美军欲把关岛打造成太平洋堡垒

据报道，美军7月19日至8月2日，在关岛部署6架号种未来40年不过时”的隐形战斗机——F-22A“猛禽”战斗机，以此继续加强在西太平洋地区的军事力量和反应速度。这只不过是美军太平洋军事部署调整的冰山一角。美军太平洋司令部司令蒂莫两·基廷上将早在2007年9月份就强调，美军太平洋司令部正在进行全面调整，并且．将一直持续十年之久。基廷表示：“我们必须保持足够的压倒性优势，不管是在武器数量、作战能力、或者其它备方面。美军太平洋司令部的所属部队必须保持能在任何情况下，任何环境中占据优势的能力。”     

“空海一体战”引发美军“内战”

2012年,为应对中国、伊朗、朝鲜等莫须有的美军潜在作战对手的“反介入／区域拒止（A2／AD）”威胁,五角大楼集中海空军权威军事理论专家泡制了“空海一体战”作战概念,意图取代使用了半个世纪的“空地一体战”理论,支撑“重返亚太”军事战略,继续推进全球霸权。然而,“空海一体战”这个听起来无比先进的作战样式不仅没有在美军的全球军事部署中取得任何“战果”,美军四大军种却因为在这一作战理念中各自的地位和未来发展产生了激烈的争辩,“空海一体战”引发的“战争”在美军内部悄然打响。     

透视韩国军事改革

冷战结束后，韩闰国防建设的主要目标一直是应对朝鲜的军事威胁和遏制朝鲜半岛爆发战争。进入21世纪以来，为适应朝鲜半岛形势变化和驻韩美军部署及职能调整，韩国积极调整国防安全战略和作战指导思想，加快国防改革和质量建军步伐，着重提高“自主国防”能力，努力打造一支“维护半岛和平”和能够应对未来“多元潜在威胁”的“精锐之师”。     

亚太新局势下美军两栖攻击舰队发展趋势研究

受美国亚太战略的影响,两栖攻击舰队逐步成为美军海外作战力量重要组成部分,其发展建设水平将对未来美军海外战略重心产生深远影响。本文以亚太新局势为背景,以美军两栖攻击舰队作为研究对象,基于美国防部对亚太地区未来军事部署和谋划的构想,对两栖攻击舰队部署情况、主要任务和发展趋势进行分析研究,可以预见,在未来十到十五年内,两栖攻击舰队将成为美国强势介入亚太的主要力量。     

美军建设最新动向及其影响

2004年以来,美军为适应新的安全环境和作战要求,保持并逐步提高美军在未来作战中的“绝对优势”,以达成其“以创新谋优势,以优势谋霸权”的战略企图,在军队建设上出现了一些新动向。一、调整全球军力部署美国总统布什于2004年8月16日在俄亥俄州发表演讲宣布,美国将从欧洲和亚洲撤出7万人的部队,其中三分之二来自驻欧洲部队。这是冷战结束后美军最大规模的一次全球军事部署调整。9月,美国防部向国会提交了“全球防卫态势报告”,计划在未来10年内减少6-7万的海外驻军,同时裁减现有30%的海外基地。另外,美国空军在今年3月5日发表声明说,空军已…     

科索沃战争中的指挥对抗

科索沃战争的硝烟早已散尽,回眸这场战争,不难发现,指挥对抗是贯穿始终的一条主线,达场战争是指挥对抗在高技术条件下局部战争中的又一实践。北约借技术优势恃强凌弱美军70年代后期提出了指挥、控制和通信对抗概念,随着认识的深入,逐步演化成为指挥控制战,即“在情报的支援下,综合利用作战保密、军事欺骗、心理战、电子战和实体摧毁等手段,阻止敌方获取信息,并影响、削弱和摧毁敌方的指挥和控制能力,同时保护己方指挥和控制能力免受类似行动的影响”。指挥控制战(我军叫指挥对抗)已发展成为美军联合作战的一种重要的作战策略。北约在科     

美军全球“大搬家”——透视美国全球军事、部署大调整

美国政府决定．为适应2l世纪战争的需要,美将在未来10年内将6至7万人的作战部队以及10万名文职人员和家属从驻欧亚基地撤至本土．并同时宣布全球部署调整的总体计划,这标志着美军部署调整进入新的实质性阶段这是布什政府为适应新安全环境所做出的重大战略调整,是美军事战略的具体体现和深化,也是继1992年美军编制体制大规模调整后美军规模最大、范围最广的一次海外军事部署调整．将对世界军事形势以及地区的安全与稳定产生重大影响,不能不引起世人的广泛关注。     

“沙漠惊雷”引发的思考

这次海湾危机,美国不惜耗费巨资,在海湾屯积重兵,部署了以隐身武器、精确制导武器和C~4I/电子战装备为代表的大批高新技术武器装备,部署反应之快,精导弹药种类之多,武器性能之先进,都体现了美军寻求在未来局部战争和冲突中实施快速联合作战、远程精确打击、整体作战效能高的体系对抗作战思想。纵观美军这次“沙漠惊雷”行动,我     

美军推进人工智能军事应用的举措、挑战及启示

人工智能技术的发展加速了军事智能化的脚步。本文分析了美军在推进人工智能军事应用方面采取的一系列举措，如注重国家战略层面的顶层设计，出台一系列智能化发展战略规划；部署各类军事智能化研究项目，开展大数据、智能算法研究，促进人工智能技术向情报处理、无人作战平台、指挥控制、武器装备系统、作战方式变革的渗透转化；重视智能化技术的基础理论研究和人才培养，聚焦核心和关键技术的突破，夯实军事智能化发展的基础。阐述了美军在推进人工智能军事应用进程中面临的来自技术、信任、伦理等多方面的挑战，并从成熟算法民转军用、寻求认知智能算法突破、培养军事智能化复合型人才等角度提出几点启示。     

走进美国陆军作战实验室

高新技术的迅速发展,催生出先进的军事问题量化分析法,以及精确描绘作战过程的科学方法。这些高新技术为检验作战方案及战术的合理性、精确性提供了崭新的技术手段,也为军事训练、军事决策和作战指挥提供了更加精密准确的数量依据。近些年来,大力加强作战实验室的建设,已成为许多国家加强军队质量建设的重要举措。20世纪80年代初,美军确立了“提出理论-作战实验-实兵演练-实战检验”的军事理论发展途径,充分发挥计算机模拟技术,建立各种作战实验室用于作战训练、武器评估、作战条令检验以及作战力量分析等方面。如,1991年海湾战争中,美军利…     

Why Culture Matters: Revisiting the Sino-Indian Border War of 1962

This article examines the nuclear command and control (C²) system implemented in Pakistan since 1998, and discusses its potential consequences for the risk of inadvertent or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons. I argue that troubled civil-military relations and Pakistan's doctrine of ‘asymmetric escalation’ account for the creation of a command and control system with different characteristics during peacetime and military crises. Although the key characteristics of Pakistan's nuclear C² system allow relatively safe nuclear operations during peacetime, operational deployment of nuclear weapons during military standoffs is likely to include only rudimentary protections against inadvertent or unauthorised nuclear release. The implication of this study is that any shift from peacetime to wartime command and control procedures is likely to further destabilise Indo-Pakistani relations during the early stages of a diplomatic or military standoff, and introduce a non-trivial risk of accidental escalation to the nuclear level.     

A platform for initial testing of multiple camouflage patterns

The human visual system is still an important factor in military warfare; military personnel receive training on effective search strategies, and camouflage that can effectively conceal objects and personnel is a key component of a successful integrated survivability strategy. Previous methods of camouflage assessment have, amongst others, used psychophysics to generate distinctiveness metrics. However, the population from which the human observers are drawn is often not well defined, or necessarily appropriate. In this experiment we designed a new platform for testing multiple patterns based on a camouflaged object detection task, and investigate whether trained military observers perform better than civilians. We use a two-alternative forced choice paradigm, with participants searching images of woodland for a replica military helmet displaying Olive Green, Multi Terrain Pattern, US Marine Pattern or, as a conspicuous control, UN Peacekeeper Blue. Our data show that there is no difference in detection performance between the two observer groups but that there are clear differences in the effectiveness of the different helmet colour patterns in a temperate woodland environment. We conclude that when tasks involve very short stimulus presentation times, task-specific training has little effect on the success of target detection and thus this paradigm is particularly suitable for robust estimates of camouflage efficacy.     

The rise and fall of counterproliferation policy

The US government initiated a Defense Counterproliferation Initiative to address the concern that, in the post-Cold War years, the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons would be widespread and create a significant challenge to the US military’s combat operations. In particular, non-nuclear states might use chemical or biological warfare agents against US forces with the belief that nuclear weapons would not be used against them in retaliation. Following the events of September 11, 2001, defense strategy and policy shifted to a wider view of the threat of adversarial use of “weapons of mass destruction” (WMD) and the term “counterproliferation” was replaced by “combating” or “countering WMD.” Over time, the Defense Department increasingly moved away from counterproliferation principles with the detrimental effect of losing capabilities that US forces still need for contemporary adversaries. This shift has been aggravated by other US government agencies’ use of “counterproliferation” in lieu of what would have been termed “nonproliferation” activities in the 1990s. The loss of clarity within the US government on these terms has led to the inability to focus the “whole of government” on this significant national security challenge. To alleviate this challenge, the US government needs a top-down initiative to refocus policy on the distinctly different aspects of WMD with respect to military combat operations, combating terrorism, and homeland security.     

Choosing the Right Sidekick: Economic Complements to US Military Grand Strategies

ABSTRACT

Scholars and practitioners of grand strategy agree that the use of military force should be supplemented by appropriate economic policies. However, strangely few accounts of economic complements to military grand strategies have been presented in recent discourse on US grand strategy. This paper takes a first step to fill this information gap. I first assess the role that could be played by economic measures under two types of grand strategies – one focusing on the balance of power and the other emphasising influence and order. Second, I introduce what I call ‘the influence-capability dilemma’ and discuss tradeoffs in adopting certain economic policies in order to help the US sustain pre-eminence in the international system. Third, I discuss how the US should address this dilemma of economic means in dealing with the rising China.     

Operational idealism: doctrine development of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army under Soviet threat, 1969–1989

This article analyses the doctrine development of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) coping with the Soviet military threat between 1969 and 1989. In the 1970s, the PLA applied a doctrine of ‘active defence and luring the enemy into depth’ based on its traditional operational art. In 1980, the PLA decided to focus its doctrine on positional defence. In 1986, the PLA introduced ‘integrated operations and prioritised strike’, a generalised doctrine that originated from its war history. Many organisational and intellectual challenges in peacetime doctrine development contributed to the PLA’s operational idealism, including its aging leadership, command structure, attitude towards its previous experience, limited analysis of contemporary military developments, and failure in test and validation of doctrines. In the post-Cold War decade, many of these challenges persisted in spite of military modernization efforts. The ongoing military reform has to address these challenges and improve the PLA doctrine development in peacetime.     

MF-CFI: A fused evaluation index for camouflage patterns based on human visual perception

The evaluation index of camouflage patterns is important in the field of military application. It is the goal that researchers have always pursued to make the computable evaluation indicators more in line with the human visual mechanism. In order to make the evaluation method more computationally intelligent, a Multi-Feature Camouflage Fused Index (MF-CFI) is proposed based on the comparison of grayscale, color and texture features between the target and the background. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed index, eye movement experiments are conducted to compare the proposed index with existing indexes including Universal Image Quality Index (UIQI), Camouflage Similarity Index (CSI) and Structural Similarity (SSIM). Twenty-four different simulated targets are designed in a grassland background, 28 observers participate in the experiment and record the eye movement data during the observation process. The results show that the highest Pearson correlation coefficient is observed between MF-CFI and the eye movement data, both in the designed digital camouflage patterns and large-spot camouflage patterns. Since MF-CFI is more in line with the detection law of camouflage targets in human visual perception, the proposed index can be used for the comparison and parameter optimization of camouflage design algorithms.     

The political command and control of nuclear forces

“Even more than in 1914, governments in our own day are likely to be ignorant of the technical detail of war and the tactical measures that can or cannot (or, more important, must or must not) be taken in various specialized situations. In peacetime the study and preparation of these measures will be relegated to military staffs as being narrow and technical. Today, .... it is almost impossible to get people interested in the tactics and strategy of thermonuclear war. It is now believed that only the prewar moves are of interest, and even those are not too important because deterrence is supposed to be so close to 'automatic'.” Herman Kahn (1960).     

基于多栅格的基建营房保障信息耦合研究

合理利用军地资源实施一体化保障是现代战争或非战争军事行动基建营房保障的重要内容，然而，包含大量此类信息的商用网络、行业网络和平时基建营房业务管理网络的信息如何能被有效利用却是一个令人头疼的问题。依托军事信息栅格和地方多个行业信息网络，研究、设计缓冲数据库和数据订制服务软件，安全可靠地将分布在多个信息栅格中的基建营房保障所需信息耦合到军事后勤信息网络中，为快速、科学制定基建营房保障计划和实施战时基建营房一体化保障提供强有力的信息支持。     

The Naval Intelligence Underpinnings of Reagan's Maritime Strategy

Washington's so-called Maritime Strategy, which sought to apply US naval might against Soviet vulnerabilities on its maritime flanks, came to full fruition during the 1980s. The strategy, which witnessed a major buildup of US naval forces and aggressive exercising in seas proximate to the USSR, also explicitly targeted Moscow”s strategic missile submarines with the aim of pressuring the Kremlin during crises or the early phases of global war. Relying on a variety of interviews and newly declassified documents, the authors assert that the Maritime Strategy represents one of the rare instances in history when intelligence helped lead a nation to completely revise its concept of military operations.     

The American way of war in Africa: the case of Niger

ABSTRACT

Increasing attention paid to US casualties in far-flung places such as Tongo Tongo, Niger, and headlines claiming ‘secret wars’ have fueled discussion about American military’s involvement in Africa. Though the continent has been a part of the American way of war since the beginnings of the US – consider the early combat actions of US Marines in Tripoli –, current African conflicts are challenging our understanding of war and approaches to winning it. This article examines the ways America seeks to achieve its ends in Africa with a particular focus upon the last 10 years of US counter-terrorism and stability operations in Niger and the Sahel Region. The author proposes unifying American, Allied, and partner efforts through a strategy of Active Containment.