Information warfare is the product of the information age and the inevitable product of the development of social productive forces to the information society. The war in the agricultural age, with information but without information technology. The transmission of information depends on natural channels and artificial channels, and the command of the army depends on flags, drums, gongs, horns and people. In the war of the industrial age, information technologies such as telegraph, telephone and radar appeared, which can transmit information through electromagnetic waves, opening the way for large-space and long-distance operations. But this is a mechanized war, not an information war. When missiles are used as information weapons in war, information warfare will sprout; When missile warfare is combined with electronic warfare, the power of information warfare has shocked the world military field; When the battlefield information infrastructure has been built, CI system has been established, information forces (digital forces) have been established, and digital programmed weapons such as viruses and hackers have been put on the stage and played an increasingly important role, information warfare has also been formed.
In short, it is a war in which information technology and its materialized weapons and equipment are widely used to win by seizing information superiority and information control, which can be called information war. The basic characteristics of information warfare are:
1, information technology is widely used in war.
Information technology is a technology to expand people's functions of obtaining, transmitting, processing and utilizing information, which is basically sensor technology, communication technology and computer technology.
At present, the sensing technology on the battlefield is very developed, mainly including various reconnaissance satellites, radars, reconnaissance planes, unmanned reconnaissance planes, bugs, ground sensors, maritime reconnaissance ships, sonar, night vision equipment and so on. It constitutes a three-dimensional omni-directional information remote sensing control system for outer space, air, ground, sea and underwater. In particular, the use of various reconnaissance satellites has made the battlefield unprecedentedly transparent. During the Gulf War, the US military used various reconnaissance satellites, such as electronic reconnaissance satellites, photographic reconnaissance satellites, geodesic satellites, meteorological satellites and early warning satellites. , and the information obtained accounts for about 90% of all information.
Since 1980, communication technology has advanced by leaps and bounds. Communication satellite, optical fiber, data, image, fax communication and developing intelligent communication have formed a diversified and high-speed information transmission system in today's battlefield. The 90-day traffic before and after the Gulf War exceeded the 40-year traffic in Europe. During the peak period, there are more than 700,000 calls a day. Military satellites constitute the basic command and control means of the US military in the Gulf War. They not only play a major role in war zones and war zones, but also provide high-speed data processing systems for precision guided weapons. American defense satellite communications provide 75% of all inter-war communications, and navigation satellites also provide accurate navigation data for Tomahawk cruise missiles.
The acquisition and transmission of a large amount of information in the war caused the flood of information. In the vast amount of information, how to sort out, analyze and screen, discard the false and retain the true, make comprehensive inference and make decisions needs the help of computer's calculation, memory, retrieval, reasoning and some thinking functions. At present, the speed of the computer can complete the operation that takes a person several days, months or longer. Computer technology is developing towards intelligence and grid, which has played a great role in the war. During the Gulf War, the multinational forces * * * dispatched 1 10000, and fought in the airspace of the same Iraq-Kuwait battlefield from different airports, different directions, different altitudes and different times. At the same time, it also overcame the obstacle of the language barrier of the multinational forces and basically achieved coordination and order. Among them, computer technology is an important reason. This also reflects one aspect of computer processing and using information. In terms of computer technology, virtual reality, confrontation simulation, etc., several schemes can be selected and compared to provide reference for commanding war (combat).
2. Information and energy are combined to form an information weapon system.
Information weapons not only stay in the function of information acquisition, transmission and processing, but also extend to information attack and defense, hard killing and soft killing weapons, mainly including information suppression, information attack and defense, information interference and so on. Such as radio suppression and anti-suppression, radar destruction and anti-destruction, computer virus confrontation, hacker interference and prevention, weapon precision guidance and anti-guidance. Some information technologies are weapons in themselves. Computers are not only command tools, but also weapons. The combination of information technology and energy forms the information weapon system. Including: various platforms of information warfare; Various informational projectiles, such as missiles and mines; Individual information weapons and equipment, such as information helmets, clothing, communication tools and weapons; Infrastructure of information network battlefield, such as various satellites and CISR systems; Digital programming weapons for computing network system operations, such as viruses and hackers. The above five aspects constitute the information weapons and equipment system.
Compared with conventional weapons and equipment, information weapons and equipment cannot be equated. If a conventional aircraft is equipped with wings of information technology, the detection range of airborne radar is increased, the ability of long-range combat and precise guidance is enhanced, and the stealth coating is applied with night vision function, the combat energy of this aircraft will be improved geometrically. The combination of information and energy can not only make the combat platform obtain information in time, give full play to its effectiveness and give the missile a correct direction, but also make the missile automatically absorb information and hit the target. This goes beyond the function of the projectile itself, enhances the original function of the weapon and forms a new type of combat effectiveness. Therefore, the use of information weapon system is an important feature of information warfare. In a sense, only when information-based weapons are widely used in wars and become the dominant weapons that affect the outcome of wars, can the arrival of information-based wars be most effectively marked. The form and state of weapons and equipment used in war determine the form and state of war. It is precisely because a large number of mechanized weapons and equipment with high maneuverability are used in the war that it can also be called mechanized war. Only when information weapons and equipment are used in the war to dominate the process of the war can it be called information war.
3. Form an information network battlefield.
The information network battlefield is mainly composed of three systems of information acquisition, transmission, processing and utilization, which are connected into a network on the basis of a complete information infrastructure and work as a whole (not separately). Remote sensing reconnaissance system obtains information from source, transmits it to destination (such as computer processing center) through channel transmission system, and analyzes, judges and uses the obtained information. The result of information processing and utilization is to make decisions, make up your mind, what troops and weapons to use, what combat tasks to perform, what targets to attack or protect, and so on. This also requires a huge military action and weapon strike system to carry out combat tasks. Sometimes troops or information weapon systems can directly obtain information, and can directly attack enemy targets or resist enemy attacks according to pre-planned and general intentions without waiting for special action instructions. This is a great advantage of informatization in the information battlefield. The situation of attacking or protecting the target is obtained by the remote sensing reconnaissance system and fed back to the information processing center for evaluation. This is a process of obtaining, transmitting, processing and utilizing important information. Battlefield information network, in addition to the general network system of information acquisition, transmission, processing and utilization, also needs a guarantee supply system to ensure the normal and smooth work of the above network system. The security supply system mainly includes energy supply system, fault maintenance system, electronic warfare system, virus treatment system and personnel living supply system. Among them, electronic countermeasures and virus systems are both offensive and defensive, defending themselves and attacking the enemy.
In this way, five systems form a battlefield information network. Namely: information acquisition system, transmission system, processing and utilization system, military action system and security supply system. The central link connecting the five systems is CI system (command, control, communication, computer and intelligence). With the perfect CI system, it constitutes a complete information network battlefield.
4. Fight for the information control right of all time and space.
In a war, the information struggle between the enemy and ourselves began before the war and ran through the whole war. Even after the war, the information struggle continued. The information struggle in the war has been going on, from the outbreak of the war to the end of the war; In space, from front to back, the whole land, sea, air and space, as well as the electromagnetic fields and computer cyberspace of participating countries are competing. This kind of information struggle, with the need of strategy and the difference of battlefield situation in time and space, is everywhere, although there are also priorities.
The so-called information control right is the dominance of controlling battlefield information. Only by mastering the dominance of battlefield information can we gain the initiative and freedom of battlefield action and use various information attacks and information defense means to defeat the enemy. This information control right is mainly manifested in three basic links, namely, information acquisition, information transmission, information processing and utilization. Only by obtaining information can we remain alert and clear-headed; Only when the information is transmitted smoothly can you command freely; Only by timely and correct information processing and utilization can we plan, gain time, organize forces, suppress, attack and destroy the enemy. Strictly speaking, the so-called information struggle is mainly the struggle on these three links. The information struggle in the three basic links can be summarized as five basic means: reconnaissance and anti-reconnaissance, interference and anti-interference, destruction and anti-destruction, destruction and anti-destruction, control and anti-control. To win in the information struggle, we must create the material basis of the above five basic means and apply them skillfully and flexibly in practice. Whoever has an advantage in the above three basic links and five basic means will have the right to control information and win the war.
These basic characteristics can also be derived from a series of other characteristics, such as the expansion of space, the shortening of the war process, the unprecedented transparency of the battlefield, long-range precision strikes, nonlinear operations, the integration of heaven and earth, cyberspace operations, and the high cost of war.
Second, how to build the army informatization and win the informatization war.
Army informatization is an important part of national informatization, and it also has its own characteristics and laws. We must insist on using Scientific Outlook on Development to guide the army informatization construction.
First of all, we should improve the overall control ability and plan the informatization construction from a macro perspective and a global perspective. On the one hand, we should pay attention to the integration of military informatization into the overall situation of national modernization, and strive to form a benign interactive situation between military construction and national economic construction.
1. The army's informatization construction should fully absorb and make use of the rich achievements made in national economic construction and actively seek new development. Make full use of the country's advantages in science and technology and talents, and strengthen the training of scientific and technological talents in the army; Using social information resources and experience to serve the leap-forward development of the army; Using market mechanism to improve the efficiency of army informatization construction: using the strategy of governing the country according to law to improve the standardization level of the army; promoting the renewal of army construction with advanced ideas in reform; introducing foreign advanced technology and experience to serve the army informatization construction.
2. Insist on coordinating the informationization transformation of army building with clear ideas. To be in the forefront of the new military world, we must establish the great idea of leaping development, persist in focusing on informatization, popularize information technology, strengthen information concepts, promote mechanization with informatization, and coordinate the informatization construction of the army with the idea of overall transformation.
3. Efforts must be made to improve the effect of military informatization construction. Military construction and national economic construction are not entirely the relationship between artillery and fuel, especially in peacetime, military construction in turn affects national economic construction. With the continuous improvement of national defense modernization, the relationship between national defense investment and science and technology, industry and other related fields is getting closer and closer, and there are more and more factors promoting social and economic development. As long as the military and civilians can be combined, the military benefits the people and pays attention to the coordinated development of military technology and social economy, the military informatization construction will certainly achieve the dual benefits of safeguarding national security and promoting national economic development.
4. We must maintain the sustainable development ability of the military information construction. Adhere to independent innovation as an inexhaustible motive force for the development of the military, and cannot place hopes on other countries. The competitiveness of world military reform and the particularity of military information construction require us to continue to adhere to the principle of self-reliance. 5. Correctly handle the relationship between current construction and long-term development. It is necessary to deepen the research on the strategy of informatization development, carefully formulate long-term, medium-term and short-term planning schemes, ensure the consistency of army construction, avoid the disconnection of various development stages, strengthen technical reserves and talent reserves, constantly improve the efficient operation mechanism of army informatization construction, provide a steady stream of reserve forces for army transformation, and strive to form a virtuous circle situation in which current construction promotes long-term development and long-term development leads current construction.