Toward a world-class picture -- how to look at the new "three-step" strategic arrangement for the modernization of national defense and the armed forces

In the New Year of the Tiger in 2022, a domestic war film "The Water Gate Bridge of Chosin Lake" deeply touched the feelings of the people of the country, and countless viewers could not help but cry for it. In this battle, the volunteer soldiers blew up the Watergate Bridge three times with their flesh and blood, while the US army relied on its military production capacity to repair it three times and took the opportunity to flee south. It can be said that the US military was deeply shocked by the "qi" of the volunteer army, and the volunteer army was also deeply impressed by the "steel" of the US army. "We must build the people's army into a world-class army" "We can never again let our children and soldiers rely on flesh and blood to face a powerful enemy"... The audience messages on the Internet are full of high respect for the people's army, and even more express their urgent expectations for building a strong people's army. On the new era and new journey, President Xi Jinping made a major strategic design for the modernization of national defense and the armed forces, clarified the new "three-step" strategic arrangement, drew up a blueprint for strengthening the army in the next 30 years, and guided the people's army to stride forward towards the grand goal of world-class achievements.

Why should the process of modernization of national defense and the armed forces be adapted to the process of national modernization?

In March, the Fifth Session of the 13th National People's Congress was held in Beijing. "The national defense expenditure budget arrangement is 1476.081 billion yuan, an increase of 7.1%" on the hot search list, and many foreign media reported that the growth rate of China's defense expenditure has returned to the "7% era" after two years. In response, the spokesperson of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army and the Armed Police Force responded: "Maintaining a moderate and stable growth in China's defense expenditure is the desire of the people and the trend of the times. "A strong country must have a strong army, and only a strong army can ensure national security." In the historical process of comprehensively building a modern socialist country and realizing the goal of the second centenary struggle, we must put national defense and army building in a still more important position and speed up the construction and consolidation of national defense and a strong people's army.

In the Air Force Archives, a very precious archive is stored. It is the first blueprint for the construction of the Air Force in the history of our Party and our Army, the "Plan for Building the Red Air Force of China", and the time marked on it is November 23, 1940. The drafters of the plan were Chang Qiankun and Wang Bi, experts of our party who went to the Soviet Union to study aviation technology, and the first draft was written on the train back to China. After arriving in Yan'an, Wang Bi made further revisions and refinements to the plan, and finally submitted it to the Party Central Committee in the form of a letter. At that time, the Chinese nation was in danger, and there was no basis for the implementation of this plan. That is why the first sentence of the plan begins with "If the domestic and foreign environment permits..." The beginning of each paragraph after this plan is also "if". Reading these "ifs", we deeply appreciate the inner bitterness of the drafters' desire for a strong army and "the environment is not allowed", and we can also better appreciate the close connection between national defense and army modernization and national modernization. Fighting in the air and space, the people's air force is now relying on the solid foundation laid by the country's modernization construction, and the main battle equipment has achieved leapfrog development. The "ifs" of 82 years ago have become the accumulated "fruits" of the world's attention.

Placing the modernization of national defense and the armed forces in an important position in the overall development of the cause of the party and the people and advancing it simultaneously with the overall development of the country is the way for our party to consistently strengthen the country and strengthen the army. On September 25, 1950, Comrade Mao Zedong stressed: "China must build a strong national defense force and must build a strong economic force. In the various historical periods since then, our party has always grasped the "two major issues" together and persisted in the coordinated advancement of development and security. In the new era, the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission have made a series of strategic plans and arrangements for speeding up the modernization of national defense and the armed forces, leading the people's army to stride forward in a big stride and developing into a powerful army that has basically realized mechanization and accelerated its march toward informationization. On the new journey, we must grasp the requirements of the times for a strong country and a strong army, speed up the development of national defense strength, and ensure that military capabilities are in line with the strategic needs of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

What kind of development blueprint does the new "three-step" strategic arrangement draw for our military?

Formulating medium- and long-term strategic plans is the political advantage of our party in governing the country and is also an important way for our party to lead the modernization of national defense and the armed forces. 2027, 2035, the middle of this century... These three important time nodes of repeatedly "drawing key points" and "knocking on the blackboard" have formed a new "three-step" strategic arrangement for the modernization of national defense and the armed forces, which has made the echelons of near-, medium- and long-term goals linked, and the picture of realizing the party's goal of strengthening the army in the new era and building a world-class army is clearer.

By 2027, to ensure the realization of the centenary goal of the founding of the army, the focus is on the mainland's development strategy, security strategy, and military strategic requirements, and the fundamental direction is to improve the strategic ability of the people's army to defend national sovereignty, security, and development interests, and the path to realization is the integrated development of mechanization, informatization, and intelligence. This goal of struggle is a major policy decision made by our party in grasping the requirements of the era of a strong country and a strong army, a major task that has a bearing on the overall situation of national security and development, and embodies the organic unity of the party's historical mission, national strategic needs, and the mission and tasks of our army. Promoting the realization of the centenary goal of building the army is a profound change related to the overall situation of our army's construction, and it is necessary to change the concept of development, innovate the development model, enhance the momentum of development, and actively promote high-quality development.

By 2035, the basic realization of national defense and army modernization is a step that focuses on the "four modernization" key tasks of military theory, army organization form, military personnel, and weapons and equipment. At that time, the people's army will basically realize the modernization of military theory, constantly innovate in war and strategic guidance, and form a military theoretical system that is of the times, leading, and unique. The modernization of organizational forms has been basically realized, the layout of the army's force structure is scientific and reasonable, the strategic deterrent capability has been consolidated and improved, the new qualitative combat force in the new domain has been continuously expanded, and elite combat, system support, and joint victory have become the basic application modes. The modernization of military personnel has been basically realized, the ability and quality, structural layout, and development and management of military personnel have been comprehensively transformed and upgraded, and groups such as joint combat command personnel, new-type combat force personnel, high-level scientific and technological innovation talents, and high-level strategic management personnel have fully emerged, and high-quality and specialized new-type military personnel with both political integrity and ability have been forged. Basically realize the modernization of weapons and equipment, the independent innovation of national defense science and technology, the original innovation momentum is strong, the scientific and technological acumen, cognition and response speed have been greatly accelerated, a large number of strategic, cutting-edge, and subversive technologies have been mastered, the upgrading of weapons and equipment and the development of intelligent weapons and equipment have been accelerated, and there are more strategic "iron fists" for defeating the enemy and winning.

By the middle of this century, the people's army will be comprehensively built into a world-class army, aiming at the goal and requirement of being commensurate with the status of the mainland's powerful country, being able to comprehensively and effectively safeguard national security, and having a strong international influence. This embodies the strategic requirements for a strong army for realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and shows the determination and courage of our party to build a strong people's army. Commensurate with the status of a powerful country on the mainland, the emphasis is on the relationship between a strong country and a strong army, and only with a world-class army can it be called a real world power. When the mainland is built into a world power, our army will certainly become a solid support for consolidating the position of the mainland as a powerful country. To be able to comprehensively and effectively safeguard national security, the emphasis is on the fact that our military's joint combat capability and global combat capability based on the network information system must be greatly improved, and it can comprehensively use diversified military means to deter war and win war. With strong international influence, the emphasis is that our military has always become a just force for safeguarding world peace and development, can lead the trend of world military development, and grasp the initiative in international competition and military competition.

Why accelerate the development of mechanization and informatization?

Accelerating the integrated development of the "three modernizations" conforms to the trend of the new military revolution in the world. Since the Russian military pioneered the combat style of covering ground troops with robot battle groups in the Syrian war in 2015, unmanned and intelligent equipment has shined on the battlefield. In the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Azerbaijani army's unmanned combat platform surpassed the manned platform for the first time, and the number, frequency and intensity of drone use have set records. In May 2021, the Israeli military used advanced information-gathering technology, analytic algorithms and an AI-led decision-making support system to carry out precision strikes on combat targets in a conflict with Palestinian Hamas forces, which some media called "the first AI battle." These military conflicts and local wars show that the door of intelligent warfare is gradually opening, and the new qualitative combat capabilities generated based on the intelligent combat system will become the core military capabilities, and those who cannot keep up with the rhythm will be left behind.

Accelerating the integrated development of the "three modernizations" has enriched the connotation of the times in the modernization of national defense and the armed forces. The modernization of national defense and the armed forces is a dynamic development, and different historical periods have different connotations. In the 1950s, the goal of modernization was mainly to achieve mechanization. Since the 1990s, the main thing is to build an informationized army and win an informationized war, and our army has proposed in a timely manner to promote the composite development of mechanization and informatization. At present, accelerating the development of military intelligence and building an intelligent military system has become a major trend in the world's military development. Speeding up the integrated development of the "three modernizations" is an inevitable requirement for the people's army to catch up with the times and embrace change in great strides, and has pointed out the development direction, development path, and development model for national defense and army modernization.

Speeding up the integrated development of the "three modernizations" is in line with the reality of our army's construction and development, and is the only way to modernize national defense and the armed forces in the coming period. After long-term efforts, our army has basically realized mechanization, made major progress in informationization construction, and started the development of military intelligence. Based on mechanization, we will make up for the shortcomings of mechanization, move towards a higher level and more comprehensive mechanization, and provide material foundation and strong support for the development of informatization and intelligence; Taking informatization as the leading role, using the advantages of information technology to upgrade and transform existing weapons and equipment to promote mechanization, develop accurate, intelligent, integrated, and efficient information-based weapons and equipment to support intelligence, and maximize the cohesion and integration of information networks on combat systems and efficiency; Led by intelligence, we will promote mechanization and informatization to achieve leapfrog development, and realize the overall improvement of the modernization level of national defense and the army. Such a path model is not to engage in balance, walk in unison, not to completely deny, to start a new stove, nor to eliminate each other and replace each other, but to achieve the transformation from cascade development to integration, from point accumulation to system breakthrough, and develop highly developed mechanization and higher level of informatization in the process of promoting intelligence.

(Written by: Chu Dangyang, Shen Hongxin, Gao Liping)

Source: China Military Network - People's Liberation Army Daily