The reason why outstanding professional athletes can maximize their physical capabilities compared to ordinary people lies in the fact that long-term scientific training strengthens their bones, removes excess fat and bulges their muscles, and achieves a perfect proportion and coordination of the body’s functional elements. Similarly, those armies that can dominate the battlefield and fully exert their combat effectiveness are all powerful forces that have achieved an optimized combination of military force systems in their respective eras.
“Military tactics are ever-changing, just as water has no fixed shape.” Since its inception, the People’s Liberation Army has continuously innovated its force structure in response to changes in the situation and tasks and the needs of actual military struggles. In particular, the several major streamlining and reorganizations since the reform and opening up have promoted the continuous optimization of the PLA’s size, structure, and force composition, effectively liberating and developing its combat capabilities.
“Standard systems cannot meet the demands of change, and one approach cannot address all situations.” Faced with the rapidly evolving nature of warfare in the world today and the new requirements for the expansion of the PLA’s missions and tasks, the shortcomings and weaknesses in the PLA’s force structure have once again become prominent. Problems such as excessive size and scale, imbalance in major proportions, insufficient proportion of new combat capabilities, and low degree of modularization and integration of troops have become bottlenecks affecting and restricting the improvement of the PLA’s combat capabilities and its ability to win future battlefields.
In matters of the world, “what must be seized is the momentum, and what must not be missed is the opportunity.” Only by assessing the situation and seizing the moment can one “easily gain advantage.” The world today faces unprecedented changes. The rapid development of global technological and military revolutions has historically converged with the deepening of my country’s efforts to strengthen its military. Changes in warfare, technology, and the overall landscape of struggle are profoundly impacting national security and military strategy. The historical responsibility of reshaping and rebuilding the PLA’s force structure, and constructing a modern military force system with Chinese characteristics capable of winning informationized wars and effectively fulfilling its missions, has been placed before the People’s Liberation Army.
The system determines the structure and function. The composition of the military’s force system determines the size of the military’s energy and the form, scale, and effect of releasing that energy in the appropriate time and space. The Party Central Committee, the Central Military Commission, and President Xi Jinping, after careful consideration and decisive decision-making, comprehensively launched reforms to the size, structure, and force composition of the military, undertaking a holistic and revolutionary reshaping of the PLA’s force system. This strategic deployment is a crucial step in rationally allocating and optimizing the PLA’s force system, gaining the initiative in future fierce military competition by “strengthening its muscles and bones.”
“One part planning, nine parts implementation”—the restructuring of the PLA’s force system has been rapidly and steadily unfolding. The total number of officers has decreased, with a batch of civilian personnel or soldiers in brand-new uniforms filling the original officer positions, thus optimizing the officer-to-soldier ratio. The number of active-duty personnel in regimental-level and above organs has been significantly reduced, resulting in a marked optimization of the ratio between organs and troops, and between combat and non-combat units. Despite the reduction in the overall size of the military, the number of personnel in combat units has increased rather than decreased, making the “muscle” stronger. The size of the army has been reduced, with traditional branches and outdated equipment units being repurposed for new combat forces, optimizing the structure of the services and increasing the proportion of new combat capabilities, making the “skeleton” stronger. With a more streamlined size, more scientific organization, and more optimized layout, the PLA is continuously transforming from a quantity-oriented to a quality- and efficiency-oriented force, and from a labor-intensive to a technology-intensive force. The organization of troops is developing towards being more robust, integrated, multi-functional, and flexible, and a joint combat force system with elite combat forces as its main body has been basically formed.
The reshaping of the force structure has unlocked the full potential for combat effectiveness, enabling the PLA to take solid steps toward achieving the Party’s goal of building a strong military under the new circumstances. This provides a stronger guarantee for effectively safeguarding my country’s sovereignty, security, and development interests, and for making greater contributions to maintaining world peace and stability.
With sails hoisted high, the People’s Liberation Army embarks on a journey across vast oceans. Reborn and transformed, the People’s Liberation Army will surely achieve new leaps forward on the path to building a strong military with Chinese characteristics and stride towards an even more glorious future!
Source: Liberation Army DailyAuthor: Hao Jingdong Niu Yujun Duan Feiyi
Editor-in-charge: Wang Feng
无命题8
2021-03-16 10:xx
●To understand the laws of intelligent warfare, we must grasp the foundation of intelligence and autonomy, the key of building a war knowledge and action system, and the essence of the changes in the connotation of war power.
●War leaders must examine intelligent warfare dynamically, keenly capture the new elements spawned by intelligent warfare, correctly analyze the changes in the relationship between the new elements, and constantly re-understand intelligent warfare.
President Xi pointed out that we should seriously study the military, war, and how to fight, and grasp the laws of modern warfare and the laws governing war. Today, the intelligent characteristics of war are becoming increasingly prominent, and intelligent warfare has already shown its early form. In order to seize the initiative in future intelligent warfare, we should actively follow the development of modern warfare, keep close to the actual military struggle preparations, proactively understand the laws of intelligent warfare, deeply grasp its guiding laws, focus on answering questions such as “what is it” and “how to do it”, and constantly innovate war and strategic guidance.
Answering the question “What is it?” and understanding the laws of intelligent warfare
Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out: “The laws of war are a problem that anyone who directs a war must study and must solve.” Today, as intelligent warfare begins to emerge, we should proactively understand “what” intelligent warfare is. Otherwise, we will not be able to solve “how to do it,” let alone control future wars.
The laws of intelligent warfare are the reconstruction of the war knowledge and action system. The laws of intelligent warfare, like the laws of cold weapon warfare, hot weapon warfare, mechanized warfare, and information warfare, are the inherent and essential connections between the elements of war. The difference is that it has new elements and new modes of composition between elements. It is essentially the reconstruction of the war knowledge and action system caused by the intelligent revolution. Today, to understand the laws of intelligent warfare, we must grasp the foundation of intelligence and autonomy, grasp the key to building a war knowledge and action system, and grasp the essence of the change in the connotation of war power. Mastering these laws can overcome the chaos and uncertainty in future wars and find order and certainty from them. This is the objective requirement for dealing with intelligent warfare.
The laws of intelligent warfare are the basis of the laws of war guidance. In “Problems of Strategy in China’s Revolutionary War”, Mao Zedong first analyzed the characteristics of China’s revolutionary war and revealed the laws of war, and then “derived our strategies and tactics from this”, that is, the laws of war guidance; in “On Protracted War”, he first explained “what it is”, and then turned to the question of “how to do it”, reflecting a logical order of the cognitive process. Today, the study of intelligent warfare should still follow this order, and neither put the cart before the horse, nor reverse the order; nor add, reduce or replace links. On the basis of mastering the fundamental law of intelligent autonomy, we must reveal the laws of war guidance such as autonomous perception, autonomous planning, autonomous implementation, autonomous linkage, and autonomous evaluation.
If you don’t understand the laws of intelligent warfare, you can’t guide the war. “Sun Bin’s Art of War” points out: “Know, win” and “Don’t know, don’t win.” Tao is the law of war. If you master it and act in accordance with it, you can win; otherwise, you will lose. Mao Zedong also emphasized: “If you don’t know the laws of war, you don’t know how to guide the war, and you can’t win the war.” Similarly, mastering the laws of intelligent warfare is the premise for correctly guiding intelligent warfare. Otherwise, it is inevitable to be confused by the superficial phenomena of intelligent warfare. Today, we need to analyze the basic, long-term and subversive impact of intelligent technology groups on war, and study what intelligent warfare looks like? What are the laws? How should it be fought? These are all major issues that must be answered in the guidance of intelligent warfare.
Solve the “how to do it” problem and reveal the guiding principles of intelligent warfare
The guiding laws of intelligent warfare are the medium for guiding practice by using the laws of intelligent warfare, playing the role of “bridge” and “boat”. We should solve the problem of “how to do it” on the basis of answering “what is it” and propose the “swimming skills” of intelligent warfare.
The guiding laws of intelligent warfare are the laws of applying the laws of war. The purpose of understanding the laws of war is to apply them. Marx pointed out: “Philosophers only interpret the world in different ways, but the problem is to change the world.” Similarly, intelligent warfare itself forces commanders to discover the laws. Once discovered, they will combine initiative and use the laws to serve winning the war, which will inevitably lead to the emergence of guiding laws for intelligent warfare. Today, war is the continuation of politics, which is still the law of intelligent warfare. From this, it can be concluded that intelligent warfare must obey the guiding laws that serve politics; soldiers and civilians are the basis of victory, which is still the law of intelligent warfare. From this, it can be concluded that the guiding laws of mobilizing the people in the broadest possible way are derived, and so on. These guiding laws for intelligent warfare are derived from the laws of war and are “swimming skills in the sea of intelligent warfare.”
Give full play to the active role of people in intelligent warfare. Engels said: “It is people, not guns, who win the battle.” The guiding laws of intelligent warfare are the laws of practice and use. It is not a simple “transfer” or “copying” of the laws of intelligent warfare, but it can be transformed into the guiding laws of war with the addition of people’s subjective initiative. Today, military talents who master artificial intelligence are not only the operators of intelligent weapons, but also the creators of artificial intelligence. People still occupy a dominant position in the intelligent human-machine system and are the decisive factor in the victory or defeat of intelligent warfare. Commanders should give full play to their initiative on the basis of mastering the laws of intelligent warfare and adhere to the “technology + strategy” combat theory generation model, so as to change from answering “what is” to solving “how to do”.
The laws governing intelligent warfare are constantly evolving. War is a “chameleon”. Intelligent warfare itself will also go through different stages such as germination, development, and maturity, which will inevitably lead to the development of laws governing intelligent warfare. War leaders must dynamically examine intelligent warfare, keenly capture the new elements of intelligent warfare, correctly analyze the changes in the relationship between the new elements, and constantly re-recognize intelligent warfare. We must keep up with the historical process of the accelerated advancement of war forms towards intelligence, grasp the direction of development of intelligent warfare and the pulse of the times, push the research on the laws governing intelligent warfare to a new level, and seize strategic initiative and opportunities on future battlefields.
Keep a close eye on the “initiative” and continue to innovate intelligent warfare and strategic guidance
As the military is ever-changing, water is ever-changing. As intelligent warfare has already arrived, we must follow the laws and guidance of intelligent warfare, keep close to the actual military struggle preparations, strengthen research on opponents and enemy situations, take the initiative to design “when”, “where” and “who to fight”, innovate war and strategic guidance, and firmly grasp the strategic initiative of future wars.
You fight yours, I fight mine. The highest realm of the art of war guidance is that you fight yours, I fight mine. “Each fights his own” requires commanders to use their own forces independently and autonomously in future intelligent wars, no matter how complex and difficult the environment is. In particular, enemies with high-tech equipment may cause a temporary local situation where the enemy is active and we are passive. At this time, we must use comprehensive means such as politics, economy, and diplomacy to make up for the disadvantages in weapons with an overall favorable situation, quickly reverse this situation, and restore the active position. If you are led by the nose by your strategic opponent, you may suffer a great loss.
Seize the opportunity and use the troops according to the time. The Six Secret Teachings pointed out: “The use depends on the opportunity.” Jomini emphasized: “The whole art of war lies in being good at waiting for the opportunity to act.” On the one hand, if the time is not right, do not force it. Be cautious about the opportunity, and have great patience before the opportunity comes to prevent strategic blind action. On the other hand, the time will not come again, so don’t miss the opportunity. Be good at seizing the opportunity, and once you encounter a favorable opportunity, you must resolutely use it and avoid being timid. It should be pointed out that we should look at the issue of the maturity of the opportunity dialectically. The future intelligent war is changing rapidly, requiring quick decision-making, but in the face of uncertain factors, we must make careful decisions. Sometimes making a decision early may be more effective than making a more perfect decision tomorrow. Therefore, we must dare to take a little risk, otherwise we will sit back and watch the loss of the opportunity for success.
Different domains are different, and operations are based on the local conditions. Clausewitz pointed out: “War is not like a field full of crops, but like a field full of trees. When harvesting crops, you don’t need to consider the shape of each crop, and the quality of the harvest depends on the quality of the sickle; when chopping down trees with an axe, you must pay attention to the shape and direction of each tree.” Different strategic spaces lead to different wars, and war guidance is also different. At present, the battlefield space is constantly expanding from traditional spaces such as land, sea and air to new spaces such as space and the Internet. War leaders should explore new intelligent war laws and guidance laws based on the characteristics of multi-domain, three-dimensional, and networked.
Aim at the opponent and win by taking advantage of the enemy. The Art of War by Sun Tzu states: “Follow the enemy and decide the battle.” Jomini also said: “No matter who you are, if you don’t understand the enemy, how can you know how to act?” Looking to the future, smart strategists should classify combat targets into primary combat targets and general combat targets, actual combat targets and potential combat targets according to their importance and urgency, and comprehensively and objectively understand the strategic intentions, force deployment, combat concepts, etc. of different combat targets, propose new intelligent war guidance laws that can give full play to the advantages of their own combat power, and implement correct war actions.
In short, the laws of intelligent warfare are the laws of the cognitive process, solving the problem of “what”; the guiding laws are the laws of the practical process, solving the problem of “how”. The two are dialectically unified and inseparable, forming a complete chain of understanding and guiding intelligent warfare. “Victory is not repeated, but should be formed in infinity.” Today, war and strategic leaders should, based on objective conditions, deeply explore and flexibly apply the laws of intelligent warfare and the laws of war guidance, and innovate war and strategic guidance in line with the times.
(Author’s unit: Academy of Military Science, Institute of War Studies)
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.
Grasp the characteristics of intelligent transformation of command and control
Command and control is the key to the operation of the war system and is the most sensitive to the core technologies that shape the war situation. With the accelerated development of artificial intelligence, especially military intelligence, human-machine integration, intelligent game, and network empowerment have gradually become key factors for winning on the battlefield, and intelligent warfare is coming step by step. Studying the development and changes of command and control in the evolution of war situations is an inevitable requirement for actively designing wars, seeking command advantages, and winning future battlefields.
Flat mesh command systems tend to be more elastic and self-organized
The command system covers command elements, command institutions, command relationships, and other contents, and has a global and fundamental impact on combat command. The development of “network +” towards “intelligence +” has accelerated the reconstruction of the command system. The command elements of the linkage network are more compact and flexible. While information warfare reduces the command gradient, it also increases the command span, resulting in the complexity of the command link and a greatly compressed response time limit. The breakthrough changes in intelligent technology enable it to achieve intelligent migration through simple replication or appropriate transformation, which can not only assist commanders to improve their control, but also leave flexible command redundancy. In the future, intelligent systems can fight one enemy against ten or even one hundred, and can continuously upgrade themselves through self-game iteration. Command agencies with centralized authority tend to be distributed and self-organized. Information on the informationized battlefield accelerates the flow of information, and command agencies must quickly classify and handle problems like sorting machines on an assembly line. The intelligent battlefield emphasizes systematization. Relying on the resource pool, wisdom library, and tactics shelf of the “Comprehensive Integration Seminar Hall”, each command agency can have a clear view of the battlefield situation in a distributed environment and dynamically adjust the investment in manpower, intelligence, and computing power, which not only reduces the burden on the command core but also improves its battlefield survival rate through decentralization. Clear and stable command relationships tend to be dynamically reconfigurable. The information chain determines the command relationship. The “smoke-filled” information system is inefficient and faces the risk of being “broken and paralyzed” by the enemy during a war. The intelligent-driven border monitoring and early warning system and the endogenous traceability defense system can quickly verify the source of the attack, randomly jump the command link, dynamically adjust the command relationship, increase or decrease the command intensity as needed, and maintain the stable operation of the command system.
The operating mechanism of system confrontation emphasizes that victory is determined by superiority
The operating mechanism is the invisible baton of the command and control system, which interacts deeply with the winning mechanism and affects the outcome of the war. The core of the system has shifted from being human-centered to being coaxially driven by humans and machines. The debate over the decision-making power of intelligent warfare has been going on for a long time. Due to the political nature of war and the inorganic nature of intelligent systems, the final decision must be made by humans. The complexity, emergence and uncertainty of the intelligent battlefield require a reasonable division of labor between humans and machines. By strengthening the top-level design to establish the human-machine boundary and the cooperation mechanism, commanders will be freed from heavy physical and mental labor to focus on creative thinking activities. The system operation has developed from step-by-step transmission to on-demand linkage. Modern warfare pursues “unimpeded communication from sensor to shooter”. The high mutation and unpredictability of battlefield situations require the command and control system to be more adaptable. Compared with traditional step-by-step command, the intelligent command and control system focuses on cross-domain linkage under unified command, which can be “pseudo-controlled” according to the enemy, situation and circumstances, and can fully stimulate and mobilize the subjective initiative of subordinates. The utility model changes from comprehensive control to key point energy release. Intelligent warfare has the distinct characteristics of non-contact, asymmetric and nonlinear. From the accelerated militarization of space, to the exposure of the world’s largest network arsenal, to the nuclearization of weapon power and the frequent testing of hypersonic weapons, the trend of military powers seeking to implement key point energy release through technological assault is obvious. Adhering to the principle of “you fight yours, I fight mine” and countering asymmetric threats with asymmetric advantages will be the basic effectiveness model of intelligent warfare.
The battlefield situation of full-dimensional perception is extended to deep cognition
Battlefield situation is the premise for judging the situation and planning decisions. Through the transmission of the value chain of “data-information-knowledge-cognition”, it promotes understanding of the battle situation and reaching consensus. Intelligent situation perception helps to penetrate the surface and gain insight into the essence. The rise of distributed access and edge computing promotes situational equality. The acquisition of informationized battlefield data is greatly facilitated, but there are also problems such as uneven configuration of infrastructure, inconsistent standard formats, and difficulty in sharing and privacy protection. Large data centers face challenges such as difficulty in load balancing and stable operation. With the promotion and deployment of flexible and ad hoc access networks, autonomous trusted computing, and lightweight data centers, modular forces will gain more equal, friendly, and convenient situational authority, significantly improving situational response efficiency. Situational analysis transforms from intelligence extraction to cognitive discovery. As the offensive and defensive forces expand from tangible space to intangible space, facing true and false, chaotic and disordered situational data, based on data correlation analysis, intelligent knowledge graphs, and intelligent analysis of diversified corpora, a three-dimensional but incomplete “portrait” of the target can be made, and with the help of battle case libraries and typical behavior models, the real enemy behind the complex situation can be understood. Situational services expand from correlation integration to on-demand push. Traditional situation services are limited by static display, delayed update, and indiscriminate simultaneous release. It is difficult to reasonably distinguish the granularity and number of meshes, which increases the burden on users. Visual demonstration graphics can efficiently convey information. Relying on data visualization, electronic sandbox, and situation map hierarchical push, it can realize on-demand customized push, reduce data congestion, and improve the accuracy of delivery.
Scientific and normative planning and decision-making call for the integration of wisdom and strategy
Planning and decision-making are the core of command and control, and are also the stage for war technology and art to compete and flourish. Planning and decision-making in the intelligent era will shift from “decision-making based on intuition” to “decision-making based on data” to “decision-making based on wisdom”. The role of commanders is more creative. In a fast-paced and highly complex decision-making environment, the amount and efficiency of information processed by the human brain are limited, which is more suitable for creative thinking activities. In the decision-making mechanism of human-machine “co-conspiracy”, the machine “staff” will mainly undertake various difficult and overloaded “calculation” tasks, while the commander will focus on “calculation” work such as setting up a situation, implementing strategies and using them, so as to maximize their respective advantages. Intelligent computers are the key to understanding the war situation. In the face of the fog of war, “dispersing or bypassing the fog” depends on the commander’s operation and means of support. In the case that the characteristics of the commanders of both sides, tactics and regulations, main combat equipment and support systems are difficult to hide, the dominant side will have targeted layouts and obstacles. Autonomous and controllable intelligent systems can surpass human thinking and create new strategies without input or weak intervention, making it possible to break through the fog. Human-machine integration fills the gaps in the battlefield system. In the future battlefield, the modular force system, the fully interconnected information system, and the command system of human-machine cooperation will inevitably have gaps or barriers, which are often the “weak points” of the enemy system. The edge computing nodes and terminal decision-making entities that constitute the human-machine system can form a highly adaptable interface environment through human-machine brain connection, playing the role of a combat system adhesive.
Accurate and efficient coordinated control emphasizes cross-domain linkage
Coordinated control is the practical chapter of command control. In the intelligent era, coordinated control will move from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, with greater emphasis on cross-domain linkage. The selection of combat targets has evolved from careful selection to precise attack with full visibility. Critical targets and key nodes are like the “life gate” of the combat system, and are the key to attack and defense. How to locate the target? How to evaluate the target? How to measure the benefit? If the control is not appropriate, once a misfire or misinjury occurs, it will inevitably cause serious political and military consequences. In the future, the combination of “front-line cheap unmanned equipment + mid-stage solution and recognition system + back-stage judgment and evaluation personnel” can not only quickly identify and locate targets, but also intelligently screen and distinguish high-value targets. The control of the combat process has evolved from precise control to dynamic adjustment. The goal of coordinated control is to effectively connect various sub-domain directions, various participating forces, various offensive and defensive actions, and operations at all stages. Usually affected by the time lag of commands, it is difficult for deep command organizations to accurately control front-line troops in real time. The use of virtual augmented reality, real-time situation sharing, and data concurrent links can enable commanders to see, judge, and control the battle situation as if they were “on the scene”. The achievement of combat effectiveness has evolved from focusing on energy release to cross-domain coupling. Joint operations emphasize the close coupling and joint response of multi-domain battlefields, bringing about a positive superposition of combat effects. With the help of situation tracking systems, strike evaluation models, and effect diffusion algorithms, commanders can accurately predict the battle situation, reasonably seek benefits and avoid harm, and comprehensively control combat effects.
Precise and quantitative performance evaluation pursues iterative efficiency improvement
Effectiveness evaluation is a test of the degree of command and control, and is also the basis for optimizing and improving the combat system. The promotion of intelligent deduction and evaluation theories and methods will further demonstrate the benefits of “learning war from war”. Classic battle examples contribute new quality combat power under a new perspective. The military inherits military traditions, and past battle examples are an important carrier. With the help of behavioral logic modeling, intelligent image synthesis, natural language compilation and other technologies, historical scenes can be “reproduced”, key figures can be “revived”, key decisions can be reviewed, and opponents can be preset in a targeted manner to improve the readiness of war and combat command. Realistic operations reduce uncertainty in simulation verification. Organizing war games before the launch of a campaign action, after the end of a combat action, or during a major exercise can verify combat concepts, practice tactics and processes, and identify strengths and weaknesses. Under intelligent conditions, command agencies rely on computer war game systems to repeatedly conduct pre-war simulations, design intelligent blue troops to cooperate with actual military exercises, and organize post-war reviews based on data identification and image synthesis, which can approach the “standard answer” in “violent actions”. Wars are happening in combat laboratories in advance. In the future, people with more and more machine-like superpowers and machines that are more and more like humans will fight side by side. By constructing realistic battlefields, mixed human-machine formations, creating multi-script rules, defining flexible boundaries between humans and machines, and simulating extreme training conditions, it will help the troops understand the intelligent battlefield, deepen human-machine collaboration, rehearse future battles, and proactively open the door to intelligent warfare.
Since the 21st century, with the deepening of the world’s new military revolution, the world’s military powers have proposed a series of new combat concepts and continuously improved them in war practice, thus leading to the accelerated evolution of war. With the rapid development of information technologies such as cloud computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and big data, as well as their widespread application in the military field, people’s mode of understanding war has gradually changed from summarizing actual combat experience to studying and judging future wars. At present, as the source of military capability building, the strength of operational concept development capabilities will directly affect the opportunity to win the war. In particular, the new military revolution in the world is booming, calling for innovation in combat theory all the time. Only by developing new combat concepts and designing future wars with a forward-looking perspective can we gain the initiative in preparing for military struggles.
The concept of combat fundamentally solves how to fight a war
First-rate armies design wars, second-rate armies respond to wars, and third-rate armies follow wars. The so-called “real war happens before the war” means that before the war begins, the theory, style, and fighting methods of the war have already been designed. How can it be unwinnable to fight a war according to the design? The key to designing a war is to design and develop new combat concepts based on understanding the characteristics and laws of war, promote innovation in combat styles and tactics, and fundamentally solve “how to fight a war.”
In designing a war, theory comes first. In recent years, the US military has proposed new concepts such as “network-centric warfare”, “air-sea warfare” and “hybrid warfare”, and the Russian military has proposed theories such as “non-nuclear containment strategy”, “strategic air and space campaign” and “national information security doctrine”, reflecting The world’s military powers are vigorously studying combat theories and seizing the military commanding heights. To a certain extent, operational concepts are the “organizing cells” for the formation of operational theories. Without complete concept generation capabilities, it is difficult to generate advanced theories. When a combat theory is proposed, relevant combat concepts need to be developed so that the combat theory can be “sinked” concretely, better improved, and transformed into military practice. When there is no operational theory concept, operational concept innovation can provide “raw materials” for studying operational theory. The military field is the most uncertain field, and people’s understanding of war is always evolving. However, innovation in combat theory cannot wait until the understanding matures before starting. Instead, it needs to actively develop and innovate combat concepts on the basis of existing understanding, construct a future combat picture, explore future winning mechanisms, and guide and guide military practice. Take the initiative in war. Therefore, innovation in operational concepts is becoming a strategic fulcrum and lever for military construction and development.
Operational concept development focuses on designing core operational concepts. The core combat concept is the nucleus and embryo of the combat concept. It reflects the essential requirements of combat and contains the “gene” for the growth of the combat concept. The entire concept system is derived and developed from this. At present, the understanding of the winning mechanisms of informatization and intelligent warfare is gradually becoming clearer, and it is time to focus the focus of designing wars on the development of main combat theories and key combat concepts.
The operational concept is an abstract expression of operational thoughts.
The term “operational concept” originated from the US military. It is a description of how to fight in the future. It is increasingly becoming an important starting point to promote the construction and development of the military. The U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command Concept Development Guide points out that an operational concept is a concept, an idea, an overall understanding, and an inference based on specific events in the operational environment. It outlines what will be done in the broadest sense, and in more specific measures The above describes how the battle is fought. The US Marine Corps Combat Development Command Operational Development and Integration Directive states that an operational concept expresses how to fight a war and is used to describe future combat scenarios and how to use military art and scientific capabilities to meet future challenges. The US Air Force Operational Concept Development Doctrine points out that an operational concept is a conceptual description at the theoretical level of war. It realizes established operational concepts and intentions through the orderly organization of combat capabilities and combat tasks.
To sum up, the operational concept can be understood as an abstract understanding of operational ideas and action plans for specific current or future operational problems. Generally speaking, the operational concept includes three parts: first, the description of the operational problem, that is, the background of the operational concept, operational environment, operational opponents, etc.; second, the description of the solution, that is, the conceptual connotation, application scenarios, and action styles. , winning mechanism, capability characteristics and advantages, etc.; the third is the description of capability requirements, that is, the equipment technology, basic conditions, implementation means, etc. required to implement the operational concept. It can be seen that the operational concept should have the characteristics of pertinence, scientificity, adaptability and feasibility, and its connotation and extension will be continuously adjusted with changes in strategic background, military policy, threatening opponents, time and space environment, capability conditions and other factors.
In a sense, the operational concept is actually a transitional form of operational theory, and its ultimate value is to guide and pull military practice. The purpose and destination of developing new combat concepts is to tap into and enhance the military’s combat effectiveness. Only by transforming combat concepts into combat doctrine and combat plans can their value be fully exerted.
Innovation in combat concepts drives changes in combat styles
Since the beginning of the 21st century, the world’s military powers, in accordance with national strategic requirements and in response to new threats and challenges, have regarded the development of new operational concepts as a key step in the transformation of military capabilities, promoted changes in operational styles, and sought to gain opportunities for victory in future battlefields. In order to further strengthen their military leadership, the world’s military powers are accelerating the launch of a series of new combat concepts.
The U.S. military actively seizes the opportunities brought by scientific and technological progress, comprehensively uses cutting-edge technologies such as new generation information technology, artificial intelligence technology, and unmanned autonomous technology to propose mosaic warfare, multi-domain operations, distributed destruction, decision-centered warfare, and joint full-domain command and control. and a series of new operational concepts, promoting fundamental changes in operational thinking, combat styles, combat spaces and combat systems.
Unlike the US military, the Russian army implements iterative innovation in operational concepts in military practice. Recently, the Russian military has been committed to promoting the construction of joint combat capabilities, accelerating the development and deployment of new unmanned equipment, focusing on creating network information battlefield advantages, constantly enriching the connotation of its traditional combat concepts, and integrating them with new combat concepts such as hybrid warfare and mental warfare. Used to guide war practice.
Generally speaking, in recent years, the new combat concepts proposed by the world’s military powers are leading to profound changes in combat styles. Their capabilities, characteristics and advantages are mainly reflected in the following five aspects: First, unmanned combat equipment, based on the new combat concepts The proportion of unmanned equipment systems has increased significantly, and manned and unmanned coordinated operations have become one of the main combat styles, forming the advantage of using unmanned systems to control manned forces. Second, the deployment method is decentralized. The deployment of forces based on new combat concepts is distributed and inter-system They are interconnected and have interoperability capabilities, forming the advantage of separate systems and combinations; third, the kill network is complex. The kill network based on new combat concepts has more diverse functions. A single system can perform a variety of tasks, and its failure has a greater impact on the combat system. Small, forming the advantage of using more to control single orders; fourth, the response time is agile, and the new combat concept emphasizes quick decisions, taking the enemy by surprise, and forming the advantage of using speed to control the slow; fifth, the combat field is multi-dimensional, and the new combat concept Pay more attention to multi-domain linkage, expanding the battlefield from traditional land, sea and air to electromagnetic, network and cognitive domains, forming intangible and tangible advantages.
Operation concept development should adhere to systematic design ideas
Using operational concepts to guide the construction of military forces is a common practice among the world’s military powers. Comparatively speaking, the U.S. military has a relatively complete operational concept development mechanism and has built a relatively complete operational concept development system, which consists of concept types, organizational structures, specifications and standards, and support means.
In terms of concept types, U.S. military operational concepts can be basically divided into three categories: First, a series of operational concepts developed under the leadership of each service. They mainly start from the perspective of their own services to study potential enemies and future battlefields, redefine combat styles, and seek to win. new ways. The second is a series of joint operations concepts developed under the leadership of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which are mainly composed of three levels: top-level concepts, operational concepts and supporting concepts. The third is the operational concepts developed by academia, think tanks, etc. The number of such operational concepts is not as large as the first two categories, but it is still an important part of the operational concept system. Through this system, the US military implements grand military strategies layer by layer through operational concepts into various combat operations, various combat capabilities, and various types of weapons and equipment performance for the troops, guiding the construction of joint forces and various services and arms.
In terms of organizational structure, taking the development of joint operations concepts as an example, the US military has established a working system composed of five types of organizations. The first is the Joint Concept Working Group, whose main responsibility is to review the concept outline and overall issues of concept development; the second is the Joint Concept Steering Committee, whose main responsibility is to supervise and guide the concept development plan; the third is the core writing team, whose main responsibility is to compile the concept outline The original concepts in the concept are transformed into joint operational concepts; the fourth is the concept research and development team, whose main responsibility is to provide operational concept development methods and plans; the fifth is the independent red team, whose main responsibility is to carry out independent evaluation to judge the rigor and scientificity of the concept.
In terms of norms and standards, for the development of joint operations concepts, the U.S. military has complete institutional system constraints and guidance to standardize, standardize and program the concept development, which is mainly reflected in a series of joint chiefs of staff chairman Directives and joint publications. For example, the “Joint Concept Development and Implementation Guide” aims to establish a governance structure for joint concept development, clarify the framework for joint operational concept planning, execution and evaluation, and promote the implementation of joint operational concepts; the “Joint Doctrine Preparation Process” aims to develop joint doctrine Standardize the preparation process and provide a clear process framework for transforming operational concepts into operational doctrine.
In terms of support means, the design, development and verification of operational concepts is a systematic project that cannot be separated from the support of various development tools and means. For example, tools such as DODAF2.0 model, IDEFO model and SYSML modeling language can provide standardized structured analysis models and logical description models for combat concept designers; model-based system engineering methods can provide combat concept designers and evaluation Verifiers provide capability models of equipment elements in the operational concept, which are used to design and build the operational concept framework. The U.S. military’s joint operations concept development uses network-based digital software, which has strong interconnection capabilities. All agencies involved in the development can share information in real time and improve development efficiency.
The mature development of operational concepts requires the cooperation of multiple parties
Developing an operational concept is a multi-disciplinary, multi-field work involving military science, philosophy, operations research, systems science and many other fields. It requires the cooperation of multiple parties to ensure that it is both advanced and forward-looking at the theoretical level and It is applicable and feasible at the practical level.
Establish a small core and large peripheral research team. The department initiating the development of operational concepts should give full play to its leading role and coordinate and schedule the research work from an overall perspective; establish a joint research and development team to give full play to the role of group wisdom and widely obtain new ideas and new ideas from all parties on the research of operational concepts. Methods and new perspectives; establish a cross-field and cross-department expert committee to supervise, review and guide related work from multiple perspectives.
Form a multi-departmental linkage working mechanism. In order to ensure smooth communication and efficient operation among various departments, it is necessary to first clarify their respective tasks and responsibilities. For example, the concept initiating department is responsible for overall planning and implementation, the laboratory is responsible for technical verification, the industrial department is responsible for equipment research and development, and the combat force is responsible for actual combat testing. Secondly, it is necessary to formulate relevant normative documents to ensure that all work is carried out in an orderly manner and to provide institutional support for the research and development of operational concepts. Finally, a demand traction mechanism, a collaborative research mechanism, an iterative feedback mechanism, etc. must be established to open up the link from research and development to practical application of combat concepts.
Promote the organic integration of theory and practice. Only through the cyclic iteration of “design research-deduction verification-actual military testing” can operational concepts be gradually adjusted, optimized and improved, and drive the development of war theory. Therefore, the development of operational concepts must pay special attention to the combination of theoretical innovation and practical application. Through the mutual driving of theory and practice, the fundamental purpose of leading the generation of new quality combat capabilities can be achieved. Specific methods include incorporating mature combat concepts into combat doctrine in a timely manner, preparing training syllabuses or teaching materials accordingly, and gradually promoting them to the troops; organizing relevant drills or tests to test the maturity and feasibility of combat concepts under conditions close to actual combat. nature, find and solve problems; use the capability indicators determined by the combat concept as a reference for equipment demand demonstration, drive the development of equipment technology, and promote the improvement of combat capabilities.
The rapid development of science and technology in the new era has brought many new opportunities and challenges to military capability building. Developing new combat concepts can help to keenly seize the military opportunities brought by scientific and technological progress, actively respond to threats and challenges caused by scientific and technological development, and timely grasp the direction and laws of the evolution of war forms, which can provide guidance for leading future war styles and seizing the opportunity to win. important support. At present, the international security situation is complex and ever-changing. To win future information-based wars, we need to regard the development of operational concepts as the starting point of national defense and military construction, actively carry out military technological innovation, promote the upgrading of weapons and equipment, achieve leapfrog development, and thus lead the new era. Military revolutionary trends.
(Author’s unit: Second Research Institute of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation)
