The traditional style of language confrontation is a form of game in which the two parties in the struggle focus on specific issues or goals at a specific time and in a specific context, using language as the main medium of expression. In the context of cognitive domain operations, with the upgrading of Internet technology, the rapid development of modern communication technology, the innovation of emerging social media, and the improvement of natural language processing technology, coupled with human beings’ advances in cognitive science, linguistics, and communication With the new progress made in the fields of science, psychology and other fields, people have a deeper understanding and new understanding of language confrontation.
Language confrontation is becoming increasingly precise. The narrative style of discourse is the key to influencing cognition. Cognitive domain operations in the era of intelligence can conduct big data-based analysis of the audience, and through large amounts of text collection and data mining, we can find various opinions, tendencies, and positions that were previously invisible or easily ignored due to limited human power. and demands. By making good use of cognitive computing, you can better choose language types, voice patterns, discourse skills, narrative design, optimize the narrative perspective, theme, style, and the personal emotions, values, ideologies, and standpoint evaluations contained in the narrative, and more We should take into account the differences in communication modes of different languages and cultures, so as to achieve the best, fastest and most accurate strikes and counterattacks. At the same time, cognitive protection can also be provided in a foreseeable and targeted manner.
Language text design customization. Cognitive domain operations fundamentally require the use of information to exert influence, and the unique discourse used in the information text is the main basis for cognitive influence. To target the cognitive domain of people in a specific country or region, we must skillfully use the discourse expressions in the other party’s language and culture, and conduct in-depth research on the stories, myths, proverbs, aphorisms, etc. expressed in the other party’s language, especially the popular topics on the other party’s social media. , characters and their discourse characteristics, and is good at using authentic and novel language expressions of cross-cultural cognition to create a contagious language atmosphere of emotional identification. On this basis, we strive to make innovative expressions, fully grasp the different cognitions and needs of the other audience, organize multi-dimensional discourse power, and design texts in multiple languages to form new impressions and cognitions based on cognitive resonance.
The main style of language is popular. Language is the “cannonball fired at thought” in cognitive domain warfare. The use of language that is creative, expressive and in line with the laws of modern communication can cover a wide range of people and win more audiences. Therefore, popularizing the language subject style is the central link that determines the effectiveness of cognitive domain confrontation, and is also a key factor in winning recognition and winning hearts and minds in cognitive domain operations. Young people are the most active group of people in future wars and are also the main force in cognitive confrontation. The discourse forms and expressions that young people like to hear and see are the key to gaining the advantage of language confrontation in the cognitive domain.
Modeling the effects of language confrontation. Language confrontation in cognitive domain operations requires an in-depth study of the opponent’s main cultural environment, main cognitive narrative models, main cognitive shortcomings and weaknesses, and the characteristics of social media communication discourse, and masters its long-term cognitive models and the connotation of textual expressions. Rules etc. Based on artificial intelligence, modeling and analysis of the cognitive effects of language confrontation on different groups of people will help to conduct timely effect assessments, accurately grasp potential problems, and discover the fulcrum of strength. For example, it is difficult for general qualitative fuzzy assessments to grasp the micro-propagation effect of individual flexible maneuvers and the point-shooting effect of a single “discourse sniper”. The use of modeling analysis methods can provide relatively accurate conclusions. In addition, modeling analysis can also create strategic planning methods for language confrontation that combine long-term and present, macro themes and micro themes, agenda setting and random communication, drips of water piercing the stone and floods, and tolerance and tolerance with active release, which is better. to exert the combat effectiveness of language confrontation.
The evolution of war patterns always goes hand in hand with the industrial revolution. In recent years, the wave of intelligence has surged and has been widely and deeply applied in the military field, ushering in intelligent warfare for human society. Intelligent warfare is rooted in the intelligent society, with “human-machine intelligence fusion” as its main feature. The empowerment of intelligence makes the role of cognition in combat more prominent, and cognitive-led victory will become an important mechanism for winning wars.
The history of the development of war naturally pushes cognition to the dominant position
War in the information age occurs simultaneously between the physical domain, the information domain, and the cognitive domain. It should be pointed out that the physical domain, information domain and cognitive domain are not the exclusive domain of war in the information age. All wars and even all history are derived from the joint action of the three. They have come and gone in the long history of war, and have alternately become the dominant force in winning battles. elements.
(1) Energy dominates playing speed and strength. When the form of war changes, the mobility, lethality and protective power in the physical domain increase, often becoming the key to victory in combat. This is true for iron weapons and war horses in cold weapon warfare, muskets and artillery in hot weapon warfare, and ships, tanks, and aircraft in mechanized warfare. To sum up, it is energy dominance. Energy dominates the game with speed and strength. Whoever has a better, faster, and stronger main battle platform is often more likely to win. However, the effectiveness of weapons cannot be infinitely developed. Nowadays, platform mobility has been limited by human physiological limits and has encountered a bottleneck. Nuclear weapons also tell us that regardless of whether there is an upper limit to the development of firepower, its use will be strictly limited.
(2) Information takes the lead to achieve accuracy and integrity. The information domain focuses on the transmission and sharing of information. The development of information warfare has caused the confrontation between the two combatants to “gradually change from a problem of intensity, material and energy to a problem of structure, organization, information and control.” Information replaces energy and becomes the key to victory in combat. Information dominance means focusing on precision and overall control. Whoever’s weapon platform has higher strike accuracy and whose combat system has stronger information sharing capabilities will be more likely to win. However, the relationship between information advantage and decision-making advantage is not linear. As the amount of information continues to increase, the formation of decision-making advantage must also resort to intellectual support in the cognitive domain.
(3) Cognition-led development of intelligence and design. The cognitive domain includes perception, judgment and decision-making, etc., and has been a must for military strategists since ancient times. Ancient military classics such as “Sun Tzu’s Art of War” contain rich ideas of wisdom and victory such as “predicting victory first” and “attacking with troops through strategy”. In the history of war, there are countless examples of winning by relying on strategy. Cognition leads the development of intelligence and design. Especially when the form of war matures, confrontation between evenly matched opponents will always be dominated by cognition. If we look at the development level of energy and information in the past, there are still great constraints on commanders’ planning and design of operations. So today’s great development of the two provides conditions for them to effectively achieve their intentions. Being able to do it as soon as you think of it is naturally shifting the dominant factor in winning battles to cognition. The side with higher intelligence and stronger design capabilities can often dominate the development of the battle situation.
Intelligence will give cognitive dominance a special era connotation
Intelligence is not about letting machine intelligence surpass, replace or eliminate humans, but rather using it to assist, liberate and enhance humans, and achieve human self-transcendence through the integration of human-machine intelligence. It enables humans, who have been using cognition to transform the world and change wars for thousands of years, for the first time to have the ability to transform cognition itself. This transformation is no longer the accumulation of knowledge, but a leap in ability; it is no longer the patent of a few elites. Rather, it is a characteristic of society as a whole. When it widely penetrates into the combat field, the form of war will enter the intelligent war, and cognitive dominance will take on a new connotation.
(1) Expansion of cognitive space. In today’s era, human factors and weapon factors are becoming more and more closely integrated. The most typical examples are drones and intelligence. “Intelligence” mainly refers to autonomous systems, that is, simulating and materializing human intelligence and transplanting it into machines. Machine intelligence empowerment will allow autonomous systems to easily break through human physiological limits, enter environments that humans cannot bear at a speed beyond human reach, and rely on a certain amount of “on-site intelligence” to complete tasks that humans are unable or unwilling to complete. It may not really improve people’s cognition, but it will definitely extend people’s cognition in space and expand the combat space to extreme areas such as deep space, deep sea, and deep earth.
(2) Improvement of cognitive efficiency. There are countless examples of cognitive victory, but there are only two reasons for this. Either rely on perceptual cognition, that is, intelligence. In the age of information scarcity, the level of decision-making is positively correlated with the amount of information. From small to large amounts of information, the quality of decision-making improves almost linearly. It is said that “if you know your enemy and yourself, victory is not in danger; if you know the sky and the earth, victory is endless.” Either rely on rational cognition, that is, judgment and strategy. Clausewitz said: “Three-quarters of the situations on which actions are based in war seem to be hidden in the clouds and are more or less unreal.” Excellent commanders can always reveal ” The information behind “The Mist” is what is said to be “what everyone knows, it has already been written; what I see, it has not yet been formed.” But when information moves from scarcity to overload or even “explosion”, the function curve between decision quality and information quantity begins to decline, making it increasingly difficult to use complex information to form accurate judgments. At this time, intelligence seems to be coming as planned. Computational intelligence may not surpass humans in terms of logical capabilities, but its powerful processing speed can solve the decision-making dilemma caused by information overload.
(3) Cognitive interconnection and sharing. Combat is a violent confrontation between armed groups. Regardless of decision-making or actions, timely and effective communication between combatants is required. The advantage of information dominance is information sharing. However, due to the subjectivity of cognition, people often have different understandings of information, or even completely different opinions. The same information does not mean that the same information works in the same direction. With the development of machine intelligence, brain-computer interface and other technologies, their “silicon brains” will rely on the linkability that is significantly better than that of the human brain to promote the evolution of the network form from the Internet of Things to the Internet of Brains, and combat interaction will subsequently be based on information sharing. Moving towards situation sharing and decision-making sharing, the combat system will truly be realized and exerted.
Cognitive dominance will be widely used in intelligent warfare
Winning by instant advantage means “having the comprehensive capabilities and favorable situation to defeat the opponent at the moment when force is launched against the enemy, at the decisive point of the war.” It is the fundamental winning mechanism of war. The dominant factor in seizing and maintaining immediate advantages varies with changes in war forms. In intelligent warfare, cognition dominates.
(1) Relying on the advantage of cognitive control of time to predict and strike preemptively to a new level. Time is the only irreducible factor in combat, and preemption is the eternal winning mechanism. Intelligent warfare will increasingly seize control of time advantage. First, you must first sense the enemy. In 2017, the US military proposed the concept of “algorithmic warfare”, which is to use intelligent analysis technology to quickly extract high-value intelligence from massive amounts of data. The popularization of intelligence in the future will push forward the intelligent perception of intelligence to ensure that enemies are discovered from the source. Secondly, we must make decisions before the enemy. The hybrid intelligence of human-machine integration and the network intelligence of up-down linkage will help realize distributed synchronized combat planning, and all levels within the organization can realize the integrated generation of combat plans. The third is to act before the enemy. The troops can prepare for combat in advance according to the specific process of joint decision-making. Once the combat plan is generated, they can immediately switch to combat.
(2) Relying on cognition to create military superiority, unmanned swarms and group operations will become typical new tactics. Victory with more and less is the embodiment of “victory with instant advantage” in the use of combat forces. In intelligent warfare, victory with more and less is mainly the use of cognitive materialization, that is, machine intelligence, to shape military superiority and implement unmanned swarm or group operations. . First of all, the development of intelligent and additive manufacturing technologies has enabled autonomous systems to achieve cost savings and gain an absolute advantage over the enemy in terms of the number of platforms with the same investment. Secondly, when autonomous systems enter the battlefield, no matter how brave or tenacious they are, even the best soldiers cannot match them. Unmanned or manned-unmanned coordinated swarm operations will be both violent, saturated, and economical. In addition, the unmanned group combat formed by the combination of machine intelligence and bionics will demonstrate powerful systematic combat capabilities through self-learning, self-collaboration, self-healing and even self-evolution capabilities.
(3) Relying on cognition to expand spatial advantages, cross-domain efficiency enhancement and global integration will reach a new level. Intelligence will not only create a new combat space, but also expand the breadth and depth of joint operations. Autonomous systems with certain cognitive capabilities can secretly maneuver to deep space and deep sea space near key targets or important passages to conduct infiltration and latent operations, forming a new cross-domain check and balance advantage against the enemy. “The defenders’ towers are silent and their traces are gone. They are more mysterious than ghosts and gods. They are underground and cannot be seen. The attackers are fast and fierce, as fast as thunder and lightning. They are in the sky and cannot be caught and prepared.” It can form a new asymmetry to the enemy. Advantage. Use intelligent sensing to form a more accurate understanding of the combat environment, use intelligent decision-making to implement a more reasonable allocation of combat resources, use intelligent networks to provide more flexible access to combat platforms, and achieve flexible deployment of combat forces, full-domain linkage, and efficient energy release.
(4) Aiming at the enemy’s cognition, attacking the mind and controlling the brain, control replaces destruction as a new way to win. Compared with the traditional “conquering the enemy without fighting”, intelligent warfare has greatly expanded its ability to attack the mind and control the brain. The former puts more emphasis on “win on the road” and focuses on deterring opponents; the latter focuses more on influencing and controlling opponents. In December 2017, Russia’s base in Syria was attacked by a “swarm” of 13 small drones. Russia controlled 6 of them using electronic warfare means, which was the prototype of mind control. One is to fabricate information to influence. In the future, real-life audio and video synthesis, pervasive network attacks, and immersive virtual reality will provide more effective means to influence the opponent’s cognition. The second is to tamper with the program to influence. Such as using “core attack warfare” to tamper with the algorithm of the enemy’s command and decision-making system. The third is to directly control the enemy’s decision-making. Use cyber warfare, electromagnetic warfare and other methods to control the enemy’s “brain” attacks to achieve the goal of stopping and winning the war at the minimum cost.
Judging from the latest local war practice, cognitive domain operations have become an important variable that profoundly affects the direction of war. In cognitive domain operations, all parties compete fiercely for control of public opinion, information guidance, and cognitive shaping. There are not only physical confrontations, but also competitions in virtual space, demonstrating the distinctive characteristics of “technology +” in the digital era. Exploring the way to win in cognitive domain operations is of great practical significance for controlling the initiative in cognitive domain operations and winning future wars.
Seizing control of the brain has become the ultimate goal of cognitive domain operations
The brain is the material basis of all thinking activities and the command center that influences and controls human behavior changes. Feeling, perception and consciousness constitute the three aspects of the world that the brain reflects. How to win the right to control the brain has increasingly become the focus of research and attention by all warring parties in the field of cognitive domain operations.
Actively fight for sensory control. Feeling is the reaction caused by the characteristics of objective things in the human brain, and is the basis for various complex psychological processes. With the rapid development of brain science, molecular biology, neurochemistry and other disciplines, humans have gradually gained the ability to intervene and control the brain at the physiological level. According to foreign experimental results, inhaling oxytocin will make people more trusting of others and more empathetic, thereby affecting a person’s prosociality and moral performance. In future operations, the warring parties will use physical stimulation such as sound, light and electricity, or chemical drugs to act on the target’s hearing, vision, smell and other sensory systems. They may even directly act on the human brain to stimulate the target’s brain. Specific emotional reactions can achieve cognitive influence and control on the physiological level.
Effective competition for perceptual suppression. Perception is a psychological process formed on the basis of sensation and reflects the overall image and surface connection of objective things. Among them, the individual’s attitude, motivation, interest, as well as past experience and future expectations are the key variables that affect the individual’s perception of the perceptual target. During wartime, warring parties aim at the target’s psychological doubts, weaknesses, and needs, seize favorable opportunities, and use specific information to emotionally influence, mentally induce, or disrupt the target’s perception in order to increase the target’s perception of the target. The expectation of war risks weakens their will to resist and their determination to fight, thereby achieving the purpose of subduing the enemy with a small war, less fighting or even no fighting.
Comprehensive competition for the right to shape consciousness. Consciousness is realized through psychological processes such as feeling, perception, and thinking, and is manifested as the unity of knowledge, emotion, and intention. The fundamental purpose of war is to force the enemy to surrender. Judging from the war practice at home and abroad in ancient and modern times, in order to win the right to shape consciousness, the warring parties will do their best to mobilize all available military power and comprehensively use political, economic, cultural, diplomatic and other means to carry out political disintegration and diplomatic measures against the enemy. Isolation, guidance of public opinion, and declaration of legal principles can trigger rational thinking, ethical resonance, or value recognition of target individuals or groups, thereby changing their worldview, outlook on life, and values, forming a relatively stable and long-term cognitive influence or control, thereby achieving “complete victory.” “the goal of.
Controlling information becomes the key to cognitive domain operations
The weapon and ammunition of cognitive domain operations is information. Mastering the initiative in the generation, identification, acquisition, dissemination and feedback of information is the key to gaining battlefield advantage in the cognitive domain.
Actively implement strong psychological stimulation to promote information penetration. Modern warfare is fierce and complex, with various elements of confrontation unfolding in multi-dimensional and multi-domain contexts, and fighter jets fleeting. The forces and methods acting in the cognitive domain must keep up with the development and changes of the battlefield situation, and make extensive use of strong psychological stimulation methods such as subliminal information implantation, acousto-optical electromagnetic psychological nuisance damage, and non-contact emotional control to take the initiative to induce the target. The subject’s emotions, will, thoughts, beliefs, etc. appear chaotic, confused or radically changed, thereby achieving the purpose of controlling and influencing the cognitive system of the target subject.
Extensive use of intelligent algorithms to achieve accurate push. As the Internet penetrates into every aspect of human life, everyone will leave massive amounts of data and information online. During wartime, warring parties will use modern information technologies such as big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and blockchain to analyze the target’s social data, trajectory data, financial data, online shopping records, search records, personal communication records and other network data. The information is deeply mined and associated to achieve a “cognitive portrait” of the target object, and the target object’s interest preferences, behavioral trends, interpersonal relationships and value orientations are systematically analyzed, thereby three-dimensionally grasping the characteristics of relevant individuals or specific groups. Then, with the help of intelligent algorithm technology, personalized and customized cognitive information is accurately pushed to the target object, thereby affecting the target object’s attitude, emotion and value judgment towards the war, thereby promoting the realization of one’s own combat objectives and political intentions.
Effectively aggregate social support systems to achieve overall linkage. The social support system is the material and spiritual help and support that a person can obtain from others in his or her social network. It is a key factor that affects and determines the emotional support and cognitive direction of an individual. It can be said that for the success of cognitive domain operations, it is crucial to obtain the support and assistance of the target’s social support system. With the help of modern information technology, we can effectively connect to the target’s relatives, friends, classmates, partners and other specific social relations. By exerting targeted influence on the above-mentioned relations, we can gain the understanding, support and trust of the other party, and mobilize the specific relations to When the target object exerts influence, it is easier to win the trust and acceptance of the target object, and it is easier for the target object to undergo cognitive changes, thereby achieving the purpose of cognitive influence and control on the target object.
Virtual space becomes the main battlefield for cognitive domain operations
With the continuous expansion of human virtual space, virtual space is becoming the main battlefield of modern warfare, especially cognitive domain warfare, which determines the outcome of future wars to a certain extent.
Emerging communication forms have become new means of warfare in the cognitive domain. With the continuous development of mobile Internet technology, emerging communication forms represented by social media have gradually become a new platform and mainstream position for cognitive confrontation. Judging from recent local wars, the status and role of social media has become more and more prominent. All warring parties use personal blogs, forums and other platforms to publish battlefield pictures, videos, and comments in real time, which has not only become a global mobile online media terminal. It has also become the main battleground for the value perception game among different countries and different factions around the world. Emerging communication forms such as social media, with their unique decentralization and interactivity characteristics, have broken the information monopoly and information control in traditional communication methods and spawned numerous product styles. While meeting people’s information needs, they are also Unknowingly changing people’s perceptions. It is foreseeable that social media will play an increasingly prominent role in cognitive domain operations in the future.
Cyberspace has become a new space for cognitive domain operations. Under the conditions of informatization and intelligence, the threshold of network technology has been greatly reduced, making it possible to watch the game in real time around the world. Modern warfare has developed from “living room warfare” in the television era to “handheld warfare” in today’s all-media era. Online live broadcast is more intuitive and richer than any form of battlefield reporting, and “global synchronicity” has become a prominent feature. Through live broadcasts on the Internet, videos and pictures of fierce battles between the two warring parties, as well as numerous burned tanks and armored vehicles, as well as homes destroyed by the war and refugees fleeing their homes, can be visually displayed. People can see the micro-state of individual civilians and soldiers on both sides through the Internet. The “transparency” of the battlefield makes any attempt to conceal the truth and false statements more and more difficult. But on the other hand, the emergence of technologies such as intelligent voice cloning and video portrait simulation replacement means that what people see may not necessarily be “as seen” and what they hear may not be “as heard”. Cognition under online live broadcasts Domain operations add more room for possibility and imagination.
The intelligent network army has become a new force in cognitive domain warfare. The development of information networks has broken through the authenticity limitations of interpersonal communication, and it is difficult for us to determine whether the other end of the network is a real person. Based on the needs of large-scale interaction, intelligent, automated, and large-scale cyberspace robots are emerging. They are widely active in every corner of cyberspace. These intelligent network armies have the capabilities of intelligent recognition, intelligent response and even brain-like thinking. They are tireless and work around the clock. Intelligent network armies are becoming an important force in future cognitive domain operations. Judging from the current development trends of related technologies, major countries and even business organizations in the world are focusing on the potential prospects of network robots in group penetration, live broadcast follow-up, shaping public opinion, and managing network crises. In the flexible guidance of network intelligent robots, Increase research and development efforts on key technologies such as automatic acquisition of technology groups, automatic cultivation and group penetration, and provide intelligent and efficient technical support for public opinion guidance, cognitive shaping, and behavioral guidance and control by discovering and effectively utilizing the behavioral patterns of network users.
Modern warfare, according to the characteristics of material form, usually divides the combat domain into the physical domain, the information domain, and the cognitive domain. The three domains interact with each other to form the field and soil for military confrontation. Although cognitive domain operations occur in the cognitive domain, their operational support often spans various fields. War practice shows that with the enhanced effectiveness of hard strikes in the physical domain, cognitive formation can often be accelerated, and cognitive realization can better meet combat needs.
Cognitive offense and defense cannot be separated from physical support
Today’s world is a world where everything is interconnected. The collection of different objects connected to each other greatly enhances the function of independent individuals acting alone. Cognitive domain operations are never isolated operations between cognitive carriers. Only by integrating cognitive offense and defense into an integrated joint operations chain, closely integrating with physical domain military strike operations, and tightly integrating with the entire combat system can we fully exert combat effectiveness.
The starting point of cognition. Existence determines consciousness. Thinking and cognition is not a fairy from the sky, but a true or tortuous reflection of the real world. Without the foundation of the material world, thinking and cognition will lose the source of information, the basis for analysis and judgment, and the accuracy of decision-making and action, making it difficult for people to trust, recognize, and rely on. Even the most psychedelic science fiction wars still have references to real combat targets, specific combat objectives, and corresponding combat paths. Therefore, intelligence reconnaissance analysis has become an indispensable and important link for commanders to organize troops and plan. “Without investigation, there is no right to speak” is regarded as a golden rule that must be followed in decision-making. Battlefield simulation simulations have become an important step for the success of combat operations. In history, most of the combat commands of accomplished generals and classic combat cases that can withstand the test of history and practice are all based on full investigation and research and scientific intelligence analysis. Without the hard-core support of the real world, “human beings think about , and God laughs.”
The basis of cognitive effects. A golden rule of operations in the cognitive domain is that soft power at the cognitive level must be supported by hard strikes at the physical level in order to ensure and strengthen its role. Strong military pressure is a necessary prerequisite for cognitive means to work, and continuous victory on the battlefield is the core support for winning cognitive wars. If the United States does not have the high-pressure pressure of its super comprehensive national strength and superior technology, its “Star Wars Plan” may not really work. If cognitive domain operations lack the support of specific military operations in the physical domain, they will never produce the good effects of doubting, confusing, deterring, and defeating the enemy. To grasp the initiative in thinking and cognition and to take the initiative in cognitive domain operations, we must not only strengthen the construction of cognitive ontology, improve the ability to directly use strategies and technical means to strengthen self-protection, intervene and influence the opponent’s thinking and cognition, but also actively strive to The physical domain leverages the conduction effect of military operations in the physical domain to enhance thinking and cognition.
The starting point for cognitive realization. Marxism believes that once theory grasps the masses, it will also become material force. From the perspective of cognitive domain combat, the spiritual creation at the superstructure level of cognition will not automatically turn into material power. Only by being attached to a certain material carrier and practical grasp can it be possible to realize spiritual to material and consciousness. A critical leap into existence. Just as in World War II, if the German army had not bypassed the Maginot Line, broke through the Ardennes Forest, and launched a surprise attack into the French hinterland, it would have been impossible to demonstrate the foresight of the cognitive achievement of the “Manstein Plan”; similarly, if there had been no Allied Forces, The military’s successful landing in Normandy, which invaded the east and west, also failed to highlight the ingenuity of the “Operation Overlord Plan” strategy of “building plank roads openly and concealing warehouses secretly”. Thinking and cognition are transmitted through people to specific military actions in the physical domain, and then the specific military actions in the physical domain realize the material transformation of cognitive results, forming the fundamentals of the two-way interaction between cognitive offense and defense and military strikes in the physical domain.
The basic method of physical attack to support cognitive offense and defense
The methods and methods used by military strikes in the physical domain to support cognitive offense and defense follow the general law that matter determines consciousness and existence determines thinking. The basic methods can be divided into enhanced support, confirmation support and realization support.
Enhanced support. Military strikes in the physical domain strengthen the formation and development of thinking and cognition. Although thinking and cognition depend on the quality of the cognitive carrier itself, it will be difficult to achieve without the support of military operations in the physical domain. The most basic role of military operations in the physical domain in the cognitive domain is to provide solid support for the formation and development of thinking and cognition. Thinking and cognition can only be stable and far-reaching if it is based on real physical actions. For example, in the early days of the Korean War, when the Korean People’s Army was overwhelming, our army’s combat staff Lei Yingfu and others accurately predicted the landing of the US military based on the war situation, geographical and weather characteristics of the Korean Peninsula, especially the various actions of the US and South Korean troops at that time, etc. time and location. Similarly, Li Qiwei of the “United Nations Army” also made a judgment on the “worship offensive” based on the logistics support, weapons and equipment, and tactical use of the volunteers, and used “magnetic tactics” to fight me. These are all enhancements to the formation and development of thinking and cognition caused by combat in the physical domain.
Confirmation type support. Military strikes in the physical domain confirm preset thinking, precognition, and prejudgment. Cognitive attack and defense does not only occur at the cognitive level, but is the interaction between cognition and practice. War is a “place of life and death, a way of survival”. If one’s cognitive decision-making cannot be verified in many directions at the practical level, then acting rashly is the greatest irresponsibility for war. During the revolutionary war years, our military’s decision-makers were always under the control of the overall strategy and gave front-line commanders the power to act as appropriate and in accordance with the overall strategic direction principle. This is a positive confirmation of strategic thinking. During the Second World War, the Allies used “false facts” to mislead, constantly shaping and strengthening the German army’s misunderstanding of the Allied landing sites on the European continent, and finally successfully landed in Normandy with minimal cost. This was a counter-attack. To confirm.
Implementation support. Provide direct physical support for the realization of thinking, cognition, judgment and decision-making. Thinking and cognition must be transformed into actual results that change the world. The thinking and cognition acting on the opponent is not the end but a new starting point. Next, it must be acted upon in the physical world through “skilled hands” and “brave heart”. In other words In short, it is to provide direct physical action support for the value realization of thinking and cognition. This is just like Zhuge Liang’s clever plan, but without the implementation of the “Five Tiger Generals” and other Shu Han soldiers, it can only remain at the cognitive level of talking on paper. No matter how efficiently the first three parts of the “OODA” loop operate, if the execution link “A” is missing, it will be a “dead loop”. Similarly, the results of our military’s command decisions also depend on the resolute, thorough, and creative execution of the officers and soldiers. The quality and efficiency of the execution directly determines the effectiveness of the implementation of the command decisions. In this regard, physical actions at the execution level are of extremely important practical significance.
Effectively strengthen the interaction between cognitive offense and defense and physical strikes
Thinking and cognition must rely on the support of physical actions, which is an objective law that is independent of human will. It is an extremely important task to strengthen the communication and interaction between thinking and cognition and physical strikes to make our thinking and decision-making more targeted, objective and operable, so as to better transform cognitive advantages into action advantages and winning advantages. .
Be more proactive and solidify your cognitive foundation. Whether the thinking and cognition is correct depends fundamentally on its compatibility with objective reality and its applicability to combat opponents. Only thinking and cognition based on full investigation and research, seeking truth from facts and comparative advantages can stand the test of practice and actual combat. The practice of absolute, sacred, and nihilistic thinking or generals’ genius, wisdom, and inspiration is idealistic, one-sided, and harmful. This requires that we must work hard to base our thinking and cognition on the basis of extensive investigation, research and intelligence analysis, and truly understand the enemy’s situation, our situation, and other people’s situations, truly know our enemies and ourselves, know everything we should know, and adapt to local conditions. The camera moves. At the same time, we must combine reading books without words with books with words, unify indirect theory with living practice that is constantly developing and changing, and dialectically recognize past experiences and lessons and other people’s experiences and lessons, so that they become our own knowledge. Help instead of shackles, assist instead of dominate.
Be more proactive and strengthen cognitive rationality. Correct understanding that can withstand the long-term test of practice and actual combat comes from practice and is strengthened through feedback from practice. Cognitive practical experience is only the basic material for obtaining correct cognition. To form scientific cognition, we need to further eliminate the false and preserve the true in the repeated collision and verification of consciousness and matter, thinking and existence, in order to improve cognitive rationality. It is wrong and even fatal to think that true knowledge can be obtained once and for all from only local situations, fragmented information and individual periods of time. In the Battle of Chibi in ancient China, Cao Cao’s side only came to the understanding of conjoining warships from the common sense that iron cables can balance the shaking of the ship’s hull, but did not confirm it from the actual combat effects or consequences of concatenating warships. If you don’t know how to recreate, you will easily tie up the ship with iron ropes and tie yourself up, and ultimately end up in the disastrous defeat of “burning Red Cliff”. Times have changed, and the enemy situation on the modern battlefield is ever-changing. There has never been an unchanging cognitive practice, nor a once-and-for-all cognitive achievement. It can only strip away impurities and extract the essence from material to cognitive to material confirmation for re-cognition. , can we return to rationality.
Be more proactive in objectifying cognitive outcomes. Cognitive achievements are only the result of thinking and consciousness nurtured in cognitive carriers. Without timely and effective material transformation, it will be like walking at night wearing brocade clothes or hiding treasures in the mountains, and it will be difficult to demonstrate its own value. Thinking and cognition are based on physical actions, and ultimately rely on specific actions in the physical domain before they can be materialized and transformed into actual results that change the subjective and objective worlds. This requires us to not only consolidate the cognitive foundation and strengthen cognitive rationality, but also improve the operability of cognitive decision-making and planning as much as possible, opening the door for smoother materialization and transformation. At the same time, efforts must be made to improve the execution capabilities of decision-making and deployment executors, so that they can correctly understand the intention of decision-making, creatively adopt appropriate methods based on specific realities, and maximize the implementation of cognitive results and operational decision-making plans to the end. Be a good “ferryman” and “bridge across the river” that connects and transforms cognitive results with combat effectiveness.
From the battlefield of “bows and horses, riding and shooting, and swords and weapons” in the era of cold weapons to the three-dimensional battlefield of land, sea, and air in the era of industrialization, to the integrated battlefield covering multiple domains such as physics, information, and cognition in the era of informationization and intelligence, war One of the core logics of form evolution is to continuously enter new domains and integrate multiple domains. Cross-domain aggregation of operational effectiveness has become a basic and decisive mechanism for winning wars. In this process, the cognitive domain has increasingly become a new battlefield that penetrates and affects multi-domain operations, and a new commanding height that determines the success or failure of the war.
The cognitive domain becomes the key to seizing comprehensive control
In modern warfare, the cognitive domain has become the key to seizing comprehensive control. War practice shows that the cognitive domain has increasingly become the focus of planning modern wars and achieving multi-domain integrated linkage for victory.
Cognitive domain advantage supports multi-domain combat effectiveness doubling. In modern warfare, in the physical domain, we destroy the enemy, preserve ourselves, and compete for control of the land, sea, air, and sky; in the information domain, we block the enemy, connect ourselves, and compete for network and information control, all related to the cognitive domain. There is a profound connection between the advantage and the initiative position. In the system-versus-system game, once the opponent is suppressed in the cognitive domain and takes the initiative, it can interfere with decision-making on the key nodes of the enemy’s command chain, kill chain, and support chain, making the actions in the physical domain and information domain gain “a huge advantage”. asymmetric benefits, thereby improving the input-output ratio of combat, enhancing the speed and efficiency of local victory leading to overall victory, and reducing the subsequent constraints caused by military strikes in the economic and social life fields.
When planning and implementing multi-domain operations, attention should be paid to the role of the cognitive domain. Modern warfare is significantly complex. Elements of multi-domain operations are interconnected, impacts are transmitted in multiple directions, and risks are superimposed on each other. Every action or even a detail of a multi-domain combat operation will trigger a chain reaction in the cognitive domain at the levels of decision-making issues, military morale, public opinion concerns, social confidence, international public opinion, etc. of both the enemy and ourselves, resulting in rapid, sudden, and unexpected consequences. It affects the overall situation of the war and even creates a “butterfly storm” that changes the domestic and foreign affairs situation of the warring parties and even the long-term development trend of the country. To plan and implement operations in the physical domain and information domain, we must not only focus on shaping the situation and creating conditions in the cognitive domain, but also accurately control the direction and size of the release of effectiveness in the cognitive domain in accordance with the need to control the brain, mind, and intelligence. Dynamic changes in the number of enemy annihilations, temporary gains and losses in one city and one place, etc., are increasingly losing their significance as indicators for evaluating the direction of the war situation. The overall impact of military operations on the war situation increasingly needs to be measured from the changes in international and domestic public perceptions it triggers. and the psychological impact on specific objects to be evaluated and considered.
The material and technical conditions for the cognitive domain to trigger integrated linkage of multiple domains are becoming increasingly mature. The rapid development of information-based intelligent cognitive perception technology has rapidly developed the game confrontation in the cognitive domain from absolutely “uncalculable” and “uncontrollable” to a considerable degree of “calculable” and “controllable”. Assisted decision-making by technologies such as big data and intelligent algorithms supports the deep integration of different combat forces in the cognitive domain and multi-dimensional command coordination, strengthening political, economic, diplomatic, cultural, military and other aspects of power, means and actions. The consistency and coordination bring about the operability of designing multiple domains, commanding multiple domains, and controlling multiple domains focusing on the cognitive domain. The widespread use of weapons and equipment such as drones and precision-guided bombs has also provided realistic and feasible tactical options for precision strikes through combat operations. The rapid popularization of intelligent communication technologies such as accurate portraits, intelligent distribution, social media live broadcast, robot writing, and virtual reality, as well as the cross-integrated development of neuroscience, cognitive science, and intelligent technology, have made it possible to plan and implement “X+ cognitive attack and defense” and achieve integrated Linked operations have become convenient and efficient.
The penetration of the cognitive domain affects the integrated linkage of multiple domains. It is not a simple “1+1”, but the energy of multi-domain actions is instantly concentrated in the cognitive domain, thereby continuously injecting emergent effects that are beneficial to oneself into the overall war. To this end, it is necessary to strengthen the innovative design of combat planning and implementation paths to ensure that multi-domain advantages can be achieved under the influence of cognitive domain penetration.
Use cognitive domain operational requirements to deepen understanding of multi-domain tasks. Focus on the overall national strategy, clarify operational requirements in the cognitive domain, and calculate and determine operational tasks in each domain based on this. Establish the must-hit targets and avoidable targets for fire strikes, hit targets first and hit later, hit targets openly and covertly, hit targets hard and hit lightly, etc., and focus on the effect of disintegrating the morale of the opponent’s military. When establishing the goal, timing, intensity, etc. of channel seizure, we must focus on the effectiveness of depriving the opponent of social mobilization and international communication capabilities and the effectiveness of supporting our information release and external propaganda. To establish the focus of intelligence information collection, it is necessary to focus on the ability to grasp the combat power in the cognitive domain of combat opponents, describe the characteristics of cognitive attack and defense target objects in a fine-grained manner, and dynamically grasp international and domestic public opinion and social trends of thought.
Use cognitive domain combat tasks to guide multi-domain action design. Focusing on questions such as “who, what kind of cognitive impact, and to what extent”, the cognitive domain combat tasks in different combat stages and different combat scenarios are subdivided. Based on this, what actions should be organized in each domain and what actions should be captured? Overall planning and detailed design of fighter aircraft, which forces to invest, what tactics to use, how to connect and intersect various actions, etc. The reason why the besieged troops on all sides were able to disintegrate the powerful Chu army was firstly because the Han army completed the military encirclement of the Chu army, and secondly, it used the ingenuity of capturing prisoners to sing Chu songs at night. In fact, different timing of operations, different task forces, different weapons and equipment, different choices of tactics and even different naming of operations will convey very different information, and the intensity of the generated cognitive impact will also be significantly different, which requires careful consideration and scientific Research and judge, and strive to maximize efficiency and optimize effects. When loading cognitive offensive and defensive actions for fire strikes, network offense and defense, electronic countermeasures, defensive operations, special operations and other operations, different imagination and creative thinking levels, different technical understanding, application and innovation, the final effect achieved is even more It’s like clouds and mud.
Organize multi-domain collaborative support with cognitive domain combat operations. Cognitive domain combat operations involve multiple participants and various action styles. Normally, they require coordinated support of military and firepower such as precise strikes, seizing key areas, and displaying momentum. In special cases, they also require coordinated strategic forces such as the deployment of cutting-edge weapons and equipment, and the organization of major training exercises. Guarantee requires the commander to make public statements and the media to embed reports and other specific personnel and specific combat units to coordinate the guarantee throughout the entire operation. Collaborative guarantee in terms of intelligence data, channel bandwidth, forensic information, and technical equipment is even more indispensable. To this end, it is necessary to mobilize multi-domain forces and resources in a full, real-time, systematic and precise manner, so that military warfare, mental warfare, and intellectual warfare can take advantage of each other and support each other to form a game of chess and create a combination of punches.
Pay attention to deepening the conceptual understanding of cognitive domain penetration and impact on multiple domains
Establishing the role of the cognitive domain in penetrating and influencing multi-domain actions and promoting integrated linkage to win is a deep-seated conceptual revolution that requires strengthening various supporting constructions to create conditions and lay the foundation.
Strengthen institutional guarantees. Using cognitive domain penetration to influence multi-domain integrated linkage operations puts forward higher requirements for cross-department and cross-agency collaboration. It is necessary to form a scientific and efficient command link that supports cognitive domain penetration to influence multi-domain and multi-domain integrated linkage. It is necessary to clarify the cognitive domain operational responsibilities of each element of the joint operations command organization, optimize and reorganize the command process, and ensure that the penetration and influence of the cognitive domain are reflected in operational determination, mission planning, and action design. Focusing on cross-domain integrated linkage, establish and improve working systems and collaboration mechanisms at strategic, operational, tactical and other levels, strengthen the mutual support of cognitive domain operations, physical domain operations, and information domain operations, and fully consider military strength and local related functions. The effective cooperation of departments and professional forces transforms comprehensive advantages into cognitive domain capabilities that penetrate, influence, and empower multiple domains.
Improve the commander’s ability and quality. The foreign military believes that qualified commanders in modern warfare need to be good at “quickly transforming proactive kinetic energy operations into more subtle cultural wars” and should have “unique intuition” and “comprehensive leadership capabilities” in this regard. In order to realize the integrated linkage of cognitive domain penetration and influence on multiple domains in war practice, we first need to strengthen the awareness of cognitive domain operations in the minds of commanders at all levels, and strengthen the formation of a conscious initiative to use cognitive domain penetration to influence multi-domain mission planning and action design. nature, strengthen and improve the ability to implement high-efficiency cognitive attack and defense using military firepower operations and information control as means. Multi-domain coordinated command under the influence of cognitive domain penetration should be regarded as an important part of strategic battle drills, highlighting the ability of commanders to command and control multiple domains with a focus on cognitive shaping, and promote the training field to continue to be closer to winning political and military The actual requirements of the war.
Promote the updating and improvement of joint cultural concepts. Cognitive domain penetration affects multi-domain integrated joint operations, which are the sublimation and optimization of joint operations concepts and mechanisms. In particular, it requires the support and guarantee of joint culture construction that is suitable for it. On the one hand, we must strive to break the influence of traditional war thinking, break down some traditional conceptual barriers, and make cognitive guidance, multi-domain integration, and joint operations the forefront of joint cultural construction and focus on updating concepts. On the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of the theoretical system of cognitive domain penetration affecting multi-domain integrated joint operations, carry out in-depth research on the winning mechanism of cognitive domain operations and innovation of tactics, and lay a solid ideological foundation with theoretical accumulation.
(Author’s unit: School of Political Science, National Defense University)
Cognitive domain operations take people’s will, beliefs, thinking, psychology, etc. as direct combat objects, and then affect their decisions and actions by changing the opponent’s cognition. Entering the era of information-based and intelligent warfare, cognitive domain warfare has become an important form of great power game, with all parties striving to achieve political goals in a relatively controllable manner. Gaining insight into the characteristics and development trends of cognitive domain operations is of urgent and important practical significance for winning future wars.
At present, the cognitive domain has entered the war stage as an independent domain, and has increasingly become a common domain, a battleground, and a weight for victory in the game between great powers. Analyze the characteristics and development trends of cognitive domain operations, which are reflected in at least the following eight aspects.
The cognitive domain is the key domain for transforming military advantage into political victory.
On the surface, military confrontation is a confrontation between the hard power of both sides. On a deeper level, no matter what the nature of the war is and for what purpose, it is ultimately a contest of human wills. The key to victory is the ability to impose your will on your audience. As long as the enemy’s will to fight is deprived and defeated, the war is won. Cognitive domain warfare uses human will, spirit, psychology, etc. as the target of confrontation, strengthening one’s own will while weakening the enemy’s will, thereby achieving the political goal of conquering the heart and mind. In this sense, the cognitive domain is the key domain for transforming military advantage into political victory. As war accelerates its evolution toward intelligence, cognitive quality advantages bring decision-making and action advantages, which can not only occupy the moral and legal high ground and create a favorable situation of justice and legality, but also realize small wars through hybrid warfare and comprehensive game means. Even the purpose of winning without fighting. Especially in the context of great power competition, the cost of war is high. All parties hope to intensify the competition for cognitive domains and force their opponents to retreat in a “humane” and “economic” manner.
By changing the opponent’s perception, it can change its decisions and actions
The purpose of implementing cognitive attacks is to use an “invisible hand” to control the opponent’s will, making the opponent feel “I can’t” and “I dare not”, and then achieve the effect of “I don’t want to”. Foreign military practice has shown that cognitive attacks on people’s will, beliefs, thinking, and psychology can be long-term cultural implantation, information suppression in the form of “information ocean + covering one’s mouth to silence”, or preemptive speech. Active shaping of political power can also use historical grievances to provoke the outbreak of conflicts. At present, information technology, artificial intelligence technology, and media technology have strengthened their direct effects on the cognitive domain. Using intelligent generation software, a large amount of cognitive “munitions” can be produced to accurately act on the cognitive layer of combat targets, directly imposing “will” to rivals” and quickly change the strategic situation. Looking forward to the informationized and intelligent battlefield, situational awareness forces and platforms are widely distributed in combat domains such as land, sea, air, and space networks. Cognitive behaviors such as planning, decision-making, and control dominate operations in various combat domains, especially the cognition of human-machine hybrids in future intelligent warfare. Advantages will dominate the battlefield. Cognitive interference, cognitive confusion, cognitive blocking and other means can be used to create a “fog” of war cognition, inducing opponents to misjudge the situation and make wrong decisions and actions.
Cognitive domain operations are full-time offense and defense, full personnel coverage, full use, full domain shaping, and full government action
Cognitive domain operations are all-round, multi-level, hyper-temporal, and cross-domain. They blur the boundaries between wartime and peacetime, front and rear, cross battlefields and national boundaries, go beyond the pure military field, and widely penetrate into politics. , economy, diplomacy and other social fields, showing the characteristics of “five completes”. Full-time offense and defense, there is no distinction between peacetime and wartime, and there is no difference between the front and the rear. It is expressed as being online all the time and in war all the time. Covering all personnel, anyone, including intelligent robots, may become the target of cognitive domain operations. It is used throughout the whole process of joint operations before and during the war. Before the joint military operation is launched, the cognitive shaping operation has begun and will accompany the military operation and will not stop with the military operation. Global shaping, cognitive shaping runs through all levels of strategy, operations, and tactics, and its scope covers all domains of land, sea, air, and space networks. Cross-domain empowerment has an impact on all-domain operations. As a whole-of-government action, cognitive shaping is naturally strategic and requires consistent and coordinated actions across departments, fields, military and localities, and levels to achieve the best communication effect.
The key is to seize control over the right to define the nature of an action or activity, the right to dominate the process, and the right to judge the outcome.
The cognitive game struggle involves multiple opposing parties and seems complicated. The key is to compete for the “three powers” in the cognitive domain. First, fight for the right to define the nature of the event. That is, how to view this incident, whether it is just or unjust, legal or illegal. Usually, pre-emptive definitions, group alliances and forced definitions, information suppression and unilateral definitions, setting issues and applying definitions are usually adopted to guide and shape the public to form qualitative perceptions. Second, compete for dominance over the event process. That is, how to do something, how not to do it, who did it right and who did it wrong, usually by setting up a trap and other methods, trying to dominate the development direction of the target event according to the state that one’s own side expects. Fast and slow, pause, continue and end. Third, compete for the right to judge the outcome of the incident. That is, how to evaluate this matter, who is the gainer and who is the loser, who is the immediate loser, who is the long-term loser, etc. All parties are trying to control the outcome of the incident by amplifying the advantages to themselves and the disadvantages to the enemy. The purpose is to use the extended effect of the incident to continue to harm the enemy and benefit themselves.
Morality and legal principles are the focus of contention between all parties
Military operations have always paid attention to the principle of “discipline and reputation”. Although the shape of war is evolving at an accelerated pace, the essential nature of war as subordinate to politics will not change; the nature of war and the support of people’s hearts are still the key factors that affect the outcome of a war. On the battlefield in the cognitive domain, by occupying the commanding heights of politics, morality, and law, we can win the hearts and minds of the people and moral support, create a public opinion atmosphere in which moral support is abundant, and then seize the opportunity to defeat the enemy. In every war or conflict, whether it is the strong or the weak, whether the attacker, the defender, or a third party, all parties will try their best to seize cognitive dominance and the initiative of public opinion. They will do everything possible to package themselves with morality, focus on declaring a just position, and try to find ways to defend themselves. Qualify the war, justify the action, eliminate resistance, increase support, and create a favorable situation in which “righteousness” defeats “unrighteousness”. The strength balance between the two sides in the war is different, and the cognitive confrontation methods aimed at occupying the moral and legal high ground will also be different. Recent wars have shown that when a party has strong soft and hard power, that is, it has strong military strength, many allies and partners, and a large share of international voice, it often declares war in a high-profile manner; when military actions may trigger chain reactions, it is often handled in a vague manner. The word “war”.
Information is the basic “ammunition” for cognitive attack and defense
In the network information age, the way humans communicate continues to undergo complex and profound changes. On-site interactive interactions have gradually given way to online connections. Some large-scale social platforms have become the main battleground for cognitive games and the main channels for influencing public cognition. Using information as ammunition to fight for the right to block international networks and control discourse has become a common practice today. One of the main actions of confrontation. On these platforms, various short videos have become the “first scene” for the public to understand the war situation, and information travels faster than cannonballs. The use and blocking, dominance and regulation of platforms have become the focus of battles in the cognitive domain. All parties strive to spread and amplify their own propaganda, denounce and suppress the other party’s propaganda by manipulating social platforms, forming a “I say more, you say less” “A situation where “I’m right and you’re wrong” and “I can only say it and you’re not allowed to say it”. As users of large-scale social platforms, the public is influenced by and affects others in the process of “listening”, “speaking” and even “doing”, and unknowingly becomes the agents and attack props of those behind the scenes.
Military operations play a key supporting role in shaping cognition
The history of human war shows that military warfare is always the basic support of political contests, while psychological warfare is the effectiveness multiplier of military warfare. What cannot be retrieved on the battlefield cannot be expected to be retrieved at the negotiation table, let alone in the field of public opinion. In modern warfare, cognitive communication operations always go hand in hand with joint military operations. Mental warfare and military warfare influence and support each other. The trend of military warfare becoming mental warfare and mental warfare becoming military warfare is more obvious. From the perspective of war practice, it is absolutely impossible without military strength, but military actions alone are not omnipotent. Multiple victories on the battlefield are not a sufficient condition for victory in war. In the Vietnam War, although the United States “won every battle, it lost the entire war.” At the beginning of the 21st century, the United States fought successive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, winning battlefield victories but not political victory. By the same token, military victory does not mean winning public opinion, and winning the battlefield does not mean winning strategic victory. In modern warfare, two types of people play an increasingly important role: those who win by writing thousands of lines of code, and those who win by writing thousands of messages. The side with superior quantity and quality of these two types of personnel will often have a higher probability of winning.
Cognitive countermeasures technology is increasingly used directly in warfare
In past wars, the influence and effect on the cognitive domain were mainly transmitted to the cognitive domain level by level through a large number of damaging actions in the physical domain. With the development and breakthroughs of information communications, artificial intelligence, biocrossing, brain science and other technologies, new cognitive warfare tools and technologies are directly targeting military personnel. Cognitive countermeasures use not only traditional information warfare weapons, but also an arsenal of neural weapons that target the brain. By then, machines will be able to read human brains, and human brains will also be able to directly control machines. Intelligent command and control systems can directly provide battlefield situation and decision-making assistance. Realistic cognitive ammunition and precise audience placement will greatly enhance the social impact. Cognitive countermeasures technology is increasingly being used directly in warfare. The indirect cognition implicit in informatization is gradually transforming into a direct influence and control of people’s cognition. It can be said that with the support of advanced technology, cognitive domain operations can achieve political goals more directly and efficiently by building a modern network architecture and developing a data visualization platform to quickly understand the information environment and effectively influence target groups.
(Author’s unit: Institute of War Studies, Academy of Military Sciences)
The target of cognitive domain operations refers to the specific direction of cognitive domain operations. In cognitive domain operations, compared with combat objects, the problem solved by combat targets is precise targeting, which allows commanders to understand the exact coordinates of what to hit, where to hit, and to what extent. Only by deeply understanding the connotative characteristics of cognitive domain combat targets can we accurately find key targets through appearances and seize the opportunity in future operations.
Cognitive focus that affects behavioral choices
The cognitive center of gravity is the “convergence point” of the diverse thinking and cognition of cognitive subjects in war activities. As an active factor, it affects the cognitive process and behavioral results. Generally speaking, the cognitive factors that influence individual behavioral choices in war activities mainly include cognition of political attributes, cognition of interest associations, cognition of group belonging, cognition of risk and loss, cognition of emotional orientation, cognition of war ethics, etc. For war activities and the groups or individuals concerned about war activities, the cognitive focus that affects their attitudes, tendencies, and behaviors is not the same. Judging from the local wars and regional conflicts in the world in recent years, there are obvious differences in the cognitive focus of different groups or individuals. Politicians pay more attention to the recognition of political attributes and the recognition of interest connections, while those who may be involved in the war pay more attention to the recognition of risk and loss. And interest-related cognition, ordinary people pay more attention to interest-related cognition and emotion-oriented cognition, while people in other countries outside the region generally pay more attention to war moral cognition and group belonging cognition because their own interests will not suffer direct losses. In combat practice, foreign military forces are good at targeting the cognitive focus of different objects, accurately planning themes, and pushing relevant information to induce specific behavioral choices. For example, before the Gulf War, Hill Norton Public Relations Company concocted the non-existent “Incubator Incident”, using the daughter of Kuwait’s ambassador to the United States, Naila, as a “testimony” to show the “inhumanity” of the Iraqi army and induce the United States to The public’s understanding of ethics and morality further supported the US government in sending troops to participate in the Gulf War.
Style preferences that constrain command decisions
Cognitive style directly affects decision-making behavioral preferences. Cognitive style refers to an individual’s typical way of cognition, memory, thinking, and problem solving. According to command decision-making style preferences, commanders can be divided into calm cognitive styles and impulsive cognitive styles. Commanders with a calm cognitive style value accuracy but not speed in the decision-making process. They make high-quality decisions, but they are prone to falling into comparative analysis of various intelligence information sources and overemphasize the accuracy and objectivity of information analysis. Commanders with a calm cognitive style are often easily disturbed by numerous and diverse information stimulations during cognitive offensive and defensive operations on the battlefield, and their mental energy is easily disrupted and dissipated, which may delay combat opportunities. Commanders with an impulsive cognitive style value speed but not accuracy. They make decisions quickly but with low quality. They are easily agitated and prone to conflicts with team members. Commanders with an impulsive cognitive style are also prone to over-interpretation of ambiguous external security environments, and constantly look for “evidence” to strengthen and verify individual erroneous thinking, narrowing individual attention and leading to biased command decisions. In combat practice, foreign militaries pay more attention to analyzing the decision-making style of the commanders of combat opponents, and then select specific information to psychologically influence them. For example, during the U.S. invasion of Panama, when they besieged Panamanian President Noriega’s hiding place, the U.S. military repeatedly played rock and heavy metal music and used language that stimulated and humiliated Noriega to carry out cognitive attacks and psychological attacks, which devastated Noriega physically and mentally. Gradually collapse.
Backdoor channel to control thinking and cognition
Once a computer is infected with a “Trojan horse” virus, it will send a connection request to the hacker’s control terminal at a specific time. Once the connection is successful, a backdoor channel will be formed, allowing the hacker to control the computer as he wishes. Similarly, the human brain also has cognitive “backdoors” that can also be controlled by others. Cognitive psychologists have found that by sending information to the target object’s audio-visual perception channel, carefully pushing the information content recognized and accepted by the target object, catering to the target object’s existing experience memory, complying with the target object’s thinking habits, and stimulating the target object’s emotions Pain points can be controlled to interfere with the target object’s cognition and promote its instinctive emotional and behavioral reactions. With the support of cutting-edge cognitive science and technology, using two modes of automatic start-up and controlled processing of brain information processing, the target object can easily fall into a “cognitive cocoon”. In cognitive domain operations, individuals are immersed in a massive amount of artificially constructed information and are continuously provided with “evidence” to prove that their judgment and cognition are “correct”. Over time, an individual’s cognitive vision becomes smaller and smaller, and his ability to perceive the external environment gradually decreases. Eventually, he will not be able to see the truth of things, and he will be addicted to the “cognitive cocoon” and cannot extricate himself. In operations in the cognitive domain, foreign military forces often respond to the opponent’s cognitive bias on a certain issue and continue to push situational information and intelligence information through multiple channels that support the opponent’s “correct perception”, allowing the opponent to make command decisions. Mistakes and deviations occur.
attention-inducing sensory stimulation
Effective sensory stimulation is the primary prerequisite to attract the attention of the target object. The human brain will detect stimuli within the range of perception and respond in various ways. Experimental research in cognitive psychology has found that dynamic, dangerous, interest-related, survival safety, contrast and other types of information are more likely to attract the attention of the human brain. In the era of intelligence, the target object’s psychological cognitive process often follows the rules of “attracting attention, cultivating interest, actively searching, strengthening memory, actively sharing, and influencing others”. In combat, foreign troops often use exclusive revelations, intelligence leaks, authoritative disclosures, on-site connections, etc., and skillfully use exaggeration, contrast, association, metaphor, suspense, foil and other techniques to push information that subverts common sense, cognitive conflict, and strong contrast. information to attract the attention of the target audience. For example, the “Rescue of Female Soldier Lynch Incident” portrayed by the US military in the Iraq War and the “Gaddafi Golden Toilet” in the Libyan War were mostly based on stories familiar to the audience. The purpose and point of view were integrated into the storyline, which attracted a large number of audiences. people’s attention. In addition, the human brain also processes stimuli outside the range of sensory perception. In recent years, the military of Western countries has attached great importance to the research of subliminal information stimulation technology, and has developed subliminal visual information implantation technology, subliminal auditory information implantation technology, subliminal information activation technology, nervous system subconscious sound control technology, etc. , and continue to expand the application scope of neurocognitive science and technology in the military field.
A meta-value concept that generates cognitive resonance
In cognitive theory, cognitive resonance refers to information that crosses the cognitive gap between the two parties and can arouse the ideological, psychological and cognitive resonance of both parties, thereby achieving the deconstruction and reconstruction of the other party’s cognitive system. In cognitive domain operations, this cognitive energy concentration effect is not a concentration of power in a simple sense, but an internal accumulation of the combined force of the system. Under the diffusion of modern information media, this cognitive resonance effect can quickly spread to all parts of the world in a short period of time, and produce secondary indirect psychological effects or more levels of derivative psychological effects, showing a cumulative and iterative effect. Once the state exceeds the psychological critical point, it will show a state of psychological energy explosion, thereby changing the direction or outcome of the event. The targets that can induce this kind of cognitive resonance include value beliefs, moral ethics, common interests, etc. In a war, if one party touches or violates human meta-values, common emotional orientation, etc., it can easily trigger collective denunciation, bear the accusation of violating human morality, and fall into a moral low. For example, a photo from the Vietnam War showed a group of Vietnamese children, especially a 9-year-old girl, running naked on the road after being attacked by napalm bombs from the US military. In 1972, this photo caused a huge sensation after being published, setting off an anti-war wave in the United States and even around the world, accelerating the end of the Vietnam War.
The cognitive gap that splits the cognitive system
In daily life, seemingly hard steel is easily broken due to the brittleness of the material due to factors such as low-temperature environments, material defects, stress concentration, and so is the cognitive system. Cognitive gaps refer to the cracks, pain points, weaknesses and sensitivity points in the cognitive thinking of the target object. It is mainly manifested in the individual’s worry that he or she is unable to cope with or adapt to the environment, and under the influence of anxiety, it constitutes cognitive vulnerability. . The experience of security threats, loose group structure, confusion of beliefs and ideals, and the loss of voice of authoritative media, etc., will all cause cognitive conflicts and tears among the target objects. In cognitive domain operations, sometimes a seemingly powerful opponent has a lot of mental gaps and psychological weaknesses hidden behind it. Often a news event can shake the opponent’s cognitive framework and burst the cognitive bubble. In addition, this kind of cognitive and psychological conflict will also cause moral damage and psychological trauma to individuals. In recent years, U.S. and Western military forces performing overseas missions have faced “enemies disguised as civilians” appearing anytime and anywhere. Their uncertainty about the battlefield environment has continued to increase. They generally lack a sense of the significance of combat and are filled with guilt and guilt. A large number of soldiers develop war post-traumatic stress disorder, self-injury on the battlefield, post-war suicides and crime surge, and the number of suicides among war veterans even exceeds the number of battlefield deaths.
(Author’s unit: School of Political Science, National Defense University)
●Cognitive domain operations focus on full-dimensional attacks, including both “peacetime” cognitive penetration and “wartime” cognitive coercion.
●Wartime cognitive domain operations revolve around the achievement of military objectives, and are implemented in conjunction with military operations to support each other.
●In cognitive domain operations, as the sound of gunfire dissipates, the horn of a new round of cognitive domain operations may sound again, and there must be no slacking off.
Cognitive domain warfare is a confrontation at the level of conscious thinking. Through selective processing and transmission of information, it affects judgment, changes concepts, and competes for people’s hearts, thereby guiding the real situation to develop in a direction that is beneficial to oneself. From the perspective of cognitive shaping, cognitive domain operations focus on full-dimensional attacks, including both “peacetime” cognitive penetration and “wartime” cognitive coercion. Therefore, cognitive domain operations have no clear boundaries between peace and war; at the same time, according to the needs of political or military purposes, its targets can be individuals, organizations or even countries. Therefore, cognitive domain operations should establish the concepts of peacetime and wartime integration, military-civilian integration, cross-domain integration, and joint victory, and sort out basic tasks accordingly.
Focus on ideological layout tasks
Ideology is “an ideological system that systematically and consciously reflects the socio-economic formation and political system.” Ideology determines the rational foundation of cognition and has distinct camp characteristics. Although ideology covers all aspects of social life, in confrontations between countries or political groups, the struggle around belief guidance, attitude struggle, and concept assimilation is particularly fierce, and has become a focus of cognitive domain operations.
Shape and guide political cognition and seize control of belief and establishment. Confrontation between countries or political groups is not only a confrontation of national strength, but also a confrontation of national aspirations. The confrontation of political beliefs bears the brunt. Shaping and guiding political cognition aims to condense or destroy political consensus, strengthen or shake political beliefs, and expand or dissolve political camps. In cognitive domain operations, through cognitive guidance on the legitimacy of the ruling party, the rationality of political ideas and systems, and the health of the political ecology, we cultivate recognition, denial, and support of political positions, beliefs, practices, etc. Or hatred and other emotions, laying out a political cognitive layout that is beneficial to oneself and detrimental to the enemy. Political cognition is related to the survival foundation of a country or organization and is the primary focus of cognitive domain operations.
Shape and guide war cognition and seize the right to lead war attitudes. A country can be without war, but it cannot be without a sense of war. War cognition is the basis for the formation and development of the will, concepts, psychology, and thinking of individuals, organizations, and countries in the war cycle. Through cognitive guidance on the essence, nature, legal concepts, etc. of war, we build a war cognitive thinking system, guide the evaluation direction of the rationality, justice, and legality of war, promote the formation of support or opposition attitudes towards possible wars, and regulate The rise and fall of willingness to assume war obligations is a key issue in cognitive guidance of war. War cognition affects war attitudes, and the struggle for its control is a task that must be paid attention to in cognitive domain operations.
Shape and guide value cognition and seize control of emotions and will. Values influence people’s judgment of beauty and ugliness, right and wrong, and social behavior orientation. In terms of identifying things and judging right and wrong, human emotions always tend to support claims with similar values. Value cognition permeates every corner of life. Through the dissemination of ethical concepts, standards of beauty, ugliness, good and evil, literary and artistic opinions, etc., competition for the right to guide values, the right to guide life patterns, and the right to judge traditional inheritance is frequent and fierce. . In real life, different values often interpenetrate and entangle with each other. The essence of shaping and guiding value cognition is to strive for social and emotional recognition, which is a regular task in cognitive domain operations.
Pay close attention to social psychology and the task of building momentum
Social psychology provides a perceptual and experiential basis for cognition. It is formed on the basis of daily life, social activities, practical insights and other experiences. Social psychological guidance often promotes unpredictable changes in the actual situation. It is one of the usual modes of confrontation between the two sides, especially during non-military conflicts. It is also a task that must be paid attention to in cognitive domain operations.
Guide national psychology and regulate national emotions. National psychology is one of the social psychology that is most likely to cause conflicts and confrontations. Attacking national self-esteem can breed national inferiority complex and easily lead to disintegration. Improving national self-esteem can enhance national cohesion, but the expansion of national self-esteem can easily lead to the emergence of extreme racism, national chauvinism, etc.; the status, interests, and culture of different ethnic groups within the country Differences in people, customs, and lifestyles provide opportunities for people with ulterior motives to stir up ethnic antagonisms, while the same living space and cooperation process lay the foundation for eliminating prejudice and even cohesion and tolerance among ethnic groups. The result depends on the perception. Know the guide. National psychological guidance is sensitive and easy to lose control, and has a direct impact on social stability. It is a task that needs to be focused on in cognitive domain operations.
Guide group psychology and increase and eliminate oppositional consciousness. Groups generally refer to people of the same type, such as ethnicity, region, class, professional groups, even civil society groups, non-governmental organizations, etc. If groups are subjectively defined based on “convergence”, then the “differences” between groups exist objectively. This difference may be political and economic status, cultural thought, regional concept or other factors. Inducing the perception of differences and promoting the antagonism between different groups such as party opposition, regional opposition, professional opposition, rich and poor opposition, etc. will not only damage the internal unity of the country, but also accumulate and increase the dissatisfaction of all sectors of society against the political authorities, and instigate social mobilization. The turbulence and division left behind a foreshadowing. In cognitive domain operations, this kind of social psychology needs to be paid attention to.
Guide individual psychology and influence social emotions. In cognitive domain operations, individual psychological guidance is divided into two situations. One is the psychological guidance of important figures, such as sensitive professionals, public intellectuals, academic elites, successful business people, etc. The struggle for their political positions, emotional attitudes, etc. is an issue that both sides of the confrontation need to focus on. One is the use of phenomena that easily trigger individual psychological resonance. Such as public crises, major accidents, natural disasters and even some crimes and emergencies in life, intentionally inducing certain emotions may cause group polarization due to the herd effect of individuals, thus triggering changes in public opinion and even social unrest. Both of these aspects need to be paid attention to in cognitive domain operations.
Targeting the critical mission of wartime cognition
Cognitive domain operations begin before military operations and end after military operations. Wartime cognitive domain operations revolve around the achievement of military objectives, are implemented in conjunction with military operations and support each other, and are characterized by violent coercion. In this stage of cognitive domain operations, “offensive” and “defensive” actions are carried out simultaneously, the influence of weapons and propaganda effects are comprehensively effective, and methods such as “lure”, “attack”, “deception” and “control” are emerging one after another. This is the key to cognitive domain operations. critical stage.
Attack the mind and seize the will, force and induce cognition. Wartime cognitive attacks are mainly carried out to weaken the enemy’s will to resist and induce the enemy to make wrong decisions. Targeting the enemy’s decision-makers, front-line commanders, etc., use targeted attacks to shake the will to resist, and use information deception and interference to induce decision-making. Targeting armed forces, mainly the military, use force to shock and deter, and comprehensively use operations such as public opinion warfare and emerging technologies. Means are used to shake their belief in participating in the war, trigger their panic, undermine their military morale, and dominate their action patterns; targeting social support forces, conveying tough messages to undermine confidence through large-scale military exercises, equipment testing, propaganda of weapon lethality effectiveness, etc., and through selective Target strikes and dissemination of war situations can induce panic, and efforts can be made to gain understanding by publicizing one’s own humanitarian actions in the war and relevant international comments.
Build a strong line of defense and control the situation with concentration. The focus of cognitive defense in wartime is to build a strong defense line of “heart”, “will” and “intellect” to prevent the loss of fighting spirit under the stimulation of drastic changes in the situation or environment. Education and publicity are the basic approaches to cognitive defense in wartime. For the forces participating in the war, stimulate enthusiasm for participating in the war through mobilization and encouragement, clarify the truth by refuting rumors, establish the belief in victory by publicizing the results of the war, mobilize morale by setting examples, etc.; for the supporting forces, educate the justice, rationality, and legality of the war. Propaganda is used to establish a sense of mission, responsibility, and obligation among the people, to inspire a sense of hatred and hatred by exposing the enemy’s brutal behavior, to stimulate enthusiasm for supporting operations by publicizing the deeds of local governments participating in the war and supporting frontline operations, and so on.
Expand your camp and eliminate hidden dangers. Creating a favorable cognitive atmosphere and providing support for the expansion of one’s own camp is an important aspect that must be achieved in wartime cognitive domain operations. In particular, the fight for international support is mainly through political, diplomatic and other activities, but the widespread diffusion of one’s own positions, ideas, attitudes, etc. often leads to changes in international civil attitudes, which in turn affects decision-making at the political level. Provide support for your own camp expansion. In addition, wartime cognitive domain operations also have an important task throughout the war, which is to eliminate the adverse hidden dangers caused by various accidents in the war. Especially in the later stages of the war, as the destructive effects of war appear and spread, people’s cognitive system will be repeatedly impacted by different information. During this period, ideological guidance, social psychological shaping, and individual psychological counseling are required to work together to ensure the consolidation of the results. In cognitive domain operations, as the sound of guns dissipates, the horn of a new round of cognitive domain operations may sound again, and there must be no slacking off.
Most of the local wars and armed conflicts in recent years have been “hybrid” confrontations carried out in multiple dimensions and fields, emphasizing the use of military, political, economic and other means to implement systematic control in the dimension of comprehensive decision-making, creating all kinds of chaos in the dimension of international communication, and creating various chaos in the dimension of international communication. Conduct targeted strikes in the strategic focus dimension, actively shape the battlefield situation, and seek to seize the strategic initiative. In future wars, in order to successfully fight political and military battles and military and political battles, we should deeply grasp the characteristics and laws of offensive and defensive operations in the cognitive domain and improve our ability to fight the “five battles” well.
Be proactive in cognitive operations, shape the situation and control the situation, and fight proactively. Before the war begins, cognition comes first. With the continuous development and evolution of war forms, the status and role of cognitive domain operations continue to be highlighted. Aiming to win future wars, cognitive deployment should be carried out in advance. Through strategies, information, technology and other means and carriers, the physiological, psychological, values and other cognitive factors of target objects should be affected, intervened and manipulated, and cognitive attack and defense should be used to cover military operations and accurately Efficiently dominate cognitive space. Fully understand the importance of being first, grasp the definition and interpretation power of “narrative” flexibly and autonomously, emphasize pre-emption to win the initiative in the cognitive narrative struggle dimension, create a favorable situation in which legal principles are in hand and morality is on our side, and occupy the moral commanding heights.
Cognitive operations focus on attacking the heart, and implement layered strategies to fight precise battles. “Those who are good at fighting will benefit others without killing them.” In future wars, the combat space will extend to the deep sea, deep space, deep network and other fields, and the battlefield space and time will present the characteristics of being extremely far, extremely small, extremely intelligent and uninhabited, invisible, and silent. We should keep a close eye on cognitive gaps to improve effectiveness, and use methods such as big data simulation, artificial intelligence matching, and psychological model evaluation to analyze and control the key information of cognitive subjects to achieve effective penetration and early deterrence of cognitive subject information. Closely focus on cognitive blind spots to enhance penetration, target the ideological consensus points, psychological connection points, and spiritual pillar points that maintain the unity of powerful enemy alliances to carry out effective strikes, and use their cognitive differences and interest conflicts to achieve differentiation and disintegration at all levels.
Based on cognitive combat strategies, we must penetrate the entire territory and fight for deterrence and control. In future wars, the strategic competition and tactical confrontation between the two warring parties will be extremely fierce. We should pay close attention to the decision-making process and make comprehensive efforts to increase the opponent’s decision-making dilemma and form our own decision-making advantages. On the one hand, we must pay more attention to key nodes such as the enemy’s decision-making center, command hub, reconnaissance and early warning system, and use advanced strike methods to physically destroy these nodes. On the other hand, we must pay more attention to the “soft kill” effects of cognitive shaping, cognitive induction, cognitive intervention and cognitive control, and embed cognitive domain operations into “hard destruction”, which not only creates a strong deterrent through precise strikes with high-tech weapons, but also integrates new qualities The combat power is expanded to the cognitive dimension, thus forming an asymmetric check and balance advantage.
Cognitive combat information is king, expand the field and fight for support. Future wars cannot be separated from strong information support, and system integration should be accelerated to gain data advantages. First of all, speed up the construction of cognitive offensive and defensive operations theory library, database, talent library, case library, and tactics library, dynamically collect and update the current status of the enemy’s cognitive offensive and defensive operations capabilities, and provide all-round support for cognitive offensive and defensive operations. Secondly, speed up the creation of the integrated media communication matrix, improve the self-owned platform system, speed up the deployment of network platforms, focus on system integration and collaboration, break down the “barriers” of information interconnection as soon as possible, and achieve cognitive integration and sharing, and comprehensive results. Thirdly, accelerate the coupling and linkage of information and cognitive domain operations, vigorously develop core technologies such as neural network systems, artificial intelligence applications, cognitive decision-making, psychological attack and defense, mine and analyze cross-domain and heterogeneous cognitive information, and improve the information fusion system of cognitive means to win the future. War provides “clairvoyance” and “early ears”.
Cognitive combat coordination is the key, and multi-dimensional efforts are used to fight the overall battle. Future wars are joint operations carried out in land, sea, air, space, network, electromagnetic and other fields. System thinking should be adhered to, the awareness of collaboration should be strengthened, and the compatibility and coordination of cognitive domain operations and other military operations should be improved. For example, it can integrate human intelligence, geographical intelligence, open source intelligence, etc., quickly collect and process massive data, remove falsehoods while retaining truth, seize cognitive space accurately and efficiently, achieve complementary advantages, and form cognitive advantages through full domain coverage. By networking dispersed multi-domain forces, we can establish an all-domain joint force with high connectivity, collective action, and overall attack to achieve the effect of “integrated deterrence.” By integrating national resources, strengthening strategic communication, using cognitive momentum to amplify the effects of political disruption, economic sanctions, and diplomatic offensives, and cooperating with military operations to put pressure on target targets in an all-round way, we strive to defeat the enemy without fighting.
(Author’s unit: University of Aerospace Engineering)
The military electronic sandbox is a modern information system platform that can grasp the three-dimensional battlefield space situation, implement efficient command, and support scientific command training. Its core is to use geographical information technology, military simulation technology, advanced display technology, etc. to replace traditional maps and sandbox tools to achieve The integrated display of geographical information and situational information allows commanders to deeply understand the combat environment. With the assistance of the command operation system, it greatly improves the command’s decision-making capabilities and response speed, and improves the quality effect of command training.
The software platform of the military interactive electronic sandbox system is the core of the electronic sandbox system. Its working principle is to access multi-source external data, integrate, process and store data, analyze data based on business needs, and dynamically display data in two or three dimensions. Therefore, the data processing platform is the foundation, and the data access platform and visual display platform are the support. The visual display terminal is the most intuitive cognitive image of the electronic sandbox, including mobile terminals, desktop terminals and large-screen display terminals. Among them, large-screen display terminals can support multi-point infrared touch and are the main form of human-computer interaction.
1. System introduction
In military applications, electronic sandbox systems are generally deployed in fixed command centers or mobile command posts. They are an important part of the command training system. Their basic functions are two- and three-dimensional geographic information display and battlefield simulation.
In order to achieve the effect of stable integration of the electronic sandbox and the real environment, for example, a multi-channel interactive system is constructed based on multi-AI methods to provide commanders with a more efficient and natural interaction method, thereby improving the commander’s command efficiency. Achieve full-element, multi-category, multi-level, and multi-granularity three-dimensional real-scene holographic display, provide commanders with intuitive and realistic battlefield situation elements, and provide the ability to observe the situation from multiple perspectives and directions, helping to grasp the overall situation and ensure the smooth operation of combat missions Complete it in time to improve combat effectiveness. The military plotting electronic sandbox is based on natural interaction (including voice, movement, gesture, line of sight, etc.), augmented reality, collaborative plotting and other technologies, and allows commanding combatants with different roles to conduct virtual and real interactions and collaborative discussions in real command posts. , jointly plotting, formulating plans, etc. to provide technical support, which will become a strong driving force for the leapfrog development of electronic sandboxes.
The multi-dimensional interactive military plotting electronic sandbox developed by a company is based on a practical perspective and is compatible with the terrain description function of the traditional physical sandbox and inherits the geographical information display function of the traditional electronic sandbox. It is oriented to the combat and training needs of senior commanders and focuses on achieving Through the interconnection of the electronic sand table and other operating seats in the command center, a set of intelligent interactive command and training operating platforms are designed and proposed for command operations during wartime and for drills and drills in peacetime.
During wartime, the electronic sand table serves as the display and control terminal for the commander to command operations. It integrates the support information of combat elements at each operating seat, receives battlefield information in real time, displays two- and three-dimensional battlefield situation maps, and provides basic auxiliary means such as plotting, measurement, and calculation. At the same time, it is based on data Mining and artificial intelligence technology provide the commander with a combat plan that can be intelligently learned and adjusted and conduct deduction simulations to assist the commander in making combat decisions. In normal times, the electronic sand table serves as the command and control terminal for the chief’s training exercises. It has the functions of scenario setting and training guidance, and supports data recording, auxiliary evaluation, review deduction and historical data query in the entire process of training scenarios from formulation, deployment to training. At the same time, it can also be used as a research platform for personnel exchange and training in the command center and a service platform for the release, display, and application of military intelligence information.
The multi-dimensional interactive military plotting electronic sand table developed by a company is based on a two-dimensional geographical information platform and a three-dimensional digital earth, combining multimedia display and control technology, simulation visualization technology, network communication technology, massive data management technology and multi-touch technology. A new two- and three-dimensional interactive military simulation and simulation integrated platform.
The software platform is the core of the electronic sandbox system. Its working principle is to access multi-source external data, integrate, process and store data, analyze data based on business needs, and dynamically display data in two or three dimensions. Therefore, the data processing platform is the foundation, and the data access platform and visual display platform are the support. The visual display terminal is the most intuitive cognitive image of the electronic sandbox, including mobile terminals, desktop terminals and large-screen display terminals. Among them, large-screen display terminals can support multi-point infrared touch and are the main form of human-computer interaction.
Working principle diagram of military interactive electronic sandbox system
(1) Infrastructure layer
The infrastructure layer is the basic environment that supports system operation, including graphics workstations, storage devices, computing devices, network devices, display devices, operating systems, etc. It provides a unified, high-speed, and secure basic network and host operating platform for the prototype system.
(2) Basic service layer
The basic service layer is the data resource carrying and basic service providing layer of the system. It supports the platform application layer and provides basic functions such as database management system, communication manager, and specific engines. On this basis, it develops and provides business-related basic services. Core services include geographical information services, data access services, situation display services, simulation deduction services, interconnection services, military marking services, etc. Service types can be customized and developed according to needs to meet the needs of different business applications.
(3) Platform application layer
Including business platform and user-oriented application plug-ins. The business platform includes a data access platform, a data processing platform, and a visual display platform.
(4) Data access platform
It is used to access, process, store and distribute various types of information and build a customized professional military intelligence database. Specifically, it is able to receive data from different sources, formats, and characteristics on combat processes, comprehensive support, geographical information, simulations, and other data, and integrate them logically or physically to provide information for situation display, combat discussions, command decisions, training evaluation, etc. Different applications provide data support. In peacetime, all kinds of basic military information, such as equipment information, personnel information, position information, target information, combat plans, etc., are collected, processed into a data format that can be called by the data processing platform, and saved in the form of local storage or cloud storage; During wartime, the meteorological and hydrological, electromagnetic environment, geographical environment, and humanistic environment data from each operating seat of the command center, the real-time location and attributes of personnel and equipment on the battlefield, Beidou information, video information, etc. are accessed in real time and processed into a data processing platform. The data format of the call.
(5) Data processing platform
With geographical information data as the background, various types of data from the data access platform are received or called, and a situation map is constructed to realize the visualization of the enemy’s situation, our situation, battlefield environment, target analysis, action progress, plotting and intervention process. On this basis, it provides standardized interfaces to achieve effective data connection with other systems, ensures function expansion and access to other systems, supports customized development of business application plug-ins, and provides support for the expansion of combat command business. In peacetime, based on the accumulated data, a simulated battlefield situation is constructed, combat plans and plans are formulated, exercises, training and simulations are conducted, and relevant results are stored in the data access platform for use in wartime.
(6) Visual display platform
Based on the independent 3D simulation engine, real-time rendering generates a 3D battlefield environment that is consistent with the combat and training areas. It uses structured data technology and flexible and editable logical data models to realize “layered” information data fusion display and output, and realizes multiple Click on infrared touch control and voice control, etc.
(7) Platform plug-ins
Relevant plug-ins are designed to meet the needs of operational planning, including functional plug-ins for data connection and management, process analysis and display, and program deduction and evaluation. They are customized to realize the connection and comprehensive management of operational planning business data. A “one picture” comprehensive display of the battlefield environment and battlefield situation during the combat process, as well as a comprehensive simulation deduction and display of various plans for reconnaissance, troop operations, battlefield defense and fire strikes involved in the combat process.
3. System composition
(1) Data engine
1. Diverse data
Supports massive, multi-source data processing, mainly including: images, vectors, DEM, 3D models, sea maps, land maps, aerial maps, etc.;
2.Data update
Supports rapid updating of multi-level mixed-precision geographical data;
3.Data distribution
Support data distribution based on C/S mode and quickly build electronic sandbox;
4.Data access
Supports distributed deployment and access of massive data from multiple sources, and can access cloud data.
(2) Comprehensive display and control
1.Full space expression
Supports full-space, multi-view, and multi-granularity simulation visual expression;
2. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional integration
Supports two- and three-dimensional integrated visual expression;
3.Multi-touch
Support new human-computer interaction methods based on multi-touch technology;
4. Interactive annotation
Supports interactive annotation of 3D models, landmarks, paths, regions, 360 panoramas and mounting of multimedia information.
(3) Sand table situation
1. Situation visualization
Supports multi-target and multi-batch battlefield situation visualization, and has functions such as scene saving and playback;
2. Diverse data sources
Compatible with multi-source surveillance data such as GPS, Beidou, radar, and AIS, and has an expandable data interface;
3. Editing and deduction
Supports 2D and 3D integrated editing and deduction of situational scenarios;
4. Situation special effects library
It has a rich library of battlefield simulation effects such as flame, explosion, smoke, infrared, electromagnetic, and radar.
(4) Military standard drawing
1. Collaborative plotting
Supports multi-person and multi-client synchronous and asynchronous collaborative military plotting;
2. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional plotting
Supports 2D and 3D simultaneous plotting and editing of military standards;
3. Sketch drawing
Supports intelligent recognition and plotting of sketches;
4.Same screen plotting
Supports multi-person 3D model plotting and editing on the same screen;
5. Military standard deduction
It has the function of 2D and 3D military standard situation deduction.
(5) Simulation engine
1. Natural environment simulation
Professional game-level rendering, supporting natural environment simulations such as three-dimensional clouds, fog, rain, snow, seawater, etc.;
2. Meteorological numerical simulation
Supports efficient processing, analysis and numerical simulation of large-scale, multi-source battlefield meteorological environment data;
3. Simulation deduction
Use human-computer interaction to deploy and perform deductions on deduction targets, and can expand simulation algorithms and combat rules;
4.Effectiveness evaluation
Supports assessment of operational effectiveness.
(6) Collaborative discussion
1. Electronic whiteboard
Distributed collaborative discussion and plotting based on electronic whiteboard, supporting conventional graphics, military standards, multimedia files, etc.;
2. Video conferencing
It has conference room mode collaborative discussion functions based on text, voice, and video communication to improve communication efficiency;
3. File sharing
Supports file sharing such as txt, PPT, PDF, picture files, compressed files, videos, etc.
(7) Software and hardware integration
Supports perfect integration with desktop interactive hardware;
Supports perfect integration with multi-touch hardware;
Support integration with video conferencing system hardware;
Support cross-platform applications.
(8) Key functional indicators
It has the display effects, fault simulation, and data connection functions of the existing aviation police information reconnaissance system; it has the functions of world sea and air area division display and air defense identification zone;
Have the ability to quickly configure existing business data into learning resources, and quickly configure learning resources and learning duration based on professional knowledge learning templates;
It has a variety of preset scenarios for sand table deduction and a variety of countries, including the United States, India, Japan and other countries;
Supports multi-source massive data storage, processing and update functions.
(9) Advantages and Features
1. Complete industry solutions
The electronic sandbox solution involves sandbox data processing, import, update, sandbox information sharing, collaborative work, command decision-making, military plotting, simulation, sandbox deduction and other related contents. The functions remain relatively independent and can be customized according to user needs. Professional solutions to meet the diverse needs of users;
2. Massive data management capabilities
Geographic information data is the core of the electronic sandbox. The data engine can store, process and update multi-source and massive geographical information data, supports distributed deployment of data, can access cloud data, and provides low-cost and efficient methods for the construction of sandboxes. Data Sources;
3. Integrated application
It achieves the perfect combination of software and hardware integration, supporting multiple hardware platforms such as multi-touch screens, command and control stations, circular projection screens, dedicated display and control stations, production monitoring platforms, etc.; the software realizes two- and three-dimensional integrated applications. , and integrates video conferencing, network communication, military plotting and other functions, it is a multi-functional comprehensive electronic sandbox system;
4. Good openness and compatibility
The system architecture is reasonably designed, has a good organizational structure and an easy-to-use development interface; it has good compatibility with hardware, can carry out secondary development and function expansion, and can be quickly integrated with other software systems.
4. Conclusion
With the deepening of informatization construction, the sources and types of information are increasingly expanding, and decision-making support methods are constantly enriched. According to the needs of combat training and command decision-making of various services and arms, a complete set of command decision-making analysis, mission deduction and situation display has been established. A functional electronic sandbox system has become a top priority. In response to the needs of BD, this electronic sandbox system developed by a certain company has intuitive comprehensive situation display, rich and diverse interactive methods, flexible combat data access, complete functions and expansion, which can meet the commander’s operational command and command training needs.
