Grasp the brand-new characteristics of unmanned combat
■ Zhou Qingfeng
introduction
Unmanned combat is a combat form with artificial intelligence technology as the core and unmanned combat system as the main force. In recent years, unmanned combat system has penetrated into many links of war, and its combat effectiveness has become increasingly prominent, and combat forms are common. With the unmanned combat system being widely used in the battlefield, unmanned combat is showing brand-new characteristics.
All-weather multifunctional global operations
The advantage of unmanned combat system is that it is unmanned, and its combat state will not be affected by factors such as energy, physical strength and emotion, so unmanned combat system has the adaptability to any battlefield environment and combat space. No matter in extreme weather such as extreme cold, extreme heat, high pressure and lack of oxygen, or in the environment where human beings are difficult to survive, such as nuclear radiation and biochemical attacks, the unmanned combat system can still perform the established program tasks. Therefore, the ability of unmanned combat system to perform tasks in all time and space can effectively meet the needs of future wars, thus increasing the winning weight. Thanks to the development of artificial intelligence technology, the autonomous route planning and target recognition capabilities of unmanned combat vehicles have advanced by leaps and bounds, and with its powerful firepower, the combat attack power of bicycles can even be comparable to that of a squad. In addition to combat assault, unmanned combat vehicles can also rescue and transport the wounded in the rain of bullets. Logistics-assisted unmanned combat vehicles can greatly improve the mobility and sustained combat capability of troops. The UAV can stay in the target airspace for reconnaissance for a long time, keep tracking and monitoring the predetermined target for a long time, and can rely on the highly information-based combat system to send back the operational information, accurately strike the target according to the corresponding instructions, and conduct target damage assessment to avoid high-cost fire coverage and manned fighter dispatch. Unmanned submersible has long been famous, whether it is an attack platform with weapons or a reconnaissance platform without weapons, it is the natural enemy of surface ships and submarines. A complete unmanned cluster can even "take over"From mine clearance and explosive disposal, reconnaissance and surveillance, alert search to coordinated attack and defense, autonomous operations, material transportation support and other fields, it has great operational potential, thus opening a new era of unmanned intelligent operations.
Real-time accurate and transparent battlefield situation awareness
Battlefield perception system plays an important role similar to "eyes and ears" in the combat system, and the attack and protection of hostile parties against battlefield perception system has become one of the important tasks of modern warfare. With the qualitative leap of information technology, especially the technical performance of sensing equipment based on sensing technology, the resolution and detection distance of various sensors in unmanned combat system have been greatly improved, which not only has the ability to perceive the battlefield environment independently, but also has the efficiency beyond human perception. At the same time, these unmanned platforms with sensors have the ability of autonomous identification and resolution, which can help commanders quickly locate, identify targets and judge their threat. Unmanned intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance systems with sensors as the core are all over the battlefield, forming a three-dimensional reconnaissance and surveillance system that complements each other in space, time domain and frequency domain, which can accurately detect almost all situations on the battlefield, and organically connect scattered sensors through high-speed broadband networks, so that any platform placed in the network can share information with the whole combat system as long as it obtains it. Unmanned reconnaissance and early warning equipment can give full play to the advantages of anti-electronic interference, flexibility, nuclear radiation resistance and strong concealment, thus greatly improving the battlefield perception. Because all unmanned platforms have the sensor function, they can obtain target information from all directions through distributed detection in cluster operations, and realize rapid and synchronous sensing of unmanned clusters through intra-group sharing and intelligent processing and distribution.
Intelligent, convenient and flat operational command and control
In the future war, unmanned combat systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned vehicles and unmanned ships will be widely used, which will lead to major changes in operational command system, command mode and command scene. First of all, the command system has evolved into a flat network, and the traditional multi-level command chain may be compressed into a "commander-cluster" two-level command chain. The management scope of the command organ has gradually widened, and the organizational structure has developed into a flat, horizontally connected and vertically integrated network structure. Secondly, the command mode has changed to intelligent autonomy. With the expansion and application of unmanned combat system, the corresponding new operational command mode will gradually take shape. In the primary stage, the command mode is "man in the loop", and the unmanned combat system is in a supporting role. The command mode in the intermediate stage is supervised "people on the loop". In the advanced stage, the intelligent decision-making system is mature, and the rules and tactics of engagement have been preset in the autonomous control software of the unmanned combat system. The unmanned cluster can independently perceive, judge, make decisions and act, and command itself without human intervention. The command mode presents a completely autonomous operation, that is, "people are outside the loop". Because of the high intelligence of unmanned combat system, it has the ability of independent decision-making with little or no participation of personnel, and can independently complete the spike cycle from target positioning and task assignment to attack and evaluation of combat process, thus improving the speed from discovery to attack.
Invisible, silent and sudden comprehensive precision strike
"Take it by surprise" has always been the rule of winning a war. The unmanned combat system, using stealth design, stealth materials, micro-size, through stealth, hiding, interference, orbit change, acceleration and other technologies, reduces the external characteristics of the unmanned combat system to the minimum, making it difficult for opponents to find, avoid and resist attacks, thus making it necessary to cooperate with various objective conditions to achieve suddenness in the past, and transforming it into using technical means to achieve suddenness at any time and anywhere. For example, the flying height of a small UAV can be reduced to 40 meters, which is as small as a bird and can effectively avoid the radar of the other side. Unmanned submersibles and unmanned combat vehicles can also be designed to be streamlined with flatter shapes and narrower cross sections, and a large number of new stealth technologies are adopted to effectively reduce the reflection cross section. When the unmanned combat system carries out sneak attack, it can make the other side fall into a situation of being unpredictable and passive. Therefore, the invisible and silent unmanned combat platform has an inherent advantage in future combat competition. Using the characteristics of unmanned combat system, such as silent and invisible action, accurate and efficient attack, we can carry out acupuncture and disability operations to accurately attack key parts. The key is to use all kinds of disability means in combination, including influencing and controlling people’s thoughts, consciousness or infecting artificial intelligence to lose computing ability to control the brain; Confuse people’s visual organs, destroy the sensor system, and achieve the purpose of blindness; Restrict or destroy the mobility of people’s actions and equipment to achieve the purpose of braking. The unmanned combat system enables precision strikes to achieve their operational goals invisibly and silently.
Cooperate with efficient and omni-directional bee colony to fight.
"Bee colony" is a collection of a large number of intelligent unmanned platforms with different functions, which has a unique application mode that a single weapon system does not have. Taking advantage of the synergy and quantity advantages of "bee colony operation", omni-directional penetration, distributed killing and cluster protection can be implemented. Collaborative advantage, that is, through group intelligent decision-making and online task decomposition and assignment, each platform in the group can dynamically and independently cooperate and self-adaptively cooperate. Quantitative advantage means establishing a dynamic self-healing "kill net" according to the actual battlefield, and carrying out multi-directional continuous or simultaneous saturated compound attacks on the target to achieve the effect of "small but many" over "big but few". Omni-directional penetration, that is, due to the low cost and large number of small unmanned platforms, multi-directional and three-dimensional simultaneous penetration can be carried out on a wide front, causing the enemy to disperse its defense forces because of the average use of troops, resulting in weak defense, thus achieving effective penetration. Distributed killing, that is, "bee colony" usually groups different functional platforms according to combat tasks, forming a comprehensive combat group integrating reconnaissance, electronic jamming, network attack and fire attack, which can simultaneously carry out omni-directional or continuous pulse multi-domain "soft and hard" compound attacks on the same high-value large target or regional group target from multi-dimensional space and multiple directions, which can not only meet the precise attack on point targets, but also ensure the comprehensive coverage of opposite targets. Cluster protection, that is, "bee colony" can also build an intelligent adaptive defense system, forming an automatic response protection "bubble" around the main assault forces or important targets, forming a three-dimensional and multi-level interception network, which can not only "block more with more" but also "block more with more".With wide interception range and high success rate, it is an important way to cooperate with air defense and anti-missile operations, terminal protection of important targets and anti-enemy bee colony attacks in the future.
Joint service support with accurate and intelligent response
Unmanned system has the advantages of high self-awareness, long-term operation, high precision measurement and so on, which will make the future joint operational support action based on network information system more independent, intelligent, efficient and accurate, thus making the joint service support mode more accurate. Combat support is timely and efficient, with flexible unaccompanied support. The unmanned system can carry corresponding functional modules, adopt autonomous follow-up or remote control support, independently or assist traditional support forces, and carry out support tasks in a hidden, safe, fast and efficient manner. The joint service support needs to respond independently, and no one can deliver it directly and accurately. Relying on the "visual" support network system, unmanned support forces quickly assess the position of the support object and the change of the battlefield situation, avoid the enemy threat area, and plan a safe and fast route to the delivery position. Due to the unmanned platform and long battery life, the unmanned system can continuously provide timely, appropriate and appropriate accurate support in a dangerous environment, especially the terminal replenishment of ammunition, food, fuel and other materials and equipment for frontline combat troops, which can not only effectively solve the "last mile" problem of the support chain, but also greatly reduce the casualties of support personnel. During the war in Afghanistan, in order to avoid the threat of improvised explosive devices to ground transport vehicles, the U.S. military used K-MAX unmanned helicopters to supply materials to forward bases and marines stationed at outposts. This machine can fly directionally according to the GPS system, and can also be controlled by ground personnel through a remote control device, and materials can be hoisted or delivered with the assistance of personnel, and 2 tons of materials can be hoisted and transported each time.It can deliver about 13.6 tons every day. In addition, in underwater operations, large-scale underwater unmanned submersibles can also undertake the task of supplying materials in advance, which can not only provide equipment, supplies and other supplies for special operations teams or other offshore platforms that perform tasks secretly, but also transport, supplement or evacuate a small number of combatants.
