One of these days, we went to the National Defense University in western Beijing, PLA's highest educational institution, to interview its experts and scholors for their opinions on the training of personnel in new military changes.

Acquiring the knowledge of information warfare is key to winning wars

Journalists: Talented people are major players in this new era. Throughout human history, different periods require different talented people, each having its own characteristics. Information warfare is knowledge-intensive, so how talented people in the PLA can adjust themselves to the high speed of changes?

Hu Xiaofeng (director of Training Simulation Center, National Defense University): History tells us that it is always talented experts who play a leading role in any sorts of changes. They are sensitive to changing times. The dean of the US Navy Institute has an interesting story to tell about this in the US Navy. In as early as 1842, the US Navy acquired the first armored steamboat. However, until 1883 the US Navy was equipped with only 4 such boats. Why's that? It turned out that it was not because the Navy did not like the steamboats, it's because that the Navy did not accept engineers working on the boats. Only after the then US President allowed experts to enter the leadership of the Navy on the proposal of the US Congress, did the US Navy enter a stage of rapid development.

The episode in the US Navy has showed that in industrial times wars should be led by industrial experts. That brings us to a conclusion that in information times we need information specialists to win wars. Only by placing information experts in their right places can we have more such people.

Ding Jun (researcher with Army Building Research Institute, National Defense University): An American futurologist said to the effect that troops lacking in knowledge could win first-generation body-contact wars and second-generation wars, but in this third-generation one they would be like uneducated workers who could find no way to go in a high-tech world strange to them. The core of new military changes is information application. Modern troops are characterized by high intensity of knowledge and science. They increasingly depend on high-tech weapons and talented people for their fighting power. So, it would be impossible to win wars without a large team of talented people who can use high-tech weapons with information technology.

Journalists: In the early years of the last century, scientific advancement only accounted for less than 10% of the growth of military power. In contrast, the figure for advanced countries today is 60%. In some of those countries, officers higher than majors must hold Master's degrees. In the U.S., for example, masters and doctors make up nearly 40% of total officers. Even in some developing countries, such as Poland and India, more than 90% of their officers hold Bachelor's degree. It can be said that the acquisition of knowledge is crucial to the abilities of troops to adjust themselves to new military changes.

Dr. Yu Guohua (professor with Campaign Teaching and Research Office, National Defense University): In essence, information wars are competitions of knowledge and its application and control between rivals. In times of cold weapons, utilization of knowledge was hardly involved in a general sense in wars in which rival fighter fought each other face to face. In mechanized wars, knowledge was used mainly in mechanized equipment and knowledge utilization and control were not demanding. But, the situation has changed in essence today. Firstly, operators of military equipment must acquire a great deal of high-tech knowledge. Take a U.S. troop equipped with Patriot missiles for example. One third of the troop is "white-collared" specialists. Using the equipment is not just a technical matter. It intails deep understanding of the weapons themselves and the data they process. Without it, the equipment cannot be used to the full extent. Secondly, fighting wars, to some extent, is the selection, processing and utilization of information acquired and transmited by high-tech equipment. In the Gulf war in the 1990s, U.S. troops had to process 152, 000 telegraphs and 700,000 phone calls each day. In the recent Iraq War, one U.S. aircraft carrier had to receive and send 250,000 emails. Finally, the utilization of knowledge and information by enemies must be limited. In this sense, supremacy of information can also be called that of senses or of knowledge.

Dr. Gao Yiqun (associate professor and postdoctorate researcher with Arms and Services Teaching and Research Office, National Defense University): A U.S. research institute wrote in its reports about lessons in the Iraq War that no advantage could be more important than that of talented humans. One U.S. Army general said that it's still humans who dominate wars even in information times. He said that the changes in technology, equipment and troops structures did not result in the disappearance of the importance of bravery, selflessness and comrade bonding. Apart from the U.S., Russia, Japan, Germany and India all stressed the importance of talented humans and the priority of humans over machines in their respective military guidelines. They all called for a greater role of humans in increasing military powers and make sure that troops are more qualified than the average level of the society.　

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