A few days later, the Cross-2012 exercise officially began.
According to Wang Jiancheng's deployment, all participating combat units were connected to the Zhanlu system, achieving de facto coordinated command.
The sky is full of yellow sand, located at an exercise venue somewhere in IRAN. All participating parties are ready, and with an order from the director, the exercise officially begins.
The eyes of the whole world have been focused on this desert. Even at an altitude of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of meters, there are countless pairs of eyes staring at the billowing dust and smoke below.
At this moment, the corner tower.
Bob finally returned to his old profession, sat back in front of the sand table, and began to deduce this "battle" that was tens of thousands of kilometers away.
There were several high-ranking army commanders standing next to him. Even those responsible for sand table dispatching were all with the rank of colonel or above.
The all-powerful assistant receives information from spy satellites and high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, while reporting the latest battle situation to everyone in the command room.
"The other side of this exercise simulated a field army encounter, excluding all air superiority and electronic warfare advantages that may have an overwhelming impact on the combat itself."
"Neither side of the exercise used electronic jamming methods or high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft."
"Air power is limited to small, low-speed drones and helicopters. At the same time, in order to even out the gap, both red and blue sides are equipped with China's latest reconnaissance equipment."
"It can be said that they have brought modern warfare back to the World War II period - this is not a comprehensive exercise with real troops, but more like a pure tactical confrontation exercise."
"Both sides of the confrontation need to make the most extreme and perfect deployment of the military forces at hand under extremely ideal conditions to achieve a smooth battle."
"Their way of thinking is very retro."
Having said this, the assistant paused for a moment, and the expression on his face actually revealed his doubts.
What's the point of such an exercise?
At present, modern warfare is increasingly pursuing the trinity and information gap. Are you going to conduct tactical exercises?
The meaning of "tactics" itself has declined too much in the face of equipment confrontation.
No matter how you intersperse, coordinate, or camouflage a raid, you can't escape a top attack from a precision-guided bomb. Instead of practicing tactics, why not think about how to develop stronger prevention and control firepower?
Likewise, everyone in the command room looked at each other in disbelief at the exercise script.
"I don't understand the significance of this exercise. Of course, we will have similar exercises, but such exercises are generally below the company level."
"After reaching the battalion level, a combat team has begun to possess the full system combat capability. Instead of giving full play to the role of the system, it will instead seek the distant side instead of the near?"
"Yes, I can't understand it either. I can only think that the Chinese people are being stupid and they have chosen the wrong direction."
After hearing everyone's discussion, the expression on Bob's face became more solemn.
Of course, he did not deny everyone's doubts, but the problem was that he knew better than everyone else:
It’s not that the Chinese don’t have it, it’s that they don’t use it.
They don't have a systematic combat framework? They have no air superiority? They don't have long-range precision strike capabilities?
Are you kidding me, they have too much.
Just one shot of the Dongfeng-17 is enough to make oneself miserable on the conventional battlefield, but they just don't use it.
This means that what they want to try or verify may actually not be within the scope of their imagination at all.
Thinking of this, he raised his hand slightly and said:
"No matter what the purpose of their exercise is, let's see the progress of the exercise first."
"How about the information ahead? What are the latest trends between the red and blue sides?"
After hearing this, the assistant quickly checked the latest intelligence, and then directed several colonels to rearrange the sand table.
"According to satellite images and reports from frontline reporters, the two sides have completed the first wave of mutual reconnaissance, and most of their troop deployments have been exposed."
"Currently, the red and blue sides are adopting completely different strategies."
"The blue side's armored units began to assemble and were divided into east and west detachments and headed towards the target point. The red side was still in a loose formation, and there was no trend of reassembly for the time being."
"The tactics adopted by both sides are relatively conventional. The information is still unclear and the direction of attack is not clear yet, so the red side's choice is not surprising."
"After all, mechanized troops can move very fast, and coupled with their long-range firepower, even if a small team encounters the enemy, they can still make considerable exchanges."
"Evacuation operations?"
Bob suddenly interjected.
The assistant was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening.
"Yes, it seems to imply evacuation operations, etc. Judging from the equipment levels of the two armies, both of them can meet the basic conditions for evacuation operations."
"But the question is, do they have the command to do it?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of everyone in the command room instantly became serious.
In fact, they are all elites of the army. Although they look down on so-called "tactics", in fact, under the premise of "equipment first", each of them is very familiar with modern tactics.
Evacuation warfare is a brand new combat method that has only been proposed in recent years.
It relies on a more powerful command system, a more convenient and stable data link system, and a faster and more efficient tactical execution level. It is a combat plan specially proposed to deal with the "damage overload" situation that may occur in the future.
Its basic principle is to ensure that each combat unit has independent combat capabilities as much as possible on the premise of ensuring the integrity of combat effectiveness, splitting the overall task into hundreds, thousands or even tens of thousands of sub-tasks, and through each minimal combat unit Real-time scheduling of units uses agile command methods to avoid enemy attacks and seek breakthroughs.
——
It sounds beautiful.
After all, if mature evacuation operations can be achieved, the effectiveness of each combat unit will be maximized. It is no longer a myth to use all ammunition reserves in one battle, and the so-called "waste of firepower" will be reduced to the lowest level. lowest.
The United States' previously eliminated "Ghost Fleet" plan was an attempt by the Navy to implement evacuation operations, or what they call "distributed operations."
However, in that attempt they focused more on equipment, but now China seems to have made a breakthrough in the system?
"It is impossible that there will be more than 400 combat units participating in this exercise, and a large part of them are backward equipment from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and IRAN."
"They don't even have a complete electronic system, let alone the ability to integrate data links and command."
"You want to implement evacuation operations under such circumstances? Are you kidding me?"
"Even the most talented commander would never be able to do it!"
Hearing this, Bob nodded slowly.
Yes, this kind of command puts too much burden on the commander.
You must know that if you want to achieve precise control of the overall situation down to the smallest combat unit, it is far from enough to rely on the traditional hierarchical command system.
Orders will be deformed, execution conditions will be deformed, and tactics will be "adapted" by front-line personnel in a flexible manner. Each change may lead to a deviation from the commander's initial decision-making and ultimate goal.
This is also the key point that best reflects the commander's talent.
Whether the commander can thread the needle in such a complex situation and "repair" the entire battle situation determines how much role the commander can play in the entire battle.
——
But the problem is that even the most talented commander will not try to arrange the location of a machine gun position.
The reason is very simple. The human brain has its limits, and so does the computing power.
Blind pursuit of precise details may cause commanders to lose sight of the overall situation.
"Maybe it's just an illusion."
Bob spoke.
"They are not necessarily conducting evacuation operations. They may just be planning to rely on long-range firepower and a longer front line to increase the scope of investigation and obtain as much information as possible."
"After all, in this exercise, the investigation methods of both sides are limited, so the importance of information becomes even more critical."
“It’s a good deal to pay a certain price in exchange for information.”
Everyone nodded, but then, just a few minutes later, the latest information came shattering all their "predictions."
The red front began to move.
After obtaining the relevant intelligence as Bob said, the mixed and huge fronts began to be mobilized in an extremely complex way.
Several adjacent teams cooperated with each other and began to form a firepower node. After the wave of strikes was completed, the combined team quickly disbanded without any pause.
The long-range fire detachment continued to shift positions, and the infantry tank detachment gave up the traditional point-taking tactics. Instead, relying on its excellent obstacle crossing ability, it began to intersperse in the middle of the line of fire, attracting a large amount of light and heavy firepower from the blue side.
From a God's perspective, the infantry tank unit with the most precise dispatch was almost maneuvering close to the opponent's strike limit.
One kilometer further north, you will enter the strike range of the opponent's anti-tank position.
If you go one kilometer further south, you will be caught by the returning armed helicopter.
The exquisite operation made Bob couldn't help but sigh.
"This is a scalpel-style operation. If I hadn't known in advance that they were in a state of double-blind information, I would have even thought that this was a generational attack caused by poor information."
"How did they do it? No, even if they can understand the blue team's deployment, they can't execute it perfectly, right?"
"Their penetration organization even uses bicycles as the smallest unit."
No one answered him, because everyone was stunned by the even more amazing dispatch.
Under the premise of a limited number of overall equipment, the red side squeezed the potential of almost all combat units to the limit.
It has become a basic operation for a combat unit to conduct multi-node operations. The most exaggerated thing is that a low-altitude air defense team actually crossed the entire front line and defended almost all the nodes that were attacked by the blue armed helicopters!
"I can see it."
Bob slapped the table hard and then said:
"The core of their exercise is not evacuation operations - although this concept is everywhere throughout the battle."
"But in fact, what they are really doing is optimizing the echelon configuration of combat effectiveness."
"Among the red and blue sides, China and Russia have very strong equipment and combat capabilities, but the same cannot be said for other vassal parties participating in the exercise."
"But every time, the red side represented by China can use their strong equipment to fill the weak nodes responsible for the vassal side under the most extreme circumstances and at the most appropriate time."
"While filling positions, weak equipment will be dispatched to other nodes to fight against the blue team's weaker team."
"Since then, at almost every node, their combat effectiveness has surpassed that of the blue side."
"This is simply a miracle on the battlefield. Even from our God's perspective, it is not easy to do this."
"It's so computationally intensive and the decision-making time is so short, I don't think any of us can do it."
Everyone in the conference room nodded heavily - yes, the real battlefield is not a war game. What a commander needs to consider is definitely not "driving a tank from point A to point B", but "moving a tank that has already been A tank that is overloaded and may malfunction at any time, crosses a desert with a temperature of 70 degrees Celsius, and is dispatched from point A, which is facing enemy artillery fire, to point B, which is about to be infiltrated by enemy infantry, under the premise that it is always within the coverage of our own communication. ".
There are too many variables and too many information points that affect decision-making.
No one can make perfect calculations, and even deriving a few executable strategies is difficult.
Unless, this commander is not a human, but a fast-running supercomputer.
etc?
At this moment, everyone raised their heads.
They looked at each other to confirm, their horrified expressions already betraying their thoughts.
"AI?"
Bob spoke first.
"It's very similar. Very similar!"
"This is so in line with the decision-making method of artificial intelligence. I don't know if you have played some similar strategy games, but I want to say that China's current combat method is like a super computer in a strategy game!"
"What's even more frightening is that behind this super computer, there are also a group of top commanders!"
"Let the intelligence department confirm this information quickly!"
Bob spoke decisively.
At this time, this exercise has come to an end without any suspense.
The red side won a great victory, and the battle loss rate was frighteningly low.
At the moment when he saw the confirmed results, Bob finally understood why China was so "open" to this exercise.
the reason is simple.
Because this is a tactic that can never be leaked, and it is also a tactic that can never be targeted!
In the face of their systematic and precise command, the security warfare and small-scale combat techniques that our side is proud of are simply not worth mentioning.
"The world has completely changed."
"They destroyed our last line of defense."
"From today on, we no longer have an advantage even in small-scale operations and proxy wars."
"I finally understand why they set up the exercise in this way. This battle is not fought for themselves!"
"We should have thought long ago that how could China abandon its greatest advantage? On the contrary, they want to rely on their own technological advantages to forcibly raise the army combat power of certain allies!"
"This is their threat and their warning."
"It's funny - last week Congress discussed using proxy wars to disrupt China's deployment."
"Now, this strategy is about to come to nothing."
(End of chapter)
