China’s New “Multi-Domain Precision Warfare” Operational Concept “Mirrors” US Strategy

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

China’s emerging Core Operational Concept is described as “Multi-Domain Precision Warfare,” … a blend ot networking, AI, precision weaponry and joint operations all supporting what the People’s Liberation Army refers to as a “system-of-systems” approach.

Sound familiar? Interestingly, this PRC concept was fully articulated and unveiled to a certain extent in 2021, according to the Pentagon’s most recently published annual China Report, which describes the Chinese concept as specifically aimed at finding and countering US vulnerabilities.

“MDPW is intended to leverage a C4ISR network that incorporates advances in big data and artificial intelligence, what the PLA calls the “network information system-of-systems,” to rapidly identify key vulnerabilities in the U.S. operational system and then combine joint forces across domains to launch precision strikes against those vulnerabilities,” states the Pentagon annual China report to Congress, called Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China.

Certainly upon initial examination with a mind to the Pentagon’s current thinking, the Chinese concept almost fully mirrors, replicates or simply “copies” the US military’s Joint All Domain Command and Control effort. The Chinese concept also appears to be a “several-years-behind” effort to copy the many US military Multi-Domain Task Forces which have for years been integrating land-sea-air operations into a joint warfare fighting conceptual paradigm.

So in a recent or immediate sense, the emphasis on networking, AI and multi-domain operational concepts could be seen as a transparent effort to simply “replicate” US modernization initiatives. An added variable to this is a concept of history to an extent, given the US Army introduced the “system-of-systems” idea as far back as 20-years ago as the foundation of its Future Combat Systems effort.

Following the ambitious yet ultimately ill-fated Army FCS program, which actually proved a number of key breakthroughs and successes of relevance today, the US Military has spent years working to solidify various versions of multi-domain interoperability and “system-of-systems” networking. Following years of joint networking attempts, both technologically and conceptual, the Pentagon is now arguably breaking through with networking in an unprecedented way. The Pentagon’s JADC2 is now being implemented as an effective integration or merging of the Army’s “Project Convergence” success, Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management Systems and Navy Project Overmatch. Each of the services has made breakthrough progress in developing the interfaces and technical infrastructure to better connect forces to one another in real time across domains. Now the merit of JADC2 is that it accomplishes this across the services through the use of gateways and common standards.

It would seem apparent that the PLA has taken notice of the Pentagon’s multi-domain networking process and seems, at least in concept, to emulate it completely through its “Multi-Domain Precision Warfare” concept. The Pentagon report explains the PLA’s approach in terms of “intelligentized” warfare, a kind of information-based warfighting approach drawing upon AI, joint-service connectivity and the ability to achieve new levels of precision targeting. Not only are the PLA concepts of operation analogous if not identical to the US, but even the language used to describe the approach closely mirrors terms used by the Pentagon.