The transformation of the characteristics of war is always motivated by the advancement of science and technology. If “information-led” is the characteristic of the era of today’s war, then the essence of this feature is “the dominance of information technology.” Information warfare is a new combat force that is fostered and fueled by information technology innovation.

Information warfare is the new quality of combat power

“knowing one’s own confidant, no wars, no war” has always been the only rule of war victory, it actually embodies the important role of “information” in the war. Since ancient times, the military has always been pursuing the dispelling of “the fog of war”, reducing the probabilistic nature of the war, and taking the lead. At the same time, it hopes to quickly gather the fighting energy with accurate and timely information to make the enemy win the enemy. Nowadays, the heroic pace of human innovation in information technology has driven the rapid development of society. The myth of “thousands of eyes and ears” has long been a reality. While the results of information technology innovation and development are fully utilized for war, they are also constantly promoting the transformation of the combat capability generation model.
The germination of information warfare can be traced back to the beginning of the last century. Shortly after the advent of the radio telegraph, Russian scientist Popov proposed the idea of ​​radio communication struggle in 1903. In the Japanese-Russian War that broke out in 1904, the two sides used radio communication for the first time. One day in April of that year, the Russian military operator subconsciously used the radio station to interfere with the shooting and guiding communication of the Japanese fleet, forcing the Japanese to return without success. The original sprout of this technical idea gave birth to a new way of warfare, and the information war began to enter the stage of war. The highly developed information technology has made “systems based on information systems” a feature of today’s war. It should be said that systemic confrontation is not a form of engagement that exists today. Both sides of the war have sought to form a strong operational system. In different historical periods, the system has different manifestations. Today’s combat system is an unprecedentedly powerful combat system that relies on networked information systems. An important manifestation of information technology playing a leading role in modern warfare is to promote the rapid development of information warfare. At the same time that “information-led” became the identifier of modern warfare, information warfare began to leap into a new kind of combat power.
Having a strong information power makes an army savvy and responsive, and the integration of information power into the strike force increases the military’s operational effectiveness into a geometric progression. Information warfare is the first sword to break the efficient integration of information firepower.
Information power is the ability to acquire, transmit, process, and use information. The enhancement of information means that information is acquired more and more comprehensively, information transmission is faster and more accurate, information processing is automated, and information usage tends to be intelligent. This makes the military’s command efficient, precise control, quick action, and powerful. From the perspective of operational mechanism, the effectiveness of information power in the combat system is manifested in the synergy of the strike force and the transformation of combat effectiveness. Although the information itself cannot directly kill the enemy, the information is used to realize the intelligent control of the combat weapon. Produced a powerful and powerful strike and non-contact strike.
Information deterrence is an important information warfare action, which can reduce the intensity of confrontation, and even force the opponent to give up resistance. It may produce a satisfactory combat effect and achieve the highest pursuit of “no war and defeated soldiers”. The principle is that the opponent It is a huge blow to the coming, and it is limited to the ability to stop the information. The achievement of the deterrent effect is the fusion effect of the multiple elements of strength, ability and determination. As a result of the high degree of integration of information and firepower, information multiplies the effectiveness of firepower, and firepower transforms information energy. The goal of information warfare is the opponent’s information system, which plays the role of “covering ears, obstructing, chaos”, so that the information power of the opponent is weakened and even lost, and the fusion of information firepower cannot be discussed. During the Gulf War, when the multinational forces scraped the “Desert Storm”, they first used a variety of electronic interference methods in the air and on the ground. At the same time, they used firepower to prioritize the communication and radar systems of the Iraqi army, making the Iraqi defense system still not in use. The powerful information power is completely lost, so it is stable. In the Kosovo war, the US military used a mistake in information warfare to provide a good opportunity for the Yugoslav army to make its air defense units cleverly use the less advanced information system to achieve effective integration of information firepower and shoot down the US military stealth fighters. Practice has proved that under the conditions of informationization, information warfare has become the first sword to break the efficient integration of opponents’ information firepower.
Information warfare is the primary action of transforming the enemy and the enemy
. The competition between the spear and the shield will never stop and escalate. When “information-led” shows great advantages, it will inevitably lead to “information counter-measure”. The containment of information will immediately reverse the original advantage. Information warfare is the primary action to transform the enemy and the enemy.
The basic types of combat are offense and defense, and the material means used for combat can also be divided into two types of weapons and equipment: spear and shield. Today, when combat weapons have unprecedented lethality, no one will use concentrated forces to concentrate their advantages. Synchronous strikes in different places can be an effective way to “eliminate the enemy and save oneself”, that is, the strike forces scattered in different locations simultaneously target the same target. Attacks are initiated, but only if there is precise time coordination.
Keeping time synchronized, it is obviously impossible to rely on the past manual pairing. Advanced techniques such as navigation satellite timing must be used, and once the timing synchronization information is destroyed by the opponent, the action will be completely disrupted. A force with high engine power and strike force, if attacked by the opponent’s information, causes information to be ineffective and information blocked, will not be able to figure out the direction of the action, can not find the target of the attack, become sluggish and weak. . Although the precision strike power is large, once the accurate guidance information is lost, the advantage is immediately lost. Command and control If the information is subject to control, it will lead to chaos, which will inevitably lead to chaos in the overall situation of the war.
Attacking the enemy’s information system is the focus and effort to break the battle system. The acquisition and use of information, counter-acquisition, and counter-utilization have become the focus of the battle between the two armies on the informationized battlefield. Information warfare is the preferred style for competing for battlefield control and even for war initiative.
While greatly improving the effectiveness of the combat system, the information system naturally becomes the target of the opponent’s attack, and it is the key target. Information warfare is to blinden the enemy battlefield perception system, weaken its information acquisition ability, interfere with its analysis and judgment; to block the enemy information transmission system, disrupt its coordination and destroy its actions; to deter the enemy accusation system by deception, reduce its command efficiency, Lead to mistakes in their decision-making. The more the information technology is developed and the more highly dependent on the information system, the more serious the consequences of its information system attack. Quaker, former chairman of the American “Old Ravens” Association, once wrote: “Advanced technology makes us highly dependent on the electromagnetic spectrum, but at the same time, we are not well invested in building electronic protection capabilities.” “The enemy uses cheap commercial technology. It can reduce or even destroy the performance of our expensive ISR equipment and weapon platforms, thereby limiting or even seriously weakening our technological advantages.” Because military electronic information systems are being widely used worldwide, in fact, the degree of dependence of national military on information systems It is constantly deepening. Therefore, all military powers are competing to develop information warfare. Some small countries are not willing to lag behind and follow suit. In modern warfare, it is of vital importance to seize the comprehensive control of the battlefield. The right to make information has become an indispensable commanding height, and it is the primary means of controlling the battlefield and mastering the initiative of war.
The information war has stood at the forefront of the contemporary military game. The
war is usually based on crossfire. The information war is invisible, the threshold is low, and the controllability is good. In peacetime, it is possible to start a dark battle and quietly extend the border of war. Information warfare has stood at the forefront of contemporary military games.
In today’s world, the use of military means is becoming more complex. War is not only a continuation of politics, but also a close integration of politics and military, subject to the overall strategy of political strategy. The use of force will also interact with politics, economy, diplomacy, and public opinion in a multi-dimensional, organically connected and closely coordinated. Information warfare is active on an invisible front, spanning peacetime and wartime. For example, the confrontation between information warfare reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance between major powers is now almost every day. Although it is widely believed that the engagement of fire is a watershed between war and peace, the boundaries of war are changing due to the particularity of the use of new military struggle styles such as information warfare. According to reports, the US government recently publicly stated that the law of war applies to cyberattacks. It believes that certain cyber attacks are equivalent to the “use of force” legal concept as defined in the UN Charter. The attacked countries can use conventional military forces or cyber weapons. Counterattack. At the same time, we also see that the arrival of the information age has made the shadow of information warfare often appear in the struggle in the ideological field. The construction and development of information warfare capabilities have received increasing attention from all countries. In December 2011, Iran comprehensively used information warfare methods such as interference suppression, data deception, and link control to successfully deceive and capture a US military RQ-170 “sentinel” unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, which shocked the US military.