What is the difference between mechanized warfare and information warfare? There is an iterative relationship between them, and information warfare is a further development of mechanized warfare and an inevitable product of the information age. Mechanized warfare, on the other hand, is representative of the industrial age.
So far, human warfare has gone through several forms, namely cold weapon warfare, hot weapon warfare, mechanized warfare, and information warfare.
Among them, the cold weapon war has been accompanied by the development history of mankind and occupies the longest progress bar in the history of warfare, and it has been less than 200 years since the real hot weapon war has developed.
Mechanized warfare is a form of warfare that emerged after hot weapons, and it is an extension of the method of using hot weapons. It appeared after the development of the internal combustion engine in industry. The internal combustion engine enabled the creation of mobile battlefield equipment such as tanks, armored vehicles, self-propelled guns, airplanes, and ships, which disrupted the way warfare was conducted.
In previous wars, the movement of troops mainly relied on human legs, and heavy equipment was transported by animal tools, which determined that the speed of war and the transfer of the battlefield could not be very fast. Since the advent of mechanized troops, the mechanized equipment of the sea, land, and air has given more room for choice in the mode of combat, and thus different theories of mechanized combat have been developed.
During World War II, the "blitzkrieg" of the German army was a representative of mechanized warfare. This tactic was invincible and powerful in Europe before encountering a country with great strategic depth like the Soviet Union. At that time, the long-range missile had not yet appeared, and mechanized warfare had already shown its powerful mobility and attack power. Compared with the competition, it has the characteristics of dimensionality reduction and strike
First of all, the sea, land, and air equipment with high-speed mobility capabilities were completely unable to compete with the previous types of troops, such as foot infantry and cavalry, in the engagement, and had to withdraw from the stage of history. Secondly, the traditional fortifications no longer have the advantage of holding on, as in the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Japanese devils can hide in the pillboxes to keep safe, under the attack of tanks and other offensive equipment, no longer exist.
In addition, the traditional mode of confrontation between the two armies has also been completely changed in the face of mechanized warfare, and the use of mechanized equipment has blurred the boundaries between the front and rear of the two belligerents, and the war will be a comprehensive and complex operation that is carried out in a staggered, all-round, and multi-level manner, and the experience of past wars is no longer applicable on the battlefield.
Finally, mechanized equipment makes the cost of war even more expensive, both in terms of personnel and equipment. The Russia-Ukraine conflict that has occurred in the past two years has involved the loss of personnel** and various equipment on both sides, and if converted into money, it will be a very staggering number.
It's such a powerful mechanized war, and it's prominent.
Seventy or eighty years later, all of a sudden, it fell behind.
Information warfare is a superposition of mechanized warfare and informationization. People have seen the power of early information warfare back to the Gulf War in 1991.
The war changed the way people understand mechanized warfare since World War II. The combat methods based on air operations, long-range firepower, electronic warfare, and other methods have made Iraq's large number of "modern machinery and equipment" useless, and the US-led multinational forces have caused a huge amount of damage to Iraq at a very small cost, shocking the world's attention.
Different from the emphasis on seizing sea and air supremacy in mechanized warfare, the monopoly control of information played a decisive role in this war. All the military countries in the world are thinking about the same thing: how should information warfare develop?
Informatization is linked to elements such as computers, satellites, networks, and data links, as well as information-based combat platforms developed on the basis of mechanization. These are not only platforms that can launch gunpowder, but also can integrate reconnaissance, jamming, deception and strike to achieve an unprecedented combat mode.
Let's take a simple example. In a purely mechanized war, if the attacking fighter is attacking, the defending side will take off its own fighter plane after obtaining military information through radar or visual vision, and engage in face-to-face dogfight with the opponent, or missile combat at a distance in the later stage. No matter who wins or loses, the main one is bright and fair, and it is clear at a glance.
In the mode of information warfare, the side with inferior information control may find several enemy planes attacking on its radar screen, and when it hurriedly takes off fighters to meet the fight, it will not be able to see the other side. What's more, the fighter plane that took off found that it was locked by the opponent's missile, and had to launch its own missile to fight, only to find that it was still a **.
This is an example of the so-called battlefield information suppression, and if it really starts, the weak side will suffer heavy losses.
The above is a battlefield with gunsmoke. Another characteristic of information warfare is that there is no battlefield of gunpowder. Cognitive warfare, indoctrination, and other deliberate behaviors on the Internet should be attributed to a type of information warfare. This is extremely important in today's global Internet. It is difficult for people to judge that the current Russia-Ukraine conflict will launch various contradictions between the two sides before the launch, among which there will be cyber cognitive warfare carried out by countries with ulterior motives.
The form of future warfare will be the form of information-based warfare for quite a long time. It is believed that this stage will last for a long time, until mankind makes new and revolutionary progress in the application of certain earthly material principles.
The difference between mechanized warfare and information-based warfare lies in the struggle for and use of information control. Because of the generational gap between the two, countries with the right conditions are vying to speed up the construction of information-based warfare. Whoever lags far behind in this matter will be in an awkward position in the 21st century.
Although peace is the slogan of every country, the true realization of peace is inseparable from the balance of power between them. Accelerating the transformation of mechanized warfare into information-based warfare is the embodiment of this strength.
Readers, what do you think?