Networked swarming warfare

The concept of networked swarming warfare(网络化集群作战) was first proposed by Dajun Huo in 2003. The key feature of the information age is the networking of organizational structure. The rising networked organization will overcome the limitation of traditional geography and link the operational resources distributed widely to form a military action network which combine together strike range, speed and lethality, three elements of originally different developing, fundamentally transforming our idea of battle space. With the trend of decentralization of forces, we need to develop more small units with independent combat functions; meanwhile we can join these small units into a whole network as the technology’s development. The warfare based on this network is called networked swarming warfare.

Definition

Networked swarming warfare is a wide area maneuver warfare to attack dynamically the enemy in parallel by flexible "concentration" and "dispersion", which integrates the multiple forces distributed widely into the operational network of flows in a multi-dimensional space.

Connotations

• In the organization of forces, it can integrate multiple operational resources distributed widely into an intact force network to realize information interaction, functional coupling and convergent ability, which is based on the information network and follows the networking logic of the organizational structure.
• In the deployment of troops, it is nonlinear, widely dispersed, irregular and mobile in a multi-dimensional space, emphasizing the combination of deployment and strike, and dominating the development of the battlespace situation by flexible maneuver, dispersal and concentration.
• In the distribution of space, it is mobile and dispersed in the wide space.
• In the distribution of time, it is non sequential to attack a target or a series of related targets in parallel.
• In the pattern of action, it is a nonlinear attack dynamic of multiple dispersed operations by the unity of small combat units, similar to the “long-range raid” operational pattern.

Features

Networked swarming warfare has three essential features: flowing of organization; objective-centered; multidirectional mobile attack.

See also

• Network-centric warfare, a related United States-based theory

Sources

Dajun Huo. Study on Networked Swarming Warfare. Beijing: National Defense University Press. 2013.