By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Two Chinese J-16 fighter jets were able to fly alongside, control and operate with an armed Chinese GJ-2 reconnaissance drone in what People’s Liberation Army essays describe as breakthrough manned-unmanned teaming and multi-domain operations.
This may sound quite familiar, as the Chinese have for years exhibited an observable tendency to essentially “copycat,” “replicate” or simply “steal” US military tactics and strategies. This concern is of course quite well known and documented by Congressional and military leaders when it comes to Chinese “theft” of US military technologies, yet there is a lesser known yet equally recognizable Chinese tendency to follow, copy and replicate US military tactics, training operations and concepts of operation. The armed GJ-2 reconnaissance drone looks a lot like a US-Army Gray Eagle and the PLA exercises appear aimed at developing new manned-unmanned teaming attack tactics and operations.
Prominent members of Congress and Pentagon leaders have for years expressed significant worry about Chinese efforts to steal and “copy” US military technologies and tactics. For example, Chinese government back newspapers have for years been detailing joint air-sea-ground training exercises in a manner nearly identical to the US military’s Joint Air Ground Task Force multi-domain training units. More specifically, the People’s Liberation Army Navy conducted “dual” carrier training operations in the Pacific to show extended, coordinated air campaign attack very quickly after the US Navy demonstrated “dual” carrier operations in the Pacific.
The Chinese government backed Global Times newspaper explains that the fighter-jet – armed drone connectivity represents PLA Army – PLA Air Force joint service integration.
The Chinese paper quotes military experts detailing some of the tactical possibilities this kind of manned-unmanned teaming can generate. Perhaps the drone is an early reconnaissance node designed to find and light-up or paint targets for high-speed fighter jets to attack, or perhaps the fighter jets seeks to establish air superiority to enable a longer-endurance armed drone to conduct extended surveillance and attack in a low threat environment.
“A possibility is that the fighter jet arrives at the target zone first using its speed advantage, wins air superiority and launches a first wave of attack, before leaving the target zone to be cleaned and controlled by the slower but longer-enduring drone,” the Chinese Global Times newspaper quotes a Chinese military expert saying.
There are several critical elements to this tactical equation which the Chinese paper does not address, perhaps by design. The first and most obvious is the question of unmanned attack. To what extent can the J-16s operate the armed drones and, when needed, direct unmanned strikes on enemy targets from safe stand-off ranges. This kind of cockpit-operated drone operation, called the use of a “loyal wingman,” has been in development and demonstrated by the US military services for many years. Manned-unmanned teaming, both in terms of technology breakthroughs and anticipated future war tactics, are critical and long-standing elements of US military modernization. Such practices have reached a significant level of technological maturity. The Air Force Research Laboratory’s “Valkyrie” drone, for example, has already operated other unmanned systems independently and also been networked successfully with key air platforms in testing such as the F-35 and F-22. The idea is to enable a two-way data connectivity, likely fortified by AI-enabled computing at the point of collection, to expedite the targeting-attack cycle and both increase survivability while also streamlining and accelerating precision attack.
This scenario introduces the other extremely significant element of manned-unmanned teaming not addressed in the Chinese Global Times article, and that is the extend of successful networking and data transmission. The Chinese paper cites “manned-unmanned” teaming, but does not specify the kind of networking technologies, transport layer systems or AI-enabled computing utilized to operationalize the technology in a tactical situation. Certainly the article indicates a Chinese “intent” to replicate US manned-unmanned teaming in a tactical and conceptual sense, yet there is little to no information as to its measure of success. Advanced computer algorithms, hardened, secure networks, technical computing standards sufficient to integrate otherwise disparate pools of data … are all necessary for air-borne manned-unmanned, “cockpit” controlled operations to be successful. It is something Air Force Scientists were exploring in great detail as long as 10-years ago, and now the Air Force has demonstrated fully-autonomous, AI-enabled drone flight as well as manned unmanned teaming. Senior Air Force scientists envisioned this years ago, while exploring the conceptual framework for what is now operationally possible. The idea was to enable manned fighter jets to control groups of unmanned systems from safe stand-off distances to surveil high value target areas, blanket an area with ISR, test enemy air defenses or even launch attacks when needed at the direction of a human.
Interestingly, the Army pioneered manned-unmanned teaming years ago in Afghanistan through a program originally called VUIT-2. The effort, which came to be referred to as manned-unmanned teaming, enable Apache and Kiowa Helicopter crews to control the flight path and sensor payload of drone missions from the cockpit in the air. Over the years, Army war commanders have explained to Warrior that the system became so efficient and advanced that Apache attack helicopter pilots were able to find, detect and verify specific high-value targets before even taking off. This effort, used more than ten years ago by the Army in Afghanistan, used Gray Eagle drones to execute missions directed by Apache crews in the air.
This kind of technology has continued to mature and breakthrough with the US military services in recent years, such that unmanned-unmanned teaming can now take place. At its now famous Project Convergence, the Army demonstrated it could use forward-operating mini-drones to find high value targets, send the details to a larger drone through unmanned-unmanned teaming before the drone then sends target specifics to manned helicopters and ground command and control stations. At this point, AI-enabled computing is able to aggregate, organize and analyze key targeting and attack specifics, bounce it off of a seemingly limitless database before recommending an optimal countermeasure or attack solution to a human decision maker. This entire process, relying entirely upon airborne manned-unmanned teaming, has been shorted from a time period of 20-mins in many cases to verify and approve targets… down to a matter of seconds. Its called fighting at the speed of relevance and the Army and other US services have been achieving breakthroughs in this area in recent years.
The operative question then is, to what extent does Chinese manned-unmanned teaming approximate, replicate or match this technological ability. Certainly the speed of information flow and analysis, using data itself as its own weapon of war, is expected to define and determine outcomes in future wars. How far along are the Chinese? Flying a J-16 with an armed drone seems significant, yet it true relevance would be determined through an extensive technological analysis of the kind of networking, manned-unmanned teaming and AI-enabled information management the PLA is capable of. The Chinese essay at least appears accurate in its description of this phenomen
on as it describes future war as a “confrontation of cognition.”
“Future warfare is a confrontation of cognition, and so the ideas and cognition of the people who operate these unmanned weapons and equipment are the deciding factor to victory or defeat on the battlefield,” the Chinese paper writes.
The slower drone could take off first, and as it approaches the target zone, the faster fighter jets could then take off to catch up and form a formation for a short period above the target zone and carry out missions, Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military aviation expert, told the Global Times on Thursday.Another possibility is that the fighter jet arrives at the target zone first using its speed advantage, wins air superiority and launches a first wave of attack, before leaving the target zone to be cleaned and controlled by the slower but longer-enduring drone; visa versa, the drone could also arrive first to conduct reconnaissance, and summon the fighter jets when necessary, Fu said.
