Military Forum： What’s the ＂new＂ combat power in the new domain and quality？

Where is the "new" combat power of new territory and new quality?

■ Liu Haijiang

introduction

The Party’s Report to the 20th CPC National Congress proposed to increase the proportion of new territory and new quality combat forces. In today’s world, the form of war is accelerating to intelligent evolution, and a large number of advanced technologies are widely used in the military field. The new domain and new quality combat forces have become the commanding heights of strategic competition and the key force to win the future. Developing new territory and new quality combat forces has become a priority option for the world’s military powers. It is of great value for clearing up the thinking, scientifically grasping the construction and improving the quality and efficiency to clearly understand where the new field and new quality combat forces are.

New developments have taken place in the space field.

The space field is the attribute embodiment of the environmental support and influence scope of combat forces. With the expansion of human activities and the development of national interests, the current space of military struggle has gone beyond the traditional territorial land, territorial sea and airspace, and has been expanding into deep sea, space, electromagnetism and other fields, and new areas and new quality combat forces have emerged.

The field of action enters social cognition. The scope of action of new domain and new quality combat forces has expanded from the traditional physical domain to the social domain and cognitive domain. In the era of intelligence, the subversive technology represented by artificial intelligence accelerates the expansion of the influence field of combat forces. The rapid application of biological crossover, brain-like science and man-machine interface has promoted the deep penetration and high integration of intelligent network system and human social activities. A large number of new situations and means such as "intelligent deep forgery" and "compiling information cocoon room" have surfaced, and the struggle between social domain and cognitive domain has gradually evolved into a new field and a new "window" of power game.

The activity space is more three-dimensional and diverse. Driven by advanced technology, the new domain and new quality combat forces have broken through the traditional space such as land, sea, air and sky, and the scope of activities is more three-dimensional and diverse. Deep sea, space, underground, polar regions, etc. have all become new territories for new areas and new quality combat forces to compete, and have grown into "new sections" to incite combat space. In 2018, the U.S. Department of Defense issued the National Defense Space Strategy. Under the background of the establishment of an independent space force and space command in the United States, its space power has evolved into synonymous with comprehensive space capabilities integrating military, political, economic and diplomatic affairs.

The battlefield dimension emphasizes high-order and multidimensional. New domain and new quality combat forces often achieve efficiency aggregation through high-level multi-dimensional deployment, which is very different from the battlefield deployment of conventional forces. With the extension of battlefield dimensions such as network and electromagnetism, the matrix distribution of new domain and new quality combat forces has broken through the traditional three-dimensional limitation and expanded to the high-order space with high three-dimensional, full-dimensional and large joint. At the end of 2019, the US military launched the concept of "global operations", integrating space, network, electromagnetic and missile defense capabilities, claiming to compete with competitors in all possible conflict dimensions.

Winning mechanism highlights new changes

The winning mechanism contains the mechanism and principle of preempting power and winning victory. At present, the winning mechanism of intelligent high-end war is undergoing profound changes, and the new domain and new quality combat forces are precisely the "blades" that conform to the evolution of war forms and the winning mechanism of intelligent high-end war.

Power confrontation focuses on dimension reduction and intelligence control. For the new domain and new quality combat forces, data drive is the power source of power, breaking the network chain is the focus of action, and reducing dimension and controlling intelligence is the focus of confrontation. The new domain and new quality combat forces are based on advanced algorithms and intelligent model confrontation, effectively driving key nodes such as cloud, terminal and library of intelligent combat system, and forming intelligent advantages based on data resources. At the same time, pay attention to the weak links such as the enemy’s data link system and mobile communication network, cut off the enemy’s cross-domain actions and block its energy release.

The action path tends to be compound iteration. Conventional combat forces generally achieve the expected effect through the superposition and accumulation of soft killing and hard destruction, while new domain and new quality combat forces regard the compound iteration of action effect as an effective way to release energy efficiently. In the process of action, it not only emphasizes the role of new forces and new means such as hypersonic speed, long-range precision, laser electromagnetism and high-power microwave, but also pays attention to multi-domain effects such as comprehensive algorithm control, network collapse, electromagnetic countermeasures, psychological attack and defense and public opinion, so as to realize cross-domain release, multi-domain resonance and iterative synergy of combat effects.

The game mode pays attention to the gray overrun. Traditional combat forces often pursue the direct effect of damage and destruction, while new domain and new quality combat forces pay more attention to the battlefield game of gray overrun. The essence is based on intelligent means and intelligent tools, which can effectively reduce the domain and control intelligence in more fields, wider dimensions and wider scope through non-military destruction, unconventional operations and non-physical destruction. It is reported that the US military has developed more than 2,000 kinds of computer virus weapons, such as Stuxnet, Flame and Shute, which have been successfully used in battlefields such as Syria and Iran. At present, the US military is striving to continue to consolidate its dominant position with the help of projects such as the "National Cyber Shooting Range".

New mutations have emerged in science and technology.

Science and technology have always been the most active and revolutionary factor in military development. In the new century, the pioneering, cutting-edge and subversive technologies show a "blowout" growth and become an important variable to promote the development of new areas and new quality combat forces.

Mutations stem from emerging technologies. Advanced science and technology play a vital role in driving the emergence and development of combat forces, and the core technology supporting new-field and new-quality combat forces has been accelerated from the traditional category to the emerging field. In today’s world, intelligent technology has made new progress, unmanned system technology has entered an explosive period, space countermeasure technology has flourished, network warfare technology has advanced in depth, new concept weapon technology has attracted much attention, and fusion technology has spawned subversive innovation. As the key to changing the rules of the war game, new domain and new quality combat forces must firmly grasp the "key to victory" of emerging technology.

The mutation presents a cluster effect. The breakthrough of advanced science and technology often has a decisive influence on the development of new territory and new quality combat forces. In the era of intelligence, the scientific and technological system is more complex and systematic, and the role of core and key technologies puts more emphasis on cluster effect and overall emergence. At present, the world’s military science and technology presents an all-round, multi-field and deep-seated development trend, and various professional directions are accelerated through multi-point breakthroughs, multi-party infiltration and deep integration. The key technologies supporting new areas and new quality combat forces are also undergoing the transformation from individual competition to cluster promotion.

Mutations favor fusion and crossover. Advanced science and technology has a subversive effect on promoting the development of new territory and new quality combat forces, changing the rules of engagement and breaking the conventional path. Nowadays, the development of cutting-edge technology is shifting from the extension of conventional disciplines to the cross-cutting, and the cross-cutting, integration and breakthrough have become the general trend. The world’s military powers have increased their investment in artificial intelligence, biological crossover, advanced computing, hypersonic speed and other directions, and regarded convergence and crossover as an effective way of cutting-edge technological innovation, vying to seize the strategic commanding heights of the development of new areas and new quality combat forces.

Weapons and equipment present a new mode

Weapons and equipment have always been an effective carrier for the effectiveness of combat forces. The weapons and equipment of the new domain and new quality combat forces have the characteristics of new technology, new functions and new modes, which can effectively exert the new domain and new quality combat capability, create an advantage window, destroy the opponent’s system and form a deterrent effect.

Platform equipment focuses on intelligent unmanned. At present, the platform equipment of new domain and new quality combat forces has broken through the conventional control mode dominated by people and accelerated the transformation to intelligent unmanned form. In recent years, based on the rapid application of intelligent unmanned technology, the whole spectrum of unmanned platforms, intelligent equipment and unmanned bees have ushered in explosive growth. U.S. military drones such as Global Hawk and Predator have been put into actual combat, and the F-35 and unmanned version of the F-16 have continuously strengthened their cooperation through the "loyal wingman" plan. The U.S. military plans that UAVs will account for 90% of its air force aircraft equipment in the future.

Weapon system highlights heterogeneous versatility. The integration of various types of data links, standards and waveforms provides a richer technical integration tool for the weapon system of new domain and new quality combat forces. The weapon system of new domain and new quality combat forces has changed the fixed state of individual operation and static combination, and put more emphasis on heterogeneous hinge and data conversion based on network information system, so as to quickly build a wide-area distributed weapon system with cross-domain and cross-dimension. In 2017, the US military put forward the concept of "Mosaic Warfare", envisaging that the previously centralized and static weapon system would become heterogeneous and versatile with the help of dynamic distribution technology.

The equipment system is more flexible and open. The equipment system of new domain and new quality combat forces has changed the structural mode of series elements and parallel units, and has become more flexible and open. With the help of "decentralized" design, the new domain and new quality combat forces disperse the key functions of equipment system nodes to each unit module, which can effectively avoid the passive situation that once a certain type or some key equipment is hit, the whole will be paralyzed. In recent years, the US military has actively promoted the experimental verification of "stitching" new electronic system integration technology, which is to accelerate the development of new information fusion and interoperability technologies.

Power grouping shows new appearance

Power grouping is a formal embodiment of the allocation of combat forces, which directly affects the role and efficiency release of combat forces. The new domain and new quality combat forces have the characteristics of new power platform, extensive fields involved, innovative operational mechanism and abrupt technological development, and the force grouping is obviously different from the traditional forces.

Element fusion emphasizes dynamic reconstruction. The new domain and new quality combat forces have realized the dynamic reconstruction and cross-domain integration of operational elements, and promoted the transformation of operational elements from static collocation to dynamic reconstruction. Based on the support of intelligent network information system, the new domain and new quality combat forces can give full play to the derivative efficiency of intelligent technology, and build a fusion iterative updating mechanism of system elements based on autonomous and intelligent battlefield real-time command and control. Through heterogeneous functional elements and unit modules, the iterative updating of system elements, the reorganization and optimization of system structure and the evolution and improvement of system capabilities are realized.

The unit architecture relies on cross-domain networking. The new domain and new quality combat forces have realized the leap from intra-domain combination to multi-domain aggregation. Using advanced information network technology, based on cooperative functional nodes, new-domain and new-quality combat forces can build a distributed "kill net" with good toughness, so as to realize wide-area configuration, cross-domain networking and multi-domain aggregation of combat units and basic modules. In the US Army’s "Fusion Plan 2020" exercise, the "Flame Storm" artificial intelligence aided decision-making system can realize the target input of the frontier "Grey Eagle" UAV within 20 seconds, and connect it with attack weapons such as gliding guided bombs, helicopters and ground artillery.

The composition of marshalling emphasizes man-machine mixing. The new field and new quality combat forces have realized the transformation from manned to man-machine mixing. With the application of a large number of unmanned platforms and unmanned combat clusters, the new domain and new quality combat forces can rely on the intelligent combat system to form heterogeneous and diverse open mixed formations. Based on artificial intelligence and machine learning technology, all kinds of unmanned system platforms independently build chains and networks to generate multiple combination schemes. With the aid of auxiliary decision-making tools, commanders can quickly select the optimal man-machine mixed formation, so as to realize intelligent decision-making and surprise victory.