My understanding of information warfare

Information-based warfare refers to paralysis and shock operations that take place in the information age, based on information, with information-based weapons and equipment as the main combat tools and means, with system integration and information control as the leading factor, and by means of precise strike, real-time control and information attack and defense. In a full-dimensional space. Compared with traditional forms of warfare such as mechanized warfare, information warfare has the following six characteristics.

The Tool of War-Information Advantage

The tools of war determine the form of war, and what kind of tools will there be. The war tools in the information age are mainly information weapons and equipment, and the main feature of information weapons and equipment is to realize the informationization, intelligence and integration of weapons and equipment.

Energy structure Energy structure and energy release mode are the basic elements that determine the killing mechanism of weapons. From the perspective of energy composition, in the information war, war energy has changed from traditional physical energy such as physical energy, chemical energy, electric energy, electromagnetic energy, mechanical energy and nuclear energy to intellectual energy. Intelligence is the dominant energy in information warfare, which produces efficiency by controlling other physical energy. In the information war, the forces, platforms and weapons in the mechanical age still play an important role, but the structure of energy release has changed. Electronic information equipment has changed from auxiliary and supporting equipment to leading equipment, infiltrated and integrated into power, platform and weapon in a systematic way, and accurately controlled the timing, mode, quantity and proportion of energy and energy release, so as to achieve the goal of minimum investment and maximum benefit.

Efficiency standard Mechanized warfare mainly emphasizes the accumulation of quantity and scale, while information warfare emphasizes the control of quality on efficiency. Traditional warfare mainly achieves the purpose of killing and destroying through firepower destruction. In the information war, information technology can not only integrate a variety of different energy and weapons and equipment, but also effectively control the efficiency of energy release, with more accurate control results, and achieve great combat results through less energy release. Therefore, in terms of combat damage efficiency, the charge is no longer emphasized, but the principle of accuracy and effectiveness is highlighted. The accurate and efficient measure is the cost-effectiveness ratio. Efficiency-cost ratio refers to low investment and high income in war, which can usually reach more than 1: 10. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to improve the hit accuracy of weapons.

The Power of War-Overall Cohesion

C, as the main weapon in the information war of the system? After the ISR system, information warfare equipment, precision guided weapons and information warfare platform are seamlessly connected through the global information grid, an all-dimensional, all-weather and all-weather integrated and real-time combat system will be formed. In such a combat system, the concepts of greed, comprehensiveness and advanced in traditional warfare will have no meaning, because variety, scale and performance are no longer the key elements to improve operational efficiency, while system integration and horizontal integration become the most critical elements. No matter how many kinds of weapons and equipment, no matter how large the scale and good the performance are, if they cannot be integrated into the system, they will not be able to play a role. Instead of forming combat effectiveness on the battlefield, it will become an easy target. The informationized battlefield is the battlefield against the integrated system, and the party with a perfect informationized combat system can control the means of combat, flexibly choose targets and control the process and rhythm of the war. Without the corresponding information-based combat system, it is difficult to form combat effectiveness without a leader, scattered sand and a large number of souls.

In the mechanized war of power cohesion, the war power is mainly manifested as material power. In the information war, intelligence and knowledge are in the core and leading position of power cohesion, and the cohesion of combat power mainly depends on information control. From the perspective of strength, information-based weapons and equipment have become the dominant factor, and the status of traditional mechanized combat platforms has declined. The cohesion of power must be carried out on the premise of mastering the advantages of power control, especially seizing and controlling the advantages of information and air and space. Only in this way can we ensure that the required troops can be adjusted and maneuvered to the exact position and direction at the exact time and hit the target accurately. In the information war, the art of command and military strategy are still very important, but the key points are two aspects: first, the strategic arrangement, wits and strategic deception of the warring parties; The second is the automatic command and control at the level of campaign tactics.

War time and space-all-round integration

In time-accelerated information warfare, the speed of ballistic missiles reaches Mach 15, and that of tactical missiles reaches Mach 3-5. However, faster than this is the speed of light and electromagnetic waves, 300 thousand kilometers per second, what you see is what you get. As long as the eyes see the target, the target means being destroyed immediately.

Space fusion cold weapon war and hot weapon war are both wars in plane one-dimensional space. In the mechanized war, it is constantly expanding into the air, ocean, underwater, space and electromagnetic space. Information warfare still needs to control forces separately, and various services and arms can continue to dominate their traditional combat space. The difference is that in time, space, power and other factors, standards must be unified to achieve interconnection and interoperability, and finally an integrated system will be formed. After the establishment of this horizontally integrated network system, the combat space separated from each other, such as land, sea, air, sky and electricity, will become an all-round integrated combat space. In this all-dimensional space, the battlefield is moving, the information is real-time, the elements such as time, space and power are integrated, and the use of power will be very flexible, adjustable and controllable.

War implementation-precise control

In the traditional full-spectrum control warfare, the implementation of the war mainly depends on the use of operational command methods and means. In the information war, after the establishment of the global information grid, the all-dimensional space presents an integrated model. In such a combat space, the traditional battlefield concept will no longer exist, and the combat mode born on the basis of specific battlefields and specific arms will naturally die out. By then, precise control will become the essence of information warfare. Accurate control is mainly full-spectrum control warfare, focusing on strategic information warfare and battlefield information warfare, with the aim of effectively controlling full-dimensional space, full-spectrum information, all combat forces and war resources. There are two results of control: for us, through system integration, our strength doubles and our operational efficiency doubles; For the enemy, the control was paralyzed, and the troops became a mob because they lost their command. Because of the loss of space, their weapons will not be maneuverable, because of the loss of time, they can only miss the opportunity and be passively beaten. In this case, even if it has power, it has been divided and disintegrated, and it is difficult to play an effective role.

Precision strikes and precision operations have gone through more than half a century from quantitative change to qualitative change, spanning three historical stages. First, from melee to fire damage. Second, from face to face. The proportion of precision-guided weapons used in wars rose from 0.2% in Vietnam War and 8% in Gulf War to 70% in Iraq War. Third, from precise destruction to real-time attack. Precision-guided weapons used in the Iraq war already have three capabilities: First, autonomous attack capability. Regardless of the launch, automatically find and destroy the target. The second is real-time attack capability. From finding the target to attacking the target, the reaction time of weapons tends to be real-time. The third is the ability to launch outside the zone. The combat platform can use weapons far away from the threat zone, which can not only accurately attack the target, but also realize self-protection.

War Support-Multidimensional Focus

From the perspective of support objects, people are the main support objects in the Cold War. In hot weapons and mechanized wars, weapons such as combat platforms, guns and ammunition have become the main support targets. In the information war, we should focus on the comprehensive support of intelligence, knowledge, information and network, and strengthen the integration and control of support elements on this basis. Because the information-based weapons and equipment are integrated with the mechanized weapons and equipment, most of the support elements in the mechanized war will continue to exist, but they must be reformed with the information-based concept, network and software, so that all the support elements can be integrated into the combat system, so as to achieve the purpose of effective control and accurate support.

In the traditional multidimensional support war, battlefield construction and war mobilization are important components of war forces. Under the all-round guarantee of information warfare, the battlefield construction will have more dual-use characteristics, and the combination of peacetime and wartime must be quickly transformed. With the sharp shortening of the duration of the war, it is necessary to change the traditional war mobilization mode, emphasize rapid mobilization in time, attach importance to information mobilization in content, and highlight pre-storage and preset in methods to meet the needs of rapid war support.

In the information war supported by strength, more emphasis is placed on quality and efficiency. Quality is knowledge and efficiency is control. Quantity and scale are still important, but they will be knowledgeable and controllable. War is no longer a soldier's patent, and military equipment with computers and networks as the core is no longer exclusive to the army. The most advanced technology may be first used in civilian equipment. Therefore, the support force is information support, and it is difficult to distinguish between military and civilian support of this nature. As a result, the exclusive support of the army began to develop into socialized support, and the mechanized support with clear specialty and clear division of labor began to advance into the information support with vague specialty and complete system. Military weapons used in actual combat are becoming less and less sophisticated, while the support forces such as software design, network control, information resources and equipment maintenance are greatly increased, with sharper teeth and more powerful tails.

War victory-man-machine integration

In the information war of man-machine integration, human intelligence is integrated with the performance of weapons, giving weapons wisdom and spirituality. Information weapons are no longer silly and rough machine parts, but robots with artificial intelligence, thinking and judgment, which can automatically find, identify and attack targets. Tomahawk cruise missiles, JDAM satellite-guided bombs and so on are all such robot weapons. People's superb wisdom and command art can be integrated into the weapon system in advance, and the operational efficiency can also be improved through real-time control of weapons in the course of combat. The biggest difference between this intelligent weapon and mechanized weapons and equipment is the enhancement of specificity. Future wars need more high-quality talents. An army without knowledge and culture is a stupid army, and a stupid army cannot win an information war.

After the completion of the automatic control global information grid, automatic real-time command will be realized at the level of campaign tactics, and there are fewer and fewer command modes of manual intervention and thinking while doing. To a great extent, command art and military strategy are manifested in pre-war operational planning and strategic engagement in war, and even integrated into human-computer interaction system, expert knowledge base system and weapon intelligent guidance system. So there are fewer and fewer command levels, and the command efficiency is getting higher and higher, showing the characteristics of real-time, flattening and integration. It is becoming more and more common for strategic commanders to directly command individual soldiers, single ships and single aircraft, and strategic operations will become the main operational style in information warfare.