Space,the New Domain: Space Operations and Chinese Military Reforms

ABSTRACT

The Chinese military has embarked on a series of organizational and doctrinal reforms intended to better enable it to fight modern war. Prominent among these reforms is the growing emphasis on space to enable long-range precisions strikes and on counterspace to deny space capabilities to an adversary. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has officially designated space as a new domain and established an organization to command space forces. With this increased focus on space, the PLA may begin to develop a doctrine to govern the use of space in military operations. The higher priority given to space, especially space control, by the PLA coincides with similar actions by the US military, increasing the possibility of warfare in space and the risks of escalation.     

Integrating the Services and Harnessing the Military Area Commands

ABSTRACT

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is halfway through a multi-decade modernization process. It has begun a major restructuring effort as it shifts its focus from a traditional continental defensive posture to a more maritime-oriented emphasis. In order to create more balanced joint force, it has adjusted the structure of its highest command organization, the Central Military Commission; abolished the former four General Departments and seven Military Regions; created five new joint Theater Commands and service-level commands for the Army and Rocket Force; and is reducing the size of its active duty force by 300,000 personnel. While seeking to overcome numerous internal obstacles, the PLA continues to develop and improve its capabilities to conduct integrated joint operations to deter a variety of threats to China’s sovereignty and territory and, if deterrence fails, to win informationized local war.     

空间力量信息支援能力量化分析

研究空间力量的信息支援能力,对于搞好航天装备体系建设的顶层设计、规划论证以及作战运用,具有重要的现实意义和军事效益.对空间力量与空间信息支援作战、空间力量的作战任务、空间力量的信息支援能力等问题进行了定性分析.在对传统ADC方法进行合理改进的基础上,基于环境影响因子、各性能指标的权重以及各性能指标的评价函数,提出了一种全过程评估能力指标的新思路、新方法,建立了空间力量信息支援能力评估模型,为量化分析空间力量信息支援能力提供了一定的依据.     

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.     

一体化联合作战对装备保障系统的影响及要求

装备保障信息建设要适应一体化联合作战的需求,就必须弄清一体化联合作战对装备保障系统的影响。运用系统方法,着眼环境对系统的影响,从分析一体化联合作战本质入手,阐述了一体化联合作战对装备保障系统功能、结构、运行和组成等要素的影响及要求,并为未来我军装备保障信息化建设提出了几点应对策略。     

From Civil War Victor to Cold War Guard: Positional Warfare in Korea and the Transformation of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, 1951–1953

This article analyses the impact of the Korean War on the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), particularly the period of positional warfare from 1951 to 1953. In the war of movement between October 1950 and June 1951, the PLA relied on its civil war era weapons and experience, including the doctrine of ‘battle of annihilation’. Operations in early 1951 suggested that the civil war legacies of the PLA no longer applied to the realities of combat in Korea. Based on both Soviet aid and domestic mobilisation, the PLA managed to build the material foundation for positional warfare and rapidly improved its logistics. Operationally, on the defensive, the PLA developed combined operations integrating infantry, artillery, and armoured forces. The PLA learned the lessons of the Korean War and strengthened its ties with the Soviet armed forces in order to modernise itself. The Korean War thus transformed the PLA from Civil War victor to Cold War guard.     

Feeding the Lion: China and defence development in African states

ABSTRACT

In analysing trends in Chinese defence engagement and their impact on defence development in African states, it is important to consider both China's changing policy priorities and its capabilities for the provision of defence support. China's international ambitions and its economic development contribute to its emergence as a key supporter of defence capability development in Africa, occupying a crucial niche as a provider of support, particularly arms transfers, appropriate to evolving local requirements. The economic and politico-military imperatives driving China's engagement of Africa, which stem from its economic reforms and re-emergence as a great power, are facilitating defence modernisation by accelerating the introduction of modern arms in substantial quantities. The commercial importance of arms exports and the growing importance of strategic ties strongly situate China to help sustain processes of defence capability development in African states over the long term.     

基于联合作战能力的武器装备体系需求研究

从基于联合作战能力的核心思想入手,分析了该思想在武器装备体系需求分析中的重要作用,探讨了基于联合作战能力的武器装备体系需求研究新模式,并提出了该需求研究中需要解决的问题．有关结论对于开展武器装备体系需求研究工作具有积极地指导意义．     

一体化联合作战装备保障训练内容体系创新研究

从剖析一体化联合作战的基本特点及其装备保障需求入手,阐明了装备保障训练内容体系设计的理论依据和基本原则;结合部队装备保障训练实际,提出了一种基于任务需求、围绕保障活动、面向一体化过程的设计方法,并运用此方法,构建了装备保障训练内容体系结构模型及框架,以期为装备保障训练转型提供理论借鉴。     

美国太空安全领域最新发展分析

美国认为太空已被普遍认定为最重要的作战域之一,未来的太空安全态势将愈发严峻。本文认为, 美国正面向未来太空对抗环境进行全面转型, 从顶层战略、作战理论、组织结构、战备训练、装备技术等方面开展研究、调整和长远布局, 如以我为主要对手谋划布局、发布系列军事航天顶层指导文件、大幅增加太空攻防作战相关经费投入等。 目前, 美军正处于新旧体系转换、 下一代能力构建发展的关键期, 不仅正在变革军队组织体制、重组太空攻防作战力量, 还积极开展系列演习演训, 以加速形成太空攻防实战能力。美军这一系列动向将对未来太空领域安全与发展产生重大影响, 应引起我高度重视。     

装备保障能力评价参数体系设计与应用

为了及时发现装备作战单元在装备保障建设中存在的问题并确定原因,研究了装备保障能力评价参数体系的构建。在剖析装备保障能力概念的基础上,将能力评价参数分为综合层、系统层、子系统层及资源层。从参数内容、评价对象层次以及时域3个维度设计了评价参数体系框架,并据此对4个层次参数的选取及其关系分别进行了探讨。最后通过某防空旅装备保障能力评价实例,验证了参数体系设计方法的可操作性和有效性。     

基于SWE的空天资源对地观测协同任务规划服务模型

空天协同对地观测是对地观测领域的新趋势。为解决现有空天资源规划调度系统相对独立、协同困难的问题,分析总结了SWE(Sensor Web Enablement)标准,并在此基础上提出了空天资源对地观测协同任务规划服务模型。在此模型中,为实现观测资源共享,建立了空天观测资源传感器描述模型,能够描述典型空天资源的载荷平台、观测机理、定位信息、使用约束和工作特性等信息;为简化观测请求交互流程,基于SOA技术对SWE标准操作进行封装及简化,用户可以在不了解观测平台细节信息的情况下提交观测数据请求。为验证模型有效性,构建了空天资源对地观测协同任务规划实验平台,结果表明该模型具有较强的可实现性和适应性。     

Can Smart Defense work? A suggested approach to increasing risk- and burden-sharing within NATO

“Smart Defense” is NATO's new approach to risk- and burden-sharing, which has been a chronic problem within the alliance since the 1950s. Numerous solutions have been proposed, but initiatives resulting in more equitable burden-sharing have never been fully implemented. There are two driving forces influencing a county's willingness to support such initiatives – the economic theory of alliances and the risks posed by the implementation of capability sharing. The authors examine each of these and propose that rather than aiming for group consensus on the production of capabilities, NATO should focus on interoperability through support functions. This approach provides the most likely solution for connecting the forces, doctrine, procedures, standards and other factors of joint capability production such that country leaders find the risks of doing so to be politically and militarily acceptable.     

Boko Haram’s increasingly sophisticated military threat

ABSTRACT

This paper evaluates Boko Haram’s military capabilities and details the process of how its standing army, driven by these capabilities, came to pose a phased threat between 2013 and 2015 in particular. This was a period when military fighting dominated the insurgency in north-east Nigeria. Whereas there is an abundance of literature on Boko Haram’s histories and the impact of its insurgency on north-east Nigeria, analysis of Boko Haram’s military campaigning is still deficient. Attempting to fill this gap, this paper uses field findings and battlefield case studies from north-east Nigeria to highlight how Boko Haram’s overt front – its standing army – came to supplant its guerrilla operations as the main security threat to the frontier area.

This pivot towards military fighting, for a group initially composed of a few ragtag combatants, on the surface might seem surprising. Yet, whereas Boko Haram may lack the popular support required for ‘people’s war’, classic insurgency theories nevertheless hold some explanatory power for this deliberate shift: away from guerrilla warfare as the expedient of the weaker side, and towards the use of a large standing army of locals to swarm, and sometimes successfully overrun, state forces.     

军事电子信息系统能力需求分析概述

军事电子信息系统现已发展成为支持信息化作战的核心系统,基于该系统与作战思想、方式之间紧密关联的特殊性,阐述了军事电子信息系统能力需求分析在信息系统需求工程中的重要地位和作用,分析了军事电子信息系统能力需求分析的基本内容,探讨了能力需求分析的实施过程,并进行了弹道导弹信息感知系统能力需求分析。通过对军事电子信息系统能力需求分析实施过程及其应用的研究,为军事电子信息系统能力需求工程提供借鉴。     

Rhetoric versus reality: Canadian defence planning in a time of austerity

As Canada's military mission in Afghanistan winds down and the country faces several years of fiscal austerity, all of Canada's major political parties are agreed that Canadian defence budgets must stay level or be cut. This comes at a time when the defence department is slated to replace the Canadian Forces’ (CF) major equipment fleets. Canada's defence establishment thus faces some critical decisions. One option is to try to maintain its expeditionary capabilities across all three services: army, navy and air force. Absent substantial new infusions of funds, however, this approach is likely to lead to an overall and largely chaotic reduction of capabilities. Another option is to make some difficult choices as to which expeditionary capabilities to maintain as part of a strategic review of Canada's future military needs. Such an option would ensure that Canada has at least some military capacities which can reliably be devoted to the most demanding international operations, while maintaining those capabilities required for domestic duties and North American defence. Pursuing this option would accord with the new North Atlantic Treaty Organization Strategic Concept and the call for “Smart Defense” within the Alliance. This article assesses the arguments for and against the option of specialising Canada's future defence capabilities and explores scenarios as to what a future CF may look like.     

基于灰色聚类的多机种保障装备保障能力评估

随着多机种作战成为空军作战的主要方式,对地面保障装备的保障能力提出了更高的要求,保障能力的好坏直接关系到作战任务的完成与否。通过对多机种保障任务进行分析,建立了多机种保障装备保障能力评估指标体系,采用层次分析法确定了各指标的权重,运用灰色聚类的评估方法对多机种保障装备的保障能力进行了评估,并结合实例,验证了该方法的有效性,为保障能力的提升提供了参考依据。     

‘A Sledgehammer to Crack a Nut’? Naval Gunfire Support During the Malayan Emergency

The utility of naval gunfire support (NGS) during the Malayan Emergency has been the subject of significant scrutiny. While the limitations of NGS were demonstrated in Malaya, it also has proven to be extremely useful under certain circumstances. The circumstances in which NGS has proven effective during earlier and later insurgencies have generally reflected those of the Malayan Emergency. Recent operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have been less conducive to the application of maritime power, but they did not denote the end of the naval role or the potential usefulness of NGS in counterinsurgency operations. NGS is an unheralded capability, but, aside from the historical significance, it remains relevant in the contemporary era under the right conditions.     

研制综合集成的检测试验设备推进通用装备保障转型建设

在分析我军通用装备保障现状的基础上,总结了在一体化联合作战条件下现有保障设备存在的不足。从一体化联合作战装备综合保障的需要、保障资源的优化配置及保障机构能力建设3个方面,阐述了发展综合集成的检测试验设备的必要性。从基于参数的设计思想、总线技术的发展及保障手段配套建设实践取得的经验等方面阐述了研制的可行性。最后提出了发展综合集成检测试验设备的3点建议。     

‘A Brave New World for Chinese Joint Operations’

A key organizational challenge for all modern militaries is instituting an effective command-and-control (C2) structure for joint operations. China has been a relative latecomer to joint operations, with a persistent weakness in joint C2. Reforms launched in early 2016 sought to overcome this challenge by establishing a permanent two-level joint C2 structure. Although not a ‘tipping point’ that will lead ineluctably to stronger operational effectiveness, this reform is nonetheless an important milestone in an evolutionary process towards better PLA joint operations. The result could be added operational challenges for several of China’s neighbors and the United States.