In the past few days, news about the new formation of the information support unit of the Chinese army has come into focus, and at the same time, the strategic support force has been abolished. At present, the composition of China's armed forces has changed from the army, navy, air force, rocket force, and strategic support forces to the army, navy, air force, rocket force, military space force, cyberspace force, information support force, joint logistics support force, and other arms. In other words, from 5 major branches of the armed forces, to 8 branches of the armed forces. The strategic support force is gone, and there are four more branches of the armed forces, among which the military space force, the cyberspace force, and the joint logistics support force should have been spun off from the strategic support force. Only the information support force has been completely reconstructed.
This raises a question: Why does China want to build an independent information support force in promoting the building of a world-class army? First, let's take a look at the key words that the official media have positioned this force: information dominance, unimpeded information links, integration of information resources, information protection, provision of information support, and integration into the joint operations of the whole army.
How do we interpret the signal sent by China's establishment of an information support force?
First, the Chinese military adapts to an era in which situational awareness dominates warfare. As we have said in the past, there will be more and more ways to obtain information on future wars, and the amount of data will become larger and larger, and how to professionally analyze and use information will be the key to determining the outcome of wars. Different from the traditional mode of warfare, in the era of hypersonic missiles, information warfare relies on space-based satellite networks, unmanned aerial vehicles, early warning aircraft, ground radars, warships, and all means of situational awareness to quickly lock on to targets, which determines that we have many sources of data to obtain targets. Therefore, the establishment of a special branch of the military to process situational awareness data is to create conditions for rapid missile strikes, and it will be possible to fire the enemy first. And firing the enemy first can often determine the outcome of a war.
Second, the use of artificial intelligence technology to promote the improvement of war efficiency and the beginning of intelligent warfare will also be the main mission of the information support force. The more data is obtained, and how to process the data requires the use of big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence algorithms, which can more quickly decide which strike means to use to complete the task of striking the enemy. Let professional people do professional things, and the main mission in the era of intelligent warfare should be completed by the information support forces, which is of course a direction of reform with clearer responsibilities. In particular, with the advent of the era of unmanned warfare, information support units may undertake the task of promoting the unmanned use of combat weapons. Third, promote the establishment of cross-service data links and efficient decision-making systems, so as to lay the foundation for joint operations of the whole army. "Integrating into the joint operations of the whole army" is the main mission of the information support force, and to put it bluntly, it is to promote the integrated operations and joint operations of the whole army through the establishment of an all-army data link. The establishment of an independent branch of the armed forces directly under the management of the Central Military Commission can certainly better promote the interconnection of various branches of the armed forces, or the establishment of a common data link for the whole army, so as to achieve a higher level of information integration. In addition, information fusion is also the basis for promoting the establishment of an efficient operational and tactical system and efficient logistics. Fourth, China will build up a higher-level electronic warfare unit and continue to make technological progress in electronic reconnaissance, electronic countermeasures, and concealing the true and revealing the false.
Finally, China's reform shows that it is promoting the establishment of a world-class military in a top-level design way, and may even be ahead of the US military. The U.S. military is a mechanized and information-based army, but it is definitely not an intelligent army. Therefore, China and the United States are facing different resistance to reform in how to promote the transformation of the military to intelligence. Although the United States has a better foundation, it has a heavier burden, because many branches of the United States have established cross-service data links with themselves as the core. However, because of China's institutional advantages, it can better break through the resistance by supporting the armed forces directly under the Central Military Commission to promote the informatization and intelligence of all branches of the armed forces. Considering China's technological superiority in the fields of communications, electronics, and artificial intelligence, it is entirely possible to be ahead of the US military by promoting the informatization and intelligence of the armed forces through technological progress. Generally speaking, the current reform of China's armed forces shows that we are taking more advanced steps to build a world-class armed forces than the US military, and the prospects are bright.