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Chinese Military in-depth Analysis of the Latest “Cognitive Warfare” Case in the Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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中國軍方深入解析俄烏衝突最新「認知戰」案例

2023-10-07 09:00　來源: 述策

現代英語：

It is said that on September 22, the Ukrainian Air Force used the “Storm Shadow” cruise missile to attack the Black Sea Fleet Command in Sevastopol. Since then, the life and death of Admiral Victor Sokolov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, has been a topic of concern to the outside world. After a few days of undercurrents, on September 25, the Ukrainian Special Operations Command (SOF) announced that they had successfully “killed” Admiral Sokolov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, and dozens of officers below him. Even Admiral Romanchuk, commander of the Russian Zaporizhia Cluster, was injured by the Ukrainian army.

Unexpectedly, Ukraine’s news was “slapped in the face” less than a day after it was released-on September 26, the Russian Ministry of Defense held a meeting of the National Defense Committee. Senior leaders of the Ministry of Defense, commanders of various military regions, and commanders of various military services attended the meeting in person or via video. At the meeting, Admiral Sokolov, commander of the Black Sea Fleet, who was declared “killed” by Ukrainian officers, appeared. After the news was released, the Ukrainian side was extremely embarrassed and had to announce that they wanted to collect more information. But then someone claimed that Admiral Sokolov, who attended the meeting, was “just a photo” and not a real person.

Nevertheless, the battle between the Russian and Ukrainian armies over the life and death of General Sokolov can be seen as a classic case of cognitive warfare in the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict. It is worthwhile for us to analyze this case specifically, and it is even more worthwhile for us to “talk about” this case and talk about the battle between the Russian and Ukrainian armies in the field of cognitive warfare in the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict.

  1. Is the “beheading” of General Sokolov not an isolated case?

It is not the first time that the Ukrainian propaganda department has fallen into the trap of “beheading” Russian generals. For example, in mid-June this year, the Ukrainian army spread rumors that the Vice President of Chechnya, Lieutenant General of the Chechen National Guard, and Kadyrov Jr.’s right-hand man, Drimkhanov, was “killed” by the Ukrainian army’s HIMARS rocket launcher.

From the perspective of the implementation process of the entire cognitive warfare, whether it was the “beheading” of Drimkhanov in June or the “beheading” of General Sokolov this time, the whole process was similar:

The first step: The Ukrainian propaganda department deliberately “created topics”. The so-called “creating topics” can be regarded as a “primer” in cognitive warfare, which serves to trigger heated public discussion. This kind of “primer” is often not necessarily released by the official, but may be released by some semi-official channels or channels with close ties to the official. For example, the fact that Lieutenant General Drimkhanov was “killed” by the Ukrainian army’s “HIMARS” rocket launcher was first said to have been released from a telegram group of the Ukrainian armed forces, and the statement was ambiguous. The earliest source of the news that Admiral Sokolov was “beheaded” this time was traced back to a telegram group in Russia. The news in this telegram group is mixed, some of which are of low credibility, but some are surprisingly accurate. In a sense, releasing the “primer” of cognitive warfare through these groups is even more likely to arouse public attention and discussion than official news.

The second step can be regarded as “reinforcement” of public opinion. The first step of cognitive warfare, namely “primer information”, often lacks details for a complete news, but it doesn’t matter. Judging from the efficiency and characteristics of information dissemination in the current society, a “lead information” that lacks details but is easy to arouse everyone’s interest, but has information barriers due to some factors, will naturally be “supplemented with details” during the dissemination process. This is true whether Admiral Sokolov was “shot dead” or Drimkhanov was “beheaded”. Information lacks details, but it is very important “Breaking News” for the media. At the same time, due to military secrets, it is impossible to cross the information barrier to obtain more information in time. Therefore, this will inevitably lead the media to a result – public opinion “reinforcement”, and everyone will do it together, and in the process of word of mouth, a lead information will be constantly detailed and “real”. For example, in the process of dissemination, Drimkhanov was “beheaded”, and the “time” and “place” of his beheading were supplemented one after another (even due to different dissemination channels, these time and place elements are also different), sometimes appearing in Kremenaya and sometimes in Gorlovka. The same is true for Admiral Sokolov’s “killing”. During the process of information dissemination, people have come up with a whole set of details such as “The Black Sea Fleet held a regular meeting on Friday, and the Ukrainian army seized the opportunity to launch a strike”, “Two missiles hit the headquarters office, and the other missile launched a supplementary strike when the rescuers went in to rescue people”. It is precisely in this “decentralized” word of mouth that the “fact” that these two senior generals were “beheaded” has been continuously strengthened, and the lack of information sources is even more conducive to the cognitive shaping of ordinary information recipients.

After several days of fermentation, the cognitive war has come to the third step – “the final word”. The Ukrainian official did not “finally decide” the “beheading” of Drimkhanov. Kadyrov Jr. couldn’t sit still first, and soon released a video of himself and Drimkhanov sitting together for a meal and picnic, and even took out his mobile phone on the spot to show the shooting time, “slapping his face”. Admiral Sokolov was “finally decided” by large departments such as the Ukrainian Special Operations Command and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. According to the process of cognitive warfare, this kind of official media “final word” should play the role of completing the cognitive shaping process in the field of cognitive warfare, that is, completing a complete logical closed loop from releasing “primers” to “speculation reinforcement” by the outside world, and finally “stamping and confirming” by the official. However, the Russian army took the initiative and performed a “slap in the face on the spot”, which not only made all the information dissemination of the Ukrainian army in front of it useless, but also made Ukraine’s two key units, the Special Operations Command and even the Ministry of Defense, become clowns.

  1. Cognitive warfare in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, is the Ukrainian army coming in full force?

Many people may be puzzled by the Ukrainian army’s cognitive warfare propaganda department’s personal participation in the rumor that Chechen Vice President Delimkhanov or General Sokolov was “killed” by the Ukrainian army: If the Russian side responds quickly, pulls these senior generals out to show their faces, and self-confirms that “I am still alive”, then won’t the rumors of the Ukrainian cognitive warfare be self-defeating?

It seems reasonable, but the Russian army did not clarify it once it was rumored. Why? Because things are not that simple.

First, from a tactical perspective, if the Russian army arranges for generals to come out and refute rumors every time the Ukrainian army creates a rumor about a senior general, the most direct consequence is that it will cause unnecessary interference and trouble to the daily combat command of senior generals. In combat operations, the time of senior officers above the rank of general is very precious, the daily workload is extremely high, and the brainpower is extremely consumed. It is impossible for them to have so much time to appear and refute rumors endlessly. If the Russian army refutes a rumor every time the Ukrainian army creates a rumor, then these senior generals will have nothing to do in their daily lives and just shoot videos to refute rumors every day.

Second, for information that enters the cognitive shaping cycle, in some cases, “refutation” is not only useless, but will further create more rumors. For example, regarding the “beheading” of General Sokolov, although the Russian army has arranged to refute the rumor, some Ukrainian groups are still “picking on it”, believing that General Sokolov did not move in front of the camera and that the time and place of General Sokolov’s interview could not be seen, so it was just “information countermeasures” arranged by the Russian side. Even for some Russian generals who were “officially announced” and “beheaded” by Ukraine last year but then appeared on certain occasions, such as Major General Gerasimov, Chief of Staff of the 41st Army, there are still Ukrainian supporters who claim that “this person is dead”. The only reason is that this person did not show up again after showing up!

Therefore, in the field of cognitive warfare, many things are not as simple as we think.

Having said that, at the strategic level, there is indeed a big gap between the Russian army and the Ukrainian army in the field of cognitive warfare in the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict. The Ukrainian army is very good at creating topics, and it is flexible and mobile and pays attention to participation.

In terms of creating topics, Ukraine takes the initiative to create topics almost every time in cognitive warfare, from the Mariupol Theater incident at the beginning, to the Bucha incident later, to the chemical explosion in Rubezhnoy, and the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant incident and the explosion of the New Kakhovka Hydropower Station Dam. Almost every time, Ukraine “takes the lead”. Russia is in a state of passive response, and as a result, Ukraine continues to create topics and continuously attacks, which puts it in a disadvantageous position.

In terms of mobility and flexibility, the Ukrainian army is very familiar with the characteristics of modern media communication. For example, in the cognitive warfare against the “beheading” of Admiral Sokolov, the Ukrainian army took advantage of the characteristics of modern media’s fast communication speed and decentralized communication mode, released the “primer” in a semi-official form, and let netizens “reinforce” it (in fact, it is the self-growth of information), and finally the more authoritative official media came out to “finalize the final word”.

In terms of “focusing on participation”, the Ukrainian army is better at creating a sense of participation of ordinary netizens in specific topics. For example, after the Bucha incident and the Battle of Mariupol, Ukraine immediately launched a set of websites called “The Executioner’s Book”. Anyone can log in to these websites or network plug-ins at will and register the so-called “Russian army’s atrocities” or Russian army movements. The United States immediately responded and opened the “Observation Post” project belonging to the US State Department in response to the “Executioner’s Book” project, which is used to record the “atrocities” of the Russian army in the conflict. These public topics are set up quite cleverly, making the outside world feel that they are highly involved, while the specific content is true and false, which is different from the false information indoctrination of traditional information warfare. In the cognitive warfare of the Ukrainian army, these highly involved projects once made the entire network trend one-sided.

Compared with the propaganda and operation of the Ukrainian army in the field of cognitive warfare, the Russian army is far behind in the field of cognitive warfare. For example, in response to Ukraine’s formation of a combat mode that emphasizes mass participation and mass experience in the cognitive field, Russia is still using the old method – announcing ambiguous combat conditions in the form of daily combat reports, with only Major General Konashenko “acting as an emotionless reading machine” in front of the camera. As a result, most combat observers do not take his combat reports seriously. Another example is the tactics of Ukraine frequently setting topics and carrying out cognitive shaping in steps, and Russia can only defend itself. Every time Ukraine creates topics, Russia responds passively, and then Ukraine continues to create new topics based on Russia’s response, leaving Russia in a state of exhaustion. From this perspective, the Russian army’s cognitive warfare against the Ukrainian side’s “beheading” of Admiral Sokolov, and the sudden arrangement of the rumor-busting “face-slapping”, is just a tactical “flash of inspiration”, and the effect does not seem to be very good. It has not completely changed the basic power comparison between the Russian and Ukrainian armies in the field of cognitive warfare. Ukraine’s “cognitive warfare advantage” over Russia will continue.

  1. How do we deal with cognitive warfare in the new combat form?

In terms of definition, “cognitive warfare” can be traced back to the concept of “network-centric warfare” proposed by the US military in military reform at the beginning of this century. After years of development, by 2017, related discussions began to frequently appear in the speeches of senior NATO generals. For example, on August 14, 2017, Stewart, director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, clearly put forward the assertion that “the fifth-generation war is cognitive warfare” at the 2017 Defense Intelligence Information System Annual Conference. On September 17, 2017, Goldfein, then Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, also clearly put forward the concept of “cognitive warfare” at the annual meeting of the US Air Force Association. Soon, NATO comprehensively developed this novel operational concept. In March 2020, NATO released the concept book “Operation 2040”, which clearly stated that “information and cognitive warfare” will play an important role in future operations. In June, NATO appointed François du Creuse, former French colonel and head of the NATO Innovation Center, to study cognitive warfare, and produced a detailed report on “Cognitive Warfare” in January 2021. In June 2021, NATO held a scientific conference on cognitive warfare and released a special report on “Cognitive Warfare: Cognition Dominates the Future”, thus forming a more systematic and complete cognitive warfare theory.

Compared with traditional information warfare and propaganda warfare, the biggest feature of cognitive warfare is that it is based on the working principle of the human brain, that is, the process of acquiring, perceiving, understanding, processing, inferring, evaluating, judging, calculating, and making decisions on external information. In short, cognitive warfare is superior in terms of operational characteristics. It is not a unilateral indoctrination, but a good use of people’s cognitive process to “reshape” everyone’s worldview, values, ideology, and even cognitive and understanding processes in an all-round way, so as to fully rebuild the individual’s interpretation and response to information and interfere with the individual’s ideology and value orientation. The final result is not only to use various false information to disrupt the opponent, but more importantly to reshape the opponent’s social psychology, thereby affecting the opponent’s strategic decision-making, “defeating the enemy without fighting.” This determines that cognitive warfare is a new generation of propaganda warfare and information warfare. Compared with the traditional information warfare that focuses on the tactical level, the role of cognitive warfare can be further improved to the strategic level, which may affect the direction or outcome of the war.

So, facing a new type of combat form such as cognitive warfare, referring to the current situation in which Russia has been at a disadvantage in the field of cognitive warfare with Ukraine in the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, how should we respond to future cognitive warfare?

From a strategic perspective, we should realize that in the field of cognitive warfare, pure passive response is the most unreliable and inefficient form of combat. For example, Russia’s passive response to Ukraine’s agenda setting is equivalent to passively being beaten. Of course, compared with firepower warfare or mobile warfare, cognitive warfare is a thorough “open conspiracy” without too much feint and deception. It mainly relies on the ideological superiority and media skills of the West, and relies on the legal rights of the Western media in the field of the “fourth power”. Since we are temporarily at a disadvantage in the field of media compared with Western countries, it is actually a relatively difficult thing to implement cognitive confrontation with them in the whole system and at all levels. Therefore, even if we also adopt the strategy of strategic offensive in cognitive warfare, its implementation effect may not be as good as that of the other party. One way may be to firmly grasp our basic plate strategically and form a “you fight yours, I fight mine” pattern.

In the field of tactics, we should fully learn from the experience and lessons of both sides in cognitive warfare in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Judging from the cognitive warfare strategy implemented by the Ukrainian army, in areas such as topic shaping, it mainly exploits the loopholes of information asymmetry. Then, our possible response strategy is to disclose some information in a timely manner and change the original concept that “military operations must be kept confidential and not disclosed to the outside world.” In fact, public information itself is a process of cognitive shaping. Both sides can carry out a lot of cognitive warfare confrontation around the timing, content, and timing of information disclosure. For example, in the field of setting topics, we can “take the initiative” and first seek the ability to set topics and carry out cognitive shaping in countries such as the Belt and Road, BRICS or Shanghai Cooperation Organization countries, at least to ensure that the people of our country and some friendly countries can offset the influence of the Western cognitive warfare. For another example, in response to the “cognitive warfare” implemented by the other party against different groups in multiple dimensions and levels, or the rumors created step by step, we can make extensive use of the influence of KOL (Key Opinion Leader) and the platform to form a “cognition against cognition” combat pattern.

In short, cognitive warfare, as a new combat style that has been studied by NATO for many years, appeared in large numbers in the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict and played a certain role, deserves further research to ensure that it is invincible in future military operations.

This articleThe article on cognitive warfare is just an appetizer, and there will be a main course later. This studio took about a year to complete the “Research on Cognitive Warfare in the United States and Other Western Countries”, which has a text of more than 40,000 words (excluding more than 7,000 words of notes), which is much richer and more in-depth. The report will be officially launched and introduced the day after tomorrow, so stay tuned.

現代國語：

據稱，9月22日烏克蘭空軍使用「風暴陰影」巡航飛彈襲擊塞瓦斯托波爾黑海艦隊司令部。此後，關於黑海艦隊司令維克托.索科洛夫上將的生死一直是外界關注的議題。經過幾天暗流湧動後，9月25日，烏克蘭特戰司令部（SOF）對外宣布，他們成功「擊斃」黑海艦隊司令索科洛夫上將及以下數十名軍官，甚至俄軍札波羅熱集群司令羅曼丘克上將也被烏軍擊傷。

沒想到，烏克蘭的消息剛放出來不到一天就慘遭「打臉」——9月26日，俄羅斯國防部召開國防委員會會議，國防部高級領導人、各軍區司令、各軍兵種司令等以現場出席或視訊連線的方式參會，會上赫然出現了被烏軍官宣「擊斃」的黑海艦隊司令索科洛夫上將。消息放出後，烏方極為尷尬，只好宣布他們要收集更多資訊。但隨後又有人宣稱說參會的索科洛夫上將“只是照片”，不是真人。

儘管如此，從這次俄烏兩軍圍繞索科洛夫上將的生死問題展開的鬥法，可以被看做是俄烏軍事衝突中關於認知戰的一個經典案例，既值得我們就這一案例進行專門剖析，更值得我們從這個案例中“說開去”，談一談俄烏軍事衝突中俄烏兩軍在認知戰領域展開的較量。

一、索科洛夫上將“被斬首”，並非孤例？

關於「斬首」俄軍將領，烏克蘭宣傳部門栽進坑裡已經不是第一次了。例如今年6月中，烏克蘭軍隊造謠稱車臣副總統、車臣國民近衛軍中將、小卡德羅夫左膀右臂德里姆哈諾夫被烏軍海馬火箭砲「擊斃」。

從整個認知戰的實施過程看，無論是6月那次德里姆哈諾夫被“斬首”，還是這次索科洛夫上將被“斬首”，整個過程大同小異：

第一步：烏克蘭宣傳部門有意「製造議題」。所謂“製造議題”，在認知戰中可以被視為一個“引子”，作用是引發輿論熱議。這種「引子」往往不一定由官方放出，可能是由一些半官方的管道或與官方關係比較緊密的管道放出。例如德里姆哈諾夫中將被烏軍的「海馬」火箭炮「打死」一事，最早據說是從烏克蘭武裝部隊的一個電報群組裡放出來的，而且說法模稜兩可。這次索科洛夫上將被“斬首”，最早的消息來源經過追溯則是俄羅斯的某個電報群組。這種電報群組的消息魚龍混雜，有些消息則可信度很低，但有些消息卻出奇準確。將認知戰的「引子」透過這些群組放出，某種意義上說甚至比官方消息更容易引發輿論關注和討論。

第二步可以被視為輿論的「補強」。認知戰的第一步即「引子資訊」對一個完整的新聞來說往往缺乏細節，但不要緊。從當前社會訊息傳播的效率和特徵來看，一個缺乏細節、但容易引起大家興趣、卻又因某種因素出現信息壁壘的“引子信息”，在傳播過程中，大家自然會對其進行“細節補充」。無論是索科洛夫上將被“擊斃”還是德里姆哈諾夫被“斬首”，都是如此。資訊缺乏細節，但對傳媒來說偏偏又是非常重要的「Breaking News」（突發新聞），同時基於軍事機密的因素，想穿越資訊壁壘及時獲取更多的資訊也不可能。因此，這必然會使傳媒導向一個結果——輿論“補強”，而且是大家一起上，在口耳相傳的過程中不斷把一個引子信息細節化、“真實”化。例如德里姆哈諾夫被「斬首」在傳播過程中，先後彌補上了他被斬首的「時間」、「地點」（甚至由於傳播管道不同，這些時間和地點要素也各不相同），時而出現在克雷緬納亞，時而出現在戈爾洛夫卡。索科洛夫上將被「擊斃」同樣如此，訊息在傳播過程中，被先後腦補出一整套「黑海艦隊週五開例會，烏軍抓住機會實施打擊」、「兩發飛彈一發擊中了司令部辦公室，另一發飛彈在救援人員進去救人的時候實施了補充打擊」這種細節。正是在這種「去中心化」的口耳相傳，這兩名高級將領被「斬首」的「事實」被不斷強化，消息來源的缺失甚至更有利對普通信息受眾進行認知塑造。

經過數天發酵之後，認知戰來到第三步－「一錘定音」。德里姆哈諾夫被“斬首”一事並沒有輪到烏克蘭官方“一錘定音”，小卡德羅夫先坐不住了，很快放出了自己和德里姆哈諾夫坐在一起吃飯野餐的視頻，甚至當場拿出手機展示拍攝時間，進行「打臉」。索科洛夫上將則是烏軍特戰司令部、烏克蘭國防部這樣的大部門出面完成「一錘定音」。按照認知戰的過程，這種官方媒體“一錘定音”應該起到在認知戰領域完成認知塑造過程的作用，也就是完成一個從放出“引子”，到外界“猜測補強”，最後官方「蓋章確認」的完整邏輯閉環。但俄軍居然後發製人，表演了一出“當場打臉”，不僅讓烏軍前面的所有信息傳播都變成了無用功，還讓烏克蘭的兩個要害單位特戰司令部甚至國防部變成了小丑。

二、俄烏衝突中的認知戰，烏軍來勢洶洶？

對於烏軍認知戰宣傳部門親自上陣、造謠車臣副總統德里姆哈諾夫或索科洛夫上將被烏軍“擊斃”，很多人可能大惑不解：如果俄羅斯方面迅速反應，把這些高級將領拉出來亮個相，自我確認一下“我還活著”，那麼烏方認知戰的謠言不就不攻自破了嗎？

看似有理，但俄軍並沒有被造謠一次就照上面的辦法澄清一次。為什麼？因為事情沒有那麼簡單。

其一，從戰術角度來說，如果烏軍每製造一個關於高級將領的謠言，俄軍就安排將領出面闢謠，最直接的後果就是對高級將領的日常作戰指揮造成不必要的干擾和麻煩。在作戰行動中，將官以上的高級軍官時間非常寶貴，每天工作量極高，對腦力消耗極大，根本不可能有那麼多時間沒完沒了地現身闢謠。如果烏軍每造一個謠俄軍就闢一個謠，那這些高級將領平時啥也別幹了，就天天拍視頻闢謠吧。

其二，對於進入認知塑造循環的訊息來說，某些情況下，「闢謠」不僅沒用，還會進一步製造出更多謠言。例如索科洛夫上將被“斬首”一事，儘管俄軍已經安排了闢謠，但一些烏克蘭群組依然在“挑刺死磕”，認為索科洛夫上將在鏡頭前沒有動，索科洛夫上將在受訪時看不出時間和地點，因此只是俄方安排的「資訊反制」。甚至對一些去年曾經被烏克蘭方面「官方宣布」「斬首」、但隨後又在某些場合露面的俄軍將官，比如第41集團軍參謀長格拉西莫夫少將，目前依然有烏克蘭支持者宣稱“此人已死”，唯一的原因就是這人在露面之後居然沒有再度露面！

所以，在認知戰領域，很多事沒有想的那麼簡單。

話又說回來，在戰略層面上，俄軍在俄烏軍事衝突的認知戰領域相比烏軍確實存在較大差距。烏軍非常善於製造議題，而且機動靈活，注重參與。

製造議題方面，幾乎每次認知戰都是烏克蘭主動製造議題，從一開始的馬裡烏波爾大劇院事件，到後來的布查事件，再到魯別日諾耶的化學物質爆炸事件，還有後來的札波羅熱核電廠事件和新卡霍夫卡水力發電廠大壩爆破事件，幾乎每次都是烏克蘭「先聲奪人」。俄羅斯則處於被動應對的狀態，結果被烏克蘭繼續製造議題連續攻訐，處於不利地位。

機動彈性方面，烏軍對現代傳媒的傳播特徵非常熟稔，例如對索科洛夫上將被「斬首」展開的認知戰，烏軍利用了現代傳媒傳播速度快、傳播模式去中心化的特點，以半官方形式放出“引子”，放任網民對其進行“補強”（事實上就是信息的自生長），最後再由比較權威的官方媒體下場“一錘定音”。

「注重參與」方面，烏軍更善於營造普通網民對特定議題的參與感。例如布查事件和馬裡烏波爾戰役之後，烏克蘭方面立即上線了一套名叫「劊子手之書」的網站，任何人都可以隨意登陸這些網站或者網絡插件，在裡面登記所謂的「俄羅斯軍隊的暴行」或俄軍動向。美國立即回應，針對「劊子手之書」項目，開通了屬於美國國務院的「觀察站」項目，從而用於記錄俄軍在衝突中的「暴行」。這些公共議題設定相當巧妙，令外界群眾感受到的參與度極高，而在具體內容上則真真假假，不同於傳統資訊戰的假訊息灌輸。在烏克蘭軍隊的認知戰中，這些參與度極高的計畫一度讓整個網路風向呈現一面倒的趨勢。

和烏軍在認知戰領域的宣傳和操作相比，俄軍在認知戰領域差太遠。例如針對烏克蘭方面在認知領域塑造極為強調群眾參與、群眾體驗的作戰模式，俄羅斯方面依然在沿用著老辦法——以每日戰情通報的形式對外公佈模棱兩可的戰況，只有一個科納申科少將在鏡頭前“當一個沒有感情的讀稿機器”，結果絕大多數戰況觀察者都不太把他的戰況通報當回事。又如對烏克蘭方面頻繁設置議題、依照步驟進行認知塑造的戰法，俄羅斯方面更是只有招架之功。每次都是烏克蘭製造議題，俄羅斯方面被動應對，然後烏克蘭方面根據俄羅斯的應對情況繼續製造新的議題，使俄羅斯處於疲於奔命的狀態。從這個角度來看，俄軍此次針對索科洛夫上將被“斬首”的烏方認知戰塑造，突然安排闢謠“打臉”，只是戰術上“靈光乍現”而已，而且效果似乎也沒多好，也沒有徹底改變目前俄烏兩軍在認知戰領域的基本力量對比，烏克蘭對俄羅斯的「認知戰優勢」還會持續下去。

三、新型作戰形式認知戰，我們如何因應？

從定義上來說，「認知戰」最早可追溯到本世紀初美軍在軍事改革中提出的「網路中心戰」概念，經過多年的發展，到2017年，相關論述開始頻頻見於北約高級將領的言論集中，譬如2017年8月14日，美國國防情報局局長史都華在國防情報資訊系統2017年會上就明確提出了「第五代戰爭是認知戰」這一論點。到了2017年9月17日，時任美國空軍參謀長戈德費恩在美國空軍協會年會上同樣明確地提出了「認知戰」這個概念。很快，北約就對這個新穎的作戰概念進行了全面發展。 2020年3月，北約發布《作戰2040》概念書，明確提出「資訊與認知戰」將在未來作戰中扮演重要角色。 6月，北約又指派前法軍上校、北約創新中心負責人弗朗索瓦.杜.克魯澤專題研究認知戰，並在2021年1月拿出了《認知戰》的詳細報告書。 2021年6月，北約召開了認知戰科學會議，並發布了《認知戰：認知主導未來》專題報告，從而形成了較有系統、完整的認知戰作戰理論。

相較於傳統的資訊戰和宣傳戰，認知戰的最大特徵是基於人的大腦運作原理，也就是對外在資訊的獲取、感知、理解、加工、推論、評估、判斷、計算、決策的過程。總之，認知戰在作戰特質上可謂更勝一籌，不是進行單方面灌輸，而是要善於利用人們的認知過程，對每個人的世界觀、價值觀、意識形態，甚至認知、理解過程進行全方位“重塑”，從而全面重建個人對訊息的解讀和反應，干涉個人的意識形態和價值取向，最終的結果不僅是要利用各種假訊息擾亂對手，更重要的是重塑對手的社會心理，從而對對手的戰略決策產生影響，「不戰而屈人之兵」。這決定了認知戰是新一代的宣傳戰和資訊戰，相對於傳統的專注於戰術層面上的資訊戰，認知戰的角色可以進一步提高到戰略層面上，可能會影響戰爭的走向或結局。

那麼，面對認知戰這樣一種新型的作戰形式，參考俄烏軍事衝突中俄羅斯在和烏克蘭的認知戰領域長期處於下風的現狀，我們對未來的認知戰究竟該如何應對呢？

從戰略角度來看，我們應當認識到，在認知戰領域，單純的被動應對是最不可靠、效率最低的作戰形式，如俄羅斯在烏克蘭的議題設定面前被動應對等於被動挨打。當然，認知戰相比於火力戰戰或機動戰，是徹底的“陽謀”，並沒有太多佯動和詭詐，依託的主要是西方的意識形態優勢地位和傳媒功力，靠的是西方媒體「第四權」領域的法權。由於我方相比西方國家在傳媒領域暫時處於下風，要在全系統、全層面上與其實施認知對抗作戰其實是一件相對困難的事情。因此，即使我們在認知戰上同樣採取戰略進攻的策略，其實施效果可能也不如對手。辦法之一或許是從策略上牢牢把握住我們的基本盤，形成「你打你的，我打我的」格局。

而在戰術領域，要充分借鏡俄烏衝突中雙方在認知作戰上的經驗教訓。從烏克蘭軍隊實施的認知戰策略來看，在議題塑造等領域，主要鑽了資訊不對稱的空子。那麼，我方可能的因應策略是及時公開部分訊息，要改變原有的「軍事行動必須保密、不要對外界公開」的觀念。事實上，公開資訊本身就是認知塑造的過程，雙方圍繞著資訊公開的時機、內容、時序上，可以展開大量的認知戰對抗。如在設置議題領域，我方可以“先發製人”，先求得在諸如一帶一路沿線國家、金磚國家或上海合作組織國家內設置議題、展開認知塑造的能力，起碼確保本國群眾和一些友好國家能夠對沖西方認知戰領域的影響。再如，針對對方在多維度、多層次上針對不同人群實施的「認知戰」或步步為營塑造出的謠言，我方可廣泛利用KOL（Key Opinion Leader，即意見領袖）及平台的影響力，形成以「認知對認知」的作戰模式。

總之，認知戰作為一種被北約研究多年、在俄烏軍事衝突中大量出現且起到一定作用的新型作戰樣式，值得進一步進行研究，以確保在未來的軍事行動中立於不敗之地。

這篇關於認知戰的文章只是“開胃菜”，隨後還有“正餐硬菜”——本工作室歷時約一年完成了《美國等西方國家的認知作戰研究》，正文4萬多字(不含註7千多字)，要豐富和深入得多。該報告將於後天正式推出並進行介紹，敬請關注。

中國原創軍事資源：https://www.163.com/dy/article/IGEFT5CB0515NAKC888.html

Asymmetric Warfare, Chinese Military Characteristics & Development Trends of Cognitive Domain Operations and Warfare, Chinese military cognitive warfare, Chinese Military Future Wars, Chinese Military Informatization, Chinese Military Use of Cognitive Confrontation within the Combat Domain, Chinese Military Views - 中國軍事觀, Cognitive Confrontation, Cognitive Domain Warfare, Dissipative Warfare, Metaverse, Mosaic Warfare, Multi-Domain Operations, 中國的情報戰, 中國解放軍敘事戰爭, 中國軍事未來戰爭, 中國軍事特徵及認知域作戰與戰爭發展趨勢, 中國軍事認知戰, 中國軍事認知領域作戰, 中國軍民融合計劃, 中國軍用反衛星武器研製, 中國軍隊瞄準未來戰爭打好五場認知戰, 中國軍隊聚焦認知域戰是主攻戰場對抗的新著力點, 認知域戰, 認知戰

China’s Military Metaverse: A New Frontier for Future Cognitive Warfare

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中國軍事元宇宙：未來認知戰爭的新領域

現代英語：

　●The essence of the metaverse is a highly developed virtual world that exists in parallel with the real world but also reacts to the real world.

　　●Parallel with the real world, reaction to the real world, and integration of multiple high technologies are the three major characteristics of the future metaverse.

　　●The metaverse provides a new way of thinking to understand and discover the operating behaviors, states and laws of complex real systems, as well as a new means to explore objective laws and transform nature and society.

　　● Strengthening the follow-up research on the role of the metaverse in cognitive warfare and highlighting the exploration of the mechanism of the role of the metaverse in cognitive warfare will help enrich and promote the construction of cognitive warfare theory.

　　The essence of the metaverse is a highly developed virtual world that exists in parallel with the real world but reacts to the real world. When virtual technologies such as digital, Internet, augmented reality and modern communications, blockchain, artificial intelligence and other technologies develop to a certain stage, the metaverse will emerge. Being parallel to the real world, reacting to the real world, and integrating multiple high technologies are the three major characteristics of the future metaverse. The operation of the metaverse conforms to the natural law of human understanding and transformation of the world. It directly acts on human thinking and cognition but is not bound by the essential attributes of thinking and cognition, which determines that it carries the operating laws of the real world, provides a new way of thinking to understand and discover the operating behavior, state and laws of complex systems in reality, and a new means to explore objective laws and transform nature and society. At the same time, it is itself a complex cognitive body, so it has immeasurable cognitive warfare application value.

　　The basic mechanism of cognitive warfare in the metaverse

　　The difference between the metaverse and other technologies is that it builds a complete digital world. Its operation is not supported by a single or a few technologies, but by a complex high-tech complex. This complex is built by humans, is a product of cognition, and continues to develop and evolve with the development of human cognitive practice. Its cognitive application has a unique regular mechanism.

　　System enhancement mechanism. The digital world constructed by the metaverse is itself a highly developed cognitive world. In this special cognitive world, technology not only exists as an additional role such as support and guarantee, but also directly participates in the shaping of cognition itself as a basic element of cognition. In other words, the technology that constitutes the metaverse itself has a distinct cognitive background, which not only supports the operation of cognition but also realizes the self-construction, revolution and transcendence of cognition; it not only provides a series of necessary technical services, but also creates a holographic technical soil for human cognition to operate independently and fight independently. The effect of the metaverse on cognition is not one-dimensional, but full-dimensional; not single-line, but full-system; not independent, but immersive; not fragmentary, but continuous; not cyclical, but full-life process. How far the thinking cognition develops, how far the metaverse develops, and thus it can shape people’s thinking cognition more comprehensively, deeply and lastingly. Therefore, humans have used high technology to create a complex system combining man and machine called “Avatar”, and have also created a life form on “Pandora” that can think independently, recognize itself, and think and act on its own. This life form, which was created by humans and is independent of humans, has achieved self-improvement and development in the new universe.

　　The mechanism of mutual construction of technology and knowledge. Unlike the one-way effect of individual technologies such as artificial intelligence and information networks on thinking and cognition, the metaverse provides a space for mutual construction of technology and cognition, and the effect and counter-effect. In this space, we can simulate, demonstrate, simulate, and verify the process and results of this two-way mutual construction and promotion, so as to understand cognition more accurately and efficiently, improve cognitive warfare methods, and directly engage in real cognitive confrontation. The metaverse provides a parallel cognitive space that digitally twins real combat scenes, where cognitive warfare can be promoted efficiently, enhanced at a fast pace, and presented in a panoramic manner. It is reported that the US military uses virtual technology to verify the performance of new weapons and equipment, test the effectiveness of the use of new tactics, and conduct combat simulation training, relying on the deployment of troops, combat terrain, human characteristics, and other scenes similar to actual combat constructed in virtual spaces such as the metaverse. At the same time, more and more countries and armies are conducting direct cognitive attacks and defenses with their opponents through virtual spaces, confusing their minds, misleading their directions, and eroding their will.

　　Active reflection mechanism. As a virtual existence parallel to the real world, the metaverse is not a simple digital copy of the three-dimensional space, but has its own operating rules and can actively act on the real world. This active action is the focus of the cognitive application of the metaverse. The metaverse space game reflects the characteristics of cognitive warfare. The war results deduced in the metaverse through virtual simulation may directly affect the real world, extending to the conscious cognitive game through sensory touch, thereby winning the dominant position in cognitive warfare. In the cognitive perspective, the metaverse is both a new cognitive space and the main battlefield of cognition, as well as an extended domain of cognition and a new cognitive component. At present, the military of many countries uses sandbox operations, war games and even computer simulations to formulate and test strategies and tactics, revise the application of tactics, improve training methods, and improve weapons and equipment. This is a typical example of the virtual world reacting to reality. With the continuous development and integration of the metaverse technology group, cognitive confrontation will inevitably shift more and faster from the real world to a hybrid world combining virtuality and reality.

　　The basic characteristics of cognitive warfare in the metaverse

　　Existence determines consciousness, and technology drives creation. The metaverse has many characteristics, such as parallelism with the real world, initiative in the real world, and comprehensiveness that integrates multiple technologies. These prominent characteristics determine the different characteristics and laws of its effects on thinking and cognition.

　　Cross-domain construction. The formation, development and evolution of cognition are rarely determined by a single factor, but are often the result of the combined effect of multiple factors. The metaverse originates from the real world and is presented in the virtual space. It has the characteristics of multi-domain interconnection that runs through the real and virtual worlds. As the saying goes, “a lot of gossip can melt gold, and accumulated criticism can destroy bones.” This cross-domain characteristic that spans different fields and opens up related spaces can best influence and shape people’s thinking and cognition from different angles. The most typical case is that game developers are increasingly focusing on using virtual stories based on historical facts and real feelings to attract and infect people. The United States has used this cross-domain shaped surreal “real” experience to spread values. At present, the most representative “metaverse” themed science fiction work is “Ready Player One” directed by Spielberg. The play focuses on depicting the era background of the birth of the “metaverse” and the huge contrast between the real status and virtual status of the protagonist. Through the plot and special effects shots, it delicately portrays the real sense of human participation, thereby spreading the American ideology, especially the values, that wealth, status, love and friendship can be obtained through “bloodless” struggle in the virtual world.

　　Integrated influence. The important fulcrums of cognitive warfare are strategy and technology. With the development of science and technology and the progress of society, the proportion of technology in cognitive warfare is increasing and its role is becoming more and more prominent. It can be said that cognitive warfare without scientific and technological support is a cognitive warfare without power, and cognitive warfare with advanced technology is more likely to win. As a complex system integrating multiple cutting-edge technologies, the metaverse has a natural advantage in the use of cognitive warfare. Many people, including adults, are deeply trapped in the virtual world and indulge in online games. It is very important that the virtual space gives game operators a super-time and space experience and a sense of achievement. If martial arts novels are fairy tales for adults, then the metaverse, which can be “as one pleases”, creates a super fairy tale world, which has an immeasurable impact on people’s thinking, cognition, value pursuit, moral concepts, emotional will, and behavior patterns.

　　Compromising influence. A big difference between the metaverse and other technical means is that it constructs a virtual world that originates from the real world but reacts to the real world. In this complex domain space, people’s thinking and cognition go back and forth between the real world and the virtual space, verify each other, repeatedly confirm, and constantly correct, thereby generating new thinking and cognition, and exerting a dynamic influence on both worlds. This two-way interactive compromising influence, on the one hand, is conducive to the formation and development of correct thinking and cognition, making the cognition of the real world more imaginative with the wings of the virtual world’s thoughts, and at the same time, it also makes the cognition of the virtual space find the material support of the real world and become more scientific. On the other hand, if it is not operated properly, it is likely to cause great safety hazards and ethical problems. In recent years, the U.S. military has relied on artificial intelligence and virtual technology to remotely control drones to attack opponents, which is a typical example of the virtual world reacting to the real world. This attack is far away from the tragic scene of face-to-face fighting, which greatly dilutes the drone operator’s awe of life and lowers the threshold for remotely controlling the opponent. At the same time, due to the imperfect reconnaissance and identification technology, incidents of accidental shooting, injury, and killing of civilians, friendly forces, and even their own troops often occur.

　　The basic style of cognitive warfare in the metaverse

　　Metaverse cognitive warfare is based on reality and leads future development. It involves both the virtual and real worlds, penetrates multiple fields, and covers a variety of technologies. There are many different combat styles, and there is great uncertainty, but there are rules to follow. Comprehensive analysis shows that there are three basic styles.

　　Platform confrontation. In terms of its relationship with human thinking and cognition, the metaverse itself is a complex cognitive actor, a derivative of human thinking and cognition, and an important component and platform of cognitive warfare. When hostile countries and armies regard the metaverse as an important position for cognitive warfare, cognitive offensive and defensive operations between different camps within the metaverse exist in reality. On this platform, all technologies, resources and forces of the metaverse are integrated and operated with thinking and cognition as the center. Metaverse operations are prominently manifested as cognitive offensive and defensive operations aimed at disrupting, delaying, blocking, destroying and eliminating the existence and operation of the opponent’s metaverse. In this field, whoever has higher-end strategic planning, more flexible tactical application, more advanced technical force and more solid material support will be able to gain the initiative in metaverse cognitive warfare.

　　System attack. The metaverse is a cognitive system composed of a series of cutting-edge technologies, and systemicity is its inherent attribute and vitality guarantee. Advanced technologies such as digital foundation, efficient communication, blockchain identity authentication, holographic AR imaging, artificial intelligence, and high-performance Internet constitute a unified body with tight structure, functional coupling, and complete system. The components are indispensable for the formation and development of thinking cognition and offensive and defensive confrontation. It is difficult to imagine that the metaverse still has the possibility of existence without the support of advanced technology groups such as high-level digitization, high-quality communication, and high-speed computing. Using superior forces to force or use asymmetric tactics to attack and block the key nodes and technological operation chains of the opponent’s metaverse system, hinder its operation, suppress its functions, and destroy its existence is an important style and efficient path of metaverse cognitive warfare.

　　Divert the flow. An important value and significance of the existence and development of the metaverse lies in serving and supporting the related activities of the real world. Under normal circumstances, the metaverse can demonstrate, display, review and predict the related activities of the real world in a digital form. Once the communication between the virtual and real worlds is disturbed or the self-operation of the metaverse is disordered, it is easy to cause the situation reflected to be untrue, the information analyzed to be distorted, the conclusions derived to be invalid, and the suggestions provided to be wrong, causing the related activities of the real world to deviate. It is based on this that we can concentrate our efforts on inducing attacks on the internal operation of the opponent’s metaverse or the communication technology devices of the two worlds, and use extremely confusing and deceptive information and scenes to divert the flow, confuse their cognition, interfere with their judgment, and mislead their decision-making. Therefore, we should strengthen the tracking research on the cognitive warfare of the role of the metaverse, highlight the exploration of the cognitive warfare mechanism of the role of the metaverse, and strengthen and promote the construction of cognitive warfare theory.

　　(Author’s unit: Military Political Work Research Institute of the Academy of Military Sciences)

國語中文：

●元宇宙本質是與現實世界平行存在但又反作用於現實世界的高度發展的虛擬世界。

●與現實世界平行、反作用於現實世界、多種高技術綜合，是未來元宇宙的三大特徵。

●元宇宙提供了理解和發現現實複雜系統運作行為、狀態和規律的全新思維方式，以及探知客觀規律、改造自然和社會的新手段。

●加強元宇宙作用認知戰追蹤研究，突顯元宇宙作用認知戰機理探索，將有助於豐富及促進認知戰理論建構。

元宇宙本質是與現實世界平行存在但又反作用於現實世界的高度發達的虛擬世界。當數位、網路、擴增實境等虛擬技術和現代通訊、區塊鏈、人工智慧等技術發展到一定階段，元宇宙就橫空出世。與現實世界平行、反作用於現實世界、多種高技術綜合，是未來元宇宙的三大特徵。元宇宙運作符合人類認識世界、改造世界的自然規律，其直接作用於人的思維認知但又不拘泥於思維認知的本質屬性，決定其本身承載了現實世界的運作規律，提供了理解和發現現實複雜系統運作行為、狀態和規律的全新思維方式和探知客觀規律、改造自然和社會的新手段，同時它本身就是一個複雜的認知體，因而具有不可估量的認知戰應用價值。

元宇宙作用認知戰的基本機理

元宇宙相對於其他技術的不同在於構築了一個完整的數位世界，支撐其運作的不是單一或幾個技術，而是一個複雜的高科技複合體。這個複合體是人構築的，是認知的產物並隨人類認知實踐的發展不斷發展演變，其認知運用具有獨特的規律機制。

體系增強機制。元宇宙構築的數位世界本身就是一個高度發展的認知世界，在這個特殊的認知世界裡，科技不僅以支撐和保障等附加角色存在，也直接作為認知的基本元素參與認知本身的塑造。也就是說構成元宇宙的技術本身俱有鮮明的認知底色，既支撐了認知的運作又實現了認知的自我建構、革命與超越；既提供了一系列必要的技術服務，又打造了一個人類認知自我運作、獨立作戰的全息技術土壤。元宇宙對認知的作用不是單向度的，而是全維度的；不是單線的，而是全系統的；不是獨立式的，而是沉浸型的；不是片段的，而是持續型的；不是周期階段型的，而是全壽命流程的。思維認知發展有多遠，元宇宙發展就有多遠，因而能夠更全面更深入、更持久地塑造人的思維認知。於是，人類既用高科技打造了「阿凡達」這個人機結合的複雜系統，同時也打造了一個在「潘朵拉星球」上能夠自主思維、自我認知、自行思想與行動的生命體，這個產生於人又獨立於人的生命體在新的宇宙空間中實現了自我完善與發展。

技知互構機理。與人工智慧、資訊網路等單一技術對思考認知的單向作用不同，元宇宙提供了一個技術與認知作用與反作用、影響與反影響的互構空間。在這個空間裡，我們能夠模擬、展示、模擬、驗證這種雙向互構共促的過程與結果，進而更加精準高效地認識認知、改進認知戰方式，同時也可以直接進行真刀真槍的認知對抗。元宇宙提供了一個將現實作戰場景數位孿生的平行認知空間，在這裡認知戰得以高效率推進、快節奏增強、全景式呈現。據悉，美軍將虛擬技術運用於新武器裝備性能驗證、新戰法運用效果檢驗及作戰模擬訓練等，依託的就是在元宇宙等虛擬空間中構建的兵力佈置、作戰地形、人文特徵等近似實戰的場景。同時，也有越來越多的國家和軍隊透過虛擬空間與對手進行直接的認知攻防，迷茫其心智，誤導其方向，銷蝕其意志。

能動反射機理。元宇宙作為與現實世界平行的虛擬存在，不是簡單地將三維空間數位化複製，而有著自身運行規則並能動作用於現實世界，這種能動作用即是元宇宙認知運用的著力點。元宇宙空間博弈體現認知戰特點，透過虛擬模擬在元宇宙中推演出的戰爭結果，可能直接作用於現實世界，透過感官觸覺延伸到意識認知的爭奪博弈，從而贏得認知戰主導權。在認知視域下，元宇宙既是認知的新空間也是認知的主戰場，既是認知的延伸域也是認知的新構件。目前，不少國家軍隊透過沙盤作業、兵棋推演甚至電腦模擬模擬來發展和檢驗戰略戰術、修訂戰法運用、完善訓練方法、改進武器裝備，就是虛擬世界反作用於現實的典型案例。隨著元宇宙技術群不斷發展融合，認知對抗必將更多、更快由現實世界向虛實結合的混合世界發展轉進。

元宇宙作用認知戰的基本特徵

存在決定意識，技術驅動創造。元宇宙具有與現實世界的平行性、對現實世界的能動性、融多種技術於一體的綜合性等諸多特徵。這些突出特徵，決定其作用於思考認知的不同特徵規律。

跨領域構塑。認知的形成發展演變很少由單一因素決定，往往是多種因素綜合作用的結果。元宇宙源自現實世界、呈現於虛擬空間，具有貫穿現實與虛擬的多域連結特徵。所謂“眾口鑠金，積毀銷骨”，這種跨越不同領域、打通關聯空間的跨域特質，最能從不同角度影響和塑造人的思維認知。最典型的案例就是遊戲開發商越來越注重用建立在歷史事實和現實感受基礎上的虛擬故事吸引人感染人。美國已將這種跨領域塑造的超現實「真實」體驗用於價值觀的傳播。目前最具代表性的「元宇宙」主題科幻作品是史匹柏導演的《頭號玩家》，該劇聚焦於描繪「元宇宙」誕生的時代背景及主角的現實地位與虛擬地位之間的巨大反差，透過故事情節和特效鏡頭細膩地刻畫人類的真實參與感，從而傳播在虛擬世界裡透過「不流血」的鬥爭也能獲得財富、地位、愛情和友誼的美式意識形態特別是價值觀。

融合式影響。認知戰運作依託的重要支點是謀略和技術，隨著科技的發展和社會的進步，技術之於認知戰構成所佔比重越來越大、作用越來越突出。可以說，缺乏科技支撐的認知戰是缺乏力量的認知戰，有先進科技加持的認知戰獲勝的可能性更大。元宇宙作為融多種前沿科技於一體的複雜系統，在認知戰運用上具有天然優勢。不少人包括成年人深陷虛擬世界、沉湎網路遊戲，很重要的是虛擬空間賦予遊戲操盤手的超時空體驗和成就快感。如果說武俠小說是成人的童話，那麼可以「隨心所欲」縱橫馳騁的元宇宙，則打造了一個超級童話世界，其對人的思維認知、價值追求、道德觀念、情感意志、行為模式等的影響不可限量。

折衝性浸染。元宇宙與其他技術手段的一個很大不同，在於其建構的是一個源自現實世界但又反作用於現實世界母體的虛擬世界。在這個複雜領域空間中，人的思維認知在現實世界與虛擬空間之間往來折衝、相互印證、反覆確認、不斷修正進而產生新的思考認知，並對兩個世界都產生施動性影響。這種雙向互動的折衝性浸染，一方面有利於正確思維認知的形成與發展，使現實世界的認知插上虛擬世界思想放飛的翅膀而更富想像力，同時也使虛擬空間的認知找到現實世界的物質支撐而更科學。另一方面如果操作不當，很可能產生極大的安全隱患和倫理問題。這些年美軍依賴人工智慧和虛擬技術遙控的無人機攻擊對手，就是虛擬世界反作用於現實世界的典型案例。這種攻擊因遠離面對面搏殺的慘烈現場，極大淡化了無人機操作員對生命的敬畏，降低了其遙控攻擊對手的門檻。同時，由於偵察辨識技術不完善，誤擊誤傷誤殺平民、友軍甚至自己軍隊的事時有發生。

元宇宙作用認知戰的基本樣式

元宇宙作用認知戰基於現實基礎、引領未來發展，涉及虛實兩界、貫通多個領域、涵蓋多種技術，作戰樣式多種多樣，有很大的不確定性，但並非無規律可循。綜合分析，基本樣式有以下三種。

平台對抗。元宇宙就其與人的思維認知的關係而言，本身就是一個複雜的認知行為體，是人類思維認知的衍生品，也是認知戰的重要構件和平台。當敵對國家和軍隊都將元宇宙視為認知戰的重要陣地時，元宇宙內部不同陣營間的認知攻防作戰就會現​​實存在。在這個平台上，元宇宙的一切技術、資源和力量都以思維認知為中心來整合運作。元宇宙作戰突顯為以擾亂、遲滯、阻擋、摧毀、消滅對手元宇宙存在和運作為目的的認知攻防作戰。在這個領域中，誰的戰略運籌更高端、戰術運用更靈活、技術力量更先進、物質支撐更堅實，誰就能取得元宇宙認知戰主動權。

體系破襲。元宇宙是由一系列前沿技術所構成的認知系統，而體系性則是其固有屬性和活力保證。數位基礎、高效通訊、區塊鏈身分認證、全像AR成像、人工智慧、高效能互聯網等先進科技，構成結構緊密、功能耦合、體系完整的統一體，其中構件對思維認知的形成發展與攻防對抗缺一不可。很難想像缺乏高階階數位化、高品質通聯、高速度計算等先進技術群的支撐，元宇宙還有存在的可能性。運用優勢力量高壓強製或以非對稱戰法攻擊和阻斷對手元宇宙體系的關鍵節點和科技運行鏈條，阻遏其運作、壓制其功能、摧毀其存在，是元宇宙認知戰的重要樣式和高效路徑。

曲嚮導流。元宇宙存在發展的一個重要價值和意義在於服務支持現實世界關聯活動。正常情況下，元宇宙能夠以數位形式全景展示、展示、複盤和預測現實世界的相關活動。一旦虛實兩個世界的通聯受擾受阻或元宇宙內部自運行失序，很容易導致其反映的情況失實、分析的信息失真、推導的結論失效、提供的建議失策，使現實世界的關聯活動跑偏走向。正是基於此，可集中力量對對手元宇宙內部運作或兩個世界的通聯技術裝置進行誘導攻擊，用極具迷惑性欺騙性的信息和場景曲嚮導流，迷茫其認知，幹擾其判斷，誤導其決策。因此，應加強元宇宙作用認知戰追蹤研究，突顯元宇宙作用認知戰機制探索，強化促進認知戰理論建構。

（作者單位：軍事科學院軍事政治工作研究院）

中國原創軍事資源：https://appapi.81.cn/v5/public/jfjbshare/?itemid=284_416888&type=3

Chinese Military Characteristics & Development Trends of Cognitive Domain Operations and Warfare, Chinese Military Cognitive Domain Operations, Chinese military cognitive warfare, Chinese Military Use of Cognitive Confrontation within the Combat Domain, Cognitive Confrontation, Cognitive Domain Warfare

People’s Liberation Army Looking ahead to the “Battlefield Metaverse”

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解放軍展望“戰場元宇宙”

現代英語：

Recently, the “metaverse” has become a hot topic of concern. On November 26 last year, this edition published an article titled “Unveiling the Veil of the Metaverse”, which mentioned the concept of the “battlefield metaverse”.

Simply put, the “metaverse” will be the ultimate form of the next generation of the Internet. It is a virtual world that is parallel and isomorphic to the real world, with main features such as multi-dimensionality, full sensory perception, virtual-real integration, and seamless interaction. The “battlefield metaverse” is the manifestation of the “metaverse” in the military field, with stricter security and confidentiality standards, more powerful simulation computing capabilities, more real-time and sophisticated interaction requirements, and more prominent battlefield time consistency, virtual-real integration, boundary security, decision-making intelligence, and performance fidelity.

Imagine a typical application scenario

We can preliminarily outline the outline of the “battlefield metaverse” by imagining a typical military training application scenario in the future:

An aircraft carrier fleet was cruising in a certain sea area. Suddenly, in the fleet command room, a virtual AI staff officer projected a virtual figure through the “Battlefield Metaverse” terminal, making a clear voice to convey the upper level’s combat readiness inspection instructions.

The fleet commander immediately issued an “exercise combat alert” command to the fleet according to the plan. The fleet’s combat command and control system began to automatically receive combat missions and battlefield situations sent by the “Battlefield Metaverse” terminal. Except for the personnel on duty at the bridge of each ship in the fleet who continued to cruise and guard according to the scheduled route, all other personnel were transferred to the combat scene set by the “Battlefield Metaverse”.

On the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, all deck workers immediately put on enhanced terminals of the “Battlefield Metaverse” after hearing the “combat alert”. Depending on the login user ID, the corresponding virtual information in the “Battlefield Metaverse” is seamlessly superimposed on the workers’ field of vision, supporting the deck workers to complete relevant practical operations in the real world.

Under the unified command of the flight deck commander, all deck operators perform virtual and real integrated deck operations for various types of carrier-based aircraft in accordance with combat mission requirements and carrier-based aircraft take-off procedures, including refueling, bomb loading, towing, safety inspection, ejection, recovery, and ammunition emergency disposal.

In the flight briefing room, all pilots of various types of carrier-based aircraft participating in this mission have put on the immersive terminals of the “Battlefield Metaverse” and entered the cockpit of the virtual world, waiting for their carrier-based aircraft to complete take-off preparations.

In the cockpit of the virtual carrier-based fighter, an AI assistant with the same configuration as the actual carrier-based aircraft is confirming the status of the aircraft with the pilot and planning the upcoming combat operations according to the combat mission received. During the combat mission, the virtual carrier-based fighter can equivalently feedback the situation information of the enemy and our own reconnaissance, electronic interference, combat damage, etc., providing real-time information for the pilot to make decisions and take actions…

It can be seen from the above typical application scenarios that the “battlefield metaverse” requires a large number of revolutionary breakthroughs in key technologies as its basic support, including VR/AR/MR technology, digital twin technology, cloud computing technology, blockchain technology, high-speed network technology, AI technology, etc.

Construction requires many basic conditions

Compared with the “metaverse” that is open to the public and reconstructs the network ecology, the “battlefield metaverse” needs to be developed based on the actual topological structure of the military network and the construction results of various military information systems, and has higher requirements on key technical indicators. Specifically, the construction of the “battlefield metaverse” should have at least the following basic conditions:

– Independent network communication links. The “Battlefield Metaverse” is an independent form built on the military high-speed network architecture and infrastructure, which is significantly different from the design concept of the “Metaverse” global access. Users of the “Battlefield Metaverse” need to verify and log in through a secure military network node in a relatively fixed place or area. The remote wireless network link is not open to the outside world and has the ability to resist communication interference and network attacks.

——Strict identity authentication mechanism. All individual users accessing the “Battlefield Metaverse” are required to be military personnel who have passed confidentiality review and military scientific research personnel with confidentiality qualifications. The authentication information of all types of users cannot be tampered with, fabricated, or misused in the “Battlefield Metaverse”. All user operations will be recorded in detail in the “Battlefield Metaverse” to facilitate tracking and analysis by the operation and maintenance security department, and any illegal users and operations will have no chance to take advantage.

——Diverse user access capabilities. Users who access the “Battlefield Metaverse” can be divided into individual users, equipment users, and system users according to their types. Among them, individual users are organic individuals who directly enter the “Battlefield Metaverse” activities; equipment users and system users are key digital equipment and information systems that need to access the “Battlefield Metaverse”, and their operators or maintenance personnel participate in the activities in the “Battlefield Metaverse” in an indirect way through operational control behaviors in the real world.

——Clear command, coordination and interaction relationship. Different from the high degree of freedom of ordinary users in the “metaverse”, all types of users in different locations in the “battlefield metaverse” participate in specific activities, play designated roles or undertake major tasks, which are uniformly planned, deployed and coordinated by the only event organizer. Before each activity is launched, the event organizer determines the user identification, command relationship, coordination relationship, information interaction permissions, etc. of the participants based on the elements required to achieve the goal.

——Immersive real-time interaction capabilities. Individual users who access the “Battlefield Metaverse” need to log in through a human-computer interaction terminal and achieve real-time interaction with the “Battlefield Metaverse” and other users in the real world. In addition to having basic immersive interaction and time-based functions, terminal devices also need to enhance the user’s operational freedom and sensitivity, so that users can operate and use a variety of weapons, equipment and information systems in the “Battlefield Metaverse”.

——Powerful AI individuals. Similar to the “metaverse”, AI individuals with intelligence and autonomous behavior capabilities will act as permanent residents in the “battlefield metaverse”. They can play the role of virtual red team, blue team, and third-party entities to participate in combat, training and test tasks, and can also play the role of instructors, examiners, staff, system operation and maintenance personnel, etc., to assist individual users in making decisions and taking actions.

——Realistic performance simulation capability. All weapons, equipment and information systems mapped into the “Battlefield Metaverse” need to have functional performance and consistent operation methods equivalent to those in the real world. Through signal-level simulation models and performance algorithms, simulation of reconnaissance detection effectiveness, electronic countermeasure effectiveness, firepower strike effectiveness and comprehensive protection effectiveness can be achieved, ensuring that the experience accumulated by individual users in the “Battlefield Metaverse” can guide actual combat operations.

——Flexible scenario generation capability. The “Battlefield Metaverse” needs to set a battlefield area for each activity, including the geographical environment, electromagnetic environment, meteorological environment, and hydrological environment of the area. Its scenario data is required to be more real and accurate, and requires institutions with relevant qualifications to build and maintain it step by step.

Application, bringing significant benefits in multiple fields

In the future, the “metaverse” may first be applied to areas such as online social networking, online games, and online economy, becoming the starting point for the virtualization of human society.

After the “Battlefield Metaverse” is built, it will have a huge impact on the application fields of education, training, testing, research, etc. of the troops, greatly change the original methods of organizing and implementing activities, significantly improve the comprehensive benefits of various military activities, and effectively stimulate the innovation capabilities of military personnel and scientific researchers.

In the field of education, the “Battlefield Metaverse” can play an important role in centralized education in colleges and universities, in-service distance education, etc. The teachers and students can interact and communicate with each other freely in different locations, which is conducive to creating a harmonious and relaxed teaching atmosphere. On the one hand, the teachers can use more powerful teaching content to demonstrate their teaching ability and achieve more vivid teaching effects; on the other hand, the students can recognize and understand the problems more intuitively, effectively improving their personal interest in self-study and subjective initiative.

In the field of training, the “Battlefield Metaverse” can fully meet the requirements of actual combat training in the context of large-scale combat. Participants at all levels can play the roles of their current positions or proposed positions, and repeatedly receive training and assessments in a larger, more confrontational, and longer-lasting environment. While honing combat skills, honing tactical coordination, and forging combat will, they can apply the accumulated simulated combat experience to actual combat operations. The evaluation of training effects will also be more quantitative and intuitive, which is more conducive to selecting talents.

In the field of testing, the “Battlefield Metaverse” can provide a practical background and large-scale test scenarios with equivalent simulation capabilities for the design and demonstration of new weapons and equipment, weapons and equipment performance testing, weapons and equipment compatibility testing, and weapon system combat effectiveness testing. It can bring virtual and real equipment into a peer environment to operate together, and fully grasp the various states and parameter changes of the equipment, thereby effectively solving practical problems such as limited test times, simple test links, low complexity of the test background, and difficulty in building a combat system.

In the field of research, the “Battlefield Metaverse” can provide a public platform for remote simulation and verification for the use of new equipment and innovation of tactics. On the basis of coordinating expert resources from various regions and centrally calling simulation computing power, virtual AI is used to play the combat forces of all parties, conduct uninterrupted simulation calculations, obtain massive data samples, and mine and analyze knowledge and conclusions that meet the research objectives. During the research process, researchers can also communicate and collaborate with relevant experts, intervene in real time and improve the simulation elements to ensure that the research results can stand the test of actual troops.

From the perspective of system architecture and functional characteristics, although the “Battlefield Metaverse” cannot directly affect actual combat operations, it can serve as a backup for wartime command and communication networks. When the command and communication network is paralyzed by enemy network attacks or key nodes are damaged by attacks, combat troops can try to access the communication link of the “Battlefield Metaverse” to ensure the most basic combat command and information exchange.

The above picture is a schematic diagram of the “Battlefield Metaverse”.

Gaosong System

國語中文：

近期，「元宇宙」成為人們關注的熱點。本版去年11月26日曾刊登《揭開「元宇宙」面紗》一文，並提到了「戰場元宇宙」概念。

簡單地說，「元宇宙」將是下一代網路的終極形態，是與現實世界平行同構的一個虛擬世界，具備多維度、全感官、虛實融合、無縫互動等主要特徵。 “戰場元宇宙”，則是“元宇宙”在軍事領域的表現形態，具有更嚴格的安全保密標準、更強大的仿真計算能力、更實時的精細交互要求，更突出的戰場時統一致性、虛實一體性、邊界安全性、決策智能性、效能逼真性。

設想，一個典型應用場景呈現

我們可透過假想未來一個典型軍事訓練應用場景，初步描繪出「戰場元宇宙」的輪廓——

一支航母編隊正在某海域巡航。突然，編隊指揮室內，虛擬的AI參謀透過「戰場元宇宙」終端，投射生成一個虛擬人影，發出清脆聲音，傳達上一級戰備檢查指令。

編隊指揮官立即依照預案，向編隊下達「演習戰鬥警報」命令。編隊作戰指控系統開始自動接收「戰場元宇宙」終端發送的作戰任務和戰場態勢，除編隊各艦艦橋部位的值更人員按照預定航線繼續進行巡航和警戒外，其餘人員全部轉入「戰場元宇宙」設定的作戰場景之中。

在航空母艦飛行甲板上，所有甲板作業人員在聽到「戰鬥警報」後，立即穿戴好「戰場元宇宙」的增強型終端，根據登入使用者ID的不同，「戰場元宇宙」中對應的虛擬資訊無縫疊加至作業人員視野，支撐甲板作業人員在真實世界完成相關實作動作。

在飛行甲板指揮官統一指揮下，所有甲板作業人員依照作戰任務要求和艦載機起飛流程，對各型艦載機進行虛實融合的甲板作業，包括加油、掛彈、牽引、安全檢查、彈射、回收、彈藥緊急處置等內容。

飛行簡報室內，所有參與本次任務的各型艦載機飛行員已穿戴好「戰場元宇宙」的沉浸型終端，進入虛擬世界的駕駛座艙中，等待自己的艦載機完成起飛準備。

虛擬的艦載戰鬥機座艙內，一位與艦載機實裝配置相同的AI助理正在向飛行員確認飛機的各項狀態，並根據受領的作戰任務，籌劃即將開始的作戰行動。在執行作戰任務期間，虛擬艦載戰鬥機能等效反饋敵我雙方的偵察探測、電子乾擾、交戰毀傷等態勢信息，實時供飛行員決策判斷和採取行動…

透過上述典型應用場景可以看出，「戰場元宇宙」需要大量關鍵技術的革命性突破作為基礎支撐，包括VR/AR/MR技術、數位孿生技術、雲端運算技術、區塊鏈技術、高速網路技術、AI技術等。

構建，需要具備許多基本條件

相較於面向大眾、重構網路生態的“元宇宙”，“戰場元宇宙”需要在軍用網路實際拓撲結構和各類軍用資訊系統的建設成果上展開，對關鍵技術指標上的要求更高。具體來說，建構「戰場元宇宙」應至少具備以下基本條件：

——獨立的網路通訊鏈路。 「戰場元宇宙」是建立在軍用高速網路架構和基礎設施上的獨立形態，與「元宇宙」全球隨遇接入的設計理念有明顯差異。 「戰場元宇宙」的使用者需要在相對固定的場所或區域，透過安全的軍用網路節點進行驗證登入。遠端無線網路連結不對外開放，並具備抵禦通訊幹擾和網路攻擊能力。

——嚴格的身份認證機制。所有接取「戰場元宇宙」的個人用戶，均要求是透過保密審查的軍方人員和具備保密資質的軍工科研人員。所有類型用戶的認證資訊在「戰場元宇宙」中不可篡改、虛構、冒用，所有用戶的操作行為在「戰場元宇宙」中將被詳細記錄，以利於運維安全部門追蹤分析，任何非法用戶及操作均無機可乘。

——多樣化的用戶接入能力。接取「戰場元宇宙」的用戶，依類型可分為個人用戶、裝備用戶及系統用戶等。其中，個人使用者是直接進入「戰場元宇宙」活動的有機個體；裝備使用者和系統使用者則是需要連接「戰場元宇宙」的關鍵數位化裝備和資訊化系統，其操作或維運人員透過在現實世界中的操作控制行為，以間接方式參與「戰場元宇宙」內的活動。

——明確的指揮協同互動關係。與「元宇宙」中普通用戶高自由度不同，異地分佈的所有類型用戶在「戰場元宇宙」中參與的特定活動、扮演的指定角色或擔負的主要任務，均由唯一的活動組織者進行統一籌劃、部署和協調。在每項活動展開前，由活動組織者圍繞達成目標所需的要素，確定參與活動的使用者標識、指揮關係、協同關係、資訊互動權限等。

——沉浸式的即時互動能力。接取「戰場元宇宙」的個人用戶，需透過人機互動終端進行登錄，並與「戰場元宇宙」及現實世界中其他用戶達成即時互動。終端設備在具備基本的沉浸式互動功能和時統功能基礎上，也需要強化使用者的操作自由度和靈敏度，以便於使用者在「戰場元宇宙」中操作使用各式各樣武器裝備和資訊系統。

——強大的AI個體。與「元宇宙」類似，具備智慧和自主行為能力的AI個體，將作為「戰場元宇宙」中永久居民進行活動，既可扮演虛擬的紅方、藍方、第三方實體，參與到作戰、訓練和試驗任務中，也可扮演教官、考官、參謀、系統維運人員等角色，輔助個人使用者進行決策與行動。

——逼真的效能模擬能力。所有映射到「戰場元宇宙」中的武器裝備和資訊系統，均需要具有與真實世界等效的功能性能和一致的操作方法。透過訊號級的模擬模型和效能演算法，實現對偵察探測效能、電子對抗效能、火力打擊效能和綜合防護效能的仿真，確保個人用戶在「戰場元宇宙」中累積的經驗能指導實際作戰行動。

——靈活的場景生成能力。 「戰場元宇宙」需要針對每次活動，設定戰場區域，包括該區域地理環境、電磁環境、氣象環境和水文環境等。其情境資料需求更真實且準確，需要具備相關資格的機構進行逐步建置與持續維護。

應用，多個領域帶來顯著效益

未來，「元宇宙」可能首先應用於網路社交、網路遊戲、網路經濟等領域，成為人類社會虛擬化起點。

「戰場元宇宙」建成後，則會對部隊的教育、訓練、試驗、研究等應用領域帶來巨大影響，極大改變原有的活動組織實施方式，顯著提升各類軍事活動的綜合效益，有效激發軍事人員和科學研究人員的創新能力。

在教育領域，「戰場元宇宙」能在院校集中教育、在職遠距教育等方面發揮重要作用，施教方與受教方在不同地點就能進行自由度極高的互動交流，有利於營造和諧輕鬆的授課氛圍。一方面，施教方能利用更強大的教學內容來展現宣講能力，達成更生動的宣教效果；另一方面，受教方能更直觀地認識和理解問題，有效提升個人自學興趣和主觀能動性。

在訓練領域，「戰場元宇宙」能充分滿足大規模作戰背景下的實戰化訓練要求，各級參訓對象可透過扮演現任職位或擬任崗位的角色，在更大規模、更具對抗性、在更長持續時間的環境中，反覆接受訓練與考核，在錘鍊戰鬥技巧、磨合戰術配合、鍛造戰鬥意志的同時，將累積的模擬作戰經驗應用到實際作戰行動中。訓練效果的評鑑也將更量化直觀，更有利於選賢任能。

在試驗領域，「戰場元宇宙」能為新型武器裝備設計論證、武器裝備性能試驗、武器裝備相容性試驗、武器系統體係作戰效能檢驗等，提供具備等效模擬能力的實戰化背景及大規模試驗場景，將虛實裝備納入對等的環境中共同運行，並全面掌握裝備的各種狀態和參數的變化情況，從而有效解決試驗次數受限、試驗環節簡單、試驗背景複雜度低、作戰體系構建困難等現實問題。

在研究領域，「戰場元宇宙」能為新型裝備運用和戰法創新提供遠端推演驗證的公共平台。在協調各地專家資源與集中調用模擬算力的基礎上，利用虛擬AI扮演各方作戰力量，進行不間斷推演計算，得出海量資料樣本，並從中挖掘分析出符合研究目標的知識和結論。在研究過程中，研究人員還可與相關專家共同交流協作，即時介入並完善推演要素，以確保研究成果經得起實兵檢驗。

從體系架構和功能特性來看，「戰場元宇宙」雖然無法直接影響實際作戰行動，但可作為戰時指揮通訊網路的備份手段。當指揮通訊網路遭受敵方網路攻擊而癱瘓或關鍵節點遭受打擊被損毀時，作戰部隊可嘗試接取「戰場元宇宙」的通訊鏈路，確保最基本的作戰指揮和資訊互動。

上圖為「戰場元宇宙」示意圖。

高 嵩制

中國軍事資料來源：http://www.81.cn/jfjbmap/content/2022-01/21/content_307950.htm

China's Informatization - 中國信息化, Chinese Military Characteristics & Development Trends of Cognitive Domain Operations and Warfare, Chinese Military Cognitive Domain Operations, Chinese military cognitive warfare, Chinese Military Future Wars, Chinese Military Informatization, Chinese Military Use of Cognitive Confrontation within the Combat Domain, Chinese Military Views - 中國軍事觀, Dissipative Warfare, 中國解放軍敘事戰爭, 認知域戰, 認知戰

Chinese Military Training and the Metaverse: Challenges & Opportunities Coexist

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中國軍事訓練與虛擬世界：挑戰與機會並存

現代英語：

 In the field of military training, the basic technology of the Metaverse has long been used as a virtual resource by the military to varying degrees. It must be acknowledged that the value and potential of the Metaverse in military training is immeasurable and is the focus of current and future military competition. However, due to the immaturity of the development of Metaverse-related technologies and their application in military training, the bright prospects are accompanied by potential risks.

1. The past and present of the military training metaverse
        The metaverse relies on a technology group with virtual reality technology as its core. In its early form in the military field, it is also called virtual simulation or simulated Internet. It can be said that virtual simulation training is very close to today’s concept of the metaverse and is the primary form of the military training metaverse. From ancient times to the present, the progress that has brought great influence in the field of science and technology is generally for winning wars or maintaining combat effectiveness. As the leading technology of the third scientific and technological revolution, the metaverse is used for military training in different forms of basic metaverses in the global military field.
      The US military began to deploy the “Military Metaverse” plan very early. In 1978, Jack Thorpe, a captain of the US Air Force, proposed the idea of ​​a military simulator network in his paper, hoping to establish a distributed or networked military modeling system to facilitate training. In 1983, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of the US Department of Defense developed the Virtual Battlefield Network Simulator (SIMNET Simulator), which uses computers to generate virtual battlefields, simulate the situation of fighting between the two sides, and summarize errors and failures. Replacing field exercises in this way saves costs to a certain extent and improves the effectiveness of training. Although the SIMNET simulator, as the earliest version, was still at a lower level of battlefield simulation, it pioneered distributed or networked modeling and simulation. By the end of the 1980s, the project reached its peak, and eventually more than 200 simulated interconnected tank and aircraft simulators based on local area networks and wide area networks were formed across the United States and across Europe, and used for large-scale training and exercises. The distributed interactive simulation (DIS) protocol developed at that time is still in use today, and through more advanced high-level architectures, different military simulations can be linked to provide a richer collective training or mission preparation experience. It can be said that the SIMNET simulator project directly or indirectly promoted the development of many key technologies of the current metaverse. Today, the US military is very interested in the metaverse that has sprung up like mushrooms after rain. The newly established military branch, the United States Space Force (USSF), wants to create a military-specific metaverse for collaborative operations, training, and mission execution. Its chief technology officer, Lisa Costa, declared: “Soldiers cannot go to space in person. The only way they can experience their own combat territory is through visual data display. The virtual reality environment will provide them with situational awareness and understand their options in order to make decisions.”
       In recent years, virtual reality and augmented reality technologies of the metaverse have been incorporated into the regular military training of the US military. In 2014, the BlueShark project developed by the Office of Naval Research and the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California allowed soldiers to collaborate in a virtual environment to conduct driving technology training; in 2018, the US Army and Microsoft cooperated to develop an integrated visual enhancement system IVAS for soldiers to conduct regular training; in 2020, the US Navy launched the Avengers Project to conduct flight course training through virtual reality, artificial intelligence and biometric technology; in 2021, Boeing created a military aircraft training system that enables maintenance personnel to use AR technology for related simulated maintenance drills; on May 10, 2022, two US fighter pilots took a jet and completed a high-altitude prototype metaverse experiment over the California desert. Refueling operations were performed using a virtual tanker through a specially designed augmented reality display connected to a computer system that displayed a glowing image of a virtual refueling aircraft.

 (I) The US military uses virtual reality technology for military training on a large scale
        . At the same time, Russia is also a leader in the development of virtual training systems. Almost all of its advanced weapons and equipment are equipped with corresponding virtual training systems, and are developing in the direction of universalization and embeddedness. For example, the Sound M universal virtual training system is a universal virtual training equipment for combat personnel of surface-to-air missile weapon systems. The Tor M1 surface-to-air missile system is also equipped with a special virtual training vehicle, which can complete battlefield simulation training while searching for targets and conducting weapon operations.

 (II) The Tor M1 surface-to-air missile system is also equipped with a dedicated virtual training vehicle.
         In addition, other countries have also begun to explore the combination of metaverse technology and military training. The British Army has been committed to studying the use of extended reality technology, which can put more than 30 soldiers in the same virtual training scene. The British Ministry of Defense’s “Single Synthetic Environment” has used this technology in soldier training. In South Korea, a developer and supplier of a military training simulator called “Optimus Prime” completed the development of the DEIMOS military training system based on metaverse technology in 2019 and applied it to the training of the armed forces. The system can create various environments for professional military training, including precision shooting training, tactical behavior training and observation training.

       2. The inherent advantages of the metaverse in military training Military training
       is a commonplace in the military, specifically referring to the military theory and related professional knowledge education, combat skills training and military operations exercises conducted by the armed forces and other trainees. The continuous innovation of technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality has accelerated the trend of intelligentization in future wars. Single actual combat exercises in traditional forms will be difficult to meet the combat requirements under the new situation. As a huge group of new technologies, the metaverse plays an increasingly important role in military training. If training is an important support for combat effectiveness, then the primary use of the metaverse in military training is as an important “enabler” for simulation training.       Immersive experience can improve the effectiveness of battlefield environment simulation. As a practical science, military training is centered on experience and the key to training is immersion. The virtual space created by the metaverse makes people feel a “common sense of embodied presence”, allowing trainees to fully immerse themselves in the virtual space and experience a war close to reality. Battlefield environment simulation uses virtual reality technology to process battlefield element data such as battlefield terrain, battlefield personnel, weapons and equipment through computer systems, and finally creates a realistic three-dimensional battlefield environment. Soldiers are immersed in digital environments such as deserts, mountains or plateaus. Each environment has different tactics, techniques and procedures, and soldiers can constantly practice tasks. Even if the soldiers are not in the actual battlefield environment, this technology is enough to restore the authenticity of the environment. More importantly, through battlefield simulation training, not only can soldiers become familiar with the battlefield environment and obtain information to the greatest extent, but they can also improve their ability to observe things from multiple angles and solve emergencies. The US military has developed a virtual reality system called a laser sand table, which can identify and convert photos and videos sent back by satellites, and turn them into realistic three-dimensional maps, presenting the battlefield environment thousands of miles away to commanders. Before the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US military used virtual reality technology to create real war scenes, including battlefield conditions, personnel appearances, etc., in order to allow soldiers to adapt to the environment in advance and improve their combat capabilities.

 (II) On the eve of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the U.S. military used virtual reality technology to create real war scenes
        . Open interconnection better supports synthetic training. The various parts of the Metaverse ecosystem can be interconnected and operated, and information can be transmitted across platforms and across the world (between virtual worlds or between the virtual world and the real world) without hindrance. Synthetic training uses the open interconnection advantage of Metaverse technology to supplement actual combat training. According to statistics, since 2015, the number of non-combat deaths in the U.S. military has exceeded the number of deaths in actual military operations each year, and many of the deaths in non-combat operations are caused by conventional military training. Therefore, the U.S. Army has begun to use Metaverse to carry out synthetic training in an attempt to establish a virtual synthetic training environment (STE) to reduce casualties in training. From urban warfare to mountain warfare, the “synthetic training environment” integrates “real-time, virtual and constructive training environments into a single synthetic training environment, and provides training functions to ground, transport and air platforms and command posts where needed.” Practice has proved that the synthetic training environment built by the metaverse, with the help of multi-sensory simulation and restoration, can help soldiers break through the limitations of theoretical learning and cognition, and improve the quality and ability of team combat coordination, injury treatment and safe evacuation. On the eve of the Iraq War, the US military stationed in Kuwait conducted synthetic training on Iraq’s urban conditions, which enhanced the soldiers’ urban combat capabilities while minimizing casualties in actual combat. The
      imaginative space stimulates innovation in military training thinking to the greatest extent. War exercises have been valued by military strategists since ancient times. During the Warring States Period, Mozi and Gongshu Ban’s deduction games of “untying belts to make a city” and “wooden pieces to make weapons” rehearsed the real situation on the battlefield, thus avoiding fighting between the two armies. In the deep scene era opened by the future metaverse, the military system will become highly intelligent, and the two sides of the war may be able to conduct war deductions in the battlefield metaverse, and even compete in the virtual world. Based on the information obtained in the virtual world, the two sides of the deduction capture and predict the changes in the battlefield through thinking processes such as association, reasoning and logical judgment, which is not only conducive to learning more war laws, but also can exercise the soldiers’ logical deduction ability. In the Gulf War of 1991, the U.S. military conducted war games based on the training level of the troops, the possible course of the war, and the time required for actual combat before implementing Operation Desert Storm. Practice has proved that the U.S. military used the problems found in this war game to transform the combat concept into an actual action plan and ultimately won. This also fully demonstrates that the real battlefield is full of uncertainties, so it is necessary to be fully prepared through continuous war exercises. Undoubtedly, it is almost impossible for the enemy and us to conduct coordinated deductions in the real world, but if the deployment of the enemy and us can be made public to a certain extent by their respective satellites, air and ground reconnaissance equipment, then at a certain time point, between two or more parties about to break out a military crisis, it is expected that the deployment of troops in the metaverse can be carried out first, and the actual military conflict can be resolved.
      The application of metaverse technology in military training can not only avoid accidental casualties during training, but also allow a single or many trainees to complete training tasks in different virtual environments without leaving home and without actual contact. And this kind of non-contact training plays a more obvious role in the regular form of the new crown epidemic.
       3. Potential risks of the metaverse in military training
      Although the metaverse provides technical support for military training to a large extent, it should never be simply understood as a training program or considered as a means of conducting training. Even if the metaverse technology brings convenience and innovation to military training, the technology itself and its accompanying challenges and uncertainties cannot be ignored.
      The development of metaverse technology may cause security issues. The metaverse is a huge technology group. Its system architecture, core algorithms and immersive technology are still in a stage of continuous development. The supporting industry, value consensus, management standards, etc. have not yet been reached. In general, the metaverse is still a new thing, and its application in military training is even more so. Although the use of virtual training systems can reduce casualties to a certain extent, it is worth thinking about whether such training can be truly used in combat sites. It is still an unknown. And whether the technology is safe enough in operation is also an urgent problem to be solved. James Crowley of Virtual City Training Experts pointed out that computer power may be the most influential part of it. Unless the delay can be reduced to a level that does not make people uncomfortable and feels real, and unless the movement and communication data between different people can be stored in different simulators, it will not be able to provide practical training tools. At the same time, another challenge is the security issue of mutual contact between the armies of different countries in the open virtual world of the Metaverse.
      Virtual training environments are prone to cognitive illusions. Military training in the Metaverse world is the result of a contest between human intelligence and technology. War simulations and military training conducted in a virtual environment can have a powerful deterrent effect on future wars, just like “nuclear weapons”. Although it makes up for the limited senses of people at the physiological level, it also brings psychological cognitive illusions to trainees. Taking unmanned combat military training as an example, long-term combat training under a virtual system will cause the operator to have a gaming mentality. Because the audiovisual senses are out of touch with the real battlefield situation, they are alienated from the real people and society, and have a numb mentality towards the behavior of depriving others of their lives. With the continuous maturity of Metaverse technology, the interaction between the virtual world and the real world will become closer and closer, forming a mixed world that is difficult to distinguish between the real and the virtual. By then, it will not only cause a distinction dilemma for the cognitive psychology of soldiers, but also a major challenge for future military training. The
      “decentralization” of the Metaverse deviates from the traditional military training structure. In the world of the metaverse, all parties involved are virtual entities with equal status after computer processing and digitization. They can act autonomously in the metaverse, so they pursue “decentralization”. However, the traditional military training organizational structure is highly centralized and hierarchical management from top to bottom, which is contrary to the value needs of the metaverse. The US military has made a lot of efforts in pursuing “decentralized” operations, such as the “network-centric warfare” proposed in the 1990s, and the current distributed lethality and mosaic warfare. However, the traditional military training structure and thinking inertia are still obstacles to “decentralization”, and this situation is common in the armies of various countries.
     Yuval Noah Harari said in “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” that humans conquer the world by relying on the ability of fiction and imagination. The metaverse gives us the ability to fiction and imagine, and at the same time, the uncertainty of the metaverse in the field of military training also increases the element of fear. Therefore, we must pay attention to innovative scientific and technological theories, develop cutting-edge metaverse technologies, continuously stimulate the potential of the military training metaverse, and at the same time improve relevant laws, regulations and moral and ethical regulations to make advance preparations for winning future intelligent wars.

國語中文：

在軍事訓練領域，元宇宙的基本技術其實早就作為一種虛擬資源，在不同程度上為軍方使用。必須承認，元宇宙在軍事訓練中的價值潛力不可估量，是當下和未來軍事領域爭鋒的焦點。但由於元宇宙相關技術的發展及其在軍事訓練中的應用尚不成熟，美好前景背後也伴隨著潛在風險。
一、軍事訓練元宇宙的前世今生
元宇宙依賴的是以虛擬實境技術為核心的技術群，在軍事領域的早期形態又稱為虛擬模擬或模擬互聯網。可以說，虛擬模擬訓練已經非常接近今天的元宇宙概念，是軍事訓練元宇宙的初級形態。從古至今，科技領域帶來巨大影響力的進步普遍都是為了贏得戰爭或保持戰鬥力。作為第三次科技革命的領導技術，元宇宙在全球軍事領域，以不同形式的基本元宇宙被用於軍事訓練。
美軍很早就開始部署「軍事元宇宙」計畫。 1978年，美空軍上尉傑克·索普在自己的論文中提出了軍事模擬器網路的構想，希望建立一個分散式或網路化的軍事建模系統方便訓練。 1983年美國防部高級研究計畫局（DARPA），開發了虛擬戰場網路模擬器（SIMNET模擬器），以電腦生成虛擬戰場，模擬雙方交戰的情形進行推演，總結錯誤和失敗。用這樣的方式取代實地演習，一定程度上節省了成本，也提高了訓練的效果。雖然SIMNET模擬器作為最早的版本仍處於較低階的戰場仿真，但卻開闢了分散式或網路化建模仿真的先河。到了20世紀80年代末，該計畫達到頂峰，最終落地形成200多個遍布美國、橫跨歐洲，基於區域網路和廣域網路的模擬互聯坦克和飛機模擬器，並用於大規模訓練與演習。而當時開發的分散式互動式模擬（DIS）協議，至今仍在使用，並且透過更先進的高階體系結構，可以連結不同的軍事模擬，以提供更豐富的集體訓練或任務準備體驗。可以說SIMNET模擬器專案直接或間接推動了當前元宇宙的許多關鍵技術的發展。時至今日，美軍對如雨後春筍般崛起的元宇宙興趣正濃，新成立的軍種——美國太空部隊（USSF）欲打造軍事專用元宇宙，用於協同作戰、訓練、執行任務。其技術主管利薩·科斯塔宣稱：「軍人們並不能親自上太空，他們體驗自身作戰疆域的唯一途徑就是視覺數據顯示，虛擬現實環境會為他們提供態勢感知，並了解自己的選項，以便做出決策。
近年來，元宇宙的虛擬實境和擴增實境技術已納入美軍的常規軍事訓練。 2014年，南加州大學海軍研究辦公室和創意技術研究所開發的BlueShark項目，讓士兵在虛擬環境中協作配合，進行駕駛技術訓練；2018年，美陸軍與微軟合作開發了一款集成視覺增強系統IVAS ，供士兵進行常規訓練；2020年，美海軍又推出了復仇者計劃，透過虛擬現實、人工智慧以及生物識別技術，開展飛行課程培訓；2021年，波音公司打造了一個軍用飛機培訓系統，使維修人員利用AR技術進行相關模擬維修演練；2022年5月10日，兩名美軍戰鬥機飛行員乘坐噴射機，在加州沙漠上空完成了一次高空原型元宇宙實驗。透過特製的擴增實境顯示器，連接到一個虛擬加油飛機發光影像的電腦系統，使用虛擬加油機進行了加油操作。
（一）美軍大量採用虛擬實境技術進行軍事訓練
同時，俄羅斯在虛擬訓練系統的開發上也是領先者，其先進武器裝備幾乎都配有相應的虛擬訓練系統，並且正在朝著通用化和嵌入式的方向發展。如音色M通用虛擬訓練系統就是用於地對空飛彈武器系統作戰人員的通用虛擬訓練裝備。道爾M1型地對空飛彈系統也配備有專用虛擬訓練車，可在目標搜尋和武器作戰的同時完成戰地模擬訓練。

（二）道爾M1型地空飛彈系統也配備有專用虛擬訓練車
此外，其他國家也紛紛開始探索元宇宙技術與軍事訓練的結合。英陸軍一直致力於研究擴展實境技術的使用，可以讓30多名士兵處於相同的虛擬訓練場景。英國防部的「單一合成環境」已經在士兵訓練中使用了這項技術。在韓國，一家名為「擎天柱」的軍事訓練模擬器的開發商和供應商，在2019年完成了基於元宇宙技術的DEIMOS軍事訓練系統研發並應用於武裝部隊的訓練。該系統能夠為專業軍事訓練創造各種環境，包括精準射擊訓練、戰術行為訓練和觀察訓練。
二、軍事訓練元宇宙的內在優勢
軍事訓練乃是兵家常事，具體指武裝力量及其他受訓對象所進行的軍事理論及相關專業知識教育、作戰技能教練和軍事行動演練的活動。人工智慧、虛擬實境等技術的不斷革新，加速了未來戰爭的智慧化趨勢。傳統形式下的單一實戰演練將難以滿足新情勢下的作戰要求。而元宇宙作為一個龐大的新技術群，在軍事訓練中扮演越來越重要的角色。如果說訓練是戰鬥效能的重要支撐，那麼元宇宙在軍事訓練中的首要用途便是作為模擬訓練重要的「賦能器」。
沉浸式體驗能夠提升戰場環境模擬效能。軍事訓練作為實踐科學，訓練的核心在體驗，訓練的關鍵在沉浸。元宇宙所創造的虛擬空間，使人感受到一種“共同的具身在場感”，讓受訓者完全沉浸虛擬空間，體驗一場接近真實的戰爭。戰場環境模擬正是利用虛擬實境技術，透過電腦系統對取得的戰場要素資料如戰場地形、戰場人員、武器裝備等進行處理，最終創設出逼真的立體戰場環境。士兵們沉浸在沙漠、山區或高原的數位環境中，每個環境都有不同的戰術、技術和程序，士兵們可以不斷地演練任務。即便士兵不是在實際的戰場環境中，但這項技術足以還原環境的真實度，更重要的是透過戰場模擬訓練，不僅能夠讓士兵熟悉戰場環境，最大程度獲取信息，而且還能提升其多角度觀察事物、解決突發狀況的能力。美軍目前已研發出一款被稱為雷射沙盤的虛擬實境系統，能夠辨識和轉換衛星發回的照片和錄像，並將其轉變成逼真的立體地圖，將遠在千里外的戰場環境呈現給指揮員。在阿富汗戰爭和伊拉克戰爭前夕，美軍都採用了虛擬實境技術來打造真實的戰爭場景，包括戰地狀況、人員樣貌等。旨在讓士兵提前適應環境，提升作戰能力。

（一）元宇宙所創造的虛擬空間，使人感受到一種“共同的具身在場感”

（二）在阿富汗戰爭和伊拉克戰爭前夕，美軍都採用了虛擬實境技術打造真實的戰爭場景
開放式互聯較能支撐合成訓練開展。元宇宙生態系統各部分之間可以實現相互連接和操作，資訊可以暢通無阻地實現跨平台和跨世界傳輸（在虛擬世界之間或虛擬世界與現實世界之間）。合成訓練正是利用元宇宙技術的這一開放式互聯優勢，來實現實戰訓練的補充。根據統計，從2015年開始，美軍每年的非戰鬥死亡人數超出了在實際軍事行動中犧牲的人數，而在非戰鬥行動中喪生的人員很多是由常規軍事訓練造成的。因此，美陸軍已經開始採用元宇宙進行合成訓練，試圖建立虛擬合成訓練環境（STE）來減少訓練中的傷亡。從城市作戰到山地作戰，「合成訓練環境」將「即時、虛擬和建設性的訓練環境整合到一個單一的合成訓練環境中，並在有需要的地方向地面、運載和空中平台以及指揮所提供訓練功能」。實務證明，透過元宇宙建構的合成訓練環境，藉助多感官模擬還原，能夠幫助戰士突破理論學習和認知局限，提升團隊作戰協同、傷情處置和安全撤離等素質和能力。伊拉克戰爭前夕，駐紮在科威特的美軍就對伊拉克的城市狀況進行了合成訓練，增強了士兵城市作戰能力的同時，把實戰中的傷亡降到了最低。
想像性空間最大程度激發軍事訓練思維創新。戰爭演習自古就受到兵家重視，戰國時期墨子和公輸班「解帶為城」「木片為械」的推演遊戲將戰場上的真實情況演練出來，從而避免了兩軍交戰。在未來元宇宙開啟的深度場景時代，軍事體系將走向高度智慧化，作戰雙方或許能在戰場元宇宙進行戰爭推演，甚至在虛擬世界一決高下。推演雙方根據虛擬世界獲取的信息，透過聯想、推理和邏輯判斷等思維過程，對戰場風雲變化進行捕捉和預判，不僅有利於習得更多戰爭規律，還能夠鍛鍊士兵的邏輯推演能力。 1991年的海灣戰爭中，美軍就在實施「沙漠風暴」行動前，根據部隊的訓練水準和可能的戰爭進程，以及實際作戰所需時間進行了兵棋推演。實踐證明，美軍借助這次兵棋推演發現的問題，將作戰設想轉化為實際行動方案，最終取得勝利。這也充分說明了真實的戰場充滿了種種不確定性，因此需要透過不斷進行戰爭演習來做好充分準備。毋庸置疑，敵我雙方在現實世界中進行協同推演幾乎是不可能的，但若敵我雙方的兵力部署可以被各自的衛星、空中和地面偵查設備進行一定程度的公開，那麼在某個時間節點，在即將爆發軍事危機的雙方或多方之間，先在元宇宙中進行排兵布陣，可以化解現實的軍事衝突則有望實現。
元宇宙技術在軍事訓練中的應用不僅可以避免訓練中的人員意外傷亡，還可以讓單一或眾多參訓者在足不出戶，無需實際接觸便可在不同虛擬環境下完成訓練任務。而這種非接觸式訓練在新冠疫情的常規化形態下，所扮演的角色更加明顯。
三、軍事訓練元宇宙的潛在風險
元宇宙在很大程度上雖然為軍事訓練提供技術支撐，但絕不能僅僅將其簡單地理解為一種訓練項目，或者被認為是一種開展訓練的手段。即使元宇宙技術為軍事訓練帶來便利和創新，也不能忽視科技本身及其伴生的挑戰和不確定性。
元宇宙技術發展或引發安全問題。元宇宙是一個龐大的技術群，其體系架構、核心演算法和沈浸技術等尚處於不斷開發的階段，配套產業、價值共識、管理標準等還沒有達成，總的來說，元宇宙還是一個新事物，在軍事訓練中的應用更是如此。儘管使用虛擬訓練系統能夠在一定程度上減少傷亡，但值得思考的是這樣的訓練是否能夠真正用於作戰現場，目前仍是一個未知數。而技術在運作中是否夠安全也是一個亟待解決的問題。虛擬城市訓練專家公司的詹姆斯·克勞利指出，電腦能力可能是其中最有影響力的部分，除非可以將延遲降低到不會讓人不適並且感覺真實的程度，除非可以在不同的模擬器中儲存不同人之間的行動和通訊數據，否則將無法提供實用的訓練工具。同時，另一個擺在眼前的挑戰則是在開放的元宇宙虛擬世界中，不同國家軍隊之間相互接觸的安全問題。
虛擬訓練環境易造成認知錯覺。元宇宙世界裡的軍事訓練是人類智力和技術較量的結果，在虛擬環境下進行的戰爭推演、軍事訓練等對未來戰爭的作用，如同「核武」一般，不用動用實槍實彈也能起到強大的威懾效果。儘管在生理層面彌補了人的有限感官，同時也帶來了受訓者在心理上的認知錯覺。以無人作戰的軍事訓練為例，長期在虛擬系統下進行作戰訓練，將會造成操縱者的遊戲心態。由於視聽感官與真實戰場情況脫節，而疏離了現實的人與社會，對於剝奪他人生命的行為產生麻木心態。隨著元宇宙技術的不斷成熟，虛擬世界、現實世界的互動將會越來越緊密，形成虛實難分的混合世界。到那時，不僅對士兵的認知心理造成區分困境，對於未來的軍事訓練也是重大挑戰。
元宇宙「去中心化」與傳統軍事訓練結構相背離。在元宇宙的世界中，參與各方都是經過電腦處理、資料化後產生的地位平等的虛擬主體，可以在元宇宙中自主活動，因而其追求「去中心化」。但傳統的軍事訓練組織結構則是高度集中、自上而下的分層化管理，這一方面與元宇宙的價值需求是背離的。美軍在追求“去中心化”作戰上做出了很多努力，如20世紀90年代提出的“網絡中心戰”，以及當前的分散式殺傷以及馬賽克戰等。但傳統的軍事訓練結構和思維慣性仍然是「去中心化」的阻力，而這種情況普遍存在於各國軍隊。
尤瓦爾·赫拉利在《人類簡史》中談道，人類靠著的是虛構和想像的能力征服世界。元宇宙給了我們虛構和想像的能力，同時元宇宙在軍事訓練領域的不確定性也增加了恐懼的成分。因此，我們必須關注創新科技理論、發展元宇宙前沿科技，不斷激發軍事訓練元宇宙的潛力，同時完善相關法律法規和道德倫理規約，為打贏未來智慧化戰爭做好超前準備。
版權聲明：本文刊於2023年1期《軍事文摘》雜誌，作者：張愷悅、李傑春，如需轉載請務必註明「轉自《軍事文摘》」。

中國軍事原文來源：http://www.81it.com/2023/0321/14167.html

Chinese Military Characteristics & Development Trends of Cognitive Domain Operations and Warfare, Chinese Military Cognitive Domain Operations, Chinese military cognitive warfare, Chinese Military Future Wars, Chinese Military Informatization, Chinese Military Views - 中國軍事觀, Cognitive Confrontation, Cognitive Domain Warfare, Dissipative Warfare, 中國解放軍敘事戰爭, 認知域戰, 認知戰

Chinese Military Analysis on the Application of Metaverse in Military Communication

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中國軍事分析虛擬宇宙在軍事通訊的應用

現代英語翻譯:

Abstract: Metaverse, as an innovative concept of the clustering effect of advanced technologies, will become the key to future media content production and cognitive advantage. Looking forward to the development prospects of Metaverse, this article explains the concept of Metaverse and analyzes its development prospects, key technologies and practical applications, aiming to provide reference for the application of Metaverse in the field of military communication.

Keywords: Metaverse; Military Communication; Development Prospects

The Metaverse has become a hot topic that people are competing to talk about, and has been selected as one of the “Top Ten Internet Terms of 2021”. Globally renowned Internet companies from Facebook to ByteDance are all planning the Metaverse. The 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict was called a “public opinion war” and “cognitive war” with various means by domestic and foreign public opinion experts. Some experts even exclaimed that cognitive domain warfare in the form of the Metaverse has begun. The Metaverse, as an innovative concept of the clustering effect of advanced technology, will become the key to future media content production and gaining cognitive advantages. Exploring the application of the Metaverse in the field of military communication has become an important topic in the era of omnimedia.

1. The special functions of the metaverse determine its broad development prospects

Metaverse was born in the 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. The Metaverse described in the novel is a virtual shared space parallel to the real world. According to relevant information, as early as 1990, Qian Xuesen had a vision of virtual reality and Metaverse, and gave it a very meaningful name – “Spirit Realm”. Four years later, Qian Xuesen specifically mentioned: “Spirit Realm technology is another technological revolution after the computer technology revolution. It will trigger a series of changes that will shock the world and must be a major event in human history.” Qian Xuesen had already foreseen that Metaverse-related technologies would bring profound changes to human society.

From originating from science fiction to entering reality, the industry has not yet reached a consensus on the definition of the metaverse. According to the research of relevant experts, the essential characteristics of the metaverse are two: virtual-real integration and immersive experience. Virtual-real integration means that the boundary between the digital world and the physical world gradually disappears, and the economy, life, assets and identity of the two worlds are fully integrated. Immersive experience means that people’s two-dimensional audio-visual experience of the Internet is expanded into a three-dimensional, immersive, full-sensory experience. The special functions of the metaverse determine its broad development prospects.

The Metaverse is the next generation of the Internet. Looking back at the development of the Internet, from PC Internet to mobile Internet, the sense of immersion when using the Internet has gradually increased, and the distance between virtual and reality has gradually shortened. Under this trend, the Metaverse, where both immersion and participation have reached their peak, may be the “ultimate form” of the Internet. Regarding the future development of the Metaverse, some experts predict that: in terms of hardware terminals, with the portable development of wearable devices such as VR/AR glasses, their popularity will increase significantly, and people will gradually adapt to and accept the larger visual range and more natural interaction methods brought by new devices; in terms of content ecology and application scenarios, explosive Metaverse content will continue to emerge, and application scenarios will gradually expand. In the Metaverse, user experience has achieved an improvement and transformation from “online” to “presence”, thus entering the “scenario era”.

The metaverse is a new type of holographic medium. With the development of media technology, the presentation of media content has evolved from one-dimensional, two-dimensional to multi-dimensional. The emergence of the metaverse is another revolution in communication media after radio, television, and the Internet. From the perspective of user experience, the metaverse not only expands the user’s experience space, but also brings an immersive experience of “you are not just watching the content, you are in it as a whole”. From the perspective of media products, a large number of “we are on the scene” news media products will appear in the metaverse. The media products of the metaverse will achieve the advancement of news content with immersive narratives. For example, major sudden incident reports, large-scale live events, news documentaries, etc., can make the complete news scene into a digital scene of the metaverse, allowing the audience to enter the scene from various perspectives for experience. From the perspective of communication methods, there are currently four main modes of information communication: mass communication, network communication, social communication, and intelligent communication. The arrival of the new media of the metaverse will enrich the means of information communication in the era of intelligent communication, and “holographic communication” will become possible.

The metaverse is the future battlefield of cognitive domain warfare. The essence of communication media is the communication platform and channel, which is the material basis and main weapon of cognitive narrative in cognitive domain warfare. The 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict was reported to the world in countless “first-person perspectives”. Both Russia and Ukraine spoke out on online media and social platforms to compete for the dominance of international communication cognitive narrative. As a new type of holographic medium, the metaverse transmits cognition in a full-dimensional, full-system and immersive way. It can shape people’s thinking and cognition more comprehensively, deeply and lastingly, and has immeasurable application value in cognitive warfare. In addition, the metaverse provides a parallel cognitive space that digitally twins real combat scenarios, where cognitive warfare can be efficiently promoted and presented in a panoramic manner.

2. A Preliminary Study on the Application of Metaverse in the Field of Military Communication

Like other new technologies, the metaverse was quickly applied to the field of military communication. The PLA News and Communication Center made a bold attempt and launched the “Holographic Military Newspaper” during the National People’s Congress for three consecutive years. It used technologies such as extended reality and digital construction to show a newspaper full of futuristic atmosphere: you can wear VR glasses to experience the “Holographic Military Newspaper” immersively, or you can watch it through your mobile phone. The “Holographic Military Newspaper” is the first of its kind in the domestic newspaper publishing industry and has been selected as an innovative case of deep integration and development of China’s newspaper industry. During the 2021 National People’s Congress, the center also launched the military media intelligent cartoon virtual person “Xiaojun”, which realized the same-screen interaction between 3D cartoons and real people. In 2022, the center and the Art Department of the PLA Culture and Art Center jointly launched the “2022 Metaverse Military Camp Network Spring Festival Gala”, which used metaverse technology to build a virtual space and interactive platform. Netizens and audiences can enter the three-dimensional virtual space by avatars, visit the performance site, and choose their favorite seats to watch the Spring Festival Gala. They can also interact with the audience around them through language and gestures. Some netizens commented: “It’s so shocking! The literary and artistic light cavalry team expressed it in the form of the metaverse, which shows the advancement of technology!” In addition, the center’s network department also took the lead in launching the public welfare NFT digital collection “Stars Accompany Me to Guard the Border”.

At present, the military-related authoritative media is organizing a team to promote the preliminary research and design of the Metaverse Editorial Department. Looking at the development process from traditional news editorial departments to intelligent editorial departments, combined with the advanced technology and future development of the Metaverse, experts have proposed the concept of “Metaverse Editorial Department”, that is, “Metaverse Editorial Department” enables editors and reporters at multiple locations to efficiently complete planning, interviews, editing, publishing and other tasks “face to face” in the same virtual space, the same chain of command, and the same work system. This will be the evolution of the news editorial department in the future. Each editor and reporter has his or her own virtual workspace. When there is a need for a meeting discussion, they can instantly travel to the virtual conference room for “face-to-face” communication.

3. Thoughts on how to win the cognitive war in the metaverse

A major feature of the 2022 Russia-Ukraine conflict is the deep involvement of social media. Mobile Internet has become the main source of information related to this conflict. As mentioned earlier, the special functions of the metaverse determine its broad development prospects. How to win the cognitive war in the metaverse urgently requires us to think forward-lookingly.

Strive to achieve the autonomy and control of the core technologies of the future metaverse. As a pioneering and innovative frontier field, the metaverse has huge initial R&D costs and requires long-term and continuous high investment to achieve the docking and unification of massive standards and specifications and the connection and interaction of ultra-large-scale users. This also leads to the inherent monopoly gene of the metaverse. At present, American companies such as Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, with the support of their governments and military, have deeply laid out the metaverse, and are very likely to become the technology monopolist and ruler of the future metaverse, just like the current situation of the Internet. In this Russia-Ukraine conflict, these technology giants “one-sidedly” pointed their spearheads at Russia, restricted or even banned Russia from using its technology products, and provided support for the United States to impose comprehensive sanctions. This warns us that in order not to be constrained in technology in the future, we should concentrate the superior forces of the military and the local area, aim at the metaverse technology, work together to tackle key problems, and strive to achieve the autonomy and control of the core technologies of the future metaverse.

Develop a metaverse platform that adapts to cognitive warfare. Developing a metaverse platform that is autonomous, controllable, has a wide coverage, and has a great influence is the key to winning in the cognitive domain battlefield in the future. Back to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, in order to suppress Russia from public opinion, American social platforms such as YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, at the instruction of the US officials, directly restricted the exposure of Russian media. It can be said that they have taken advantage of the platform at the cognitive warfare level. This requires us to actively think about the future form of military communication platforms, develop metaverse platforms that adapt to cognitive warfare, and strive to create explosive products. For example, launching a metaverse version of the military’s new media platform.

We should speed up the production and accumulation of immersive content suitable for the era of the Metaverse. In addition to the traditional visible content types, content creation in the Metaverse era has also added a large amount of three-dimensional content, including panoramic shooting, digital twins of the real world, artificial construction of virtual space, and the display of virtual digital people. It is an issue that needs to be considered at present to speed up the production and accumulation of immersive content suitable for the era of the Metaverse. For example, the creation of digital history museums, the creation of heroic virtual people, the reproduction of classic battles, etc., can truly make history “perceptible” and make cultural relics “speaking”. In addition, the independent research and development of content creation tools is also critical.

國語中文：

摘 要：元宇宙作為先進技術群聚效應的創新概念，將成為未來媒體內容生產、贏得認知優勢的關鍵。展望元宇宙發展前景，本文闡釋了元宇宙概念，並圍繞其發展圖景、關鍵技術和實踐應用進行闡釋分析，旨在為元宇宙在軍事傳播領域的應用提供借鑒參考。

關鍵字：元宇宙；軍事傳播；發展前景

元宇宙，目前成為人們競相談論的熱門話題，並入選了「2021年度十大網路用語」。從Facebook到位元組跳動等全球知名網路公司都在版面元宇宙。 2022年的俄烏衝突被國內外輿論戰專家稱作是一場手段多樣的“輿論戰”“認知戰”，有專家甚至驚呼元宇宙形態下的認知域作戰拉開了序幕。元宇宙，作為先進技術群聚效應的創新概念，將成為未來媒體內容生產、贏得認知優勢的關鍵。探尋元宇宙在軍事傳播領域的應用，成為全媒體時代一門重要課題。

一、元宇宙的特殊功能決定了其廣闊的發展前景

元宇宙（Metaverse），誕生於1992年的科幻小說《雪崩》。小說中所描述的元宇宙是一個平行於現實世界的虛擬共享空間。根據相關資料顯示，早在1990年，錢學森就對虛擬實境與元宇宙有過展望，並為其起了個頗有意境的名字—「靈境」。 4年後，錢學森特別提到：「靈境技術是繼電腦科技革命之後的另一場科技革命。它將引發一系列震撼全世界的變革，一定是人類歷史中的大事。」錢學森當時就已預見元宇宙相關技術將對人類社會帶來的深層變革。

從源自科幻到走進現實，業界對於元宇宙的定義還沒能達成共識。根據相關專家的研究，認為元宇宙的本質特徵是兩個：虛實融合和沈浸體驗。虛實融合，就是數位世界和實體世界的邊界逐漸消失，實現兩個世界的經濟、生活、資產和身分認同等全方位的融合。沉浸體驗，就是人們對網路的二維視聽體驗拓展為三維立體、沉浸式的全感官體驗。元宇宙的特殊功能決定了其廣闊的發展前景。

元宇宙是下一代互聯網。回顧網路的發展歷程，從PC互聯網到行動互聯網，使用網路時的沉浸感逐漸提升，虛擬與現實的距離也逐漸縮短。在此趨勢下，沉浸感和參與度都達到高峰的元宇宙或是網路的「終極形態」。對於元宇宙的未來發展，有專家預計：硬體終端方面，隨著VR/AR眼鏡等穿戴設備的便攜化發展，其普及程度將大幅度提高,人們逐漸適應和接受新設備帶來的更大的視覺範圍和更自然的互動方式；內容生態及應用場景方面，爆款元宇宙內容將不斷湧現，應用場景也將逐步拓展。在元宇宙中，使用者體驗實現了從「線上」到「在場」的提升和轉變，從而進入「場景時代」。

元宇宙是新型全息媒介。隨著媒介技術的發展，媒體內容的呈現方式從一維、二維到多維不斷演進。元宇宙的出現，是繼廣播、電視、網路之後傳播媒介的另一次革命。從使用者體驗來看，元宇宙不僅拓展了使用者的體驗空間，也帶來了「你不只是觀看內容，你整個人就身在其中」的沉浸式體驗。從媒體產品來看，元宇宙將出現大量「我們在現場」式的新聞媒體產品。元宇宙的媒體產品將以沉浸式敘事實現新聞內容的進階。例如，重大突發事件報導、大型現場活動、新聞紀錄片等，可以將完整的新聞現場做成元宇宙的一個數位場景，讓觀眾以各種視角進入現場進行體驗。從傳播方式來看，目前，訊息傳播主要有4種傳播模式：大眾傳播、網路傳播、社交傳播、智慧傳播。元宇宙新型媒介的到來將使得智慧傳播時代訊息傳播的手段更為豐富，「全像傳播」成為可能。

元宇宙是認知域作戰的未來戰場。傳播媒介實質就是傳播平台和管道，是認知域作戰中認知敘事的物質基礎和主要武器。 2022年的俄烏衝突以無數「第一視角」的方式向全球報道，俄烏雙方都在網路媒體和社群平台發聲，爭奪國際傳播認知敘事主導權。元宇宙作為新型全像媒介，其傳導認知的方式是全維度、全系統和沈浸式的，能夠更全面、更深入、更持久地塑造人的思維認知，具有不可估量的認知戰應用價值。另外，元宇宙提供了一個將現實作戰場景數位孿生的平行認知空間，在這裡認知戰得以高效率推進和全景式呈現。

二、元宇宙在軍事傳播領域的應用初探

和其他新技術的產生一樣，元宇宙也很快被應用於軍事傳播領域。解放軍新聞傳播中心進行了大膽嘗試，連續3年在全國兩會期間推出的“全息軍報”，運用擴展現實、數字構建等技術，展示了一份充滿未來氣息的報紙：可以佩戴VR眼鏡沉浸式體驗“全息軍報”，也可以透過手機觀看。 「全像軍報」是國內報紙出版業的首創，入選了中國報業深度融合發展創新案例。 2021年全國兩會期間，該中心還推出軍媒智慧卡通虛擬人“小軍”，實現了3D卡通與現實人物的同屏互動。 2022年，該中心和解放軍文化藝術中心文藝部共同推出的“2022年元宇宙軍營網絡春晚”，利用元宇宙技術搭建虛擬空間和互動平台。網友觀眾化身虛擬人即可進入立體虛擬空間，參觀演出現場，並自行選擇喜好的座位觀看春晚，還可以跟著周圍的觀眾進行語言和手勢互動。有網友評價：「太震撼了！文藝輕騎以元宇宙的形式表現，真是科技在進步！」另外，該中心網絡部還率先推出了公益性NFT數字藏品《星星伴我守邊防》。

目前，軍隊相關權威媒體正在組織團隊推進元宇宙編輯部的前期研究和設計。縱觀傳統新聞編輯部到智慧編輯部的發展歷程，結合元宇宙先進技術和未來發展，專家提出了「元宇宙編輯部」的概念，即「元宇宙編輯部」使多點位的編輯記者在同一虛擬空間、同一指揮鏈、同一工作體系裡「面對面」有效率地完成規劃、訪談、編輯、發布等工作。這將是未來新聞編輯部的進化形態，每個編輯記者都擁有各自的虛擬工作空間，當有會議討論需求時，可以瞬間穿越到虛擬會議室進行「面對面」交流。

三、如何在元宇宙中打贏認知戰的思考

2022年俄烏衝突的一個主要特徵，是社群媒體的深度參與。行動互聯網成了這次衝突關聯資訊的主要來源。如前所述，元宇宙的特殊功能決定了其廣闊的發展前景。如何在元宇宙中打贏認知戰，迫切需要我們做前瞻性思考。

努力實現未來元宇宙核心技術的自主可控。元宇宙作為開拓性和創新性的前沿領域，前期研發成本龐大，需要長期且持續的高額投資，以實現大量標準規範的對接統一、超大規模用戶的連結互動。這也導致了元宇宙具有內在壟斷基因。目前，Facebook、Google、微軟等美國公司在其政府和軍方的支持下，深入佈局元宇宙，極大可能成為未來元宇宙的技術壟斷者和統治者，就像現在互聯網的情況一樣。在這次俄烏衝突中，上述這些科技巨頭「一邊倒」地將矛頭對準俄羅斯，限制甚至禁止俄羅斯使用其科技產品，為美國實施全面製裁施壓提供了支撐。這警告我們，為了將來在技術上不被掣肘，應該集中軍地優勢力量，瞄準元宇宙技術，協力攻關，努力實現未來元宇宙核心技術的自主可控。

發展適應認知戰的元宇宙平台。開發自主可控、覆蓋範圍廣、影響力大的元宇宙平台，是未來在認知域戰場上取得勝利的關鍵。回到俄烏衝突中，為了從輿論上打壓俄羅斯，YouTube、Twitter和Facebook等美國的社群平台在美國官方的授意下，直接限制了俄羅斯媒體的曝光率，可以說在認知戰層面佔盡了平台優勢。這就需要我們主動思考未來軍隊傳播平台型態，開發適應認知戰的元宇宙平台，努力打造爆款產品。例如，推出軍隊新媒體平台的元宇宙版本等。

抓緊生產與累積適合元宇宙時代的沉浸式內容。元宇宙時代的內容創作除了傳統可見的內容類型外，還大量增加了三維內容，包括全景拍攝、真實世界的數位孿生、虛擬空間的人工構建、虛擬數位人的展示等等。抓緊生產和累積適合元宇宙時代的沉浸式內容，是當前需要重點考慮的問題。例如，製作數位史館、打造英雄虛擬人、復現經典戰例等等，真正實現讓歷史「可感知」、讓文物「會說話」。另外，內容創作工具的自主研發也很關鍵。

（作者單位：解放軍新聞傳播中心網絡部）

中國軍事資源：http://www.81.cn/rmjz_203219/jsjz/2022nd5q_242715/tbch_242721/10193529.html

Chinese Military Characteristics & Development Trends of Cognitive Domain Operations and Warfare, Chinese Military Cognitive Domain Operations, Chinese military cognitive warfare

Chinese Military Analysis of the Basics of Cognitive Domain Operations Warfare

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中國軍事對認知域作戰基礎的分析

中國軍網 國防部網

現代英語音譯：

As a new form of combat, cognitive domain operations have become another new area of ​​confrontation after physical confrontation, firepower confrontation, and information confrontation. Different from operations in the physical domain and information domain, the operational goals of cognitive domain operations are thinking, concepts, etc., which have inherent requirements that are obviously different from other forms of operations.

Taking value offense and defense as the central task. It is generally believed that values ​​are the principles and standards that people use to distinguish good from bad, right from wrong, and importance. They are the most stable content among all cognitive factors and dominate people’s motivations and behavior patterns. Therefore, seizing the commanding heights of value is a prerequisite for winning the cognitive war. Foreign militaries have always attached great importance to the dissemination of values. They often take advantage of their cyberspace advantages to use technical means and cultural penetration to forcibly export values. The interaction between virtual space and real space gradually erodes values, and the combination of co-optation and corrosion distorts values ​​to realize the thinking and understanding of personnel from hostile countries. Penetration and erosion of value orientation, etc. To seize the initiative in cognitive warfare, we must thoroughly study the opponent’s value pursuits, get close to the opponent’s cultural language, and identify the opponent’s political beliefs and interest demands, so that the effectiveness of cognitive operations can directly reach the opponent’s belief base and soul anchorage. At the same time, we must scientifically interpret and disseminate the connotation and essence of our own excellent values, and use our excellent values ​​and the outstanding achievements of human civilization to guide its transformation.

Taking brain cognition as the main battlefield. The understanding and understanding of the form of war, especially the central issues, is an important part of the design of tactics. Compared with “war of attrition” which focuses on annihilating the enemy’s main force and “maneuver warfare” which focuses on destroying the enemy’s system, cognitive domain operations use the human brain as the main combat space and focus on attacking, weakening, and disintegrating the enemy’s will to fight. , using human psychological weaknesses such as fear, anxiety, and suspicion as a breakthrough point, and relying mainly on soft killing methods to create an atmosphere of insecurity, uncertainty, and distrust within the enemy, increasing internal strife and doubts in decision-making, thereby achieving “unprecedented” “Fight and win” purpose. In recent years, with the development of emerging technologies, NATO has expanded its combat field to the sixth level, the “human domain” to compete for brain control and weaponize brain science to control the target’s beliefs, ways of thinking, spiritual will, and stance. , behavioral tendencies and other cognitive factors to launch offensive and defensive actions. According to reports, with the help of brain and cognitive scientific research results, the United States is trying to achieve the goal of psychological control of the enemy by collecting, deciphering, and interfering with the brain waves of combat targets.

The key goal is to seize intellectual power. With the rapid advancement of military intelligence, intellectual power will become a new type of battlefield control power that is growing rapidly and has greater strategic influence on the overall combat situation. In intelligent warfare, intelligent superiority is the dominant factor for victory, intelligent weapon systems have become the main combat force, and seizing “intellectual power” will become the new commanding heights of war control. Intelligent weapon systems rely on advanced artificial intelligence systems and will have the intellectual characteristics of some people, which will expand the scope of intellectual power competition to some weapons and equipment. Targeting the cognitive loop, relying on cognitive equipment to limit the enemy’s acquisition of effective information, forcing the enemy to use wrong information, delaying cognitive speed, inducing cognitive patterns, and blocking cognitive output can disrupt the enemy’s command decision-making and undermine the morale of his military. Morale, to achieve the effect of “attacking the heart first”. In intelligent warfare, if cognitive advantages are lost, even if there are information advantages and energy advantages, the overall combat effectiveness will be significantly reduced due to human-machine coordination imbalance and autonomous decision-making failure.

Taking public opinion attack and defense as an important approach. Cognitive domain operations are essentially a struggle to win people’s hearts and minds. Public opinion attack and defense in cognitive confrontation mainly manifests itself in controlling, manipulating, and using various public opinion tools to suppress opponents and win public competition in the cognitive field. The war of public opinion focuses on changing ideas and competing for people’s hearts, and pays more attention to the conquest of spirit and will. With the help of continuously developing social networks and integrated media technologies, public opinion warfare can break through the blockade restrictions of opponents and reach directly into the target group. In recent years, around the fields of ideology, cyberspace, high-tech and other fields, the status of public opinion offense and defense has become increasingly prominent, attracting widespread attention. Public opinion wars can portray a positive image of one’s own side, while demonizing target countries and others to gain international moral advantages and public support. From “color revolutions” to local conflicts, Western countries, manipulated by “American rhetoric”, have fabricated absurd scripts, weaved absurd narratives, and absurd conclusions, pressed hard all the time, and invaded the cognitive field. , which has brought severe challenges to the political security of many countries.

Use new quality technology as a powerful means. Cognitive science is an emerging research category and a cutting-edge discipline that explores the working mechanism of the human brain or mind. It is developing in the direction of computational intelligence, perceptual intelligence, and cognitive intelligence. Artificial intelligence technology has unique advantages in perception and recognition, machine learning, etc., and has natural penetration and profound influence on the thinking and cognition of combat objects. Artificial intelligence is used in cognitive warfare. Through pervasive and highly automated precise push, it can use tendentious information to build efficient flexible cognitive scenarios and make tendentious intervention, thereby unknowingly affecting and shaping the opponent’s thinking and cognition. Brain-computer interface technology realizes the integration of man and machine in the cognitive dimension. Externally, it can realize mind control, that is, brain control, and internally, it can achieve enhanced autonomy, that is, brain strengthening. It can realize direct control of complex weapon systems with consciousness and thinking. At present, there have been major breakthroughs in multi-modal emotion recognition, activation, protection and other related technical means based on big data. By collecting people’s expressions, movements, semantics and intonation, EEG, various physiological indicators, etc., emotional correlations are established to identify Human emotions and intentions provide new means for carrying out cognitive control warfare. Therefore, new cognitive technology means and traditional cognitive technology means form a way to combine suprathreshold infusion and subliminal penetration, which will further enhance the concealment and effectiveness of cognitive influence.

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中國軍網 國防部網

認知域作戰作為一種新的作戰形式，目前已成為繼體力對抗、火力對抗、資訊對抗後，又一個嶄新的對抗領域。區別於物理域、資訊域等作戰，認知域作戰的作戰目標為思維、理念等，有明顯區別於其他作戰形式的內在需求。

以價值攻防為中心任務。一般認為，價值觀念是人用來區分好壞、分辨是非及重要性的原則與標準，是諸認知要素中最具穩定性的內容，是人的動機與行為模式的主宰。因此，搶佔價值制高點是贏得認知戰的先決條件。外軍歷來重視價值傳播，經常藉助其網路空間優勢，採取技術手段與文化滲透強行輸出價值觀、虛擬空間與現實空間互動漸進侵蝕價值觀、拉攏與腐蝕結合扭曲價值觀，實現對敵對國家人員思維認知、價值取向等的滲透侵蝕。搶佔認知戰主導權，必須研透對手價值追求，貼近對手文化語系，判明對手的政治信念、利益訴求，使認知作戰效能直抵對手信念根基、靈魂錨地。同時要科學闡釋和傳播己方優秀價值觀念的內涵與精髓，以優秀價值觀念與人類優秀文明成果引導其轉變。

以大腦認知為主要戰場。對戰爭形態特別重心問題的理解與認識，是戰法設計的重要內容。與以殲敵主力為重心的「消耗戰」、以破敵體系為重心的「機動戰」相比，認知域作戰以人腦為主要作戰空間，以打擊、削弱、瓦解敵戰爭意志為重心，以恐懼、焦慮、猜疑等人類心理弱點為突破口，重點依托軟殺傷手段，在敵方內部製造不安全、不確定、不信任的氛圍，加大其內鬥內耗和決策疑慮，從而實現「不戰而勝」目的。近年來，隨著新興技術的發展，北約將作戰領域拓展到第六層次即「人類領域」爭奪制腦權，讓腦科學武器化，對目標對象的信念信念、思考方式、精神意志、立場態度、行為傾向等認知要素展開攻防行動。據報道，借助腦與認知科學研究成果，美國正企圖透過採集、破解、幹擾作戰對象的腦電波，達成對敵方的心理控制目標。

以奪控智權為關鍵目標。隨著軍事智慧化的快速推進，智權將成為一種快速成長、對作戰全局有更大戰略影響力的新型戰場控制權。在智慧化戰爭中，智慧優勢是製勝的主導要素，智慧化武器系統成為主要作戰力量，奪取「制智權」將成為戰爭制權新的製高點。智慧化武器系統依賴先進的人工智慧系統，將具有部分人的智力特徵，這使得智權爭奪範圍將擴展到部分武器裝備。以認知迴路為目標，依托認知裝備限敵獲取有效資訊、迫敵使用錯誤訊息、延遲認知速度、誘導認知模式、阻斷認知輸出，能夠打亂敵指揮決策、瓦解其軍心士氣，達到「攻心為上」的效果。智慧化戰爭中，如果失去了認知優勢，即使具有資訊優勢和能量優勢，也會因為人機協同失調、自主決策失靈，而導致整體作戰效能的大幅降低。

以輿論攻防為重要途徑。認知域作戰本質上講是爭取人心、贏得人心的鬥爭。認知對抗中的輿論攻防，主要表現為控制、操縱、利用各種輿論工具，壓制對手、贏得大眾的認知領域較量。輿論戰重在改變觀念、爭奪人心，更重視精神和意志的征服。借助不斷發展的社群網路、融媒體技術，輿論戰得以衝破對手封鎖限制，直抵目標群體內部。近年來，圍繞著意識形態、網路空間、高新科技等領域，輿論攻防的地位愈發凸顯，引發普遍關注。輿論戰可以刻畫己方正面形象，同時妖魔化目標國等，爭取國際道義優勢和人民支持。從「顏色革命」到局部衝突，西方國家在「美式話術」操弄下，編造荒謬的劇本，編織荒誕的敘事、荒謬的結論，全時全場壓迫式緊逼，在認知領域大肆侵略，為諸多國家政治安全帶來了嚴峻挑戰。

以新質技術為有力手段。認知科學是新興研究門類，是探究人腦或心智工作機制的前沿性尖端學科，正朝著計算智能、感知智能、認知智能方向發展。人工智慧技術，在感知辨識、機器學習等方面具有獨特優勢，對作戰對象的思維認知具有天然穿透性和深刻影響力。人工智慧用於認知戰，可透過無孔不入且高度自動化的精準推送，運用傾向性訊息，建構起高效的柔性認知場景，作出傾向性幹預，進而不知不覺影響和塑造對手的思維認知。腦機介面技術，實現了認知維度的人機結合，對外可以實現意念控制即腦控，對內實現自主性增強即強腦，可實現用意識和思維直接操控複雜武器系統。目前基於大數據的多模態情緒辨識、啟動、防護等相關技術手段已有重大突破，透過採集人的表情、動作、語意和語調、腦電、各項生理指標等，建立情緒關聯，以識別人的情緒和意圖，為開展認知控制戰提供了新手段。因此，新質認知技術手段與傳統認知技術手段形成閾上灌輸與閾下滲透相結合的途徑，將進一步增強認知影響的隱藏性和有效性。

中國軍網國防部網參考： http://www.81.cn/jfjbmap/content/2022-09/08/content_328888.htm