[Popular Science of Chinese Military Technology] What changes will big data technology bring to future battlefields?

With the advent of a new round of technological revolution, big data technology has been valued by more and more countries and applied to actual battlefield environments. There is no doubt that battlefield data will become an important resource to support and determine combat operations in the future. Driven by disruptive technologies, future war scenes will be miniaturized, invisible and global. Whether there is the ability to collect, analyze and process big data, and whether big data technology can be successfully applied to the battlefield environment, will directly affect the performance of countries around the world on the battlefield in the future.

The extensive use of drones on future battlefields will bring massive amounts of data (Image source: NetEase)

Knowing yourself and the enemy, you can fight a hundred battles without danger. In the future, whoever occupies the commanding heights of big data will gain the "outpost" of intelligence and thus win the initiative in military affairs. In modern warfare, the need to integrate the intelligence network system and improve the intelligence information processing capabilities has become increasingly urgent. In the future, the intelligence network based on big data technology will change the battlefield pattern, especially its application in joint operations, which can greatly improve the information control advantage and thus enhance the high-value military intelligence reconnaissance and early warning capabilities. It can be said that if reliable big data technology is mastered, the battlefield in the future will no longer be "fog", but more "transparent". Through the effective development of big data, the use of big data tools can improve the ability of military personnel to discover and detect intelligence in multiple battlefield spaces, grasp the thinking rules of enemy commanders, and predict complex issues such as combat operations and the development and changes of battlefield situations.

Big data technology can also improve the processing capabilities of military information. With the further development of technology, the massive amount of information transmitted back by various platforms such as drones, robot dogs, reconnaissance robots, and micro-insect robots in the future will increasingly require the integration of intelligence network systems and the improvement of intelligence information processing capabilities. After screening and processing, this massive amount of data information can be transformed into a data pool with flow, connection, and information sharing, making military information processing more sophisticated, timely, and efficient.

Various military operations on the battlefield require the support of big data technology (Image source: NetEase)

After the stages of intelligence acquisition and military information processing, big data technology will bring changes to decision-making efficiency on future battlefields. System applications such as "big data decision-making system" will directly improve the efficiency and accuracy of battlefield decision-making. The traditional battlefield decision-making model is prone to being trapped in the vast ocean of information, making it impossible to make accurate decisions accurately. The most representative example is that during World War II, Nazi Germany was affected by a series of false intelligence before the Allied landing in Normandy, thus misjudging the location of the Allied landing. The battlefield principle of "planning before acting" will also be faster and more accurate due to the blessing of big data technology.

The "inflatable tanks" deployed by the Allies used false intelligence to deceive Nazi Germany (Photo source: NetEase)

The battlefield of the future will be highly "unmanned". A large number of drones and unmanned tanks will bring about a huge demand for information processing. Taking the drones that are being fully developed in many countries as an example, during the testing phase, the concept of "data center warfare" has been applied to the command of the fleet, using big data technology to guide the drone fleet to conduct large-scale operations. It is foreseeable that it is precisely because of the continuous development of big data technology that unlimited possibilities are brought to the future battlefield, especially the "unmanned" battlefield.

Expert profile: Wang Teng, a popular science expert on military equipment, holds a master's degree from the Army Armored Forces Academy. He has worked in frontline military news at CCTV and People's Daily, and has participated in the planning and production of many military science and technology topics. He has been conducting popular science research on domestic and foreign high-tech equipment and main combat equipment of various arms for a long time. He has published articles on platforms such as People's Daily Overseas Edition, Legal Daily, and Science Popularization China, and won the Advanced Individual Award issued by the "National Informatization Leading Group".

Produced by: Popular Science of Chinese Military Technology

Author: Wang Teng (senior military science writer)

Scientific review: Peng Kun (military expert)

Planning: Zhang Mengfan

Producer: Guangming Online Science Department