“the light war”, a new concept that will affect the future of the military revolution and the pattern of war, after almost 30 years of information from the chinese military doctrine, with a high amount of gold, will even lead to a new wave of military-technical revolutions and patterns of war。
The book " light war " , published by the liberation army press, presents the world's military transformation and sketches another form of war in the future. The 1987 al-qaeda newspaper presented the academic perspective of shen wei gwang on information warfare research under the theme “the rise of information war”, a concept that predates the united states。
At present, the u. S. Military has launched a new round of counterbalancing strategies aimed at developing a range of “subversive technologies” and innovative methods of warfare that “change the rules of the game”, in particular by prioritizing targeted energy weapons such as high-energy lasers and high-power microwaves, with a focus on offsetting the “anti-entry/regional-resistance” capabilities of central and russian ballistic missiles at their core, marking the potential for “light war” to become the mainstream of future warfare。
So, what's the light war? What are its characteristics? How should we respond to this new pattern of war? We are deeply inspired by the book " the war of light - new trends in the world's military revolution " , by lee bingyan, huyuning and mr. Wang。
The strong development of “subversive technology” and the maintenance of the overwhelming technological “stagger” advantage are the essence of america's “offset” strategic and tactical innovations
The greatest point of view of light war is that it begins with a review of the achievements and experiences of the past 20 years of military change, a review of the united states military “offset” strategy for readers, and its mad search for “subversive technology” and practical experience of “changing the rules of the game”。
According to the united states military definition, “subversive technologies” are technologies or clusters of technologies that address related issues in a way that fundamentally alters the symmetrical situation between rival forces, and their practical application will rapidly render obsolete the existing policies, regulations and organizations of all actors。
The first round of the “counterbalancing” strategy, which introduced the “new face” defence reform of the eisenhower era in 1953, centred on offsetting the soviet army's quantitative advantage by prioritizing the development of nuclear weapons and associated delivery systems
The second round of the “offset” strategy, which began in the mid-1970s, focused on the development of new equipment, such as smart weapons, precision strikes and invisible aircraft, and new methods of warfare, such as “one-on-one open ground”, using a range of sophisticated technological advantages, such as microelectronics and information technology, to offset the conventional quantitative advantage of the soviet army。
At present, the united states military considers that the core technologies of the second round of counterbalancing strategies, such as situational awareness, precision guidance and invisible technology, have spread significantly globally, particularly the “anti-entry/regional saturation” strategic warfare and weapons equipment of the emerging powers, such as china and russia, at the centre of missile “saturation attacks”, which have brought the world to a new round of “precise-guided deadlock” and have posed a potential threat to its front bases, information hubs and large naval fleets, such as carriers, and have seriously weakened their traditional operational advantages, such as their power delivery and freedom of movement。
As the authors of this book have spoken out, “in an era when the technological revolution is continuing, military change is about to emerge as a new turning point ... Hegemonics are fully seeking `subversive technologies' and trying to change the actual pace of the `rules of the war game', which will lead to a further deterioration of the world security environment.”
Targeted energy technology is a central element of "light war" and may bring about a completely new change in the conventional war-making mechanisms
Targeted energy weapons, also known as beam energy weapons, are designed to cause rapid and precise attack damage to targets using combined effects of high temperature, ionizing radiation and acoustic waves, mainly from lasers, microwaves, millimetre waves and electromagnetic pulses。
There is a wide range of prospects for development, both by replacing or improving the effectiveness of traditional munitions, such as anti-aircraft, anti-missile and anti-defence, by effectively attacking strategic and tactical objectives, such as aircraft, missiles and satellites, and by applying widely to communications navigation and other areas of non-war military action, such as counter-terrorism, rights and security。
Laser weapons can accurately turn targets into ashes in seconds。
From the perspective of its application, the key areas in which targeted energy technologies are likely to effect subversive changes in the pattern of war are concentrated on the following:
One is an anti-aircraft missile missile. The united states army believes that the greatest “subversive” effect of targeted energy weapons is the effective defence against missile saturation and the imposition of “cost-imposed” strategies against the enemy, leading ultimately to the goal of “light war” or “no-war” and “subsistence” soldiers。
In terms of cost-benefits, the existing kinetic abm systems are expensive, limited in number and ineffective, especially with regard to the ratio of 1:2, i. E., for each ballistic missile developed by an adversary, the us military will have to pay double the cost of developing the corresponding abm system。
If additional costs, such as system maintenance, were added, the final cost ratio would be 1:8 or 1:10, and in the long run, the united states military would inevitably be drawn down by its opponents in terms of the cost-effectiveness of missile defence。
In this context, the widespread application of targeted energy technologies, especially their unique advantages of low cost ($0. 1/s), speed (300,000 km/s), mobility (no recoil, easy to change direction), and the formation of a land, sea, air, sky and multi-layered interdiction system with existing kinetic energy interdiction systems, may completely subvert the asymmetrical law of traditional missile strikes against “preventable” and eventually discourage the development of core “counter-entry/regional rejection” assets, such as missiles' saturation and attacks, from becoming more costly and less effective, thereby diverting their limited resources, disrupting the pace of their military development, preventing them from developing “subversive technology” and offensive weapons, or at a disproportionate cost to the united states, and ultimately discouraging them from developing “spreading” weapons that pose a direct threat to the united states。
And the second is space strikes against "showing hands." information systems are the central command centre for the united states military operations and the weakest defence of the entire operational system, especially space-based systems, which are largely defenceless and have a multiplier effect on their overall effectiveness in the event of a pre-emptive attack by the pearl harbor incident。
The operational effectiveness of directed energy technologies on the ground and in the air is adversely affected by severe weather conditions such as smoke, humidity and rain, but is not restricted in the field of space operations and is theoretically the best means of conducting space offensive operations。
To that end, the united states has proposed, by 2020 or so, to “blind” or paralyse orbiting satellites, destroying or disabling them by means of five means of deception, destruction, denial, de-escalation and destruction, with high-energy laser beams at their core, through the corrosion, microwave and radiation effects。
The third is “new expensive” in the field of communications. Laser communication technology, which mainly uses light pulses to transmit data at speeds of 100 to 1,000 times higher than radios, has the advantage of being lightweight, low utility, high security and high ability to resist interference. It can be used in the future as an alternative to traditional radio communications and can completely address current problems of radio frequency band congestion, cross-interference and vulnerability to interception. At present, the technology is about to enter the gold development and maturity phase。
The cost of a laser pulse launched by abl ara lasers is only about $1,000, which is “how fast can it be saved” compared to a tens of millions of united states dollars abm or asat missile. This is for the abl laser weapon carrier, modified by boeing 747。
The fourth is the anti-terrorist skirmishes of “new soldiers”. The destructive effect of targeted energy weapons is not limited to “hard destruction” such as anti-aircraft defence, but can also be used as a non-lethal weapon for a wide range of non-war military operations, such as counter-terrorism, counter-violence and, in particular, in the “mixed war” areas such as ukraine, syria and so on。
In practical terms, targeted energy weapons, such as lasers, can temporarily cause blinding or dizziness among enemy combatants, thereby depriving them of target tracking capabilities, and can also cause them to be attacked by direct or indirect exposure, causing panic and, in turn, providing aircraft for their own combat operations, thereby reducing collateral damage and achieving the “no-war win”。
A new wave of military revolution, the “light war”, will drive the profound transformation of the national defence organization
The new energy of war will surely give rise to a new form of war, which will necessarily require a profound transformation of the structure of national defence and of society as a whole。
In order to deepen the new “offset” strategy and to respond to the trends of the era of the “light war”, the united states department of defense officially launched a “defence innovation plan” in 2014, which is intensifying a comprehensive reform of its defence organization system, with six core areas:
The first is to adapt the talent development model. It calls for the integration of all kinds of skills development tools and the comprehensive development of new “complex” and “multi-energy” military talent through the reform of personnel systems such as military vocational education, promotion appointments and appraisals, with a focus on strengthening innovative thinking, control and resilience to complex and multifaceted threats。
Second is the development of new long-term r & d planning projects. Based on the “civil-military integration” model, greater technical exchange and cooperation between the ministry of defence and local industry sectors is needed to assess the military potential of advanced technologies such as directed energy, robotics, automation, miniaturization, large data and 3d printing, and to reduce institutional barriers to the transformation of civilian technology, with a view to establishing, developing and deploying a wide range of groundbreaking technologies and systems to maintain and enhance the operational capability of the united states military。
Third is the concept of innovative warfare. The focus is on developing a range of low-end operational styles, such as the one air and sea war, symmetrical and asymmetric warfare thinking, a full spectrum of kinetic and inert warfare concepts, multi-dimensional, cross-border warfare concepts, exploring innovative ways of responding to emerging threats and using limited resources to achieve greater strategic impact。
The fourth is the transformation of the development exercise model. The development and testing of new ways to achieve strategic objectives, in particular through the use of holographic technology, satellite-based data transmission, the generation of images through software in green rooms, the simulation of rural or urban warfare environments, and the emergence of three-dimensional scenarios, such as combat personnel and terrain conditions, that can make it possible to make a reality, thereby significantly improve the effectiveness of training and trigger revolutionary changes in the field of training。
Fifthly, there is a shift in the approach to weapons development. The development of a “truck-type” common platform, focusing on the development of modular and open-system platforms, using the concept of the platform being developed separately from loads, is aimed, on the one hand, at expanding operational distances, expanding load capacity and harmonizing interlocking standards, with a view to reducing the manufacturing cycle, breaking down the platform's functional boundaries, reducing the cost of upgrading by continuously changing the platform's module load, and responding to the information-enabled age load of the “moor law”, which is updated every two years, in particular by providing strong safeguards for new loads such as directed energy, drones, etc., to offset the latter's reverse engineering advantage。
On-board laser weapon systems are used to intercept ballistic missiles in boost flight。
Sixth is the transformation of the operational mechanisms of the ministry of defence. A comprehensive restructuring of the organizational structure, focusing on eliminating redundancies, redundancies and redundancies, has been carried out in a variety of ways, including through the experience of modern enterprise management, in order to effectively improve the operational and managerial effectiveness of the ministry of defence。
Learning from the lessons of history, learning from successful experiences and responding to the trend of light war is an effective way for me to break through america's new strategy of offsetting me
With the breakthrough of the targeted energy weapons and related technologies cluster, a new wave of military change is taking place around the globe. Where does our army come from? Read this very forward-looking theoretical work, and we can at least draw the following insights:
To learn deeply from the history of the former soviet union. The first is to avoid "blindness". During the reagan period, the u. S. Military used the highly advanced new concept of weapons, such as directed energy, as bait to launch the strategic trap of the star wars program, to induce the soviet union to engage in a symmetrical arms race in space, and eventually to withdraw unilaterally from the arms race because it could not afford the major war costs and war risks, thereby abandoning the strategic game. This move has had an enormous “silver” effect, resulting in a full military-economic-political connection, which in turn became the first “domino” to destroy the soviet union。
Today, despite the fact that the united states military has proposed an imaginative set of subversive technologies, its winning mechanisms remain as illusory as they were, with forward-looking dominant technologies and a strategic trap like the star wars plan. The lessons learned from the former soviet union are important as a warning for china, which is now emerging and moving from a larger to a stronger china。
The second is to avoid “negative defence”. During the second round of the “offset” strategy, the united states took advantage of the weaknesses of the soviet defence lines and the uneven configuration of air defence facilities, and increased the soviet union's relative war costs and risks by prioritizing the development of new concepts such as invisible aircraft and precision guidance systems, disrupting the direction, pace and speed of the build-up of the soviet military forces, relying on the traditional thinking of “high density and low quality” and simply developing low-end combat capabilities such as anti-aircraft missiles to meet the united states high-technology challenges, ultimately losing historical opportunities for military development。
Take full advantage of the success of the united states “offset” strategy. Keeping abreast of the development of war patterns and military technology, combined with the flexible design of methods of warfare by both major and sub-threats, is the key to the united states “offset” strategy。
"you hit me, i hit me" is the essence of asymmetrical strategic checks and balances. It's also the essence of our army's ability to achieve an all-embracing vision of our home. Historically, i have made the right choices in response to two major changes in the pattern of war: the twin-star project and the system-based battle。
In the 1950s, in the face of the difficult situation that followed the creation of the nation, my country's senior leaders looked forward and did not opt for a symmetrical arms race with the united states and the soviet union in the field of conventional warfare, but instead made the two-ball project a priority development option, in keeping with the trend of the nuclear age, by bringing me back into the ranks of the world's major powers through this asymmetric and trans-regional approach to development。
Since the gulf and kosovo wars of the 1990s, the basic features of our army's high-technology war have been the introduction of a new doctrine of “systems based on information systems to fight”, which has resulted in a system of asymmetric warfare with “shocks, chains, nets, paraplegics” that has considerably narrowed the gap between me and the world's powerful countries, such as the united states and russia。
The “war of the gulf” — demonstrated by the operational use of a large number of high-technology weapons systems — has given rise to new ways of thinking about modern local warfare theories, guiding patterns and methods of warfare. It shows that the united states battleship missouri is firing heavy artillery shells at positions of the iraqi army in kuwait。
At present, regardless of how the new “offset” strategy of the united states induces, deceptives and disguises, trends in the era of “war alone” suggest that the ability to “see” and “who can hide” have become the focus of the strategic game of the parties in the context of “mixed war”。
Faced with a major turning point in history, light war has sounded the horn of a new military revolution for us. My weapons equipment development, overall war planning and the design of a system of methods of warfare should continue the strategic wisdom of the “two-shot”, increase attention and investment in new conceptual weapons and break the american “offset” strategy with asymmetric strategic checks and balances。
(by the minister of foreign military studies, military academy of sciences)
