:12
In today’s world, the new military revolution has entered a critical qualitative change stage. Intelligent warfare with ubiquitous intelligence, interconnectedness, human-machine integration, and full-domain collaboration is accelerating. In order to consolidate its position as the world’s hegemon, the United States actively promotes the third “offset strategy” to “change the future war situation”, formulates an artificial intelligence development strategy, accelerates the actual combat testing and exercises of artificial intelligence, and regards intelligent technology as the core of a “disruptive technology group” that can change the “rules of the game”. Military powers such as Russia, Britain, and Israel are unwilling to lag behind and are also stepping up to improve their respective strategic layouts in the field of artificial intelligence. As competition among major powers intensifies, military intelligence will become the new commanding heights of the arms race.
【Key words】military conflict, artificial intelligence strategy, AI war 【Chinese Library Classification Number】D81 【Document Identification Code】A
In 2017, Master, known as the evolved version of “AlphaGo”, swept the top Go players on the online Go platform and won 60 consecutive games; in 2019, in the StarCraft II man-machine competition, two top human players were defeated with a score of 1:10; in 2020, in the “Alpha” air combat competition held by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the United States Department of Defense, the F-16 piloted by the US military ace pilot was completely defeated by the artificial intelligence fighter with a score of 0:5. These events show that the era of artificial intelligence that humans both look forward to and fear has quietly arrived.
Engels said, “Once technological advances can be used for military purposes and have been used for military purposes, they will immediately and almost forcibly, and often against the will of the commander, cause reforms or even changes in the way of warfare.” At present, the militarized application of artificial intelligence has caused “the winning mechanism of war to undergo an unprecedented transformation, and the center of gravity of combat power generation is undergoing a historic shift.” A new round of scientific and technological revolution, industrial revolution and military revolution provides support for the intelligent era of “controlling energy with intelligence.”
Military artificial intelligence demonstrates its powerful power in modern warfare
The drive of the arms race among the major powers is triggering a chain of changes in the military field. In recent years, the world situation has been in a turbulent period, which has triggered a series of geopolitical crises. The concept of “hybrid warfare” has entered the war stage, and military artificial intelligence has entered a new stage of development. The rapid development and comprehensive integration of technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and reconnaissance and strike drones have demonstrated their powerful power in modern warfare. Whether it is the physical domain of firepower strikes, the interest domain of economic sanctions, or the cognitive domain of public opinion and psychological control, it makes people deeply feel that military artificial intelligence is becoming popular.
Assassinating senior Iranian officials, AI becomes a “killing tool” for the US military. On January 3, 2020, then-US President Trump ordered the US military to launch an airstrike on Baghdad International Airport in Iraq without the consent of the US Congress. This airstrike directly killed Iranian senior official Soleimani. Soleimani is the top commander of the “Quds Brigade” of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Why was he successfully assassinated by the United States in the capital of Iraq? It is reported that the “Reaper” drone carried out this mission, which “targeted and eliminated” Soleimani by projecting “Hellfire” missiles. The operation was very secretive and could not be detected by radar. Even the US spy satellites did not know the location of the “Reaper” at the time. It should be emphasized that the assassination of Soleimani was an illegal and brutal act of the United States using terrorist means, “one of the war crimes committed by the United States by abusing force”, and its so-called “rules-based international order” is a pure whitewash, and its essence is a true manifestation of hegemony.
In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel launched the “first AI war”. In May 2021, Israel launched “Operation Rampart” against Hamas. During the 11-day battle in the Gaza Strip, Israel relied on advanced information collection technology, analytical algorithms and AI-led decision support systems to quickly and effectively select attack targets and use the most appropriate ammunition as needed. Through hundreds of intensive and precise strikes from multiple combat platforms, it paralyzed Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Organization’s rocket positions, rocket manufacturing plants, ammunition depots, military intelligence agencies, senior commanders’ residences and other key facilities, destroyed several autonomous GPS-guided submarines of the Hamas Maritime Commando, and killed Bassem Issa and other Hamas senior commanders and senior agents.
It has been disclosed that the artificial intelligence system used in the war is an algorithm system developed by an elite team code-named 8200. The three systems “Alchemist”, “Gospel” and “Deep Wisdom” hatched by the team were all used in this military operation. The “Alchemist” system can analyze the enemy’s attempt to launch an attack and provide real-time warnings through the communication device carried by individual soldiers. The information fed back by the soldiers will also be collected again and evaluated for the next attack; the “Gospel” system can generate target strike suggestions and mark target information in real time. Commanders can flexibly select important targets and implement strikes based on battlefield conditions; the “Deep Wisdom” system can accurately draw a map of the tunnel network of Hamas armed organizations in the Gaza Strip through intelligence collection and big data fusion such as signal intelligence, visual intelligence, personnel intelligence, and geographic intelligence, forming a situation map that fully reflects the conflict area scenario. The use of these technologies has greatly enhanced the Israeli army’s battlefield situation awareness capabilities. A senior intelligence official of the Israel Defense Forces said that this is “the first time that AI has become a key component and combat power amplifier in fighting the enemy.” The Israeli military believes that the use of AI has brought “super cognitive ability” and even directly calls it “the first artificial intelligence war.”
In order to seize the technological commanding heights, countries are stepping up their strategic layout of military intelligence
Artificial intelligence is regarded as a key strategic technology in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In order to gain the upper hand in the new round of disruptive technology competition, the world’s military and technological powers, led by the United States, have stepped up their strategic layout around military intelligence, and are working intensively and spare no effort.
The United States attempts to rely on artificial intelligence to maintain its military hegemony. Since 2016, the U.S. Department of Defense has successively issued documents such as “Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence”, “National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan”, and “Department of Defense Artificial Intelligence Strategy”, which have elevated the development of artificial intelligence to the national strategic level. In order to establish its own “rules of war”, the Pentagon has successively formulated artificial intelligence technology research and development plans, key project concepts, and technical standards and specifications, and focused on building a research and development production and combat application system. In summary, the U.S. military’s layout for the future development of artificial intelligence can be roughly divided into three stages: near, medium, and long. In the first stage, before 2025, with unmanned, stealth, and remote combat platforms as the development focus, a “global surveillance and strike system” will be built, and unmanned systems will become the main means of military intervention by the U.S. military. In the second stage, before 2035, with intelligent combat platforms, information systems, and command and decision-making systems as the development focus, an intelligent combat system will be initially established, and unmanned systems will surpass manned systems and occupy a dominant position in combat. The third stage, before 2050, will focus on the development of technologies such as strong artificial intelligence, nanorobots, and brain networking, fully realize the intelligence of combat platforms, information systems, and command and control, promote the expansion of combat space to biospace, nanospace, and intelligent space, and strive to seek the intelligent combat system to enter the advanced stage.
The various branches of the U.S. military have also launched and continuously updated their artificial intelligence development plans. The ground unmanned autonomous system has the “U.S. Ground Unmanned System Roadmap” and the “U.S. Robot Development Roadmap”, etc., and plans to achieve intelligent formations and coordinated actions of manned and unmanned by 2030, and realize the mobility of synthetic forces by 2040. The aerial unmanned autonomous system has a special drone development plan, and the long-term goal is to form a complete aerial unmanned equipment system covering high, medium and low altitudes, large, medium, small and micro, ordinary and long flight time. The maritime unmanned autonomous system is divided into two directions. One is to create a new underwater combat system, using multiple unmanned submarines to form a mobile integrated reconnaissance, detection, and strike network, and form an “advanced underwater unmanned fleet”; the other is to accelerate the development of surface unmanned ships and make breakthroughs in the “human-machine cooperation” of surface unmanned ships. In addition, the U.S. Department of Defense has also established partnerships with industry, academia and allies to ensure access to the most advanced artificial intelligence technology support.
Russia has also put forward its own strategic plan in the field of artificial intelligence. In recent years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has attached great importance to the development of artificial intelligence. He proposed that artificial intelligence is the future for both Russia and all mankind. Whoever becomes a leader in this field will stand out and gain a huge competitive advantage. Artificial intelligence is related to the future of the country. Russian Chief of General Staff Gerasimov said that the Russian army is “developing non-nuclear strategic deterrence forces” through artificial intelligence equipment. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Russian army is stepping up the research and development and deployment of military robots, and combat robots will be put into mass production.
As early as November 2014, Russia adopted a plan to develop combat robots by 2025, proposing that robot systems will account for 30% of the entire weapons and military technology system by 2025. In December 2015, Putin signed a presidential decree to “establish a national robotics technology development center”, providing institutional support for the development of artificial intelligence from a strategic level. In recent years, Russia has successively issued strategic plans such as “Future Russian Military Robot Application Concept”, “National Artificial Intelligence Development Strategy by 2030”, and “Russian Federation Defense Plan 2021-2025”, carried out war games in various complex combat environments, studied the impact of artificial intelligence on various levels such as strategy, campaign and tactics, and strived to build a multi-level and multi-dimensional unmanned intelligent combat system that is interconnected.
From the perspective of medium- and long-term goals, attacking unmanned equipment is the focus of Russia’s development. In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed at the Russian Federation Security Conference that in the next 10 years, the Russian army will vigorously develop combat robot systems that can perform tasks on the battlefield. The short-term goal is to build a multifunctional combat robot force with certain autonomous control capabilities by 2025. According to information, the force will be composed of 5 types of robots, each of which can be independently divided into combat units and can basically complete battlefield combat tasks without or with very little human intervention. At present, the Russian army has started the experimental design work of the heavy and light robot “assault” and “comrade” systems. Some experts analyzed that the combat robot force may become an independent and brand-new branch of the Russian army.
The United States is wooing its allies to prepare for AI wars, and the AI arms race is intensifying. In recent years, in order to maintain its absolute leading position in the field of artificial intelligence, the United States has stepped up its own AI militarization construction while trying to win over its allies to jointly develop a joint operation AI system in the name of serving the alliance combat system. According to the U.S. “Defense News” website, in September 2020, the U.S. Joint Artificial Intelligence Center has launched the “Defense Partnership Program”, which covers the United Kingdom, France, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden and other countries. It aims to develop an AI system that is interconnected with the above-mentioned allies and lay the foundation for joint operations in intelligent warfare. It is reported that relevant defense representatives of the United States and its allies have held several meetings around this plan. The United States also claimed that this defense cooperation will “open the door” to more interested U.S. allies.
The United States’s push will undoubtedly intensify the AI arms race among the world’s major military powers. Among the United States’ many allies, Israel’s AI level is the best. Israel is the world’s largest exporter of military drones; it has the world’s first controllable autonomous unmanned vehicle, the Guardian, which has been equipped to the troops; it is the only country in the world, except the United States, equipped with unmanned surface vessels, and has many types of unmanned surface vessels such as the Protector, Stingray, and Seagull.
Other major countries are also stepping up their layout in the field of artificial intelligence. The United Kingdom has formulated an artificial intelligence development path of “universities as the source, military-civilian integration”, and issued the “National Artificial Intelligence Strategy” and the “Robots and Artificial Intelligence” strategic plan. France has formulated the “French Artificial Intelligence Strategy” and the “French Artificial Intelligence Plan”. Since 2018, it has increased its defense budget year by year and continuously increased investment in the research and development of artificial intelligence weapons. Germany has the world’s largest artificial intelligence research center. In 2018, it issued the “Artificial Intelligence Strategy” and planned to create an “Artificial Intelligence Made in Germany” brand by 2025. Japan has successively issued the “Artificial Intelligence Strategy”, “New Robot Strategy” and “Comprehensive Science and Technology Innovation Strategy”, and established the “Innovative Intelligence Comprehensive Research Center” to focus on the development of artificial intelligence-related technologies. In January 2021, the Australian Department of Defense issued the “Fighting the Artificial Intelligence War: Operational Concepts for Future Intelligent Warfare”. This document focuses on how to apply artificial intelligence to land, sea and air combat.
As some experts have said, “Intelligent technology is a double-edged sword. While it promotes the evolution of warfare to intelligent warfare, it also brings about a series of new war ethics issues and dilemmas in the law of war.” What changes will artificial intelligence bring to human society? This issue deserves in-depth thinking and continued attention.
(The author is the director of the News Research Department of Guangming Daily)
【References】
①Wu Mingxi: Intelligent Warfare—AI Military Vision, Beijing: National Defense Industry Press, January 2020.
③ Ding Ning and Zhang Bing: “Development of Intelligent Weapons and Equipment of Major Military Powers in the World”, “Military Digest”, Issue 1, 2019.
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⑤He Fuchu: “The Future Direction of the New World Military Revolution”, Reference News, August 23, 2017.
⑥Ma Junyang: “Russian-made unmanned intelligent weapons debut in Syria”, People’s Liberation Army Daily, December 30, 2019.
Geng HaijunPeople’s Forum (July 1, 2022, Issue 03)
At present, judging from the reform and development of the establishment system in major countries in the world, the military is developing towards a lean, small, efficient, intelligent, and integrated “man-machine (robot-drone)” direction, seeking to coordinate and fight together with robot soldiers, drones and human soldiers. According to statistics, the armies of more than 60 countries in the world are currently equipped with military robots, with more than 150 types. It is estimated that by 2040, half of the members of the world’s military powers may be robots. In addition to the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Japan, Israel, Turkey, Iran and other countries that have successively launched their own robot warriors, other countries have also invested in the research and development of unmanned weapons.
The world’s military powers will set off a wave of forming unmanned combat forces to compete. The so-called unmanned combat forces are a general term for combat robots or battlefield killing robot systems. With the development of various types of information-based, precise, and data-based weapons and equipment, intelligent platforms have become the driving force for pre-designed battlefields, combat robots have become the main force on the battlefield, and the combination of man and machine has become the key to defeating the enemy. In the future, battlefield space forces will highlight the three-dimensional unmanned development trend of land, sea, and air.
USA Today once published an article titled “New Robots Take War to the Next Level: Unmanned Warfare,” which described unmanned warfare like this: drone fleets swarm in, using sophisticated instruments for detection, reconnaissance, and counter-reconnaissance; after locking onto a target, they calmly launch missiles; automatically programmed unmanned submarines perform a variety of tasks including underwater search, reconnaissance, and mine clearance; on the ground battlefield, robots are responsible for the delivery of ammunition, medical supplies, and food… In future wars, these may become a reality.
On land, various robots that can perform specific tasks are highly integrated mobile strike platforms with mechanization, informatization, and intelligence. For example, unmanned tanks are unmanned tracked armored platforms that are mainly controlled by their own programs. They can be remotely controlled by soldiers, and are dominated by long-range attack intelligent weapons and informationized weapons. They can automatically load ammunition and launch autonomously, and carry out long-range indirect precision strikes, effectively reducing the casualties of soldiers. In the ocean, various unmanned submarines, unmanned warships, etc. can sail thousands of miles and perform various maritime combat missions without the need for onboard personnel to operate. In the air, the human-controlled drone system deployed in actual combat is a drone system platform with its own reconnaissance and judgment, human control, integrated reconnaissance and attack, autonomous attack, and human-machine collaboration.
The use of drone weapons in wars highlights their combat capabilities, which will inevitably lead the armies of countries around the world to form unmanned combat units in full swing. In the Iraq War, the United States began to test the actual combat capabilities of unmanned combat vehicles. In March 2013, the United States released a new version of the “Robotics Technology Roadmap: From the Internet to Robots”, which elaborated on the development roadmap of robots, including military robots, and decided to invest huge military research funds in the development of military robots, so that the proportion of unmanned combat equipment of the US military will increase to 30% of the total number of weapons. It is planned that one-third of ground combat operations in the future will be undertaken by military robots. It is reported that the US military deployed the first future robot combat brigade (including at least 151 robot warriors) before 2015. In 2016, the US military conducted another experimental simulation test of the “modular unmanned combat vehicle” in a multinational joint military exercise. In 2020, the US Pentagon issued a contract with a price tag of 11 million US dollars to form a “combined arms squad” with the ability to cooperate with humans and robots, and plans to complete the construction of 15 future combat brigades by 2030. All squad members have human-like vision, hearing, touch and smell, can send information and attack targets in a timely manner, and can even undertake tasks such as self-repair and vehicle maintenance, transportation, mine clearance, reconnaissance, and patrol. The US Daily Science website reported that the US Army has developed a new technology that can quickly teach robots to complete new crossing actions with minimal human intervention. The report said that the technology can enable mobile robot platforms to navigate autonomously in combat environments, while allowing robots to complete combat operations that humans expect them to perform under certain circumstances. Currently, US Army scientists hope to cultivate muscle cells and tissues for robots for biological hybridization rather than directly extracting them from living organisms. Therefore, this combination of muscle and robot reminds the author of the half-cyborg Grace in the movie “Terminator: Dark Fate”.
On April 21, 2018, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) special forces launched a raid against extremist terrorists in Derbent, Dagestan, and for the first time publicly dispatched armed unmanned combat vehicles equipped with machine guns as pioneers. During the 2018 Russian Red Square military parade, the United States discovered a large number of Russian “Uranus-9” robots and other combat systems that had exchanged fire with Syrian anti-government forces in southern Syria, and showed their appearance characteristics to the audience. In August 2015, the Russian army used combat robot combat companies to carry out position assaults on the Syrian battlefield. The tracked robots charged, attacked, attracted the militants to open fire, and guided the self-propelled artillery group to destroy the exposed fire points one by one. In the end, the robot combat company took down the high ground that is now difficult for Russian soldiers to capture in one fell swoop in just 20 minutes, achieving a record of zero casualties and killing 77 enemies.
According to the British Daily Star website, after the British Army conducted a large-scale combat robot test at an event called “Autonomous Warrior 2018”, it unified drones, unmanned vehicles and combat personnel into a world-class army for decades to come. Future British Army autonomous military equipment, whether tanks, robots or drones, may have legs instead of tracks or wheels. In early 2021, after the UK held the “Future Maritime Air Force Acceleration Day” event, it continued to develop a “plug-and-play” maritime autonomous platform development system, which, after being connected to the Royal Navy’s ships, can simplify the acquisition and use of automation and unmanned operation technologies.
In addition to the development of robots by Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, other powerful countries have also successively launched their own robot warriors. It is expected that in the next 20 years, the world will usher in robots on land, sea, and air to replace soldiers to perform high-risk tasks. The future battlefield will inevitably be unmanned or man-machine integrated joint combat operations. The world’s military powers will launch a human-machine (drone) integrated combat experiment
The style of air combat is always evolving with the advancement of aviation technology. Since 1917, with the successful development of the world’s first unmanned remote-controlled aircraft by the United Kingdom, the family of unmanned equipment has continued to grow and develop, and various drones are increasingly active in the arena of modern warfare.
Since the 21st century, with the large number of drones being used on the battlefield, the combat style has been constantly updated. In the Gulf War, drones were limited to reconnaissance, surveillance and target guidance, but in the Afghanistan War, Iraq War and the War on Terrorism, the combat capabilities of drones have become increasingly prominent, and the combat style and methods have shown new characteristics, allowing countries around the world to see drones as a sharp sword in the air, thus opening the prelude to the integrated combat test of man-machine (drone).
It is reported that the total number of drones in NATO countries increased by 1.7 times between 1993 and 2005, reaching 110,000 by 2006. The United States, other NATO countries, Israel, and South Africa all attach great importance to the development and production of unmanned reconnaissance aircraft and multi-purpose drones.
In 2019, more than 30 countries in the world have developed more than 50 types of drones, and more than 50 countries are equipped with drones. The main types are: “password” drones, multi-function drones, artificial intelligence drones, long-term airborne drones, anti-missile drones, early warning drones, stealth drones, micro drones, air combat drones, mapping drones, and aerial photography drones. The main recovery methods: automatic landing, parachute recovery, aerial recovery, and arresting recovery.
On September 14, 2019, after Saudi Aramco’s “world’s largest oil processing facility” and oil field were attacked, the Yemeni Houthi armed forces claimed “responsibility for the incident” and claimed that they used 10 drones to attack the above facilities. On January 3, 2020, Qassem Soleimani, commander of the “Quds Force” under the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was “targeted and eliminated” in a drone raid launched by the United States at Baghdad International Airport in the early morning of the Iraqi capital. At the end of 2020, in the battle between Armenia and Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh (Nagorno-Karabakh region), it was obvious that drones played an important role in the conflict between the two sides. In particular, many military experts were shocked by the videos that the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense kept releasing of the TB-2 “Flagship” and Israeli “Harop” suicide drones just purchased from Turkey attacking Armenian armored vehicles, artillery, cars and even infantry positions and S-300 air defense missiles. In December 2020, local conflicts in the Middle East and Transcaucasus showed that drones are playing an increasingly important role. Based on this, some military experts even predicted that the 21st century will be the “golden age” for the development of drones. Drones are bound to completely replace manned aircraft and become the “battlefield protagonist” of the 21st century.
Currently, the US Air Force plans to expand the teaming of manned and unmanned platforms between drones and manned aircraft, and by 2025, 90% of fighters will be drones. In other words, larger aircraft (F-35 fighters or F-22 fighters) can control a nearby drone fleet. For example, the F-35 fighter is like a flying sensor computer, which can obtain a large amount of data, and communicate, analyze and judge on its own, and finally upload the conclusion to the pilot’s helmet display. The pilot analyzes and processes the information obtained, formulates a combat plan based on the combat plan, battlefield situation, and weapons equipped by the formation, and then issues it to the drone… to achieve the purpose of manned aircraft commanding drones to cooperate in combat. In other words, the mixed formation of manned and unmanned aircraft will change the previous ground control to air control of drones, and the pilot will directly command the combat operations of drones. The US military envisions a modular design so that soldiers can assemble drones after taking out the parts of drones from their backpacks when needed in future battlefield operations, and can also use 3D printing drones. In August 2020, the U.S. Air Force defeated top F-16 fighter pilots in a simulated air battle with AI, which also proved that AI pilots can “think” creatively and quickly, and it may not be long before they surpass the skills of human pilots. The U.S. Navy’s new MQ-25 “Stingray” carrier-based unmanned tanker will be tested in 2021 and have initial operational capability in 2024, which will help expand the combat radius of aircraft carriers.
Since 2013, Russia has been equipped with a large number of drones, of which unmanned reconnaissance aircraft alone exceeded 2,000 by the end of 2019, most of which are light drones, such as the Kalashnikov drones that participated in the military operations in Syria. In the next step, each brigade or division-level unit of the Russian Army will have a drone company, and the airborne troops will also be equipped with a large number of drones. The Russian Northern Fleet will have a drone regiment, and some modern Russian warships will also be equipped with drones. In addition, from 2021, the “Orion” reconnaissance and strike drone developed by the Kronstadt Group will be equipped with the Russian army. This heavy drone can carry a variety of guided ammunition to perform combat missions. In addition, the Russian army is also testing two heavy drones, the “Altair” and the C-70 “Hunter”. These are enough to show that Russia has made significant progress in the field of drone research and development.
Israel is a true pioneer in the field of drones. The drones it develops are not only advanced, but also exported to other countries. It has equipped its troops with hundreds of drones, including the “Bird’s Eye” series of single-soldier drones, the “Firefly” drone, the light “Skylark-I” drone, the light “Hero” drone, the medium “Skylark-II/III” drone, the “Heron” drone, etc. In the mid-1980s, Israel had developed a land-based launch and patrol drone named “Harpy” or “Harpy”. The Harpy is a “suicide drone” capable of autonomous anti-radar attacks. It weighs 135 kg, can carry 32 kg of high explosives, and has a range of 500 km. Due to confidentiality reasons, the specific number and type of drones equipped by the Israel Defense Forces are not yet known. In order to deal with threatening targets such as enemy ground-to-ground missiles, Israel Aircraft Industries is developing a high-altitude, long-flight stealth unmanned fighter. The aircraft combines stealth technology with long-range air-to-air missiles, can carry Moab missiles, penetrate into the rear of the enemy’s battle zone, and intercept and attack ground-to-ground missiles in the boost phase.
On February 5, 2013, the British army stationed in Afghanistan used a micro unmanned helicopter for the first time to carry out front-line work of spying on military intelligence. This unmanned helicopter is equipped with a micro camera, which can transmit the captured images to a handheld control terminal in real time; it can fly around corners and avoid obstacles to identify potential dangers. Next, the UK plans to enable one manned aircraft to command five unmanned aircraft at the same time. According to a report on the website of the British “Times” on January 26, 2021, the British Ministry of Defense invested 30 million pounds to develop the first unmanned aerial vehicle force in Northern Ireland. According to reports, the contract for the design and manufacture of the prototype has been given to the American “Spirit” Aerospace Systems. The company has a branch in Belfast, and the contract is expected to provide 100 jobs. The British Ministry of Defense plans to start manufacturing the first prototype of this new type of unmanned aerial vehicle by 2025. It will be equipped with missiles, reconnaissance and electronic warfare technology equipment, becoming the British Army’s first unmanned aerial vehicle capable of targeting and shooting down enemy aircraft and avoiding surface-to-air missile attacks. Its partner manned fighters will be able to focus on missions such as electronic warfare, reconnaissance and bombing, thereby reducing costs and the high risks faced by British aircrews.
The French Navy will form its first carrier-based drone squadron at a base near Toulon, the 36F carrier-based aircraft squadron of the French Naval Aviation. The squadron will be equipped with S-100 drones and carried on the Navy’s Mistral-class amphibious landing ship. The formation of this carrier-based drone squadron reflects the French Navy’s desire to integrate drone expertise into a single professional team. Previously, the French Navy discussed the establishment of a dedicated drone squadron and the option of equipping the 31F, 35F or 36F squadrons with drones.
At the Paris Air Show in June 2004, the full-scale model of the NX70 Neuron unmanned combat aircraft displayed by the French Dassault Aviation Company rekindled people’s interest in the development of European drones. Iran, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates…some new countries have disrupted the geopolitical landscape of drones and are writing a new page.
It can be predicted that drones will become the biggest highlight in the development of weapons and equipment in various countries around the world, and become the “trump card” of land warfare, naval warfare, air warfare, and space warfare in the 21st century. It will become a new combat force in offensive and defensive operations. It can not only use the various ground attack weapons it carries to strike enemy ground military targets in frontline and deep areas, but also use air-to-ground missiles or bombs to suppress enemy air defense weapons; it can not only use weapons such as anti-tank missiles to attack enemy tanks or tank groups, but also use weapons such as cluster bombs to bomb enemy ground forces; it can not only detect targets and judge the value of targets and then launch missiles autonomously, but also deceive and interfere with enemy command and control systems, etc. The world’s military powers will set off a battle to form a “man-machine (robot drone)” integrated force
With the deepening of military-civilian integration, the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, and the rapid development of big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things, not only will the development of unmanned weapons and equipment bring about tremendous changes, but it will also subvert the existing military force formation form. The “human-machine (robot-drone)” integrated intelligent army is bound to come.
In December 2015, in addition to sending traditional combat forces to the Syrian battlefield, the Russian army also sent a robot combat company mainly composed of unmanned combat platforms to participate in the battle for the first time. The company adopted a new combat mode of mixed manned and unmanned formations, built an intelligent combat system with the “Andromeda-D” automated command system as the core, and launched an attack on Hill 754.5 using a combination of full-dimensional reconnaissance and saturation attack, successfully seizing the hill. A few years ago, U.S. Navy officials in charge of expeditionary operations mentioned the vision of building a thousand man-machine combined warships, that is, a larger fleet of unmanned ships controlled by humans and coordinated with each other. The U.S. Navy announced that it plans to build an unmanned fleet of 10 large unmanned surface ships in the next five years for independent operations or joint operations with surface forces. According to the conceptual plan currently disclosed by the U.S. Navy, the unmanned fleet composed of large unmanned surface ships will mainly assist the Navy in completing highly dangerous combat missions. By combining with the Aegis combat system and other sensors, the coordinated combat capabilities of manned and unmanned systems will be enhanced. Its deployment will help reduce the demand for the number of large manned warships and reduce casualties in combat. According to the National Interest Network on January 20, 2021, the U.S. Navy Chief of Operations Michael Gilday released the “Navigation Plan of the Chief of Naval Operations” document on January 11, calling for the establishment of a mixed fleet of man-machine ships including large warships, various types of unmanned ships, submersibles and air strike equipment to prepare for all-domain operations in the new threat environment in the next few decades. The document states: “It is necessary to establish a larger fleet of underwater, surface and water platforms that meet the strategic and campaign needs of the troops, and a mixture of manned and unmanned platforms.”
In the “man-machine (robot-drone)” integrated forces, artificial intelligence technology is used to achieve an organic combination of “man-machine”, and cloud computing, new algorithms, and big data are used to formulate “man-machine” collaborative combat plans. Artificial intelligence is like an engine, big data + cloud computing is like a spaceship, and intelligent robots are astronauts. The organic combination of the three will surely add wings to the tiger and integrate man and machine. The future army is a human-machine integrated army. The squad and platoon commanders are gradually replaced by robots. Robots are gradually transformed from human control to autonomous decision-making or mind control through human brain cells. There may also be canteen-free barracks in the military camps. The military management may also be led by one or several military personnel to lead multiple or even dozens of intelligent robot teams with different division of labor tasks to complete the combat training management tasks that were previously completed by squads, platoons, and companies. Or there may be only one military commander in the command and control center for military training, and all intelligent robots in the training grounds may be controlled through video command and control for confrontation training, or remote control robot commanders may issue new training instructions, adjust task deployment, and change training grounds in real time.
The urgent need for the intelligent quality of military talents will also force the readjustment of the setting of the first-level military disciplines in the field of artificial intelligence. In the future, military academies will also open intelligent robot control disciplines, establish relevant human-machine integration laboratories and training bases, and focus on training intelligent professional military talents who understand computer control programs, intelligent design and management, image cognition, data mining, knowledge graphs, and can systematically master intelligent science and technology and have innovative consciousness. Future military talents must be proficient in intelligent technology, big data applications, and cloud computing, especially in the use of 3D or 4D printing technology to make various military equipment at any time, proficient in the control procedures, command methods, command issuance, and adjustment of tasks of intelligent robots, and proficient in the essentials of human-machine integrated autonomous combat coordination, so as to achieve the best combination of human information technology quality and efficient operation of intelligent robots. In addition, it is not ruled out that human-machine integration squads, combat simulation centers, imaginary enemy forces, combat units, intelligent headquarters, unmanned brigades, divisions, etc. will be established. By then, the military chief may also have one human and one machine, or the robot may serve as a hand or deputy.
In recent years, with the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology and its widespread application in the military field, the form of war and combat style have been constantly changing. Some foreign academic articles believe that artificial intelligence is reshaping the form of combat forces, enhancing the effectiveness of combat systems, improving the effectiveness of combat command, and improving the quality of combat coordination, promoting profound changes in combat activities.
Reshaping the combat force
These academic articles point out that combat forces are mainly composed of combat personnel, weapons and equipment, and organizational structures, and are undergoing tremendous changes under the influence of artificial intelligence technology.
From the perspective of personnel structure, with the widespread application of artificial intelligence technology and related equipment systems in the military field, the demand for professionals with the ability to develop, manage, use and maintain artificial intelligence technology has increased significantly, and the proportion of technical personnel in combat forces will continue to increase. Frontline combat personnel are no longer just direct operators of weapons, but are gradually transforming into battlefield monitors, system commanders and key decision makers in human-machine collaborative operations, and the requirements for their scientific and technological literacy and information processing capabilities have been greatly improved.
From the perspective of the equipment system, intelligent weapons and equipment such as drones, unmanned combat vehicles, and intelligent missiles will appear in large numbers and become an important part of the equipment system. These equipment are highly accurate and flexible, with stronger autonomous combat capabilities, and can independently complete tasks such as reconnaissance and strikes, greatly changing the traditional equipment structure and combat mode. In addition, traditional weapons and equipment will also accelerate intelligent transformation by adding intelligent sensors, communication modules, and automatic control systems, so as to have the ability to interconnect and cooperate with artificial intelligence systems. For example, old tanks can be upgraded and transformed to realize functions such as automatic driving, automatic aiming, and intelligent ammunition loading, thereby improving overall combat effectiveness.
From the perspective of combat unit formation, unmanned combat systems will gradually develop from auxiliary combat forces to independent combat units and organize them, relying on their unique advantages in high-risk and high-intensity combat environments. Research reports from some think tanks in Western countries believe that drone swarm combat forces and unmanned combat vehicle battalions will become common combat formations, which can complete a variety of tasks such as reconnaissance and surveillance, intelligence analysis, and firepower strikes. In order to give full play to the respective advantages of artificial intelligence and human warriors, human-machine mixed formations will also become the main form of future combat forces. In this formation, human warriors and intelligent weapons and equipment work closely together to complete combat missions.
Enhance combat system effectiveness
Judging from the evolution trend, intelligent technology will integrate unmanned equipment across domains and empower traditional combat platforms, and will become the “enabler” of future system warfare.
At present, many military experts in Western countries believe that artificial intelligence can conduct a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of various elements of the combat system, identify weak links and optimization space in the system, and provide a scientific basis for the construction and adjustment of the combat system. By optimizing the structure and function of the combat system, the overall effectiveness and stability of the combat system can be improved, making it more competitive when facing a changing battlefield environment and a powerful combat system.
During the combat process, artificial intelligence can analyze the combat systems of both sides in real time, predict the opponent’s possible actions and weaknesses, propose targeted system confrontation strategies, and continuously adjust and optimize according to the actual situation in the combat process to achieve efficient operation of one’s own combat system and improve the quality and effectiveness of combat system confrontation.
Western militaries believe that based on the advantages of artificial intelligence empowerment, they can greatly enhance security risk defense capabilities. By automatically predicting, identifying, discovering, and handling complex security risks, they can autonomously protect personnel, equipment, and materials from various attacks, improve all-domain and all-round defense capabilities, and ensure the safety and stability of the combat system.
Improving combat command effectiveness
At present, artificial intelligence has been deeply integrated into all aspects of combat command, affecting the external manifestations and main activities of combat command. Human-machine intelligent fusion control supported by artificial intelligence technology will become the basic form of combat action control.
Some foreign research institutions have found that artificial intelligence systems can quickly analyze the situation based on real-time battlefield situations and a large amount of historical data, generate multiple combat plans, and timely deduce and evaluate plans, adjust and optimize actions, provide commanders with more scientific and reasonable decision-making suggestions, and efficiently guide the execution of plans, so that combat planning can keep up with the rapidly changing battlefield rhythm. Especially when facing rapidly changing battlefield situations, it can help commanders make accurate judgments more quickly.
With the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology, some intelligent combat systems have a certain degree of autonomous decision-making capabilities. In certain situations, such as facing sudden threats or the temporary appearance of fighter jets, combat command systems assisted by artificial intelligence can make decisions and take actions autonomously within the preset rules and authority range, shorten the decision-making chain, and improve the response speed and flexibility of combat. When the combat terminal has stronger intelligent autonomy, it can even realize the self-generation, self-evaluation, and self-adjustment of combat plans, breaking through the limitations of human reaction capabilities and forming a more adaptive combat command.
Many experiments have proved that based on the accumulation of massive combat data and the enhancement of big data analysis technology, artificial intelligence technology can accurately calculate the entire process of combat planning under simulation conditions, helping commanders to accurately analyze the situation in advance, comprehensively judge trends, and reasonably plan trends. Then, through combat simulation, simulation and deduction, etc., it can virtually carry out activities such as calculation of combat force requirements and optimization of tactics and actions. In the planning process, it can scientifically and dynamically adjust combat plan strategies to form the best option, provide more reliable reference basis for combat command, and improve the accuracy of command and control.
Improve the quality of combat coordination
As artificial intelligence technology is deeply integrated into the combat system, the responsiveness of various combat elements on the battlefield continues to improve, the response time is gradually shortened, the adaptability level is gradually enhanced, and the quality of combat coordination is continuously improved.
Some military experts in Western countries believe that the battlefield of the future will be cross-domain, networked, and nonlinear. Artificial intelligence can break the boundaries between various combat domains and combat elements through efficient algorithms, making the coordination between different combat forces closer and more efficient. Based on artificial intelligence technology, autonomous coordination and cooperation between manned and unmanned combat forces can be achieved, so that manned and unmanned combat forces can complement each other and complement each other, significantly improving combat effectiveness. Moreover, the application of unmanned combat systems is becoming more and more extensive. Artificial intelligence technology can perform cluster control and collaborative management of a large number of unmanned combat platforms, achieve efficient coordination and task allocation between them, and improve the overall effectiveness and safety of unmanned combat.
China Military Network Ministry of National Defense Network
Source: China Military Network – People’s Liberation Army Daily
Author: Xu Yatao Liu Jingyi Editor: Shang Xiaomin
Release: 2024-08-20 06:xx:xx
Military technological innovation and the development of weapons and equipment that materialize it are the internal driving force and determining factor of the evolution of war forms. Revolutionary military technology usually promotes the transformation of war forms from quantitative change to qualitative change according to the logical chain of “military technology-weapons and equipment-operating methods-organizational forms-war forms”. At present, technological self-drive, operational traction and strategic investment respectively form an iterative and mutually reinforcing cycle with intelligent technological innovation. The superposition of the three cycles forms a continuous acceleration effect, which is accelerating the innovation of military technology and the evolution of war forms. The great development and application of intelligent technology are driving the evolution of intelligent warfare to present three-stage characteristics.
Near term: The third wave of AI is approaching its peak, shallowly empowered unmanned platforms are being used extensively as weapons, and human-led primary intelligent warfare is gradually maturing
Combat applications accelerate the third wave to its peak. A new round of artificial intelligence technology represented by deep learning and intelligent big models is developing at a high speed, and is constantly empowering unmanned platforms. It has been initially and widely used in the military in the fields of target recognition, situation analysis, information processing, and decision support, forming an intelligent technology innovation cycle based on combat applications, namely “unmanned platform application-military intelligence needs-intelligent technology innovation-unmanned intelligent application”. Thanks to the acceleration of this innovation cycle, but also subject to the unexplainable nature of statistical learning, the unreliability of emergent generation, and the high energy consumption “capping” of required resources, referring to the development process and rise and fall cycle of artificial intelligence, the third wave of artificial intelligence is expected to reach its peak within ten years.
Artificial intelligence has superficially empowered unmanned platforms. Machines process massive amounts of data, automatically identify and analyze multimodal information such as text, voice, and images, and individual intelligence has gradually matured. Expert intelligence for specific fields has achieved breakthroughs, mainly applied to weapons and equipment and tactical operations. The “OODA” loop is mainly based on the “man in the loop, man in the lead” mode. Artificial intelligence mainly participates in a certain implementation stage or a specific action of combat tasks such as reconnaissance and surveillance, situational awareness, information processing, auxiliary decision-making, and killing and striking in the form of single equipment and single elements. The focus is to enhance the combat capability of existing weapons and equipment through the embedding, upgrading and transformation of unmanned intelligent technology, and to use intelligent technology for combat mission planning to improve the quality and efficiency of command and decision-making.
Intelligent warfare in the initial stage is developing rapidly. As an important tool of manned forces, unmanned platforms play a role in expanding the role of humans in combat operations. Their large-scale use at the tactical level has formed a certain scale, and their proportion has gradually increased, and a mixed combat formation mode of man and machine has emerged. However, the intelligent warfare at this stage is a mechanized information warfare with intelligent components, and the intelligent content is relatively low. It is basically a summary and extension of past war experience. It still uses command-based combat as the main command mode. It belongs to unmanned augmented manned combat, which can realize remote control, stealth penetration reconnaissance and surveillance, unmanned front and manned close-range remote control combat, system support, remote control of air-to-ground precision strikes and other combat styles.
Mid-term: Qualitative AI emerges and rapidly iterates, deeply empowered unmanned platforms play a leading role in combat, and intelligent-led “three-in-one” integrated warfare accelerates evolution
The game between great powers is accelerating the arrival of strong artificial intelligence. Human beings mainly rely on logical reasoning and intuition to understand the world. The advantage of artificial intelligence lies in logical reasoning, but it will take at least one or two rounds of disruptive breakthroughs to produce reliable intuition. Possible technical routes include constructing electronic neural systems close to biological neural networks, that is, brain-like computing, and quantum computing that breaks through the limitations of classical computers. These are gradually moving from theoretical research to practical applications. This stage is the accumulation period of quantitative change from specialized to general artificial intelligence. Unmanned intelligence has become a key variable in the game between major powers. The enhanced strategic investment of various countries will quickly promote the innovation of unmanned intelligent technology and transmit it to combat operations. The significantly improved combat effectiveness will stimulate further strategic investment, forming an intelligent technology innovation cycle based on strategic investment, that is, “strategic investment-technical innovation-combat operation-strategic investment”. This cycle will inevitably accelerate the arrival of strong artificial intelligence.
Artificial intelligence deeply empowers the combat system. With platform autonomy, unmanned battlefield, force integration, and human-machine collaboration as the main signs, highly self-organized collaborative operations between various unmanned platforms (systems) and efficient collaborative operations between manned and unmanned systems are realized. The “OODA” loop is mainly based on the “man in the loop, man-machine collaboration” mode. The artificial intelligence technology group is embedded in a certain combat process in an independent small-scale organization, or directly undertakes the specific tasks of a certain combat module. Artificial intelligence begins to be fully integrated into all aspects of the combat system, and the war situation is accelerating its evolution towards intelligence. The autonomy of the platform is greatly enhanced, and autonomous perception, judgment, decision-making, adjustment, and action, group intelligent collaboration has gradually matured, and front-line autonomous collaboration has become the norm. The scope of application has been expanded to include firepower strikes, logistics support, combat planning, and combat management, playing an important role in combat command.
The integration of the “three transformations” is moving towards intelligence-led warfare. From the emergence of iconic innovative technologies to the formation of a new form of warfare, a transmission cycle is required, including technology transformation, equipment deployment, force building, organizational formation, and tactics research. The primary intelligent warfare that integrates the “three transformations” will continue for a historical stage, and its gradual development is reflected in the increasing scale of unmanned platform use, the deepening of artificial intelligence empowerment, and the increasing coordination between manned and unmanned. The content of intelligence continues to increase, intelligent unmanned equipment begins to dominate, manned and unmanned coordination becomes the basic way to generate combat power, and intelligent empowerment gradually goes from shallow to deep. Unmanned intelligence plays a major combat role and becomes the “center” of a war.
A large number of specialized unmanned intelligent forces have emerged. In this stage of intelligent warfare, intelligent unmanned platforms have surpassed manned platforms at the battle level and occupied a dominant position, and the human-machine collaborative combat formation mode has become the main body. Possible typical combat styles: First, the first battle assault, the unmanned intelligent system that integrates reconnaissance, interference, deception, and strikes is used on a large scale in the first round of assaults, replacing the current style of long-range precision strike weapons as the main first round of assaults. The second is concealed deployment, in peacetime, a large number of unmanned intelligent devices are secretly deployed, and in wartime, they are triggered to wake up and strike the enemy with one strike, replacing the current style of using mobile forces to quickly deploy into the combat area. The third is unmanned swarm combat, autonomous coordination replaces planned coordination, and implements swarm-type destructive operations through “swarm” saturation attack to consume high value at low cost. The fourth is real-time human-machine collaborative combat, where manned and unmanned mixed forces realize multi-domain operations and collaborative operations in complex battlefield environments.
Long-term stage: “Intelligence explosion singularity” gives birth to super artificial intelligence, super-powerful unmanned platforms replace humans in all fields, and super-intelligent unmanned war finally arrives
Technology self-drive accelerates the iteration of strong artificial intelligence. The “technological singularity” theory holds that whenever humans invent a technology, they will invent new technology based on that technology. The higher the current technological level, the faster the next generation of new technology will come. The general trend is to first go through a period of slow growth, then achieve exponential progress, and finally enter a stable period under the constraints of objective resource conditions, and breed the seeds of the next epoch-making technology. For intelligent technology, the development from strong artificial intelligence to super artificial intelligence is at a high level of exponential growth. Supported by the intelligent technology innovation cycle based on technology self-drive, once strong artificial intelligence is realized, the “intelligence explosion singularity” will soon come, that is, super artificial intelligence that surpasses human intelligence will appear, and humans will usher in a truly intelligent unmanned war.
The style and characteristics of super-intelligent unmanned warfare. In this stage, super artificial intelligence and unmanned platforms are fully integrated, and the embodied intelligence with it as the brain is highly developed. Super-powered unmanned platforms become the absolute main force on the battlefield. In the stage of super-intelligent unmanned warfare, the main combat equipment, combat organization, combat space, etc. will undergo subversive changes. Its main characteristics are super-powered unmanned platforms, almost completely unmanned, and global space combat. Unmanned platforms with super-intelligent, super-mobile, and super-firepower performance will autonomously carry out combat missions under human authorization and simulate human thinking to implement actions. Fast, compact, and dense intelligent weapons will autonomously construct a giant, complex, and adaptive combat system to create an extremely complex battlefield environment. The main combat space has expanded and even shifted from the traditional land, sea and air battlefields to the deep sea, space, cyberspace and other fields, with the latter becoming the main battlefields that determine the outcome of wars. Intelligent “bee swarms”, “wolf packs” and “shark swarms” have completely replaced manned and unmanned collaboration, realizing true “man outside the loop” autonomous decision-making.
In summary, corresponding to the peak of the third wave and the realization of strong artificial intelligence and super artificial intelligence, the evolution of intelligent warfare can be divided into three stages: near-term, mid-term and long-term. In line with the trend requirements of the three stages of the evolution of intelligent warfare, the short-term stage focuses on solving the urgent need for combat power generation. It should be based on a bottom-up concept, fight what kind of battle with what equipment, make good use of the existing and near-term unmanned intelligent equipment, integrate it into the joint combat system, and maximize its efficiency gains; the top priority is the mid-term stage, which requires close tracking and sharp insight into the development trend of intelligent technology, and forward-looking design of unmanned intelligent warfare from top to bottom. Construction should be carried out in accordance with the concept of developing what kind of equipment to fight what kind of battle, and in-depth research should be carried out to coordinate and connect with the unmanned construction in the short-term stage; the long-term stage requires sufficient patience and strategic determination to welcome the arrival of the “intelligent explosion singularity” through solid accumulation and unremitting exploration.
At present, with the widespread application of disruptive technology groups represented by artificial intelligence technology, the form of warfare is accelerating its evolution towards intelligence. Scientific planning and proactive design of intelligent warfare has become an issue of the times facing war preparation. To truly organize intelligent warfare design well, we must accurately grasp the characteristics and laws of intelligent warfare design, clarify its position and role in war planning and preparation, so as to better serve winning the war.
Focus on development and make reasonable foresight
Correct decisions come from correct judgments, and correct judgments come from scientific foresight for the future. Scientific prediction is the prerequisite for operational design, and operational design is the application of prediction results. Tomorrow’s war will not be a replica of today’s war, but its shadow can be found in today’s war. Therefore, the design of intelligent warfare should be based on a full assessment and scientific prediction of future war forms and ways to win, and the forms, styles, methods, and means of intelligent warfare should be predicted through today’s wars.
In a battlefield full of uncertainty and ambiguity, in order to make war design more realistic, we must focus on the development and changes of intelligent weapons and equipment of both sides in the future, the updating of combat theories, the development of combat capabilities, and the innovation of winning methods. We must make scientific and reasonable predictions, estimates, and analyses of the timing of launching intelligent warfare, scale and level, style and intensity, development process, outcome of war, and other various complex situations that may arise, and on this basis, make systematic concepts and advance plans.
Be proactive and prioritize shaping
Sun Tzu said, “Victorious troops first win and then seek battle.” Intelligent warfare design focuses on grasping the characteristics, laws, and development trends of war. Based on possible enemy situations, our own situations, and battlefield environment, it prioritizes creating a favorable situation, and strives to lead and control wars by studying, designing, and planning wars, so as to achieve the goal of deterring war and defeating the enemy without fighting.
The battlefield space of intelligent warfare is a multi-dimensional and multi-domain space that combines reality and virtuality, providing war designers with a stage to give full play to their intelligence, implement autonomy and creativity. As the initiative in initiating wars increases, the initiative and creativity in war design also increase accordingly. War designers can proactively design intelligent warfare based on future war forms. When designing it, we focus on both responding to current urgent threats and targeting future operations. To this end, we should firmly grasp the characteristics of the era of intelligent warfare design, take proactive actions, enhance the ability of active design and dynamic design in various links such as concepts, plans, and construction, take the initiative, fight proactively, ensure that we can always adapt to the rapid changes in the situation, make the war develop in the designed direction as much as possible, and strive for the initiative in war preparation.
Based on the existing situation, innovate and change
Intelligent warfare design is an original combination of the war designer’s cognitive concepts, cognitive levels, guiding ideas, and operational strategies. The courage to innovate is the soul of intelligent warfare design. To this end, the entire process, all fields, and aspects of intelligent warfare design should focus on innovation-led design.
Intelligent warfare design is a research based on the development predictions of intelligent warfare military theories, weapons and equipment, battlefield construction, etc. It is an expansion and innovation based on the existing situation. Due to the development and evolution of war forms, some combat methods that have been successful in history may become ineffective in intelligent warfare; and some unprecedented combat rules that are adapted to the combat theories and weapons and equipment of intelligent warfare need to be created. Intelligent warfare design understands, conceives and describes complex problems through critical and creative thinking, so as to help war designers more deeply understand and grasp the winning rules and guiding rules of intelligent warfare operations, discover the key points and deep-seated reasons that restrict the combat progress, and thus creatively propose solutions to the problems.
Various forms, eclectic
Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out in “On Protracted War”: “The ancients said that ‘the secret of applying the strategy lies in one’s heart’. We call this ‘secret’ flexibility, which is the product of a smart commander.”
The flexibility of intelligent warfare design is determined by the differences in combat operations and the variability, uncertainty and contingency of situations and tasks. Appropriate reasoning and decisions must be made based on different situations. War design methods are quite diverse and eclectic. Traditional research and prediction methods include Markov method, Delphi method, brainstorming method, scenario analysis method, etc. When designing intelligent warfare, we should combine it with actual combat research and flexibly adopt different methods. At present, with the widespread application of cloud computing, big data and other technologies in the military field, computer simulation, modeling and simulation, war game confrontation and other methods are increasingly becoming important forms of combat exercises and confrontation simulation training, and are also commonly used methods in intelligent warfare design.
Reverse thinking, strategic confrontation
War is a confrontation between the comprehensive strength of two hostile parties, but also a confrontation between the strategies and wisdom of the commanders of both sides. Antagonism is one of the basic characteristics of intelligent warfare design, and it is also the main feature that distinguishes warfare design from design activities in other fields.
The main object of intelligent warfare design is the combat activities carried out by the hostile parties on the battlefield. These activities are “live” confrontation actions between people, supported by information-based intelligent weapons and equipment and technical means. They are inseparable from the battle of wits and courage between the war designers of the hostile parties. Therefore, designers of intelligent warfare must not only be familiar with their own situation, but also stand in the opponent’s position and think from the opponent’s perspective about how the intelligent warfare will start, control, and end, and what specific combat actions will be taken to organize and implement it. Before the war, they must conduct a comprehensive analysis and prediction of various situations that may arise during the implementation of the combat, and then propose effective countermeasures. Only in this way can the designed war be targeted and can they take the initiative in confrontational combat activities.
Multi-domain linkage, comprehensive system
Intelligent warfare design is a complex systematic project involving various fields such as military, politics, diplomacy, and economy. The specific methods involve knowledge from many disciplines such as military science, political science, and operations research. The battlefield involves multi-dimensional spaces such as land, sea, air, space, and power grids.
Intelligent warfare design is neither a simple listing of all war-related content nor specific planning and preparation for an impending war. Rather, it is an all-round, full-system, and full-element conception and design of the content covered by intelligent warfare in a certain period of time in the future. In terms of content, it includes the combat scenarios, combat objectives, combat scale, combat direction, battlefield environment, possible combat styles, combat methods, etc. of intelligent warfare; in terms of time, it is the whole process from the time when the war designers conceive or plan the operation to the planning, preparation, implementation, and end of the operation. To design intelligent warfare, we must not only conduct in-depth research on the characteristics, laws and winning mechanisms of intelligent warfare, study the situation of combat opponents, the war environment, and weapons and equipment; we must also study many scientific fields such as war science, system science, and modern engineering science, and predict the impact of scientific and technological development on future wars and operations, so that we can scientifically design the combat theories and processes of intelligent warfare.
Overall planning, multiple case selection
Clausewitz said: “War is the kingdom of uncertainty, and three-quarters of the factors on which war depends are more or less surrounded by a fog of uncertainty.”
Intelligent warfare design is a general plan and conception of intelligent warfare operations. It is a creative thinking activity based on the wisdom and strategy of the designer, and is imaginative and challenging. The design of intelligent warfare only knows the approximate area and method of launching an operation, but there is no specific clarification on the scale and action style of the participating forces. The combat objectives and combat indicators are not specific. It is necessary to make rough plans and bold assumptions about the combat objectives, scale, action style, etc. of intelligent warfare based on the tasks undertaken and the threats faced in peacetime, and on the basis of comprehensive analysis and prediction, without sticking to the existing stereotyped thinking. The objectives and scale of intelligent warfare operations can be large or small, and the action composition can be flexible and diverse. The design results of intelligent warfare should include multiple cases coexisting, multiple cases being compared, and multiple methods being demonstrated to enhance the pertinence and reliability of the results.
Iterative development, rolling improvement
Intelligent warfare design is a long-term and complex system engineering project, which cannot be achieved overnight or once and for all. The probability of war itself, the uncertainty of factors affecting victory or defeat, and the complexity of confrontation in intelligent warfare combat systems all determine the complexity and variability of intelligent warfare design. At the same time, when designing the opponent, one is also being designed by the opponent. Any negligence or carelessness may lead to a complete loss in one wrong move. It is not easy to carry out accurate war design.
With the continuous development of science and technology, the continuous evolution of war forms, and the ever-changing strategic threats and security environment faced in the future, intelligent warfare design should also keep pace with the development of the situation and tasks, and pay more attention to iterative development and design. In line with this, various operational concepts, operational plans, operational regulations, etc. should also be revised in a timely manner, continuously updated, and improved to adapt to the ever-changing new situations.
At present, the new military is exciting the rapid development of scientific and technological revolution and revolution. Revolutionary technologies represented by artificial intelligence promote the transformation of war forms to intelligent warfare with artificial intelligence. Winning intelligent warfare has gradually become the focus of military competition among powerful countries. Military training, as a pre-practice of military warfare, should promptly mark new goals, realize the transformation to “intelligence”, accelerate “intelligence” training, continuously improve the military science and technology level and “intelligence content”, and comprehensively upgrade combat capabilities to accelerate generation.
Keep up with the changes in the form of war and upgrade the concept of transformation
As the scale of the military and the number of equipment are no longer the key to victory in war, upgrading war thinking and training concepts is imperative. We should take a more proactive attitude and a more open vision, keep up with the trend of focus development, and strive to create a new thinking for military victory.
Grasp the inherent cause and effect of intelligent manufacturing victory. The winning chart is a manifestation of the inherent laws of war. Driven by the intelligent revolution, driven by strategic competition, and driven by war practice, the advantages of information-generated intelligence and intelligence-enabled are increasingly evident, reflected in various links such as actuarial and joint systems. A certain flow chart, it can be said that the higher the “intelligence”, the higher the quality level of combat and training can be. Therefore, further training thinking remains at the mechanization level. We should use the courage of self-revolution to trigger a “headache storm”, upgrade standardized combat, strengthen the theoretical research of standardized training, and use “intelligence” soldiers to deal with mechanized, informationized, and standardized combat issues, organically connect with fighting, design wars with technology, and practice wars with intelligent means, so as to clarify the fog of war.
At present, the military implements training mobilization with a focus on transformation, trying to further widen the generation gap in combat power with other countries’ armies. Once the generation gap in the military is widened, it will be difficult to recover. If you can’t keep up with it, you may be completely controlled by others. Only by keeping an eye on the opponent can you surpass the opponent. We must stand out in military training, and improve the level of military transformation and non-target combat capabilities in training.
Strengthen the target positioning of science and technology empowerment. Science and technology are the core combat power. Driven by science and technology, the combat effectiveness has leaped from mechanical energy type and information energy type to type. Traditional siege-style large-scale troop operations are gradually withdrawing from the historical stage, and the cutting-edge competition in high-end and emerging fields is becoming increasingly fierce. If military training does not improve its scientific and technological armament, it will only be at the forefront of low-level intelligence. Therefore, we should firmly establish the goal of winning by science and technology, firmly grasp the “life gate” and “key point” of winning future wars, greatly improve the connotation of military science and technology, increase the practical application of new means such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and big data, unveil the mysterious veil of focusing on war, and control the initiative of future wars.
Keep up with the changes in scientific and technological development and build strong conditions for automation transformation
Automation training conditions are the basic training support for organizing and implementing automation training, and are directly related to the quality and effectiveness of automation training. To build an automated training environment, we need to focus on the development of intelligent concepts, intelligent technology, and automated operations, and continue to work hard in building environments, innovating training methods, and cultivating new talents.
Construct a battlefield environment. Modified operations, training space is more convenient, the field is wider, and the methods are more diverse. The battlefield environment construction under easy mechanization and information conditions can no longer support the needs of modified training. We should highlight the elite confrontation, rapid confrontation, and linkage confrontation supported by the modification conditions, tap into the existing existing training equipment and field functions, strengthen the application of technologies such as big data analysis, smart wearable devices, and machine “deep learning”, and effectively integrate various fields such as land, sea, air, space, electricity, and network. For example, digital maps, virtual reality and other technologies are used to simulate and display visualized three-dimensional landforms, weather and complex combat scenes, and build rich and rich combat scenes.
Develop advanced training methods. Advanced training methods help improve training results. Transformation of military training should transform the key factor of “data-centric” and transform the latest scientific and technological achievements into training conditions. We should focus on strengthening data linkage and integration to form a “pool” covering strategy, campaign, and tactics, and immediately command organizations to end individual soldiers; develop data intelligent analysis tools, use training cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies to integrate and mine data operations; develop intelligent training systems, increase the construction of simulation methods such as simulation, war game confrontation, network confrontation, and intelligent judgment, and overall promote the transformation and upgrading of military methods to “technology +” and “intelligence +”.
Cultivate new military talents. No matter how the war evolves, people are always the real controllers and final decision-makers of war. The quality of the standardization level of military personnel must determine the quality of customized training. To win the information-based local war with standardized characteristics, we should accurately meet the future military needs, strengthen the transformation of traditional combat talents, make good use of the power resources of “technology +”, “maker +” and “think tank +”, promote the integrated development of “commanders”, “combatants” and “scientists” and “technologists”, form a professional and standardized new military talent group, and realize the intelligent interaction between people and equipment, the deep integration of people and environment, and the extensive adaptation of people and environment.
At present, the world’s major military powers attach great importance to the development of intelligent equipment. New equipment such as unmanned “swarms” and unmanned submarines are emerging in an endless stream. On the one hand, they support standardized military training, and on the other hand, they are constantly tested and improved. To this end, we should make full use of the war-building and preparation strengthening mechanism, vigorously promote the “+ intelligence” of existing equipment and the “intelligence +” construction of the new generation of equipment, adhere to the research, construction, use and modification, break through the customization level of weapon upgrades and equipment through training practice, and finally make efforts to achieve a multiplier effect. The entire weapon equipment goes from “weak intelligence” to “strong intelligence” and then to “super intelligence” to better support standardized military training.
Keep up with the changes in war practice and innovate customized training models
The military style training model has been developed many times and has moved from theoretical exploration to battlefield practice. In recent local wars, standardized operations have begun to show their edge, and thus have shown the potential to change the “rules of the game” of war. The combat style has changed, and the training model must also change accordingly and actively change. We must keep a close eye on the characteristics of war, innovate military training models, and fully rehearse the next war in military training.
We must base ourselves on the basic point of fighting high-end wars with strong enemies, highlight the essence of breaking high-end wars, continue to deepen research on strong enemies, and use the development of new combat concepts and training theories as a starting point to clarify the laws of war development and key points for winning. Predict future wars and design combat styles from the perspective of intelligence and innovation to study the unique and wonderful ways to defeat the enemy. Emphasize key actions such as joint anti-missile defense, organize strategic and campaign training tactics to defeat the enemy with disadvantages, organize non-combat training to win, and organize training to fight against new domains such as the far sea and the far domain. Seize the high position of future wars in innovative training and form a combat capability of “superior intelligence” and “superior skills” against powerful enemies.
Emphasize the research and training of new quality forces. The transformation of war from winning by force and equipment to winning by intelligence has made new combat forces a new growth pole of combat effectiveness. According to information, the US military plans to standardize 60% of ground combat platforms by 2030, and the Russian army expects that more than 30% of key weapons and equipment will be used in the battlefield by 2025. As the army’s new equipment with intelligent attributes increases, it is necessary to take the path of actual combat training with new combat forces as the leading element, highlight the formation and combat use of new combat forces, carry out training methods and tactics that are compatible with the new domain combat concept and victory, strengthen new styles of training such as unmanned combat, promote the combat system of new combat forces, and make new combat power resources move and come alive.
Highlight intelligent command research and training. How to change the form of war and command, ability is always the key ability to win the battle. As the degree of war continues to increase, planning and commanding based on experience and personal wisdom alone can no longer adapt to any rapidly changing battlefield situation. Artificial intelligence decision-making training has become an inevitable trend to improve the efficiency of combat mission planning, planning, command and control. Commanders and command organizations are the key to the system of operations. We need to make breakthroughs in the scientificity, accuracy and timeliness of command planning. We rely on new technologies such as “big data” and “artificial intelligence algorithms” and new means such as “engineering” and “one network” to promote the upgrade of command planning from “human intelligence” training to “human intelligence + intelligence” training. We can judge the enemy situation, establish plans and determine actions in the process of actuarial calculations, so as to achieve the goal of defeating the slow with the fast and taking the lead.
In recent years, the wave of intelligence has surged and has been widely used in the military field. Major countries in the world attach great importance to the construction and application of military intelligence. Various unmanned combat platforms and intelligent weapons and equipment continue to appear and are equipped in the army for actual combat. In the face of the accelerated evolution of the intelligent form of war, only by seizing development opportunities, actively responding to challenges, accelerating the development of military intelligence, and accelerating the forging of intelligent combat capabilities can we seize the strategic initiative of intelligent warfare and win the future intelligent war.
Focusing on the creation of intelligent theory of war design
Military theory originates from combat practice and is used to guide combat practice. In the past, due to various restrictions, military theory research was mostly “looking back”, that is, summarizing combat cases to form combat guidance. With the rapid development of modern technology, especially disruptive technologies such as big data and cloud computing, combat theory research has broken away from the traditional follow-up and inductive reasoning mode and entered a new era of experimental warfare and designed warfare. New disruptive technologies in the field of intelligence have opened up new space for innovation in military theory. To this end, we should follow the idea of ”proposing concepts-demand analysis-innovative theories” to create the basic theory of intelligent warfare, and conduct in-depth research on the conceptual connotation, essential characteristics, war guidance, combat style, offensive and defensive actions, winning mechanism, characteristics and laws of intelligent warfare; innovate intelligent warfare methods and methods, give full play to the overall effectiveness of the intelligent combat system, strengthen the research on new intelligent combat methods and methods such as human-machine collaborative intelligent warfare, intelligent robot warfare, and intelligent unmanned cluster warfare, as well as the processes and methods of intelligent combat command and intelligent combat support; focus on effectively responding to intelligent combat threats and study strategies to defeat the enemy, such as intelligent blocking warfare and intelligent disruption warfare. These theories are the cornerstone of the intelligent warfare theory system. In the future, the war theory centered on strengthening “intellectual power” and competing for “algorithm-centric warfare” is very likely to replace the war theory centered on “network-centric warfare”.
Focusing on cross-domain interconnection and exploring intelligent forms
Military organization is the link between military technology and combat theory, and is the lever for exerting the overall combat effectiveness of the army. Modern combat emphasizes “elite combat under the support of a large system”, that is, with the support of the joint combat system, “elite front and strong back”, and organizes precise and multi-functional combat modules according to the idea of ”integrated design, modular organization, and combined use” to maximize the release of combat energy. The system organization of future intelligent warfare will form small, multi-functional, intelligent new joint combat forces of different types and purposes according to different levels of strategy, campaign, and tactics and different military arms, and emphasize the organization of “global” forces that can perform diversified combat tasks. Through intelligent combat networks, according to the requirements of reconfigurability, scalability and adaptability, single weapon platforms can be seamlessly linked and flexibly organized according to changes in the enemy situation, battlefield environment, etc., and then aggregate to form system advantages and form an integrated offensive and defensive combat module. The new intelligent combat force system is the comprehensive product of the development of artificial intelligence technology, the formation of new quality combat power and the evolution of war forms. It is the “trump card” to seize the initiative in the future all-domain combat space, the key to the construction of an integrated joint combat system, and a new growth point for the army’s combat effectiveness.
Focusing on the integration of man and machine to develop intelligent weapons
With the development of information technology and intelligent technology, whoever can win in the field of artificial intelligence will have the opportunity to take the initiative in future military confrontation. We should focus on the dual needs of intelligent war system operations and intelligent weapons and equipment system construction, do a good job in top-level design and overall coordination, compile a roadmap for the development of intelligent weapons and equipment systems, and develop intelligent unmanned combat equipment systems that match operations and support in a planned, focused, and step-by-step manner, covering land, sea, air, space, electricity, and network space fields, and establish a “human-led, machine-assisted, mixed formation, and joint action” manned-unmanned collaborative system to enhance the system integration of various military services and various intelligent weapons and equipment such as operations and support. Intelligent unmanned combat systems are a new trend in the development of future war equipment. Its core lies in aiming at the requirements of “zero casualties”, “full coverage”, and “fast response” in future wars, making full use of the development results of new theories, new materials, new processes, new energy, and new technologies, and continuously making breakthroughs in human-machine collaboration and autonomous action. We will build a three-level unmanned equipment system of strategy, campaign, and tactics, build a new type of intelligent unmanned division on a large scale, and realize the systematic collaborative operations of unmanned combat systems. At the same time, we should focus on the needs of unmanned and anti-unmanned, intelligent and anti-intelligent combat, and pay attention to the research and development of weapons and equipment systems for anti-enemy intelligent unmanned combat, to ensure that we can effectively engage in intelligent unmanned offensive and defensive confrontation with the enemy.
Focus on the ability to combine innovation and intelligent training
The professional division of modern warfare is becoming more and more detailed, and the entire combat system is becoming more and more complex, which promotes the transformation of combat from labor-intensive to technology-intensive. It requires that combatants must not only have good physical fitness, but also have good technical literacy and intellectual advantages to cope with the needs of different combat tasks, combat environments, and combat opponents. Military intelligence has put forward higher requirements on the quality of people. Correspondingly, intelligent military talents should have the characteristics of talent group, advanced skills, complex knowledge, innovative thinking, and intelligent decision-making. Intelligent warfare will be a war jointly implemented by man and machine, and combat forces with intelligent unmanned combat systems as the main body will play an increasingly important role. Only the effective combination of high-quality personnel and intelligent weapons can maximize the combat effectiveness. It is necessary to adapt to the new characteristics of the intelligent warfare force system, innovate and develop intelligent training concepts, and explore new models for the generation of intelligent warfare combat effectiveness. At present, artificial intelligence technology can create a more “real” weapon operation experience and battlefield environment, and can realistically interpret the combat process, assist decision-making and command, and evaluate combat concepts. To this end, we should adapt to the new characteristics of the intelligent war force system, focus on improving the self-command, self-control, and self-combat capabilities of the intelligent combat system, make full use of the characteristics of the intelligent system that can self-game and self-grow, form a training system, training environment, and training mechanism specifically for the intelligent combat system, strengthen the training of “people” to control the intelligent system, and explore a new training model with “machines” as the main object. In this way, the intelligent combat system can obtain a leap in combat capability through short-term autonomous intensive training to cope with the test of disorder, complexity, and uncertainty in the future combat environment.
Focus on improving the guarantee model with precision and efficiency
In the intelligent battlefield, the realization degree of comprehensive support for joint operations is an important factor that directly affects the generation of combat effectiveness of troops. The development of intelligent technology will inevitably trigger revolutionary changes in the construction of the joint combat support system and realize intelligent comprehensive support. Comprehensive support is the foundation of combat effectiveness and a bridge for transforming the country’s economic strength into the combat capability of troops. With the continuous maturity of Internet of Things technology, intelligent warfare places more emphasis on integrated support, precise support, and distribution support, that is, delivering to the required location at the required time according to the required quantity. Relying on the integrated support system, the dispersed support forces and resources will be organized according to functional modules such as supply, materials, maintenance, ammunition and management, so that they cover all areas of combat service support work. Relying on visualization technology, the current status of combat supply will be tracked and mastered throughout the process, and information control, reception and distribution of personnel and material flows will be carried out according to the real-time development of the battle situation, so as to achieve point-to-point direct support. By using technologies such as the Internet of Things, drones, smart cars, remote surgery, and 3D printing, we will upgrade and create an intelligent after-sales support system covering smart warehousing, smart delivery, smart maintenance, and smart medical care. This will enable automatic, rapid, and accurate replenishment of battlefield after-sales materials, rapid diagnosis and repair of equipment failures, and timely rescue of battlefield personnel. We will transform passive support into active service, and improve the overall efficiency and benefits of after-sales support.
Focusing on military and civilian dual-use to deepen intelligent integration
Breakthroughs in the core key technologies of artificial intelligence are the “national heavy weapons” to deal with the threats and challenges of intelligent warfare. The rapid development of intelligent technology has become an accelerator of military intelligence. In the information age, the boundaries between military and civilian technologies are becoming increasingly blurred, and their convertibility is becoming stronger and stronger. Actively establish a military-civilian collaborative innovation mechanism, continuously strengthen the driving force for the innovation and development of intelligent core technologies, build an open industry-university-research collaborative innovation system for the whole society, make forward-looking arrangements and support investments in core cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, give full play to the innovative power of the entire society, and promote the rapid and sustainable development of military intelligence. Accelerate the advancement of technological breakthroughs in key areas. We must focus on relevant key technology areas and break the technical bottlenecks that restrict the development of military intelligence. Strengthen research in the basic support areas of military intelligence, such as military big data and military Internet of Things; based on combat needs, strengthen research on intelligent application technologies in various combat elements, especially research on intelligent command decision-making, intelligent weapon platforms, intelligent battlefield perception, and intelligent confrontation technologies. The research and development of core key technologies of military intelligence should not only carry out cross-disciplinary and cross-domain collaborative innovation, but also make social intelligence and military intelligence development dock and track, learn from mature technologies and successful experiences in the development of social intelligence, and promote the rapid embedding of various artificial intelligence technologies into combat elements and combat processes. To accelerate the development of military intelligence, we should speed up the exploration of the training rules of relevant talents, make full use of military and local educational resources, increase the training of relevant talents, and provide solid intellectual support and talent guarantee for promoting the construction of military intelligence.
The breakthrough achievements of artificial intelligence technology marked by deep learning and its application in various fields have pushed intelligence to a new high in the global wave and become the focus of attention from all parties. In the military field, which has never been willing to lag behind in technological innovation and application, a new revolution is also being actively nurtured. We must accurately grasp the evolution of intelligent warfare and analyze the inner essence of intelligent warfare in order to welcome and control intelligent warfare with a brand new look.
How far are we from intelligent warfare?
Intelligent warfare is a war that is mainly supported by artificial intelligence technology. It has been the dream of people for thousands of years to endow weapon platforms with human intelligence and replace humans in the battlefield. With the powerful impact brought to the world by artificial intelligence systems represented by AlphaGo and Atlas, and the emergence of new combat concepts and new platforms such as swarm warfare and flying aircraft carriers, the door to intelligent warfare seems to be quietly opening.
The law of historical development indicates that intelligent warfare will inevitably enter the battlefield. The progress of science and technology promotes the evolution of weapons and equipment, triggers fundamental changes in military organization, combat methods and military theories, and ultimately forcibly promotes historical changes in the form of war. The arrival of intelligent warfare also conforms to this inevitable law of historical development. Looking back at the evolution of human warfare, every major progress in science and technology has promoted major changes in the military. The invention of black powder has made human warfare evolve to the era of hot weapons. Infantry and cavalry formations were completely wiped out under the line-of-gun warfare. The use of steam engines in the military has made human warfare evolve to the mechanized era, and has further given rise to large-scale mechanized warfare led by armored ships, tanks, and airplanes. The emergence and application of intelligent technology will profoundly change human cognition, war thinking, and combat methods, and once again set off major changes in the military. Intelligent warfare will inevitably enter the war stage.
The development of artificial intelligence technology determines the pace of intelligent warfare. The continuous development and widespread application of artificial intelligence technology have pushed intelligent warfare from chaos to reality. It has begun to sprout, grow gradually, and come to us step by step. To truly enter intelligent warfare, artificial intelligence technology needs to reach four levels. The first level is computational intelligence, which means breaking through the limitations of computing power and storage space to achieve near-real-time computing power and storage capacity, which is far beyond the reach of large computers and huge servers. The widespread application of cloud computing has steadily brought humans to the first level. The second level is perceptual intelligence, which means that the machine can understand what it hears, see what it sees, distinguish what is true, and recognize what it knows clearly, and can communicate directly with people. Natural language understanding, image and graphic recognition, and biometric recognition technologies based on big data have allowed humans to reach the second level. The third level is cognitive intelligence, which means that the machine can understand human thinking, think and reason like humans, and make judgments and decisions like humans. Knowledge mining, knowledge graphs, artificial neural networks, and decision tree technologies driven by deep learning algorithms have allowed humans to strive to move towards the third level. The fourth stage is human-machine fusion enhanced intelligence, which is to combine the perception, reasoning, induction, and learning that humans are good at with the search, calculation, storage, and optimization that machines are good at, to complement each other’s advantages and interact in a two-way closed loop. Virtual reality enhancement technology, brain-like cognitive technology, and brain-like neural network technology are exploring how humans can move towards the fourth stage. When humans stepped onto the second stage, intelligent warfare began to approach us; when we step onto the fourth stage, the era of intelligent warfare will be fully opened.
Self-learning growth accelerates the sudden arrival of intelligent warfare changes. The ability to “learn” is the core ability of artificial intelligence. Once a machine can learn by itself, its learning speed is amazing. Once a machine has the ability to self-learn, it will enter a rapid growth track of “improving intelligence and accelerating evolution” repeatedly. All technical difficulties in the direction of intelligent warfare will be solved as “learning” deepens. The era of intelligent warfare is likely to arrive suddenly in a way that people can’t imagine!
What will intelligent warfare change?
Intelligent warfare will break through the limits of traditional time and space cognition. In intelligent warfare, artificial intelligence technology can collect, calculate, and push all kinds of action information of all forces in combat in real time and in all domains, enabling humans to break through the logical limits of thinking, the physiological limits of senses, and the physical limits of existence, greatly improving the scope of cognition of time and space, and being able to accurately control all actions of all forces in real time, and to achieve rapid jump, gathering, and attack of superior combat resources in multi-dimensional space and multi-dimensional domains. Any space at any time may become a time and space point for winning the war.
Intelligent warfare will reconstruct the relationship between humans and weapons and equipment. With the rapid advancement of intelligent technology and the continuous improvement of the level of intelligence, weapon platforms and combat systems can not only passively and mechanically execute human instructions, but also can, based on deep understanding and deep prediction, super-amplify through the calculation, storage, and query that machines are good at, so as to autonomously and actively perform specific tasks in a certain sense. It can be said that weapon platforms and combat systems can also actively exert human consciousness to a certain extent, even beyond the scope of human cognition, and complete combat tasks autonomously and even creatively according to specific procedures. The distinction between humans and weapons and equipment in the traditional sense has become blurred, and it is even difficult to distinguish whether it is humans or machines that are playing a role. People exclaimed that “humans and weapons and equipment will become a partnership.” Therefore, in intelligent warfare, although humans are still the most important factor in combat effectiveness, the change in the way humans and weapons and equipment are combined has enriched the connotation of combat effectiveness, and the traditional relationship between humans and weapons and equipment will also be reconstructed on this basis.
Intelligent warfare will give rise to the emergence of new combat methods. The epoch-making progress of science and technology will inevitably bring about revolutionary changes in combat methods; major progress in intelligent technology will inevitably bring about an active period of change in combat methods. On the one hand, the continuous emergence of new technologies in the fields of deep cognition, deep learning, deep neural network, etc. driven by computing, data, algorithms, and biology, as well as the cross-integration of achievements in the fields of information, biology, medicine, engineering, manufacturing, etc., will inevitably promote the emergence of new combat methods. On the other hand, the fierce confrontation between intelligent weapon platforms and combat systems will inevitably become the goal and driving force of innovative combat methods. In war, the more intelligent the parts are, the more they become the focus of confrontation. The differences in advantages in terms of space-time cognitive limits, massive information storage and computing capabilities, and neural network organization generation capabilities will bring about new areas of “blinding”, “deafening”, and “paralyzing” combat methods.
Intelligent warfare will incubate a completely new command and control method. The advantages of command and control are the focus of attention in the field of warfare, and intelligent warfare calls for a completely new command and control method. First, human-machine collaborative decision-making has become the main command and decision-making method in intelligent warfare. In previous wars, command and decision-making were all led by commanders, with technical means as auxiliary decision-making. In intelligent warfare, intelligent auxiliary decision-making systems will actively urge or urge commanders to make decisions based on new battlefield situation changes. This is because in the face of massive and rapidly changing battlefield situation information data, the human brain can no longer quickly accommodate and efficiently process it, and human senses can no longer withstand the extraordinary speed of change. In this case, decisions made solely by commanders are likely to be late and useless. Only human-machine collaborative decision-making driven by intelligent decision-making assistance systems can make up for the time and space differences and the machine-computer differences and ensure the command decision-making advantage. Second, brain neural control has become the main command control method in intelligent warfare. In previous wars, commanders issued commands to command and control troops step by step through documents, radios, and telephones in the form of documents or voice. In intelligent warfare, commanders use intelligent brain-like neurons to issue commands to troops through the neural network combat system platform, which reduces the conversion process of command expression forms, shortens the conversion time of commands across media, and is faster and more efficient. When the combat system platform is partially damaged by an attack, this command and control method can autonomously repair or reconstruct the neural network, quickly restore the main function or even all functions, and have stronger anti-attack capabilities.
How should we prepare for intelligent warfare?
In the research and exploration of intelligent warfare, we must not be content to lag behind, but must aim to win future wars and meet the challenges of intelligent warfare with a more proactive attitude, advanced concepts, and positive actions.
Use breakthroughs in intelligent technology to promote the leap in the effectiveness of intelligent combat systems. Although the development of intelligent technology has made great progress in neural network algorithms, intelligent sensing and networking technology, data mining technology, knowledge graph technology, etc., it is still in the weak intelligence stage overall and is far from reaching the advanced stage of strong intelligence. There is still broad room for development in the future. We must strengthen basic research on artificial intelligence, follow the laws of scientific and technological development, scientifically plan the direction of intelligent technology development, select technical breakthroughs, and strengthen key core technologies of artificial intelligence, especially basic research that plays a supporting role. Highlight research on key military technologies. Guided by military needs, we will develop intelligent reconnaissance and perception systems, command and control systems, weapon equipment systems, combat support systems and other weapons and equipment around key military technologies such as intelligent perception, intelligent decision-making, intelligent control, intelligent strike, and intelligent support. We will focus on military-civilian scientific and technological collaborative innovation, give full play to the advantages of civilian intelligent technology development, rely on the superior resources of the military and the local area, strengthen military-civilian strategic cooperation, build a service platform for the joint research and sharing of artificial intelligence scientific and technological achievements, the joint construction and sharing of conditions and facilities, and the joint connection of general standards between the military and the local area, and form a new situation of open, integrated, innovative and development of intelligent combat technology.
Leading innovation in combat methods with the concept of intelligent warfare. To meet the arrival of intelligent warfare, changing concepts is a prerequisite. Concepts are the forerunner of action. If our concepts remain at the traditional level, it will be difficult to adapt to the needs of intelligent warfare. Intelligent warfare has undergone profound changes in technical support, combat power, and winning mechanisms. We must first establish the concept of intelligent warfare and use it to lead the innovation of our army’s future combat methods. First, we must strengthen the competition for “intellectual property rights.” Artificial intelligence is the foundation of intelligent warfare. Depriving and weakening the opponent’s ability to use intelligence in combat and maintaining the freedom of one’s own intelligence use are the basis for ensuring the smooth implementation of intelligent warfare. The armies of developed Western countries are exploring various means such as electromagnetic interference, electronic suppression, high-power microwave penetration and takeover control to block the opponent’s intelligent application capabilities, seize “intelligence control”, and thus seize battlefield advantages. Second, innovate intelligent combat methods. We must focus on giving full play to the overall effectiveness of the intelligent combat system, strengthen the research on new intelligent combat methods such as human-machine collaborative intelligent combat, intelligent robot combat, and intelligent unmanned swarm combat, as well as the processes and methods of intelligent combat command and intelligent combat support. Focus on effectively responding to the enemy’s intelligent combat threats and study strategies to defeat the enemy, such as intelligent blocking warfare and intelligent disruption warfare.
Use intelligent training innovation to promote the transformation of combat power generation mode. Intelligent warfare will be a war jointly implemented by humans and machines, and combat forces with intelligent unmanned combat systems as the main body will play an increasingly important role. It is necessary to adapt to the new characteristics of the intelligent warfare force system, innovate and develop intelligent training concepts, and explore new models for the generation of intelligent warfare combat power. On the one hand, it is necessary to strengthen the training of “people” driving intelligent systems. Relying on big data, cloud computing, VR technology, etc., create a new training environment, continuously improve people’s intelligent literacy, improve the quality of human-machine cognition, understanding, and interaction, and enhance the ability of people to drive intelligent combat systems. On the other hand, it is necessary to explore a new training model with “machines” as the main object. In the past, training was basically human-centered, focusing on people’s proficiency in mastering and using weapons and equipment in a specific environment to improve combat effectiveness. In order to adapt to the new characteristics of the intelligent warfare force system, the training object should change the traditional human-centered training organization concept and model, focus on improving the self-command, self-control, and self-combat capabilities of the intelligent combat system, make full use of the characteristics of the intelligent system’s ability to self-game and self-grow, and form a training system, training environment, and training mechanism specifically for the intelligent combat system, so that the intelligent combat system can obtain a geometric leap in combat capability after a short period of autonomous reinforcement training.
