What are the characteristics of information warfare? What is its development trend?

First, information technology dominates weapons and equipment. The leading weapon in the cold weapon war is metal weapons and equipment; The main weapon of hot weapon war is the musket based on chemical energy; The leading weapons of mechanized warfare are aircraft, tanks, warships and other mechanized weapons and equipment; The leading weapon of information war is information weapon, more precisely, information technology-led weapons and equipment. In the information war, the military technology that plays a leading role in combat means, combat ideas and war process is information technology. Battlefield command depends on the command and control system with microelectronics technology, communication technology and computer technology as the core; Reconnaissance, surveillance and battlefield evaluation need all kinds of advanced electronic and optical sensing equipment; Assault weapons are inseparable from various precision guidance technologies supported by information technology. Almost all weapons in information warfare are information technology weapons, information-oriented weapons or information weapons. Expenditure on information technology equipment for various weapons also accounts for a large part of the total value of weapons, such as% for tanks,% for airplanes,% for missiles,% for satellites and% for command systems. Someone once compared the weapon in the information war to "the container of electronic information equipment". It is a major feature of information warfare that information technology dominates weapons and equipment. Second, the information army. The emergence of a powerful information-based army on the battlefield is one of the characteristics of information warfare. What kind of war needs what kind of troops to match it; On the contrary, the characteristics of the army also affect the evolution of the war form. The main force of information war can only be the information army. The information-based army is an army that is gathered by information-based talents, organized according to the needs of information-based operations, equipped and skillfully used information-based weapons and equipment, and guided by the theory of information-based operations. This army plays a leading role in the battlefield. Three. Resources, energy and information are precious resources for human survival and development. In the war before the information war, materials and energy played a more prominent role and were the main strategic resources. However, in the information war, information resources are in the primary position and become the most important strategic resources. The competition for information resources is the basic content of information warfare. Information dominates the integration, operation and energy release process of matter and energy. Whoever has the advantage of information may take the initiative in the battlefield and win the war. Whether you have the advantage of information resources is not only related to whether you can know yourself, be alert and answer, and have normal military orders, but also to whether you can respond quickly, accurately and effectively. An obvious feature of information war is resource informatization. 4. Information warfare is the basic content of war. There have been many classic cases of information warfare in the wars of cold weapons or hot weapons in human history. In mechanized warfare, there are many wonderful stories of defeating the enemy by means of information warfare to win the war. However, the information warfare in that period was fragmentary, partial and short-term, with a relatively small scale, often at the level of tactics and campaigns, or subordinate to firepower warfare, and its consequences had limited influence on the process and outcome of the war. However, in the information war, information war has risen to a strategic position, and the whole process, space and all-round of the war are full of information war. Information warfare has become the main or even the whole content of war. Strategic information warfare, campaign information warfare and tactical information warfare intersect with each other; Space information warfare, ocean information warfare and land information warfare cover the battlefield; Control system information warfare, command system information warfare, intelligence system information warfare, firepower system information warfare and logistics system information warfare extend in all directions; Psychological warfare, public opinion warfare, legal warfare and media warfare go deep into the cognitive field; Electronic warfare, cyber warfare, decapitation and precision microsurgery involve military, political, economic, financial, energy and environmental aspects. Whoever wins the information war may win the whole war. Information warfare has become the basic operational mode of information warfare. In the information battlefield, the two sides of the war may use dozens of electronic, photographic, early warning, marine reconnaissance and meteorological geodesic satellites, hundreds of radars with good performance such as phased arrays, hundreds of manned or unmanned reconnaissance planes, electronic countermeasures planes, a large number of ground electronic reconnaissance, surveillance and confrontation teams, and all individual weapons platforms and reconnaissance and monitoring equipment that enter the battlefield information sharing network to hold an unprecedented intense information and intelligence conference. By means of suppression, destruction, deception, camouflage, etc., the other party's ability to obtain information is restricted, making it blind, deaf and stupid. At the same time, it maintains its ability to obtain information and provides correct decisions for the formation of its own assault force. The two sides will also use all kinds of advanced electronic jamming equipment, fire assault weapons and covert camouflage technology to launch a confrontation aimed at limiting and destroying the normal operation of the other side's command and control system, a battle to defend and destroy the command and control system, that is, the war brain. The purpose is to make the enemy a "moron" in the war. The two sides quickly spread the attack information to many targets through TV, Internet and other media, making millions of people involved in the battlefield of psychological warfare intentionally or unintentionally, becoming the subject or object of psychological confrontation, and the energy of psychological warfare is either expanded or submerged. The media, the government, the army, the intelligence department and the public launched a large-scale psychological war through various channels. The purpose is to make the enemy crazy, stupid or lose the will to fight. The two sides can also organize hacker forces and other hard-destroyed equipment to conduct network information warfare against the enemy. It not only destroys the other side's military command and intelligence, but also destroys the other side's economic and financial operation, national management and information environment to intercept its scientific and technological intelligence, thus creating chaos, disrupting the economy and undermining its comprehensive national strength and war potential. 5. Information warfare theory is in the mainstream of military theory. Mechanized warfare cannot be separated from the guidance of military theories that reflect the laws of mechanized warfare. In the era of information warfare, the military theory in the mainstream position must also be the information warfare theory. Otherwise, information warfare cannot be realized. System confrontation in intransitive verb war Before the information war, due to the limitation of information technology, each combat unit on the battlefield was often isolated and scattered. Battlefield confrontation is a relatively independent confrontation between various war subjects in various time and space. Even in mechanized warfare, the contract operations of various arms and services still belong to a loose battlefield joint action. Information warfare is different. It is a typical system confrontation. Due to the rapid development and application of information technology, the military information superhighway has been formed, and the seamless connection of reconnaissance, surveillance, intelligence, communication, information processing, decision-making, command and control, assault and battlefield evaluation has been formed. The command and control system is networked, automated and intelligent, and the land, sea, air and sky are integrated and United, and the strategy, campaign and tactical actions penetrate each other. All combat units are integrated into a war system. The opposing sides are engaged in confrontation between systems. Seven, intelligent mechanized warfare, weapons and equipment are basically some mechanical parts, its automation level is low, and the operation of weapons is basically inseparable from the direct control of people. However, in the information war, with the development of microelectronics, computer technology and communication technology, weapons and equipment have brains, nerves, eyes and ears, which can independently find and identify targets, make independent judgments, make decisions and deal with them, and the level of intelligence will reach a high level. Reconnaissance, control, attack, defense and engineering robots are distributed in space, air, ground and ocean, ranging from marine giant robots to micro reconnaissance robots. A large number of various types of battlefield robots will gradually replace human beings and step into the battlefield. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) engaged in reconnaissance, controllable induction robot insects implanted with chips, multifunctional combat robots, high-performance missile robots, unmanned tanks, fighter planes, submarines, destroyers, etc. A combat corps composed of robots from land, sea and air will dominate the human battlefield. At present, the United States, Japan, Europe and other countries and regions have invested a lot of money to develop and manufacture combat robots, and the pace towards battlefield intelligence is accelerating. The intelligent feature of information warfare is also manifested in the automatic operation of the whole war system, and the automation and intelligence level of the combat command and control system will be greatly improved. It is not impossible for unmanned combat or even unmanned war to happen. Eight, the target control in the war before the information war, the backwardness of information technology caused the lack of information resources, and people's ability to control the war was quite weak, whether it was the means, time and space, process and outcome of the war, or the choice and disposal of strategic and tactical goals. The development of war is often misplaced with the original intention of the combatants. The loss and destruction of war materials and energy are enormous. However, in information warfare, the party with information advantage has considerable target control ability. Information technology makes networking, intelligence, transparency and accuracy a reality. People can relatively freely determine the most favorable, resource-saving and possible military targets for achieving political and economic goals, and adopt the most matching means to carry out precise strikes in the most critical time and space. Effective control of strategic and tactical objectives is not only the result of the application of information technology, but also the realization of economic and political interests under the background of economic globalization.