Six Characteristics of Modern War Since the 1990s, three wars have attracted great attention: the Gulf War, the Kosovo War and the Afghanistan War led by the US military.

According to the China National Defense News, the Gulf War that broke out in January 1991 attracted the world's attention because of the large number of participating countries, the fierceness of the fighting, the rapid progress of the fighting, and the disparity in losses between the two sides. Moreover, because of its extensive use of contemporary cutting-edge weapons and equipment, the battlefield was

The conditions, means of combat, and methods of confrontation have undergone fundamental changes, ushering in the prelude to modern high-tech local wars.

From March to June 1999, the Kosovo War code-named "Alliance Force" launched by the NATO military group headed by the United States against Yugoslavia was a "non-contact war" focusing on long-range and high-altitude precision strikes.

From beginning to end, this war was characterized by a large-scale air raid and counter-air raid campaign, achieving strategic goals with a completely independent air campaign, marking an unprecedented rise in the status of air operations.

In October 2001, the war in Afghanistan conducted by the United States fully demonstrated the powerful power of information warfare and was a typical "asymmetric warfare."

In this war, the US military gave full play to the systemic effects of various combat methods and achieved a high degree of integration of information systems and combat systems.

These three local wars fully demonstrated the basic characteristics and development trends of modern warfare under high-tech conditions.

1. The extensive use of high-tech weapons and equipment has caused a series of profound changes in combat methods. For more than 50 years after World War II, driven by the new technological revolution, the militaries of developed countries have competed to develop high-tech weapons, accelerate the upgrading of weapons and equipment, and in local wars

Actual combat tests are continuously conducted on this "testing ground", causing major changes in combat methods and methods.

The most obvious manifestations are in the following aspects.

First, the development of air power has promoted the aerialization of war. Air and space power are becoming the main force in future battlefields, and the air and space battlefield is establishing its new dominant position.

For example, among the 56 weapons that constituted the US military's high-tech weapons group in the Gulf War, 44 were air weapons or weapons that functioned through the air, accounting for about 78%. The Kosovo War was a pure large-scale air strike.

war.

Second, precision-guided weapons, led by cruise missiles and other stand-off launch weapons and aviation weapons with satellite navigation systems, have become the basic strike means and main attack weapons in high-tech local wars, making long-range precision strikes outside the stand-off zone the main method of combat.

In the war in Afghanistan, the US military dropped more than 22,000 munitions of various types, including more than 13,000 precision-guided munitions. The proportion of use increased sharply from 9% in the Gulf War and 35% in the Kosovo War to 60% in this war.

, and set a historical record for dropping 100 joint direct attack munitions in a strike mission within 20 minutes.

Third, the continuous improvement of command methods has greatly improved combat effectiveness.

For example, in the Gulf War, it took a day for the US military to discover a mobile target and launch an attack. In the Kosovo War, this time difference has been reduced to one hour.

In the Afghan War, due to the high degree of integration of information systems and combat systems, it only took 10 minutes from the discovery of a mobile target to the launch of an attack.

2. The elements of war are becoming more and more informatized, and the form of war is developing in the direction of informatization. Modern high-tech warfare will revolve around the collection, processing, distribution, and protection of information. Information-based warfare has become the basic form of high-tech warfare, seizing and

Maintaining information rights has become the center and focus of operations.

Twenty-four hours before the start of the Gulf War, the U.S. military implemented broadband high-power suppression jamming, known as Operation White Snow, which disrupted most of the Iraqi military's communications and resulted in a sudden air strike.

During the Kosovo War, NATO gave full play to the space control functions and advantages of satellites, and controlled air and space information rights from beginning to end.

During the war, NATO used more than 50 satellites of various types.

These satellites respectively serve as electronic reconnaissance, positioning and navigation, communication support and meteorological services, providing timely and precise target data for NATO naval and air force military strikes.

NATO also used various types of advanced early warning aircraft and specialized electronic warfare aircraft in the air strikes to "blind" and "deafen" the Yugoslav army's early warning, fire control radar and command and control systems respectively.

Through electronic attacks, both soft and hard, NATO always controls the information control in the combat area, putting the Yugoslav army in a position of being passively attacked and unable to fight back.

In the Afghan war, the US military achieved a high degree of integration of information systems and combat systems.

In order to realize real-time transmission of information in the information acquisition system and air strike system, the US military has established a new joint air combat center at the Prince Sultan Air Force Base in Saudi Arabia.

The Joint Air Warfare Center is equipped with the latest C4 ISR system, which comprehensively analyzes, processes, and distributes battlefield information data obtained by various battlefield reconnaissance systems of the US military, and transmits the processed battlefield information data in real time to various operations such as bombers and fighter jets.

platform.

In addition, the information platform also has attack capabilities for the first time.

The US military's R Q-1 A "Predator" drone has both intelligence collection functions and the ability to attack discovered targets.

On the battlefield in Afghanistan, the "Predator" drone has carried out immediate attacks on discovered mobile targets on many occasions.