Technology has never had such a profound impact on the overall national security and military strategy, and has never had such a profound impact on the development of the military as it does today. Future wars will surely use the power of science and technology to change the face of past wars, rewrite traditional rules of engagement, and develop new means of force. Therefore, it is particularly important to be good at exploring the traction value, supporting effect and subversive effect of using scientific and technological power, continue to deepen the transformation and development of the military, seize the commanding heights of future wars, and accelerate the transformation of science and technology into combat effectiveness. In recent years, advanced technologies represented by unmanned "swarms", big data, generative AI, cloud services, starlink communications, efficient damage, etc. have experienced a "blowout" explosion. The local wars in the world in recent years have shown that the outbreak of future wars is evolving from direct confrontation between warring countries or military power groups to a complex form of containment and counterattack by both parties in multiple fields such as politics, military, economy, diplomacy and public opinion. Containment shows new forms, new methods and new means unique to hybrid warfare. In 2007, the US military launched "Conflict in the 21st Century: The Rise of Hybrid Warfare", which believed that hybrid warfare has complex forms and ambiguous actions. It needs to give full play to the unique role of network information, ideology, social culture and other fields, and comprehensively use political diplomacy, information psychology, Economic and trade and other coercive and non-coercive means can effectively disrupt the social situation of hostile countries, weaken the potential for war, subvert the political system, and achieve strategic goals. The Russian military's "Gerasimov Theory" believes that hybrid warfare is mainly based on non-military means such as political, economic and humanitarian assistance, supplemented by asymmetric military means such as special warfare, information warfare, and network warfare. It is a military, A multi-pronged "21st century blitz" involving technology, media, politics and intelligence.
by Nicola e Gabriele Iuvinale
The People's Liberation Army Daily today published an important military paper titled "Study Military Affairs, Study War | Make Good Use of the Power of Science and Technology to Strengthen the Army and Win the Battle."
We reproduce in full the PLA document published today.
"Keep an eye on technological trends and seize strategic opportunities
In recent years, the world's major military powers have successively launched a series of new concepts, new projects, and new forces to actively deepen preparations for future wars. Analyzing and understanding the scientific and technological support, operating mechanisms and key technologies behind it is the basic prerequisite for effectively seizing the initiative in war, dispelling technological fog, and preventing falling into traps.
Pay attention to new developments in scientific and technological levels. History has proven that advanced technology has always been an effective driving force in promoting the evolution of human society and warfare. In recent years, advanced technologies represented by unmanned "swarms", big data, generative AI, cloud services, starlink communications, efficient damage, etc. have experienced a "blowout" explosion. The development of cutting-edge technologies in many fields such as quantum communications, gene editing, and fluid mechanics is accelerating. Cutting-edge technology research and development, bottleneck technological breakthroughs and key technology transformation have significantly changed the social landscape, production and life, and are also becoming an important starting point for controlling the initiative in the game between great powers. The objective situation shows that countries around the world pay close attention to the cutting-edge developments of advanced science and technology, and absorb and learn from the latest scientific and technological development achievements in the world today by tracking and studying the main practices, cutting-edge experiments and technological applications of relevant countries' militaries. The major military powers are vying to plan the development of advanced science and technology in advance, focus on breaking through the focus of confrontation, and seize the "first move" to change the rules of war, subvert the art of war, and improve the system's combat capabilities.
Focus on new developments in conversion applications. In modern society, the technology transformation and application cycle continues to shorten, and various "black technologies" and other disruptive technologies continue to be deeply applied in the military field. Advanced technological achievements such as intelligent software, Starlink Star Shield, and unmanned swarms have entered practical application in the military field. Star equipment such as integrated surveillance and attack drones, unmanned patrol missiles, intelligent unmanned combat vehicles, and swarm drones have become new highlights on the battlefield. Digital intelligence such as dynamic kill network chains, intelligent mission planning, universal interoperability environments, and digital parallel battlefields have become new highlights on the battlefield. The system has become a new platform for combat, and powerful weapons such as intelligent damage ammunition, firepower extended range platform, precision guidance system, and terminal integrated counterattack system have become new means of confrontation. The objective situation shows that with the introduction, transformation and in-depth application of advanced technology, we can effectively improve the intelligence of the combat system, increase the high-tech content of combat platforms, optimize the proportion of traditional platforms and new equipment, and accelerate the reconstruction and reshaping of the force system and the military. Increased combat effectiveness.
Stay on top of new developments at the forefront of science and technology. In the era of intelligence, disruptive technology clusters represented by artificial intelligence are accelerating the expansion of the areas of influence of combat forces. The rapid application of advanced technologies such as biological crossover, brain science, and human-computer interface has promoted the deep penetration and high integration of intelligent network systems with human social activities. The world's military powers continue to deepen cross-research in cutting-edge fields, continue to increase resource investment in new fields and new directions such as artificial intelligence, advanced computing, and hypersonics, and strive to master the core technologies needed to lead new developments in warfare as soon as possible through cross-integration innovation, and quickly find the cutting-edge technologies that are indispensable for opening up new areas of gaming, and be the first to monopolize the key technologies that need to be cracked to create new combat forces in new domains. For example, as early as 2021, the United States established six emerging military technologies, including artificial intelligence, lethal autonomous weapons systems, hypersonic weapons, directed energy weapons, biotechnology and quantum technology, as development priorities.
Insight into the evolution of war and take the lead in the game
Using the power of science and technology to deepen the transformation and development of the military requires supporting the national development strategy and military missions and tasks, implementing the overall guidance of "you fight yours, and I fight mine", using asymmetric strategies to strengthen the strong and strengthen the weak, and persist in fighting, preparing for war, and fighting at the same time. Construction, taking extraordinary measures to develop superior technologies and promote the effective improvement of the three major strategic capabilities of the military.
Analyze the shape of future war. The local wars in the world in recent years have shown that the outbreak of future wars is evolving from direct confrontation between warring countries or military power groups to a complex form of containment and counterattack by both parties in multiple fields such as politics, military, economy, diplomacy and public opinion. Containment shows new forms, new methods and new means unique to hybrid warfare. In 2007, the US military launched "Conflict in the 21st Century: The Rise of Hybrid Warfare", which believed that hybrid warfare has complex forms and ambiguous actions. It needs to give full play to the unique role of network information, ideology, social culture and other fields, and comprehensively use political diplomacy, information psychology, Economic and trade and other coercive and non-coercive means can effectively disrupt the social situation of hostile countries, weaken the potential for war, subvert the political system, and achieve strategic goals. The Russian military's "Gerasimov Theory" believes that hybrid warfare is mainly based on non-military means such as political, economic and humanitarian assistance, supplemented by asymmetric military means such as special warfare, information warfare, and network warfare. It is a military, A multi-pronged "21st century blitz" involving technology, media, politics and intelligence.
Enrich multi-domain combat style operations. Currently, under the dual influence of advanced combat concepts and cutting-edge military technology, the historical turning point in the evolution of war patterns is approaching. In the era of intelligence, unmanned platforms will become the tentacles of competition, information data will become the basis for empowering and increasing intelligence, and advanced algorithms will become the key to advanced combat effectiveness. The release of the effectiveness of military power has also been continuously expanded from the original direct killing and physical destruction with the help of external forces to cross-domain confrontation in multiple fields such as psychological cognition and brain control. The winning mechanism of war is rapidly changing from the traditional "big eats small", "fast overcomes slow" and "far and near" to "skill overcomes rough", "wisdom reduces clumsy", "tough overcomes fragile" and "order to control chaos". The objective situation requires that we must deeply analyze the nature of the role of war, change the inherent methods of symmetrical combat and positional attack and defense, and put more emphasis on intelligent and sensitive systems, efficient human-machine collaboration, and flexible and autonomous operations. Comprehensively grasp the influencing factors such as military technology, organizational form, subjective initiative, and internal and external environment, actively build new-quality combat forces in new domains, increase the proportion of new-quality equipment such as intelligent unmanned aerial vehicles and networked and electronic countermeasures, and seize the power to define future wars and the importance of transformation.
Refining intelligent battlefield situation scenarios. Through the scientific and technological perspective of war, we can find that the development and application of high-tech has brought revolutionary impacts on the rules of war, winning mechanisms, and combat methods. In the recent local wars in the world, new situations and new models such as "crowdfunding" intelligence collection, "dispatch" target attack, and "network chain" distributed killing have constantly refreshed people's existing understanding of war. In this regard, the world's military powers have carried out follow-up research, strengthened research and judgment on the development and application of cutting-edge science and technology, and strived to accurately grasp the new laws and trends of technology leading tactics and technology promoting military science and technology innovation, and gain a deep insight into the impact of disruptive technology on war design, force layout, and combat scenarios. fundamental changes brought about. Both parties to the conflict continue to strengthen their experience summarization and come up with countermeasures. Based on the evolution of war forms, the development of combat styles and the derivation of combat scenarios, they have improved the set of technological development needs in the fierce game. Aiming at the application of new technologies, new methods and new equipment of major opponents, we will create new increments in scientific and technological development amid potential risks and challenges.
Focus on military reform, put strong capabilities first
The use of scientific and technological means to deepen military training and preparation is a systematic project with strong practicality, practicality and practicality. It needs to keep close to the battlefield, keep a close eye on opponents, focus on the integration and connection of system combat capabilities, and timely open a fast lane for the transformation and application of advanced science and technology. , strive to create a direct train for urgently needed scientific and technological achievements to enter the battlefield, make solid progress and pragmatic innovation, so as to know how to fight well and win first with foresight.
Actively shape the momentum and optimize the layout. Future wars will have high intensity of confrontation, involving many areas, and high intensity of actions. Multi-method extreme pressure and wide-area competition around key battlefield spaces will often be the key to shaping the overall war situation and seizing a favorable situation. The history of the development of world wars reveals that major military powers attach great importance to shaping the situation in key directions and constructing the layout of major battlefields. Some have invested a lot of resources to build a long and continuous line of defense, some have been building a networked, underground, and fortress-like tunnel system for many years, and some have continued to open bases, Increase the garrison and extend the chain. Their focus is to shape the situation first, carefully lay out the battle situation, create turning points in a timely manner, and effectively break and control the situation through an organic combination of linear operations and non-line operations. In recent years, the US military has actively promoted the construction and deployment of multi-domain task forces in the Indo-Pacific region, and at the same time accelerated its equipment modernization strategy with the help of the "6+2" project group.
Solid system strengthens support. Modern warfare theory and practice have found that integrated joint operations have become the basic form of combat, the spatiotemporal characteristics of war have undergone major changes, and multi-dimensional battlefield spaces have become integrated. In 2020, the US military will write the concept of "joint all-domain operations" into its doctrine, aiming to carry out new joint operations in all fields including land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace, and compete with global competitors in various fierce conflicts. Judging from the development and application of military science and technology, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence have become the key to strengthening joint all-domain command and control capabilities. The network information system empowered by AI technology can quickly integrate data and information from global sensors, platforms and even weapons networks to form a "kill network chain" with distinctive cross-domain characteristics. The world's major military powers are rushing to introduce intelligent auxiliary decision-making technology into the command and control system, and actively explore multiple methods through "decentralization" of the combat system, highly intelligent command and control, de-platforming of force application, and heavy unmanned cross-domain operations. A new paradigm for domain operations, optimizing the new process of human-machine command and control, and improving new integrated command and control capabilities.
Add new domains and new qualities. In today's world, a large number of leading, cutting-edge, and disruptive technologies are playing a profound role in the military field, injecting new impetus and adding important variables to the systematic development of new domains and new quality combat forces. The world's military powers regard the new domain and new-quality combat forces as an era that changes the situation, an important starting point in the competitive game, and a sharp edge to break the system. For example, the U.S. National Defense Strategy Report clearly states that it will focus on promoting the development of emerging technologies such as directed energy, hypersonics, artificial intelligence, advanced materials, and human-computer interaction, and create a "growth pole" for new domain and new quality combat forces based on the transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements. Local wars in the world have shown that the confrontation system and important targets of modern warfare have strong elasticity and rapid recovery capabilities. New combat forces in new domains such as space, deep sea, network, and electromagnetic fields have become the basis for creating "windows of advantage" and rapid control. War situation and capture are the key to consolidating advantages in multiple fields. Some countries and some non-state actors mainly use the associated combination of various sensors, command and control systems and low-cost weapon terminals to generate new combat capabilities in new domains and carry out unconventional operations and asymmetric checks and balances.
Source: China Military Network - People's Liberation Army Daily Author: Liu Haijiang
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