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.
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.
The satellite navigation system, also known as the global satellite navigation system, is an air-based radio navigation and positioning system that can provide users with all-weather three-dimensional coordinates, speed and time information at any location on the earth’s surface or in near-Earth space.
The satellite navigation system is an important space infrastructure for mankind. It is an indispensable tool for a country’s national security and economic and social development. It has a profound impact on the form of war, combat style, and people’s production and lifestyle.
At present, there are four major global satellite navigation systems in the world, namely, the United States’ GPS, Russia’s GLONASS, Europe’s Galileo and China’s Beidou. Global competition in satellite navigation technology is becoming increasingly fierce.
Standing at a new starting point of profound changes in the world’s military, and looking at the future battlefield with a high degree of integration of informatization and intelligence, intelligent navigation systems will come into being and play an important role.
Satellite navigation becomes a “standard” element of the intelligent battlefield
The future intelligent battlefield will present the characteristics of high-tech warfare, which will comprehensively use intelligent weapons and means under information conditions, realize efficient command and control, and implement precise and flexible strikes. Satellite navigation technology can provide high-precision, all-weather, large-scale and multi-purpose positioning, navigation and timing services for various objects on land, sea, air and space.
Provide a unified time and space benchmark for systematic operations. For the intelligent battlefield, there are many linked elements and the situation changes rapidly, which requires accurate positioning of combat units to achieve intelligence reconnaissance, command and control, battlefield maneuvers, offensive and defensive operations, and support and guarantee under a unified time and space benchmark, ensuring that all elements of the entire battlefield form a coordinated organic whole.
The basic function of satellite navigation is to provide accurate time and space references for various combat elements. Without an accurate and unified time and space reference, the precise command of joint operations may be out of balance, combat operations may be out of control, and intelligence fusion and target identification cannot be achieved. If the time error is one hundredth of a second, a target locked by more than a dozen radars will become more than a dozen targets, and accurate defense and counterattack will not be possible.
Under a unified standard time and geographic coordinate system, satellite navigation provides precision guidance for various weapon platforms, fine frequency calibration for electronic warfare weapons, and all-weather positioning and navigation for individual combatants, significantly improving the coordination and strike effectiveness of joint firepower strikes.
Provide synchronous situation cognition for combat command and control. Accurately grasping the battlefield situation is the premise and basis for commanders to flexibly and accurately implement command and control. The satellite navigation system provides strong support for battlefield situation awareness.
Since the 1990s, the U.S. military has developed a “Blue Force Tracking” system based on GPS and satellite communications to build a precise command and control system. The “Blue Force Tracking” system has effectively supported the U.S. military in forming a networked information advantage on the ground battlefield and effectively solved the problem of “where are we, our friends, and our enemies?”
Relying on the two major services of navigation positioning and position reporting of the global satellite network, the military has realized battlefield situation monitoring and sharing, which has become an important means for the military to “know itself”. At the same time, it has optimized the combat operation process, realized the issuance of combat orders at the minute level, and accelerated the development of the military’s command and control mode towards “integration” and “flattening”.
Providing a tool to enhance the precision strike of weapons and ammunition. In the intelligent battlefield, precision-guided weapons have become the “trump card” that determines victory or defeat. Using the satellite navigation system, the flight process of the missile can be corrected throughout to ensure the accuracy of the hit. It can be said that the satellite navigation system is a tool to enhance the precision strike of weapon platforms.
In recent local wars, the proportion of GPS precision-guided weapons of the US military has continued to rise: 7.6% in the Gulf War in 1991, 35% in the Kosovo War in 1999, 60% in the Afghanistan War in 2001, 68.3% in the Iraq War in 2003, and 100% in the Syrian War in 2018.
Intelligent battlefield requires satellite navigation to have new “responsibilities”
As the core and cornerstone of the precise and unified space-time system, the modern satellite navigation system must take on new responsibilities in response to the development needs of future intelligent battlefields.
In the era of intelligence, new combat elements represented by “AI, cloud, network, group, and terminal” will reconstruct the battlefield ecology and completely change the winning mechanism of war. Satellite navigation services need to adapt to the characteristics of the intelligent battlefield with wider dimensions, higher precision, and stronger system.
Navigation positioning and timing have a wider range and higher accuracy. The current satellite navigation system has achieved coverage of the earth’s surface. However, on the intelligent battlefield, it needs to extend to deep space and under the sea. The combat time domain and air domain are wider, requiring the construction of a comprehensive service system covering land, sea, air and space, with unified standards, high efficiency and intelligence, to form time and space information coverage at all times and everywhere, and to achieve more powerful, safer and more reliable time and space service capabilities.
For example, in the intelligent battlefield, unmanned combat has become the basic form. Autonomous driving of unmanned vehicles, precision approach of drones, and measurement of intelligent missile positions all urgently need to be improved by an order of magnitude on the basis of existing navigation accuracy to ensure higher navigation integrity, faster first positioning time, and stronger cross-domain capabilities of land, sea, air, and space.
The military navigation confrontation system is more complete and more powerful. The means of navigation confrontation in the information age is a simple confrontation form based on signal energy enhancement and interference attack. Navigation in the intelligent era is intertwined with detection, perception, communication, command, and decision-making. It requires a navigation capability level with higher power and faster effectiveness in any region of the world, the ability to intelligently adjust navigation signals, and the development of multiple navigation means such as quantum navigation, pulsar navigation, and deep-sea navigation. It is necessary to integrate navigation methods with different principles, methods, and carriers to achieve navigation confrontation capabilities at the system level and system level.
The bandwidth of navigation information interaction is larger and the access is wider. In the intelligent era, the role of cyberspace in the combat system is gradually increasing, and it is integrated with the navigation space-time system. The navigation information and cyberspace system that provide space-time position will connect the scattered combat forces and combat elements into a whole, forming a networked and systematic combat capability. This requires support for ubiquitous perception, left-right collaboration, and reliable and reconfigurable navigation capabilities, support for highly reliable, highly anti-interference, and readily accessible signaling channels, and timely acquisition of required navigation auxiliary information such as geography, maps, and images. On this basis, the real integration of communication and navigation is realized, achieving the effect of “one domain combat, multi-domain support”.
Adapting to the needs of military intelligence development and promoting the construction of intelligent navigation system
Judging from the development trend of the world’s military powers, facing the future intelligent battlefield, intelligent navigation systems are gradually building a space-time reference network and navigation information service network that integrates the earth and the sky, with space-based, systematized, on-demand and cloud-based as the main characteristics, forming a comprehensive navigation, positioning and timing system with unified reference, seamless coverage, security and reliability, high efficiency and convenience, and strong practicality.
The core of the transformation from a basic navigation system to an intelligent navigation system is to upgrade from “positioning navigation service” to “intelligent navigation service”, and the focus is on achieving the following four aspects of transformation:
The space-time benchmark is shifting from relying on ground systems to autonomous space-time benchmark maintenance. The space-time benchmark maintenance equipment of the ground system will gradually be transferred to the satellite, and the satellite will be equipped with higher-precision optical clocks and astronomical measurement equipment to form a more stable and reliable space-based space benchmark through high-precision anchoring and laser intersatellite measurement. The use of intelligent navigation systems can make ordinary navigation positioning accuracy reach sub-meter level, the timing accuracy will be increased by about 5 times, and the precision positioning service can achieve fast convergence of centimeter-level accuracy. Intelligent navigation can fully support the cross-domain integration of combat platforms, the doubling of the effectiveness of distributed lethal weapons, and the precise navigation of the entire process of air-space integrated drones from cruising to precision approach.
The satellite power confrontation mode is transformed into a navigation system confrontation. In terms of navigation confrontation services, the traditional satellite power confrontation mode will no longer meet the needs of the intelligent battlefield. Navigation system confrontation is the only way for the development of intelligent equipment in order to enhance the ability of troops to quickly adapt to the battlefield environment. Specifically, it includes precise release of navigation performance, heterogeneous backup of constellations, and global hotspot mobility. The main features are intelligent navigation signals and flexible theater reinforcements. Based on controllable point beam energy enhancement technology, energy delivery in hotspot areas, enhanced area expansion, deception or blocking interference, and digital transmission service guarantee are realized. In a high-interference and blocking environment, ensure service continuity and accuracy, and gradually release strength as the war progresses.
The simple integration of communication and navigation will be transformed into integrated on-demand services. It will provide deeper and broader navigation information services, deeply integrate into the military information network, and provide high, medium and low-speed classified and hierarchical navigation information services to users on land, sea, air and space. Reuse the favorable conditions of global multiple continuous coverage of navigation satellites to meet users’ communication and navigation needs in a global range and in any posture, and realize high reliability and strong interference-resistant search and rescue, position reporting, and signaling transmission. The navigation satellite space-based network interacts with the ground network information to build inter-satellite and satellite-to-ground high-speed backbone networks. Through miniaturized laser terminals and enhanced space routers, a stable and reliable space network is formed, equipped with a complete and standardized protocol system to support the autonomous and intelligent operation of hybrid constellation networks.
The computing resources of payload modules are separated and transformed into cloud computing resources of constellation. It will provide more intelligent space-based cloud computing services and reliable space-based intelligent support for intelligent weapon platforms. The main features are virtualization of onboard hardware resources and balancing of task loads. Through the configuration of public onboard computing modules, large-capacity storage units, and high-speed bus networks on navigation satellites, a ubiquitous space network shared resource pool is formed. The powerful data processing capability can support the autonomous establishment and maintenance of space-based space-time benchmarks, intelligent maintenance of navigation signal quality, and autonomous management of space networks. At the same time, it can provide computing, push, and storage services for complex information such as spatial position for various high-end users in the sky, air, land, and sea.
(The author is an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering)
Above: Schematic diagram of satellite navigation system supporting operations.
The basic form of information warfare is system confrontation. Different from any form of warfare in history, information warfare is not a discrete confrontation or local decentralized warfare with the simple superposition of various combat units and elements, but a holistic confrontation between systems. The system integration capability of war determines the effectiveness of combat and the achievement of war objectives; achieving effective integration of various systems is the fundamental way to win information warfare.
Multi-space fusion
The battlefield space is the stage for the war hostile parties to compete. Due to the widespread use of high-tech weapons, the battlefield space of informationized warfare has been greatly expanded, forming a multi-dimensional battlefield space of land, sea, air, space, and information. Under the strong “bonding” of information technology, each battlefield space is integrated around a unified combat purpose. First, the three-dimensional, all-round reconnaissance and surveillance network covers the battlefield. Under the conditions of informatization, the military reconnaissance and surveillance capabilities have been unprecedentedly improved. The large-scale, three-dimensional, multi-means, and automated intelligence reconnaissance and surveillance network connects outer space, high altitude, medium altitude, low altitude, ground (sea), and underground (underwater) into one, thereby obtaining battlefield intelligence information in multiple fields. Second, long-range, high-precision informationized weapons are densely distributed and threaten the battlefield. The extraordinary combat capability of the informationized weapon system to cover and strike targets in the entire battlefield space has realized that discovery means destruction, and promoted the high integration of various battlefield spaces. In addition, the development of space and air power has made strikes more precise, means more flexible, and combat efficiency higher, and the battlefield space has become an integrated battlefield of sea, land, air, and space. This integrated battlefield structure has a high degree of integration of multiple spaces, and multiple spaces and multiple fields restrict each other. Third, the battlefield is restricted by electromagnetic and information competition in all time and space and throughout the entire process. The development of military information technology not only realizes the integration of tangible battlefields on land, sea, air and space through reconnaissance and strikes, but also opens up the competition for invisible battlefields in the electromagnetic and information fields. Electromagnetic and information are the soul of informationized warfare and the link between the battlefields on land, sea, air and space. They exist in the entire time and space of combat, act on all elements of war, run through the entire process of combat, and deeply affect the tangible battlefields on land, sea, air and space.
It can be seen that the informationized battlefield is precisely through the increasingly mature information technology, centering on the purpose of war and combat needs, closely integrating the multi-dimensional space of land, sea, air, space, information, etc., forming an inseparable and interdependent organic unity. Leaving any dimension of the battlefield space, or losing control of any dimension, will directly affect the overall combat effectiveness, thus leading to the failure of the war.
Fusion of multiple forces
War power is the protagonist of the battle between the two opposing sides of a war. The “integrated joint combat force” of system integration is a prominent feature of information warfare. Various participating forces in information warfare are highly integrated. Regardless of their affiliation and combat mission, they will be equal users and resources of the entire combat system and integrated into a unified large system. First, the participating forces are united. Information warfare is a joint operation in which the army, navy, air force, aerospace, special operations, information operations and other forces participate. Each participating force has advantages that other participating forces do not have or cannot replace. They communicate and connect through information technology to achieve “seamless connection” and form a force system that can play to its strengths and avoid its weaknesses and complement each other’s advantages, becoming an organic whole that combines “soft” strike and “hard” destruction capabilities, combat and support capabilities, mobility and assault capabilities, and attack and defense capabilities. Second, the participants are diversified. With the development of information networks, wars in the information age no longer have a distinction between the front and the rear, and the networking of combat systems can also make home a “battlefield”. In the industrial age, wars were “over, go home”; in the information age, wars can also be “go home and fight”. Participants in war are not limited to the military forces of countries and political groups. Non-governmental and group-based people can join the “battlefield” as long as they have high-tech knowledge and are proficient in computer applications. Third, the support force is socialized. With the development of science and technology, the mutual tolerance, intercommunication and compatibility of military and civilian technologies have been greatly enhanced. A large number of combat facilities and platforms will rely more on local basic resources. Not only does the material support in combat need to be socialized, but also the technical support and information support need to be socialized.
It can be seen that the victory or defeat of the informationized battlefield depends on the overall strength of the warring parties. Various combat forces are both interrelated and mutually influential, but any single force is difficult to determine the outcome of the war. Only when multiple forces work closely together and learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses can the overall combat system benefits be brought into play and victory be ultimately achieved.
Multi-level integration
The war level is the pattern of the war between the two hostile parties. In information warfare, the distinction between strategy, campaign and battle is no longer as clear as in traditional warfare. Instead, there is a mutual integration of you and me, and the distinction between levels has become relatively vague. First, the war path is simplified. With the centralized use of a large number of informationized weapons and equipment and their information systems, the precision strike capability of the troops has been unprecedentedly improved. A small-scale combat operation and a high-efficiency information offensive operation can effectively achieve certain strategic goals. A battle, a campaign or a carefully planned information operation may be a war. The path to achieve the purpose of war is becoming simpler and the convergence of war, campaign and even battle in purpose and time and space is prominent. Second, command and control is real-time. The widespread use of automated command and control systems on the battlefield has greatly enhanced the command and control function. Campaign commanders and even the highest political and military leadership of the country can plan and command and control all participating forces and specific combat operations in a unified manner, and directly intervene in campaigns, battles and even the actions of individual soldiers or combat platforms in near real time. Combat and campaign operations are similar to strategic engagements. Third, the combat process is fast-tracked. Quick victory and quick decision are important features of information warfare. The combat time is showing a trend of shortening. There is no concept of time for all combat operations. More often, the participating forces at all levels are carried out simultaneously in different fields. The beginning and the end are closely linked. The combat operations in various battlefield spaces penetrate each other, are closely linked, and gradually merge into an integrated and coordinated system, which is difficult to distinguish at the level.
It can be seen that information warfare has a strong overall nature. Campaigns, as a bridge for achieving strategic and even war objectives, are gradually integrated into battles. Combat, as the most basic combat activity in war, is also gradually sublimated into strategies and campaigns. All levels are intertwined and serve to achieve the purpose of war. Only by comprehensively exerting the combat capabilities of all levels and achieving overall effects can we seize the initiative in the war.
Fusion of various styles
The combat style is the carrier for the war hostile parties to compete. Informationized warfare is a process of confrontation between multiple forces and multiple fields, and is manifested in multiple combat actions and confrontation styles. Various combat actions are inseparable from the overall combat situation, and various actions are closely linked, mutually conditional, coordinated, and integrated to form an overall combat power. The first is the unity of combat actions. The victory or defeat of informationized warfare is the result of the system confrontation between the two warring parties. Isolated and single combat actions are often difficult to work. This requires multiple military services to adopt a variety of combat styles in different combat spaces and combat fields, while the combat style dominated by a single military service can only “live” in the overall joint action as a sub-combat action, and all combat actions are unified in the system confrontation. The second is the integration of combat actions. Informationized warfare is a form of war that pursues high efficiency. Objectively, it requires that multiple combat styles and actions must be highly “integrated” from the perspective of system effectiveness. Comprehensively use a variety of combat styles and tactics, combine tangible combat actions with intangible combat actions, combine non-linear combat with non-contact combat and asymmetric combat, combine psychological warfare with public opinion warfare and legal warfare, combine regular combat with irregular combat, and combine soft strikes with hard destruction to form an overall advantage. The third is the mutation of combat actions. In information warfare, while integrating various combat resources and exerting overall power, both hostile parties strive to find the “center of gravity” and “joint points” of the other side. Once the enemy’s weak points are found, all combat forces and actions are linked as a whole and autonomously coordinated, and various styles and means of destruction are adopted to cause a sudden change in the enemy’s combat capability and a comprehensive “collapse” of the combat system, so as to achieve combat initiative and advantage.
It can be seen that information warfare is a practical activity in which various forces use a variety of combat styles and means to compete in multiple battlefield spaces and combat fields. Only when multiple combat styles and means cooperate, support and complement each other can a multiplier effect be produced, thereby exerting the maximum combat effectiveness of the entire system.
Multi-method integration
The means of war are methods used to achieve the purpose of war. In addition to powerful military means, information warfare must also use all available ways and means to cooperate with each other, organically integrate, and form a whole to achieve a favorable situation. First, the use of war means is comprehensive. All wars have a distinct political nature and serve certain political purposes. With the influence of factors such as the globalization of the world economy and the multipolarization of international politics, information warfare is more based on military means, and military means are used in combination with various means such as economy, diplomacy, culture, and technology. Second, the use of war means is gradient. With the development of the times, war as a means of maintaining and seeking power and interests has been increasingly restricted by international law and international public opinion. In addition, resorting to war requires a high price. Therefore, in the information age, the use of war means presents a gradual development gradient, usually starting from retaliation, display of force, and violent retaliation (strike) in the sense of international law, and finally developing into local or even large-scale wars. Third, the use of war means is systematic. Information warfare is a contest of the comprehensive national strength of the hostile parties. The victory of the war depends on the comprehensive and systematic use of various war means. In specific combat operations, various means of warfare have different functions and natures, occupying different positions and playing different roles in the war. Only by closely combining various effective means of warfare into an organic whole can we form a combat system that fully utilizes our strengths and avoids our weaknesses, and maximize the overall combat effectiveness.
It can be seen that information warfare is subject to more restrictive factors, simpler war objectives, and newer combat styles. In the process of decision-making and action, only by coordinating and integrating with struggle actions in other fields such as politics, economy, culture, and diplomacy can the overall goal of the war be achieved efficiently.
Modern war presents the explosive growth of battlefield information and new combat style. With the continuous emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and edge computing, a new generation of command information system is coming. Based on the international fourth generation command information system, this paper imagines the overall architecture of the fifth generation command information system, expounds the technical characteristics of its knowledge center, intelligent enabling, cloud edge integration, independent evolution and resilience adaptation, analyze its key technologies, continuously improves the battlefield information advantage, and transforms to the battlefield cognitive advantage, decision-making advantage and action advantage.
Abstract
Modern war presents the explosive growth of battlefield information and new combat style. With the continuous emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and edge computing, a new generation of command information system is coming. Based on the international fourth generation command information system, this paper imagines the overall architecture of the fifth generation command information system, expounds the technical characteristics of its knowledge center, intelligent enabling, cloud edge integration, independent evolution and resilience adaptation, analyze its key technologies, continuously improves the battlefield information advantage, and transforms to the battlefield cognitive advantage, decision-making advantage and action advantage.
Download CitationsZHANG Zhi-hua , WANG Fan . The Fifth Generation Command Information System and Its Intelligent Technology. Command Control and Simulation . 2021, 43(5): 1-7 https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1673-3819.2021.05.001
Previous Article Next Article In his report to the 19th CPC National Congress, President Xi Jinping clearly pointed out that “we should accelerate the development of military intelligence and improve the joint combat capability and all-domain combat capability based on network information systems”
[ 1 ] . This statement indicates that future wars will be based on networked and intelligent system operations. The fifth-generation command information system will focus on intelligence, strengthen battlefield information advantages, and strive for battlefield cognitive advantages, decision-making advantages, and action advantages. According to relevant reports, the international command information system has gone through four stages of development
[ 2 ] and is evolving towards the fifth-generation command information system. The system architecture is developing towards intelligence, knowledge, cloud edge, and service. The fourth-generation system in the world mainly uses networking, service, and cloud to build an overall coordinated command information system
[ 2 ] , which meets the needs of coordinated operations to a certain extent and achieves information advantages. However, with the explosive growth of battlefield information, it is difficult to transform the system information advantage into the commander’s cognitive and decision-making advantages. With the emergence of new combat styles such as unmanned combat and cyber warfare, in order to adapt to the complexity and nonlinear characteristics of combat command, the command information system must break through cognitive technology and provide accurate battlefield situation cognition and planning and decision-making capabilities. The fifth-generation command information system is envisioned to be centered on artificial intelligence, edge computing, and cloud brain technology to enhance battlefield cognitive advantages, decision-making advantages, and action advantages, support combat command to move from the information domain to the cognitive domain, and realize capabilities such as information knowledge, intelligent decision-making, agile command and control, multi-domain collaboration, and edge services.
1 New Concept of Command and Control
1.1 Intelligent command and control
Intelligent command and control is to use artificial intelligence methods to achieve the transformation from “information-based, network-centric” to “intelligent, knowledge-centric”, and assist commanders in solving perception, understanding, and cognitive problems in the command field. The system architecture and technical architecture of the command information system will change. The system will apply corresponding intelligent technologies around functional domains such as situation, command, control, and support to improve the cognitive and decision-making efficiency of combat command. Foreign militaries pay great attention to the intelligent application of combat command. Since 2007, the US DARPA has published three white papers on national and military development strategies for artificial intelligence, and has launched plans such as “Deep Green”
[ 3 ⇓ – 5 ] , “The High-Tech Holy Grail of the Third Offset Strategy”, and “Commander’s Virtual Staff”. In the field of intelligence perception and tactical decision-making, it has launched artificial intelligence projects such as “Insight”, “Xdata”, “Deep Learning”, “Deep Text Search and Filtering”, “Distributed Battlefield Management”, “Human-Machine Collaboration”, “Mind’s Eye”, “Trace”, “Human-Machine Collaboration”, “X-Plan”, “Cognitive Electronic Warfare”, and “AlphaAI Air Combat”, realizing the ability to deeply understand battlefield intelligence, predict situation cognition, and automatically generate and deduce tactical plans. Since then, the U.S. military has also set up projects such as “Autonomous Negotiation Formation”, “Big Dog”, and “Hummingbird” to improve the manned and unmanned collaborative control capabilities. Overall, the U.S. military currently has the world’s leading level of intelligent combat command. In addition, Germany, France, Russia and other countries have also conducted extensive research in intelligent information perception and processing, intelligent autonomous unmanned combat platforms, etc., and have achieved fruitful research results
With the development of military technology, traditional large-scale cluster combat methods are gradually transformed into small-scale asymmetric combat. Combat activities at the tactical edge will play an important role in war. The tactical edge is also known as the “first tactical mile”
[ 9 ] . It is far away from the command center and has limited communication, computing, and service resources. It is usually composed of combat platforms, tactical units, and special forces. In order to gain information and decision-making advantages, command units at all levels use ubiquitous networks, micro-clouds, and other technologies to achieve information and resource sharing. Mobile computing devices at the tactical edge use fog computing methods to integrate into larger combat units and form micro-clouds under self-organizing networks. The large amount of situation information obtained by the tactical edge is calculated, stored, and shared in the tactical micro-cloud, which simplifies the scale of interaction with the command center, improves the timeliness of information interaction, and solves the problem of insufficient service capabilities at the tactical frontier in the past.
1.3 Multi-Domain Battle Command and Control
In 2016, the U.S. Army proposed the concept of “multi-domain warfare”
[ 10 ] , taking “synchronous cross-domain firepower” and “all-domain mobility” as core elements, promoting the high integration of combat elements, enhancing all-domain strike capabilities, and attempting to eliminate the “anti-access/area denial” capabilities of China, Russia and other countries. It mainly has the following three characteristics
[ 10 ] . First, the combat domain is expanded in multiple dimensions, enabling the U.S. Army to deploy forces from the ground to multiple combat domains such as sea, air, electricity, and the Internet, and has the ability to integrate with other services. Second, the combat elements are highly integrated, and the various services and combat functional domains can share information, coordinate tactics, and synchronize actions, which promotes the transformation of joint services to the integration of combat capability elements. Third, the command chain is developing in a flat direction, and the command mechanism is efficient and flexible. It is necessary to have centralized planning and decentralized execution, and to share information and instructions with various command nodes and individual soldiers, extend the tactical command chain, and realize rapid, multi-line, and multi-domain combat command.
1.4 Mosaic Combat Command and Control
In 2017, DARPA proposed the concept of “mosaic warfare”
[ 11-12 ] , which takes into account both ” threat-based” and “capability-based” equipment construction methods, and flexibly combines sensors, command and control nodes, combat platforms, and cooperative manned and unmanned systems in multiple combat domains on demand to form a mission system. System integration uses a building block approach to dynamically link dispersed fine-grained systems together to form a combat system similar to a “mosaic block”. “Mosaic warfare” uses intelligent decision-making tools to provide distributed situational awareness and adaptive planning and control, assist in combat mission planning, and implement distributed combat management. “Mosaic warfare” requires the replacement of fixed combat force composition with adaptive system reorganization, and the combat command has a resilient and adaptable information system that can customize physically dispersed mixed combat units on demand and meet various dynamic and collaborative combat requirements
2. Transformation of the Characteristics of the Fifth Generation Command Information System
1) The system shifts from network-centric to knowledge-centric. The network-centric approach brings battlefield information advantage, which is then transformed into cognitive advantage and decision-making advantage. The information sharing between systems shifts to knowledge-centric intelligence sharing, which promotes the transformation of the entire command system into decision-making and action advantage.2) The cloud architecture is transformed into cloud-edge-end integration. Expand the original cloud resource sharing capabilities
[ 2 ] and extend them to the platforms, teams, and individual soldiers at the tactical edge, realize the integrated hybrid service capabilities of the battlefield center cloud, mobile cloud, and edge micro-cloud in a mobile environment, and enhance the tactical frontier resource service capabilities.3) Transformation from scheduled integration to resilient adaptability. Currently, the system is deployed and operated according to preset rules. When the mission changes, it must be regulated according to the pre-planned plan. In the future, battlefield systems are vulnerable to attacks and paralysis, requiring the system to have the ability to self-reconstruct, resilient and adaptable when disturbances occur to ensure that the core mission is uninterrupted
[ 13-14 ] .4) Transformation from computational intelligence to cognitive intelligence. Intelligence is manifested in computational intelligence, perceptual intelligence, and cognitive intelligence. Currently, computational intelligence provides a tactical deterministic solution method. In the future battlefield, intelligent technology must be used to improve the accuracy and real-time degree of cognition in terms of massive intelligence processing, situational awareness, and decision-making reasoning.5) Performance changes from fixed fixed to autonomous learning evolution. The system’s algorithm and performance are generally determined and fixed during the design period, and performance improvement is achieved through upgrading and transformation. Intelligent systems have the ability of self-learning and self-evolution, and can learn algorithms for situational awareness and intelligent decision-making online to improve system performance.6) Construction shifts from capability-based to knowledge-based. Command information systems are generally constructed based on capability elements, and system integration is integrated based on capability elements. Intelligent systems pay more attention to the intellectual construction of the system, focusing on the construction of system knowledge, rules, algorithms, and data.7) The interaction mode will shift to human-machine fusion intelligent interaction. Human-machine fusion intelligent perception, anthropomorphic interaction, intention-oriented intelligent human-machine interface interaction, wearable human-machine fusion computing, and fusion and linkage interaction will become the main interaction mode of future systems, and the human-machine control system will progress towards human-machine fusion.8) The separation of combat and training has shifted to the integration of combat, training, exercise and research. The fifth-generation command information system tightly couples combat command and tactical training, and has parallel simulation and reasoning capabilities. It can not only update intelligent algorithms, but also conduct combat and tactics confrontation research, obtain tactical data, and promote algorithm learning. Exercise training has developed from war game simulation to battlefield virtual game.
3 Overall Architecture Concept
The overall architecture of the future fifth-generation command information system should be a command information system that is knowledge-centric, human-machine integrated, intelligently empowered, cloud-edge integrated, autonomously evolving, and resilient and adaptable. The following article mainly describes the overall system from the perspectives of system architecture, service architecture, and technical architecture
[ 15 ] . The system architecture mainly refers to the composition of the system’s logical elements and their relationships, the service architecture describes the integration model of information and computing resources between systems, and the technical architecture describes the system’s technical reference model.
3.1 System Architecture Concept
The system is changing from “information-based, network-centric” to “intelligent, knowledge-centric”, while extending to the tactical edge. Based on the original system integration, the system integrates knowledge and algorithms, applies intelligent technology in functional domains such as situation, command, control, and support, and improves the cognition and decision-making efficiency of combat command. The system architecture is envisioned as follows:
Figure 1 Conceptualization of the fifth-generation command information system architecture
第五代指揮資訊系統架構概念
The fifth-generation system expands the functional domain of parallel deduction and learning training on the basis of functional elements such as situational awareness, command decision-making, action control, support and guarantee, and information services to meet the needs of combat branch evaluation and algorithm learning. In terms of situational awareness, it covers computational intelligence, perceptual intelligence, and cognitive intelligence, mainly completing battlefield intelligence processing and target identification, understanding and predicting the situation, having state and momentum, and improving information advantage; in terms of command decision-making, it is mainly based on cognitive intelligence, which can machine tactical reasoning, generate plans and plans, and improve decision-making level; in terms of action control, it is mainly based on computational intelligence and cognitive intelligence, completing task monitoring and temporary tactical control, and providing action optimization strategies based on knowledge reasoning, such as command guidance, firepower coordination, and unmanned cluster intelligent control; in terms of comprehensive guarantee, it is mainly based on computational intelligence, completing the optimal allocation of battlefield resources under prior knowledge and rules; in terms of parallel deduction and learning training, it combines command and control with simulation training, trains personnel and algorithms in peacetime, and conducts parallel plan deduction in wartime.In addition, the fifth-generation system has an autonomous evolving learning mechanism: first, autonomous learning within the node to optimize the algorithm and knowledge base; second, the nodes share intelligent algorithms and knowledge through the command cloud to collaboratively complete the evolution. Each node can upload the learned algorithms and knowledge to the command cloud to update the algorithms and knowledge of the knowledge center; third, the system issues instructions to tactical nodes, weapon nodes, detection nodes, and combat support nodes, and collects execution feedback. These feedback results can be used to learn and evolve the algorithm.Between the fifth-generation systems, based on the original comprehensive integration based on the cloud/end architecture, an integrated sharing method for knowledge and intelligent algorithms has been added. Each command information system uploads intelligent algorithms and knowledge rules to the knowledge center for plug-and-play sharing by heterogeneous nodes such as battlefield detection, command, and weapons. The command information system can obtain existing intelligent knowledge from the knowledge center and conduct secondary learning and training in combination with its own battlefield data to improve algorithm capabilities. The command cloud will eventually form an intelligent knowledge center for the battlefield, and a battlefield knowledge network will be formed between the intelligent command information systems.
3.2 Concept of cloud-edge-device service architecture
In the future, ubiquitous network connections will extend from command units to various squads, individual soldiers, and platforms at the tactical edge. The fifth-generation command information system will use fog computing and distributed computing technologies to build tactical mobile clouds, squad micro-clouds (Cloudlet), and individual task group pico-clouds (Pico-Cloud) based on cloud architecture technology
[ 9 , 16 ] , forming tactical frontier mobile cloud service capabilities, realizing the hybrid service capabilities of battlefield centralized combat clouds, mobile tactical clouds, and edge micro-clouds and pico-clouds, forming an integrated resource service structure of “cloud, edge, and end”, and quickly building command chains and strike chains.
Concept of cloud-edge-end service architecture of the fifth-generation command information system
第五代指揮資訊系統雲端端服務架構構想
The cloud-edge-end integrated service capability supports the fifth-generation system to achieve dynamic aggregation and release of combat resources through “cloud deployment, cloud aggregation, cloud attack, and cloud dissipation”, thereby improving the combat effectiveness of the entire system
[ 17 ] . The centralized combat cloud is deployed in the command center in a fixed cloud manner
[ 16 ] to provide services for various combat nodes; air, land, and sea tactical clouds provide information, algorithms, computing, and storage services under mobile conditions for aircraft, ships, armored forces, and other forces at the tactical frontier, thereby improving the resource sharing level at the tactical frontier
[ 9 , 16 , 18-19 ] ; in tactical edge military operations, micro-clouds and pico – clouds are constructed. Micro-clouds are deployed in fog computing on vehicles, aircraft, and boats within one hop of the communication distance of the frontier contact unit, expanding the tactical information processing and sharing capabilities of the frontier unit personnel. When individual soldiers and units cannot access micro-clouds, mobile ad hoc networks and distributed computing technologies can be used to construct pico-clouds to support dynamic information aggregation and resource sharing end-to-end under weak connections at the tactical edge, thereby extending the command chain.
3.3 Technical Architecture Concept
The fifth-generation command information system will extend the war from the physical domain and information domain to the cognitive domain, and will change the way of command and control. Its technical architecture is as follows:
Technical architecture of the fifth-generation command information system
第五代指揮資訊系統技術架構
The fifth generation command information system adds tactical edge services and intelligent computing environments based on the networked computing environment of the fourth generation command information system, which is compatible with the system architecture and meets the intelligent requirements of the system. The tactical edge service computing environment provides micro-cloud and pico-cloud basic computing, storage, and information service platforms for weakly connected terminals; the intelligent computing environment provides intelligent services for situation, decision-making, control, and human-computer interaction.The intelligent technology environment layer includes the following five parts. The intelligent computing hardware platform is equipped with AI acceleration processors such as GPU, FPGA, and TPU to adapt to the computing power required by deep learning. Some algorithms use brain-like chips with neuron processing mechanisms or solidified dedicated intelligent computing chips; the intelligent data management platform mainly manages data, samples, cases, models, and knowledge; the deep learning framework integrates the runtime library and basic algorithm library of deep learning and reinforcement learning; the traditional artificial intelligence computing framework includes traditional algorithm support libraries such as spark and bigflow for search and solution, data mining, and parallel processing; intelligent services include application-oriented intelligent algorithm service libraries, such as intelligent interactive recognition, valuation network calculation, and strategy network calculation services, which provide solution interfaces for application development.The intelligent application layer mainly provides functional elements such as intelligent situational awareness, planning and decision-making, action control and information services, human-computer interaction, learning and training. It is the system’s main functional interface for users and the core problem that intelligence needs to solve.The fifth-generation system technology architecture model mentioned above mainly uses cloud computing and intelligent technology support services to achieve the sharing of situations, instructions, algorithms and knowledge between systems, and supports system autonomous evolution, algorithm upgrades and knowledge updates. System intelligence can be divided into levels 0 to 4
[ 20 ] . Level 0: full manual control; Level 1: computing intelligence, deterministic complex tactical calculations and information automation processing; Level 2: having certain perceptual intelligence, able to understand, evaluate and predict battlefield situations; Level 3: having cognitive intelligence, able to provide machine decision-making and decision-making deduction capabilities; Level 4: having human-machine integration and symbiosis capabilities, and the core algorithm can self-learn and self-evolve. At present, the intelligence level of the fourth-generation system is generally at level 1, and situation understanding and command decisions are still controlled by humans. The intelligence of the fifth-generation system can reach the fourth level through three stages. The first stage is to realize the ability to perceive, understand and evaluate the battlefield situation; the second stage is to build a knowledge base of tactics and enable machine decision-making based on rules, knowledge and algorithms; the third stage is to realize machine self-learning and self-evolution of core tasks, and have the function of autonomous decision-making, reaching a highly intelligent level of human-machine integration
4 Key technologies of the system and its intelligent concept
The key technologies of the fifth-generation command information system mainly solve the above – mentioned problems of intelligence, cloud – edge-end integration, and system resilience and adaptability. The key technologies of the system and its intelligent concept is the following
Key technologies of the system and its intelligent concept
系統關鍵技術及智慧化理念
The key technologies of the fifth-generation command information system cover all aspects of the command and control OODA loop, and can support the system’s intelligence, resilience, and edge command and control requirements in terms of detection, decision-making, control, and strike, thereby building a precise perception chain, rapid control chain, precise strike chain, and agile service chain, extending to the tactical edge and improving command effectiveness.
1) Situational Awareness Machine Analysis TechnologyIntelligence compilation and analysis technology.
Use big data, deep learning, knowledge graphs and other technologies to perform intelligent information correlation matching, text semantics intelligent analysis, and public opinion intelligent search and extraction to obtain valuable intelligence from massive, multi-source, and heterogeneous battlefield information.
Multiple target rapid recognition technology. Using deep learning methods, a multi-layer CNN convolutional neural network is constructed, and sample feature parameter learning is used to complete feature extraction and rapid target recognition of optical, infrared, electromagnetic, and acoustic information.Situation recognition and understanding technology. Analyze the enemy’s combat intentions and combat capabilities, use the reinforcement learning valuation network technology to simulate the commander’s situation recognition process, and combine the CNN nonlinear battlefield situation fitting ability to establish a mapping from situation images to situation understanding
Situation machine prediction and assessment technology. Based on situation understanding, the enemy’s tactical behavior is estimated. First, the strategy network is used to obtain the enemy’s activity rules, and then the parallel deduction method is used to perform multi-branch situation deduction. Finally, a prediction network is constructed to predict the situation.
Combat mission space and strategy modeling technology. Modeling the state and action strategy of the combat mission space and determining the description method of the mission state, strategy, and feedback are the basis for deep reinforcement learning to make decisions.Mission planning machine decision-making technology. Use operations optimization to complete target analysis and task allocation. Use deep reinforcement learning and swarm intelligence algorithms to machine plan force composition, firepower configuration, and collaborative paths. Tactical planning tends to be rule-based reasoning and easy to break through; campaign planning tends to be knowledge-based reasoning based on experience, involving the art of command, and is more difficult to break through.
Parallel simulation technology for combat plans. With reference to the parallel simulation technology of the “deep green” system the Monte Carlo search tree and game test method are used to simulate enemy combat behavior, rehearse and evaluate the action process, and accumulate feedback reward and punishment functions for learning, training, and decision optimization.
Intelligent generation technology of combat plans. Using intelligent perception algorithms such as natural language understanding, voice command recognition, and sketch recognition, combined with the extraction of elements from the task model, the knowledge graph is used to automatically extract the plan to generate combat plans and command sequences .
Rapid decision-making technology on the spot. Based on the current situation, using the learning data accumulated by the game platform, automatically matching the most appropriate plan adjustment, making dynamic decisions on the plan based on Monte Carlo tree search and transfer learning algorithms, reverse reinforcement learning, and enhancing the generalization ability of the plan.3) Intelligent motion control technologySituation-based improvisation control technology. According to the effects and deviations of combat operations, the resources, paths, and coordination modes of the mission are dynamically adjusted, and parallel simulation multi-branch deduction and reinforcement learning technology are used to correct the deviations, thus realizing tactical “feedforward” control .
Swarm intelligence collaborative control technology. Promote the maximization of the overall effectiveness of battlefield intelligent bodies in collaborative operations, use ant colony and bee colony control algorithms and deep reinforcement learning methods to build a global tactical value network, establish an effect feedback model, and perform strategic control based on the value network.Firepower collaborative control technology. Improve the speed and accuracy of friend-or-foe identification, firepower allocation, and collaborative dispatch, use swarm intelligence and deep reinforcement learning algorithms to automatically plan, coordinate and optimize the strike chain, and have a certain degree of autonomous decision-making ability.
Multi-domain cluster system autonomous collaborative machine planning technology. Use branch search solution, knowledge reasoning, and deep reinforcement learning to plan and allocate collaborative tasks for manned/unmanned systems, and use swarm intelligence optimization algorithms to plan collaborative trajectories for unmanned and manned platforms.Multi-domain cluster system autonomous collaborative command and control technology. It monitors the missions of unmanned clusters and provides autonomous collaborative command and guidance. It uses swarm intelligence algorithms to detect conflicts and avoid collisions among multiple unmanned platforms, and coordinates grouping, routing, and load.
5) Intelligent information service technology.
Intelligent battlefield information sharing technology uses reinforcement learning and semantic association technology to analyze users’ information needs and preferences, generate information needs based on users’ differentiated characteristics, and intelligently push tactical information to users.
Human-computer fusion intelligent perception interaction technology. Construct multi-channel human-computer interaction methods including sketches, spoken language, gestures, head postures, expressions, eye movements, etc., and provide natural, sensitive, accurate and anthropomorphic interaction strategies . Intention-oriented intelligent human-computer interface technology. Using FCM fuzzy cognitive interactive reasoning technology, infer the user’s interactive intention, and organize the interactive interface output by integrating different means such as spoken language, gestures, sketches, and natural language according to the user’s interface needs and interaction preferences.Smart wearable human-machine fusion technology. It uses edge computing technology and new human-machine interaction methods such as voice, gestures, eye movements, brain-computer interfaces, and augmented reality to provide soldiers with smart wearable devices that have a collaborative, integrated, and linked human-machine interaction mode.
7) Virtual gaming and training evaluation technology.
The combat virtual game technology builds a game confrontation test platform, conducts combat knowledge modeling, and uses parallel simulation, branch decision, differential confrontation and other technologies to conduct red-blue confrontation, which not only trains tactics and methods, but also collects tactical data.Machine training and evaluation technology uses the data accumulated by the game platform and the experience of personnel to model, adopts small sample transfer learning technology to train and optimize the algorithm, replays the real data afterwards, performs transfer learning optimization on the decision model, and updates the decision plan.
8) System resilience adaptive reconstruction technology.
Environmental perception and autonomous fault detection technology. Under soft and hard damage, it can detect the main faults and analyze abnormal correlations, predict the occurrence of faults that affect task execution, evaluate the impact of faults on tasks, and realize active perception and rapid location of system resources and faults.System self-healing and reconstruction intelligent technology. When key nodes of the system fail, an adaptive mechanism is used to reallocate resources, achieve capacity regeneration, and continuously ensure the completion of core tasks. The system changes from a fault repair method with preset rules and manual participation to an intelligent system reconstruction method.
9) Tactical edge computing technology.
Mobile micro-cloud service platform technology. Deployed in fog computing mode on vehicles, aircraft, and boats within one hop of the enemy, it provides shared processing capabilities for combat teams and expands the tactical information processing capabilities of team members.Pi-cloud resource sharing technology under weak connection ad hoc network. Based on the individual soldier ad hoc network, the Pi-cloud is constructed using distributed computing technology to support end-to-end autonomous collaborative information sharing and resource sharing between individual soldier mobile devices under weak connection to meet tactical edge needs.
5 Development ideas and ideas
1) Gradually progress in stages, starting with the easy and then moving on to the difficult. In the first stage, image, voice, gesture, face recognition, and natural language understanding are applied to intelligence analysis; in the second stage, deep learning and reinforcement learning are applied to situational awareness and command decision-making; in the third stage, cloud computing is used to realize a knowledge-centered, intelligently empowered system.
2) Select intelligent algorithms for application. Focusing on the application of deep learning in situation and deep reinforcement learning in planning and decision-making, select appropriate tactical backgrounds to verify intelligent algorithms. Tactical-level planning of paths, firepower, tasks, etc. can be used as breakthroughs.
3) Strengthen the construction of knowledge engineering in the field of combat command. Expert rules, military regulations, and actual combat data are the basis of intelligent command. The existing combat rules should be modeled and represented in a knowledge-based manner, and the input and output mapping relationship between knowledge representation and deep learning should be established. The research on knowledge learning and knowledge reasoning methods should be strengthened .
4) Establish a virtual confrontation game platform to accumulate data. Intelligent algorithms require a large number of learning samples. The ways to accumulate samples are: Establish a confrontation game platform to conduct war games, human-machine confrontation, and red-blue confrontation to accumulate data; Collect tactical data from actual combat exercises and build models as training samples.
6 Conclusion
This paper proposes the overall and intelligent concept of the fifth-generation command information system, constructs a new generation of command information system architecture with “intelligent empowerment, human-machine integration, cloud-edge integration, autonomous evolution, cloud-intelligence sharing, and resilience and adaptability”, analyzes its key technologies and capability characteristics, and attempts to achieve cognitive advantages, decision-making advantages, and action advantages based on the fourth-generation system in the world .
There are not many technical verifications for the fifth-generation system in the world, so we should not rush for quick success and still need to conduct sufficient research.
The metaverse is an artificial online virtual world that is born out of, parallel to, and independent of the real world. It is parallel to the real world, reacts to the real world, and integrates a variety of high technologies. These are the three major characteristics of the future metaverse. The operation of the metaverse conforms to the natural laws of human understanding and transformation of the world, and provides a new way of thinking to understand and discover the operating behavior, state, and laws of complex real systems, as well as a new means to explore objective laws and transform nature and society. Researching the application of the metaverse in the field of foreign military training and analyzing the opportunities and challenges that the metaverse brings to the field of military training have important theoretical and practical value in solving the key problems that need to be solved in military training in the intelligent era, promoting scientific and technological training, and promoting the innovative development of military training models.
Background of Cognitive Metaverse Empowered Military Training
The scientific and technological revolution has given rise to a new ecology of military training. Driven by the new scientific and technological revolution and the industrial revolution, cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things have accelerated their development. Technology giants have laid out the metaverse, and human real life has migrated to the virtual world more rapidly. The metaverse integrates a variety of emerging technologies, thus generating new Internet applications and new social forms that integrate the virtual and the real. Perception technology supports the integration of the virtual and the real in the metaverse, “AI+” technology supports the social nature of the metaverse, data transmission technology supports the real-time nature of the metaverse, electronic game technology supports the diversity of the metaverse, digital twin technology supports the sustainability of the metaverse, and blockchain technology supports the security of the metaverse. The future metaverse, where virtual and real are highly interconnected, is born out of, parallel to, and independent of the real world. It integrates all elements such as the Internet, virtual reality, immersive experience, blockchain, and digital twins to build a new basic ecology for intelligent military training.
The evolution of war has dominated the transformation and upgrading of military training. With the advent of the intelligent era, the war situation has accelerated its evolution towards informationization and intelligence. The informationized warfare system with “information acquisition and utilization as the core” will gradually transition to the intelligent warfare system with “intelligent simulation and expansion as the core”. The trend of long-range precision, intelligence, stealth, and unmanned weapons and equipment has become more obvious, and intelligent warfare has surfaced. At the same time, combat elements represented by artificial intelligence such as “AI, cloud, network, group, and terminal” and their diversified combinations have formed a new battlefield ecology. The metaverse has constructed a new battlefield space where virtual and real are integrated and parallel interactions occur. The traditional war winning mechanism is being profoundly changed. The development and changes in the form of intelligent warfare have compulsorily driven the transformation and reshaping of the military’s thinking and concepts, requiring the accelerated transformation and upgrading of military training, greater attention to the impact of technological development and changes on warfare, and the use of the “new engine” of training and warfare to achieve “accelerated” preparations.
Foreign militaries explore breakthroughs in military training models. In order to seize the strategic commanding heights of military intelligence, the world’s military powers attach great importance to the innovation of military training models. Some countries have begun to try to apply the metaverse and related technologies to military training. For example, the United States has successively released the National Security Strategy, the National Defense Strategy and the Department of Defense Transformation Plan, focusing on building an “all-round army” and forming a “full spectrum advantage”. It has also simultaneously formulated the Training Transformation Strategic Plan and the Training Transformation Implementation Plan, and proposed the concept of a comprehensive training environment (STE), the core of which is immersive and integrated virtual training, which intends to integrate real-time, virtual, constructive and gaming environments into a comprehensive training environment. Russia also attaches great importance to the development of virtual training systems. Almost all of its advanced weapons and equipment are equipped with corresponding virtual training systems, and are moving towards universalization and embedding. The United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, etc. are also actively developing various professional military training virtual environments. Intelligent training supported by technologies such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and augmented reality is gradually becoming the mainstream of military training research in powerful countries.
Clarifying the Advantages of Metaverse-Enabled Military Training
The emergence of new concepts in military training. Only by leading the opponent in thought can we gain the upper hand in action. The emergence of disruptive technologies will inevitably rewrite the current military training rules and systems, and will also innovate the existing military training thinking concepts. On the one hand, the metaverse has set off a hurricane-like “brainstorm”, and the training thinking led by “intelligence” has organically connected training with actual combat, and upgraded to intelligent military training thinking. On the other hand, new technologies and new means represented by the metaverse empower military training, strengthen the concept of winning by science and technology and intelligent drive, and greatly improve the scientific and technological content of military training, in order to control the initiative in future wars. In the future, the metaverse will create more impossible possibilities by constructing a virtual battlefield space, designing wars and evolving wars.
Innovate new theories of military training. War is the area that needs innovation the most. Military training must adapt to the development of intelligent warfare, and theoretical innovation and training practice must be driven by both. Training transformation will not happen automatically. It requires not only a sharp and profound foresight to grasp the general trend, but also a scientific, powerful and solid theory to drive forward. On the one hand, by keeping up with the development of the times and starting from new concepts and new cognition, we can build a scientific theoretical system for metaverse-enabled military training. On the other hand, by following the laws of combat-training coupling, we can establish an innovative model of intelligent military training theory with the characteristics of the times, allowing the metaverse to empower and improve the efficiency of promoting the iterative development of military training transformation.
Transform the new military training model. The combat style determines the training mode, and intelligent warfare changes the “rules of the game”. Military training for the next war must adapt to the requirements of future wars by changing the training mode. First, it can build an intelligent blue army with “both form and spirit”. With the help of optimized AI technology, powerful computing power support, and realistic performance simulation, the Metaverse follows the evolutionary process of “knowing the enemy, imitating the enemy, surpassing the enemy, and defeating the enemy” to create an intelligent blue army with platform support and data empowerment, and carry out “real” confrontation training and effect evaluation in the Metaverse space. Second, it can carry out new domain and new quality combat training. The metaverse expands the practical application path with new domains and new types of combat forces as the leading elements, highlights the research and development of training methods and tactics that are compatible with advanced combat concepts and winning mechanisms, and creates new forms of training such as unmanned and seamless human-machine collaboration, becoming a new point of combat power growth. Third, it can cultivate new types of military talents. At present, the educational metaverse has led the intelligent transformation of education. In the future, the military metaverse will accelerate the realization of intelligent interaction between people and equipment, deep integration between people and systems, and adaptive evolution between people and the environment, and promote the integrated development of “commanders” and “fighters” into “scientists” and “technicians.”
Reshape the new ecology of military training. The multi-dimensional perception, virtual-real integration, free creativity, and open development of the metaverse will make the future metaverse a fully immersive, time-transcending, self-creating and developing space. First, create a digital twin “battlefield metaverse”. The “battlefield metaverse” will be a typical manifestation of the metaverse in the military field, with stricter security and confidentiality standards, stronger simulation computing capabilities, and more real-time and detailed interaction requirements. Secondly, create a full-dimensional three-dimensional metaverse training environment. The metaverse uses technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality to create an immersive and complex scene environment; using powerful data and network support, it builds a full-dimensional space such as land, sea, air, space, electricity, and the Internet. Furthermore, a Metaverse verification platform for weapons and equipment will be built. The platform will have functions such as new weapon and equipment design demonstration, weapon and equipment performance test, weapon and equipment compatibility test, and weapon system combat effectiveness test. In the future, the Metaverse will greatly shorten the timeline for weapons and equipment to go from “weak intelligence” to “strong intelligence” and then to “super intelligence”, realizing the intelligence multiplication effect of weapons and equipment.
Grasping the Key Points of Metaverse-Enabled Military Training
Focus on top-level design. From the perspective of the development of things, the metaverse is a new thing, and its maturity has yet to be verified. Intelligent military training is also a complex, arduous and long-term system engineering, which requires strengthening strategic planning and top-level layout. We should pay close attention to the development trends and technological trends of the metaverse, and scientifically formulate the development plan of the “training metaverse”. In the context of the integration of intelligence, informatization and mechanization, we should give full play to the outstanding advantages of the metaverse, such as enabling trainees to undergo immersive experiential training, so that the metaverse can not only be a display platform for virtual technology, but also a practical platform for improving the effectiveness of military training.
Strengthen technology research and development. From a technical perspective, the Metaverse has reintegrated existing technologies in the information and intelligent technology group, proposed an overall innovative concept, and provided comprehensive application scenarios, thereby giving birth to new vitality. To accelerate the development of the “training Metaverse”, we must speed up the research on basic software and hardware technologies such as algorithm engines and network communications, strengthen the research and development capabilities of core technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital twins, blockchain, and the Internet of Things, and at the same time strengthen the overall technical design and research and development of the Metaverse, such as immersion, sociality, openness, collaboration, and decentralization.
Create training types. From the perspective of time and space, the metaverse may create a vast virtual war space, recreate the war environment, present the war process, and virtualize the future of war. An intelligent military training operation system based on the metaverse should be built, military training concepts should be updated in a timely manner, and innovations in military training models, management support, and legal mechanisms should be deepened. A dynamic and high-level combat-oriented military training environment based on the metaverse should be built to fully support strategic, campaign, and tactical training as well as war simulations. At the same time, in the process of “intelligent adaptation” of military training, we will achieve the expansion of wisdom and intelligent evolution towards the unknown space of military training with “innovation, openness, diversified iteration, and new intelligent ecology”.
Attach importance to risk prevention and control. From the perspective of safety and controllability, the concept and technology of the Metaverse brings innovative opportunities to intelligent military training, but the potential risks associated with the technology itself cannot be ignored. The Metaverse is a huge technology group, and its system architecture, key technologies, and application environment are still in the development and implementation stage. The supporting protection system, safety technology, and management standards will bring security risks. In addition, the integrated application of various emerging technologies in the construction process, the complexity and confidentiality in the application process will be the unknown factors for the key prevention and risk challenges of the Metaverse in military training.
Artificial Intelligence ( AI ) technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in recent years . All major powers have developed advanced AI capabilities and attempted to effectively integrate AI into their armed forces. Beijing has also released an ambitious plan to make China a global leader in advanced artificial intelligence by 2030. Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping also reiterated at the 20th Party Congress that China should attach equal importance to the development of artificial intelligence and “intelligent warfare.”
Although China’s strategic goals in the field of artificial intelligence are clear, how it will integrate artificial intelligence into the People’s Liberation Army remains opaque. But at least the recently established PLA Strategic Support Force (SSF) provides some clues: the organization has been given an innovative mission and is responsible for integrating multiple “strategic functions.” To effectively understand the Strategic Support Force, we need to explore whether it will have a “game-changing” impact in future conflicts, where mastery of the information domain and effective integration of artificial intelligence may determine victory or defeat.
The PLA’s “Joint Operationality”: Strategic Support Force
The PLA underwent major reforms in 2015, partly motivated by the need to shift the PLA’s force focus from land territorial defense to extended force projection to ensure China’s strategic interests in areas such as space, cyber warfare and the far seas. A key element of these reforms is the creation of the Strategic Support Force, which concentrates tasks in these broad areas.
The Strategic Support Force (SSF) is tasked with integrating many “strategic” functions and capabilities previously dispersed across the PLA, including space, cyber, information, and psychological warfare. Today, the Strategic Support Force consists of two departments covering these functions: the Space Systems Department, which is responsible for all space-related missions; and the Cyber Systems Department, which undertakes the PLA’s broad information warfare activities.
The ultimate goal of the Strategic Support Force is to gain information advantage, achieve decision-making advantage, and thus achieve ultimate victory. Analysts recently concluded that its mission is likely to support the pursuit of information superiority and can be divided into two categories: providing strategic information superiority and support capabilities to the PLA’s top leadership, including counter-space operations and offensive cyber warfare, and providing information support services to theater military commands.
The Strategic Support Force appears to be designed to enhance the PLA’s “jointness,” or its ability to conduct joint operations. Historically, the PLA has faced challenges integrating joint operations due to the difficulty in innovating and implementing new command and control and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. Because the information support provided by the Strategic Support Force is likely to include “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to achieve operational and strategic objectives”, some experts believe that the Strategic Support Force plays a key role in improving the overall joint combat effectiveness of the PLA.
The SSF also appears to have several mechanisms in place to develop or acquire technology in order to carry out its mission effectively. While the SSF is not the only agency within the PLA with this function, the SSF is responsible for more AI-related equipment contracts than any other service in the PLA. For example, the Strategic Support Force has made significant investments in artificial intelligence innovation, leveraging citizen partnerships to acquire new technologies such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, autonomous vehicles, information and electronic warfare, simulation and training, and target identification.
On December 31, 2015, the founding ceremony of the leadership bodies of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Ground Force, the PLA Rocket Force, and the PLA Strategic Support Force was grandly held at the Bayi Building in Beijing. Xi Jinping awarded military flags to the Army, Rocket Force and Strategic Support Force and delivered a speech. Photo/Xinhua News Agency
PLA Artificial Intelligence Innovation
The U.S. National Security Council pointed out in its 2022 final report that “while artificial intelligence will be widely used in all fields, the large amount of data associated with space, cyber, and information operations makes these application cases particularly suitable for priority integration of AI technology in war simulations, exercises, and experiments.” This is exactly the area where the Strategic Support Force operates.
Many of the Strategic Support Force’s functions involve processing a variety of diverse, large volumes of rapidly changing information flows at speeds exceeding human capacity, making them excellent candidates for the application of artificial intelligence. For example, AI can help create and maintain situational awareness and can be used for prediction by collecting, integrating and analyzing information. AI can also be used to analyze the consequences and planning of potential actions and conduct war simulations.
However, actual command decisions are made by the theater military command or the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At the same time, the development of AI for decision-support applications may be the responsibility of other PLA components, such as the National University of Defense Technology and the Academy of Military Sciences, rather than the Strategic Support Force. Nevertheless, in providing information support to these decision makers, the Strategic Support Force is likely to play an important role in human-machine interface interaction with such artificial intelligence systems, thereby effectively supporting decision making.
At the same time, of the twelve major military applications currently being developed by the PLA, at least five are closely related to the missions of the Strategic Support Force, namely smart satellites, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance software, automated cyber attack software, cognitive electronic software, and possible automated vehicles, including:
Space Battle
Cyber Warfare
Electronic warfare
While many applications of AI within the SSU mission area can be identified today, the most important long-term impacts may be difficult to predict. Furthermore, the AI plans proposed in China’s national white paper are not consistent with actual innovation progress.
In fact, most of China’s major investments in AI appear to be business-related and have little to do with military missions. Some assessments suggest that previous estimates of China’s current AI capabilities may be overstated. This means that it is not possible to immediately see the effective integration of artificial intelligence into the PLA’s mission areas, but the Strategic Support Force does have the mission of gaining information advantages to achieve decision-making advantages and ultimate victory.
As for artificial intelligence, it means that the Strategic Support Force must integrate artificial intelligence applications to make up for the PLA’s weaknesses in ensuring and utilizing information advantages. But this does not mean that the Strategic Support Force will become the focus of the PLA’s overall artificial intelligence innovation.
While many of the SSF’s missions are amenable to AI and there may be synergies between missions for applying AI, it is unclear which applications the SSF will use, whether these synergies are feasible, and whether the SSF has the capability to execute them. There will inevitably be a certain degree of prioritization in innovation for specific AI applications that are differentiated across different tasks.
China is determined to become a global leader in artificial intelligence and apply its technology to military missions to suppress U.S. advantages in the Indo-Pacific region. In many ways, the SSF has the advantages to achieve these goals, including a relaxed policy environment that promotes innovation, the SSF’s clear innovation responsibilities, and senior leadership support for “smartness.” The SSF also builds partnerships with China’s high-tech commercial sector and academia. These efforts are consistent with China’s military-civil fusion agenda, which aims to overcome barriers that prevent the People’s Liberation Army from acquiring resources from the commercial sector.
Schematic diagram. Photo/Associated Press
Obstacles to the Strategic Support Force’s Implementation of the PLA’s Innovation Plan
However, the Strategic Support Force also faces huge obstacles in implementing the People’s Liberation Army’s innovation-driven plan. The SSF and the PLA as a whole will face several challenges in AI applications, including attracting and retaining high-quality high-tech talent and mainland China’s inability to domestically develop and manufacture advanced logic and memory chips that are critical to developing cutting-edge AI—a clear weakness now that the United States has disrupted its supply of high-end semiconductors. In addition, research institutions in the United States and other Western countries are now increasingly cautious about collaborating with Chinese researchers in fields such as artificial intelligence, which have significant military potential.
The PLA’s limited combat experience has led to a lack of relevant “real and empirical” data, which may hinder the development of decision-making support artificial intelligence systems. More importantly, unless the PLA focuses on understandable, trustworthy AI, the use of AI systems with opaque operations, uncertain effective areas, and uncertain failure modes could cause serious damage.
For the national army , although there may be some limitations and uncertainties in the military application of artificial intelligence, with the continuous development and maturity of artificial intelligence technology, its application potential in the military field is still huge. As technology advances, we can expect to see more artificial intelligence systems introduced into military applications to improve operational efficiency and combat effectiveness.
However, to ensure that artificial intelligence technology can be robustly applied to military missions, it is necessary to strengthen technology research and development and testing, ensure the safety and reliability of the system, and rationally plan and manage the use of artificial intelligence technology. Only in this way can we better utilize artificial intelligence technology to enhance the information-based combat effectiveness of our military and achieve stronger and more robust combat capabilities.
雖然中國大陸於人工智能領域的戰略目標明確，但其如何將人工智能融入解放軍仍然是不透明的。但至少，最近成立的解放軍戰略支援部隊（Strategic Support Force, SSF）提供了一些線索：該組織賦予了創新任務，負責整合多種「戰略功能」。為了有效理解戰略支援部隊，探究它是否將在未來衝突中產生「改變遊戲規則」的影響，其中掌握資訊領域和有效整合人工智能可能決定勝負。
Wars in different eras have different characteristics, and the “fog of war” that accompanies them is constantly changing. Often when people feel that they have basically seen the way to win through multi-faceted exploration, the next war presents new uncertainties. Local wars such as the Syrian War and the India-Azerbaijan conflict have demonstrated the multifaceted and complex nature of modern warfare from different perspectives. It can be seen that although traditional firepower warfare is still on the stage, the characteristics of intelligence have already emerged; although the combat type is still an offensive and defensive struggle, the combat guidance, environmental conditions, and specific methods of play have undergone profound changes. Wars are accelerating their evolution towards intelligence. The battlefield space has expanded from land, sea, air, space, electricity, and the Internet to space, polar regions, deep sea, and cognitive confrontations. The game competition has changed from military confrontation to multi-dimensional competitions such as politics, economy, science and technology, and public opinion. The participating forces have developed from the two warring parties to global attention and multi-dimensional intervention. Information intelligence has moved from auxiliary support to comprehensive dominance, full penetration, and full coverage. The combat unit has evolved from scale optimization to small, micro, and sophisticated, and the form is scattered and capable. Intelligence and hybrid have become basic trends. In the face of evolving wars and new uncertainties, we need to be sensitive to change and respond proactively, accumulate momentum and forge ahead in the midst of change, so as to achieve leadership and surpass others and seize the opportunity to win.
Enhance the hybrid nature of war based on the “pan-variability”. War is the continuation of politics and has never been a simple military confrontation. In the era of intelligence, visible struggles and invisible struggles coexist, battlefields with gunpowder smoke and silent battles coexist, and gray areas, hybrid warfare, and marginal conflicts coexist. In the face of fierce and complex competitive game situations, it is necessary to accelerate the construction of a hybrid warfare system with military as the cornerstone. First, enrich strategic options. Closely follow the characteristics of the times, strengthen the exploration of the characteristics and laws of non-military confrontation and the construction of power means, implement relevant preparations, and form comprehensive advantages. Secondly, enhance invisible strength. Attach importance to geopolitical, cultural, psychological and other aspects of research, and form an effective discourse system through think tank exchanges, academic promotion, cultural integration, legal construction, media propaganda and other means to influence the other party’s cognition in a silent way. Thirdly, unite the forces of peace. Take the construction of a united front in the new era as an important means of hybrid confrontation, unite all forces that can be united, and enhance international influence and appeal.
Enhance the flexibility of tactics based on the “smart change” of the battlefield. Looking at recent local wars and conflicts, due to factors such as the regional dimension and the strength of both sides, the traces of traditional warfare are still relatively obvious, but intelligent and unmanned warfare has irreversibly come to the fore. It can be foreseen that comprehensive intelligent warfare is not far away, the extension range of weapons and equipment will be farther and wider, the combat perspectives of the opposing sides will be larger and wider, and the degree of hinge fusion between the physical domain, network domain, and cognitive domain will be deeper. The battlefield with deep “smart change” calls for concepts and tactics that are adapted to it. We should accelerate the promotion of intelligent thinking, intelligent technology, and intelligent network aggregation and empowerment to form a flexible closed link with fast perception, fast decision-making, fast judgment, fast action, and fast feedback, based on “OODA” and the kill chain to beat the slow with the fast and change with change. Relying on intelligent computing power and intelligent algorithms, we design wars in advance, build various models, and innovate tactics and training methods in peacetime. In wartime, we analyze the battle situation in real time, keenly seize opportunities, and make precise decisions and actions. We use “military + technology”, “theory + experiment”, and “algorithm + tactics” to integrate the art of strategy with intelligent technology to achieve a combination of the strange and the orthodox, take the lead in rapid changes, and win by intelligence.
Enhance the plasticity of forces based on the “micro-change” of units. One of the important characteristics of modern warfare is that large systems support elite combat, and combat units are becoming increasingly miniaturized, integrated, and modular. We must focus on the combat unit, the end of combat effectiveness, and forge a “sharp knife” and “sharp blade” that is small, fine, micro, and strong to adapt to intelligent warfare. On the one hand, strengthen its ability to integrate into the system and connect all parties, rely on ubiquitous access to information networks, and achieve decentralized combat and energy concentration through flexible matching and rapid reorganization; on the other hand, strengthen its independent decision-making and improvisation capabilities, improve robustness and self-recovery, and be able to survive, respond to emergencies, and fight in extreme situations. It is possible to explore the formation of a “micro-unit” concept force, implement a flexible organization, do not fix the number of personnel, and do not restrict the field. Advanced combat theories, new combat formations, and new weapons and equipment can be tested and verified in advance, so as to explore ways to achieve cloud combat, cloud joint, cloud energy gathering, and self-combination at the end of the strike chain.
Enhance strategic bottom line based on deterrence “evolution”. Deterrence has a long history like war. With the in-depth application of intelligent technology and weapons and equipment, the connotation and extension, force means, form and effect of deterrence are changing. Although traditional nuclear deterrence is still the cornerstone of bottom line, new deterrence capabilities have been quietly formed, requiring higher determination, strength, wisdom, and strategy. Focusing on the role of deterrence in blocking the enemy invisibly in peacetime, controlling the situation at the key in times of crisis, and winning the final victory in wartime, we should focus on strengthening the strong and making up for the weak, opening up new areas, and long-term strategy to maximize the strategic value of deterrence. First, we should give equal importance to conventional and unconventional, accelerate the development of new weapons and new forces, and achieve the predetermined deterrence intention through actual combat training and actual combat deployment, supplemented by the expression and transmission of strategic will. Secondly, we should continue to study new combat concepts and new combat theories, and promote the transformation of theories from “soft” to “hard” through academic exchanges, think tank collisions, and multi-track and multi-layer confrontations, and transform them into real deterrence. Thirdly, accelerate the transformation of science and technology into the military field, increase research efforts in cloud computing, blockchain, quantum technology, etc., and strive to form a potential deterrent to opponents.
National Defense University Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee is a very important meeting held at a critical period of comprehensively promoting the great cause of building a strong country and national rejuvenation with Chinese-style modernization. It focuses on studying and deploying the issues of further comprehensively deepening reform and promoting Chinese-style modernization, and makes strategic deployments for continuously deepening national defense and military reforms, drawing a blueprint for the new journey of relaying reforms to strengthen the military and constantly creating a new situation in national defense and military modernization. All levels of the military should earnestly study and implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, unify their thoughts, wills and actions, and thoroughly implement the strategy of reforming and strengthening the military, so as to provide strong guarantees for achieving the goal of building the army for 100 years as scheduled and basically realizing national defense and military modernization.
Reform is a key move in designing and shaping the future of the military
Reform and opening up are the most prominent features and the most magnificent aura of contemporary China. The military field is the field with the most intense competition and confrontation, and it is also the field with the most innovative vitality and the most need for reform and innovation. Whether a military can possess an unremitting spirit of reform and a pioneering and enterprising spirit of innovation is an important indicator of its ability to win. Deepening the reform of national defense and the military is the only way to strengthen the military. The driving force for strengthening the military lies in reform, the way out lies in reform, and the future also lies in reform.
The strength of the People’s Army comes from reform and innovation, and the victory of the People’s Army comes from reform and innovation. The history of the growth and development of the People’s Army is a history of reform and innovation. From the establishment of a complete set of principles and systems for building the army under the absolute leadership of the Party during the Agrarian Revolution, to the implementation of the policy of streamlining the military during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression; from the establishment of five major field armies during the War of Liberation, to the repeated adjustments to the system and organization after the founding of New China, to the massive reduction of millions of troops in the new era of reform and opening up and socialist modernization… The People’s Army has been fighting and reforming, building and reforming, and has become stronger and stronger. From the “Sixteen-Character Formula” of the Red Army period, to the “Protracted War” of the Anti-Japanese War, from the “Ten Military Principles” of the Liberation War, to the “piecemeal” of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, to the continuous adjustment of military strategic policies after the founding of New China… The People’s Army learned war from war, explored laws from practice, and wrote a vivid chapter of continuous innovation in the art of war leadership in the history of world military. Along the way, reform and innovation have always been an important magic weapon for our army to grow from small to large, from weak to strong, and continuously from victory to victory. Deepening the reform of national defense and the military is the requirement of the times to realize the Chinese Dream and the dream of a strong military, the only way to strengthen the military, and a key move to determine the future of the military. At present, it is a period of hard struggle to achieve the goal of building the army for 100 years. In order to defend national sovereignty, security, and development interests with stronger capabilities and more reliable means, and to provide strategic support for comprehensively promoting the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with Chinese-style modernization, it is necessary to continue to deepen the reform of national defense and the military.
Only reformers can make progress, and only innovators can become strong. President Xi Jinping stressed that “the new military revolution has provided us with a golden opportunity. We must seize the opportunity and work hard to not only keep up with the trend and the times, but also strive to be at the forefront of the times.” In today’s world, the new military revolution is surging, the intelligent warfare form is gradually showing its true face in the practice of war, and the new military technology and weapons and equipment system are further affecting the rules of war. All these require us to maintain a keen sense of reform and cutting-edge innovative thinking, base ourselves on the actual development of our army, focus on the needs of preparing for war, think deeply about the new force structure and winning logic necessary to win modern wars, rely on reform to continuously optimize the military system, improve the effectiveness of military governance in line with actual combat requirements, and go all out to fight a tough battle to achieve the goal of building the army for the centenary.
Comprehensively deepening reform has achieved great changes in the People’s Army in the new era
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as its core has, with great political courage and wisdom, pushed forward the theory and practice of reform of socialism with Chinese characteristics to a new breadth and depth. In the new era and new journey, we must insist on deepening reform to gain creativity, cohesion and combat effectiveness, and insist on the unchanged direction, unswerving path and unreduced efforts, and continuously push forward the modernization of national defense and the army with better strategies, higher efficiency and faster speed, and resolutely complete the mission and tasks of the new era entrusted by the Party and the people.
Grasp the overall changes in deepening national defense and military reforms. Since the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, the People’s Army has adhered to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implemented Xi Jinping’s Thought on Strengthening the Army, and taken the Party’s goal of strengthening the army in the new era as its guide. It has comprehensively implemented the strategy of reform and strengthening the army, and has thoroughly resolved the institutional obstacles, structural contradictions, and policy issues that have long constrained national defense and army building, promoted the reform of the leadership and command system, the reform of the scale structure and force composition, and the reform of military policies and systems, and achieved historic achievements in deepening the reform of national defense and the army. The People’s Army has achieved an overall revolutionary reshaping; the new system, structure, pattern, and appearance have made our army’s winning advantage more prominent, its innovative vitality continuously released, and its morale more uplifting. Practice has fully proved that as long as we unswervingly continue to deepen the reform of national defense and the military, we will be able to create a new situation in the modernization of national defense and the military.
Adhere to the ideological guidance of deepening the reform of national defense and the military. President Xi’s series of important strategic thoughts on deepening the reform of national defense and the military, which are directional, fundamental, and overall, have profoundly clarified the contemporary significance, essential attributes, fundamental guidance, goals and tasks, core requirements, important directions, strategic measures, and scientific methods of deepening the reform of national defense and the military. To carry out the reform of national defense and the military to the end, we must adhere to Xi Jinping’s Thought on Strengthening the Military as the general guidance and general compliance, and consistently use Xi Jinping’s Thought on Strengthening the Military to arm the minds of officers and soldiers, further unify thoughts, deepen understanding, and use it to guide reform practice, further work on resolving deep-seated contradictions and problems, promote the implementation of reform arrangements, and realize the determination and intentions of the Party Central Committee, the Central Military Commission, and President Xi at a high standard.
Advancing national defense and military modernization requires continued reform
President Xi stressed: “On the road ahead, the People’s Army must be brave in reform and good at innovation, and never become rigid or stagnant at any time or under any circumstances.” The People’s Army is a strong backing for national security. The deeper the reform goes, the more it must take responsibility, move forward steadily and courageously, and there must be no slackness or rest. It is necessary to continue to deepen the reform of national defense and the army to provide security guarantees and strategic support for comprehensively promoting the construction of a strong country and the great cause of national rejuvenation with Chinese-style modernization.
The cause of strengthening the military is inspiring, and the goal of strengthening the military inspires fighting spirit. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee made strategic arrangements for deepening the implementation of the strategy of reform and strengthening the military. This is not only a call to action for continued reform and attack, but also a drumbeat for determination to strengthen the military. We must focus our efforts on implementing the strategy of reform and strengthening the military, and continuously push forward the cause of strengthening the military in the new era. The mission is imminent, and the goal calls. The goal of strengthening the military depicts the goal map, roadmap and development map for strengthening and revitalizing the military. It is the soul and main line that runs through the deepening of national defense and military reform. The promotion of reform must not deviate from the goal of strengthening the military for a moment or a single moment. The goal of strengthening the military must always be used to measure, regulate and correct, providing a strong impetus for advancing the modernization of national defense and the military.
A strong country must have a strong military, and a strong military must reform. National defense and military modernization are important components of China’s modernization. Further deepening reform and promoting China’s modernization will inevitably put forward new and higher requirements for deepening national defense and military reform. On the one hand, with the increase in the breadth and depth of the practice of China’s modernization, the new progress of comprehensively deepening reform requires our military construction to accelerate and build high quality in improving quality and efficiency. We must uphold the core position of innovation in our military construction and promote national defense and military modernization through reform and innovation. On the other hand, with the practice of modern warfare, especially the militarization of artificial intelligence, the profound changes in the internal mechanism of war and the mode of winning, etc., all require national defense and military reform to seize the opportunity and act in response to the times, and make greater efforts to enhance our military’s joint combat capability based on the network information system and the all-domain combat capability. The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee made major strategic arrangements around the continued deepening of national defense and military reforms, and proposed a number of important reform measures involving the optimization and adjustment of systems, mechanisms, and institutions, which are highly contemporary, forward-looking, and targeted. All levels of the military must earnestly study and implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, focus on improving the leadership and management system and mechanism of the People’s Army, deepen the reform of the joint combat system, deepen cross-military and local reforms, and constantly create a new situation in strengthening and revitalizing the army.
We should follow the general trend of reform and gather strong forces. To thoroughly implement the strategy of reform and strengthening the military, we need unity of purpose and unity of purpose. We should persist in using the Party’s innovative theories to unite our hearts and minds and strengthen our foundations, arm our heads with Xi Jinping’s thoughts on strengthening the military, unify our thoughts and actions with the decisions of the Party Central Committee, the Central Military Commission and Chairman Xi, and take on the responsibility of thoroughly implementing the strategy of reform and strengthening the military with a high degree of historical consciousness and a strong sense of mission, further consolidate the consensus on reform, strengthen the will to reform, and enhance the confidence in reform. We should focus on summarizing and applying the successful experience of national defense and military reform, deeply grasp the characteristics and laws of reform and strengthening the military, use reform to solve the problems encountered in development, and continuously promote the modernization of national defense and the military to break through obstacles. Party members and cadres in the military, especially leading cadres, must be good promoters and doers of reform, take the lead in tackling tough problems with practical actions, work hard and fast, and make great strides forward in the journey of building a world-class military in an all-round way.
