China’s military mouthpiece has called for greater efforts to address what it says are deficiencies in the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) integrated joint operational capabilities.
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On Monday, a commentary in the PLA Daily said China’s military had not yet achieved “deep integration” of “equipment, battlefields, personnel and training conditions”, causing shortcomings in joint operations.
To overcome weaknesses in the operational system, PLA commanders at all levels should “systematically strengthen the coordinated development of force organisation, weaponry and equipment, positional facilities, command and communications, comprehensive support, and regulations and systems”, it said.
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What did China’s military parade tell us about its capabilities and global standing?
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Additionally, in keeping with President Xi Jinping’s push to modernise China’s military and the increasing use of advanced technology, the article said commanders must “fully recognise the paramount importance of developing cyber-information systems” to empower joint operations more effectively.
“The rapid advancement of the new round of technological and military revolution, coupled with accelerating transformations in warfare, has rendered cyber-information systems more crucial than ever in modern conflict.”
The article was written by Li Jianhua, whose affiliation was not specified, and noted that modern warfare constituted “a contest between systems” and that “combat operations now demand greater emphasis on jointness, coordination and holistic integration”.
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It said that recent regional conflicts showed that “the complexity of operational command, the difficulty of joint operations across military branches, the intensity of force and weapon coordination, and the pace of operational advancement have all changed beyond recognition”.
“Should our thinking remain rooted in the era of mechanised warfare,” the article continued, “we risk suffering a ‘dimension-reduction strike’ when confronting formidable adversaries on future battlefields” – a reference to the Chinese science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem, which describes the overwhelming advantage of advanced technology over inferior systems.