China's military leaders believe that the rapid progress of the new military revolution will inevitably prompt countries around the world to drastically reduce their troops and attach importance to the modernization of military equipment. Therefore, China Army pays more attention to quality construction. Military leaders and military academic circles are asking the country to develop or purchase information and electronic technologies and systems, and actively promote the development of high-tech weapons, such as developing missiles with microwave warheads to destroy or destroy enemy battlefield sensors and communication networks. Due to the successful experience of the United States and its allies in the Gulf War, people realize that the China People's Liberation Army must improve its combat capability in order to deal with hostile forces with advanced information technology and long-range precision-guided weapons.
At present, the focus of China's military strategy is to prepare for possible military incidents in the south, especially for possible accidents in the Taiwan Province Strait and the South China Sea of China. The goal of China's army is to have a force equipped with high-tech weapons and capable of rapid response, so as to prepare for victory in possible regional conflicts around China in the future.
Pillsbury believes that China is vigorously studying information warfare and electronic warfare, and developing new concept weapons for new operational modes. He quoted a signed article about the "Third Military Revolution" published in a magazine affiliated to the China Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. He believes that this article emphasizes the development of information technology, stealth technology and long-range precision strike weapons between lines, and foresees the new operational concepts that will appear in future wars. These new operational concepts include using the air force to independently carry out long-range air strikes and combining them with the operations of troops rapidly delivered by land and sea; Use helicopters and airborne troops; Carry out long-range operations in the five-dimensional battlefields of air, land, sea, air and electromagnetism; War in outer space; Paralysis; Computer warfare, etc.
In the field of information warfare and electronic warfare, Michelle pillsbury, a columnist of American Military Revolution, believes that China is developing high-power microwave sources, which can form the basis for the application of microwave weapons. This microwave weapon involves an energy explosion device, which can be thrown near the target. After detonation, it will emit strong monopulse microwave energy, destroying or damaging electronic components in enemy military equipment. It is not clear whether this weapon can generate enough microwave energy to make it work farther than a high-explosive warhead of the same size.
In terms of seizing the right to control information, the first step of China's military revolution is to seize the right to control information, including the development of long-range air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles, which can be used against enemy combat support aircraft that play an important role in information warfare, so as to strive for the right to control information. These targets include the air early warning and control system of the US Air Force, the "Jesta" joint surveillance and target attack radar system, other C3I (command, control, communication and intelligence) systems and electronic warfare aircraft. China's army has installed air-to-air missiles that may be used to attack the above-mentioned aircraft. China's army is also purchasing new air defense missiles with a higher degree of modernization to deal with the threat posed by the above-mentioned aircraft. These new missiles include various types of domestic medium-range air-to-air missiles.
During the Gulf War, China's military leaders deeply felt the lack of its air defense capability because of the power of precision-guided weapons, cruise missiles and stealth aircraft. Therefore, China People's Liberation Army began to plan and equip a modern integrated air defense system.
China is developing various air defense systems by itself, including HQ-9 long-range surface-to-air missile and HQ-7 short-range tactical missile. As time goes by, it is expected that China will purchase missiles and technologies from abroad while developing its own system, and then integrate these systems and technologies into the integrated air defense system. Although it may take more than 10 years to achieve this goal, the China People's Liberation Army has demonstrated its basic local comprehensive air defense capability to some extent with its mobile tactical air defense system.
If we compare China's thought of new military revolution with that of local war, we can think that China will confront a superpower in the future. The combat operations carried out by these countries near the border of China are a kind of war that does not deeply invade the territory. The idea of local war seems to ignore all kinds of battle scenes, including almost all wars smaller than world war or nuclear war. China's many military art papers try to describe the operational principles of local wars and how to compete with high-tech opponents.
China's reference materials for discussing the Third Military Revolution are often similar to those for discussing similar issues in Russian military journals. However, China scholars failed to pay attention to Russian work in this field in the new military revolution. Pillsbury believes that China's attention to the new military revolution is increasing, and even the People's Liberation Army Daily publishes articles on this issue almost every week. These articles are all about the military technological revolution and its influence on China's military. China's military also held a national academic conference to discuss the significance of the future military revolution.
Pillsbury believes that military experts in China have noticed that the new military revolution is facing completely different goals from the previous two military revolutions. This means understanding China's military equipment and capabilities from another angle.
For example, a general in China quoted Marshall, who is in charge of Internet evaluation in the US Department of Defense, and urged China to develop three weapon systems to undertake new combat tasks, namely, strategic reconnaissance and early warning system, battlefield information network system and long-range precision strike weapon system, including tactical guided missiles. By adopting this development method, all the military departments in China can be integrated into a single network for coordinated operations.