The war has entered the era of large data

With the efficient development and full use of large data in the military field, the war will enter a big data age. No doubt, to win the future information war, large data has become the army's necessary capabilities.

Meeting the challenges of massive data

What is big data? People do not form a unified understanding, in general, it refers to the scale far more than the traditional database software processing capacity of the mass data collection. This concept is mainly aimed at the information society data "explosive" growth, volume is huge and proposed.

According to the U.S. government estimates, the world's annual data from various types of equipment to reach about 1.2ZB (1ZB=12 billion TB). If 1 grains of sand represent 1B data, 1PB (equivalent to 1000T) is the equivalent of 1 miles long and 100 yards wide, and the 1.2ZB data is like a vast desert.

For the information battlefield, the large amount of data volume embodies the characteristics of especially obvious. During the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. military to fight a small terrorist, its deployment in space, air and ground of the omni-Directional intelligence reconnaissance Surveillance System, 24 hours of data generated 53T. Such a huge amount of data would make commanders and troops trapped in the ocean of data.

This is not alarmist. On the day of the war in Iraq, U.S. military command posts in Qatar and Kuwait were unable to handle the massive data provided by the security agencies and had to shut down the equipment, resulting in almost disruption of communication between the command post and part of the assault direction.

Of course, massive volume is not the only feature of large data. Another important feature of large data is the low value density. Continuous uninterrupted video reconnaissance data may only be useful for a few seconds. This requires the army to have the ability to "needle in a haystack", in the process of data storage and management, to dig out the economic development, political trends, social dynamics, military action, scientific and technological trends and other important information, as the basis for decision-making and action.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, the United States "record the Future" company, specializing in the analysis of Internet information, especially "Facebook", "Twitter" and other social networking sites, advance awareness of terrorist attacks, outbreaks of disease and other major events. It is in the support of large data technology, massive data and agricultural times of grain land, industrial era of oil and steel, as the key strategic resources.

Data show that large-database technology has played a unique role in American counter-terrorism operations. Last June, the head of the U.S. National Security Service and Commander Alexander of the United States command of the U.S. headquarters admitted that the U.S. government foiled at least 50 terrorist attacks through a secretive "PRISM" surveillance program.

This is a successful case for large data technology applications. Experts pointed out that in millions of telephone and online communications, to quickly and effectively resolve the terrorist attacks on early warning information, can rely on large data technology.

The new military revolution in depth exerting force

In fact, as a technology for efficient data development and full utilization, the impact of large data on the defense and military is revolutionary and has been seen as a new force to push the current new military revolution to a deeper direction.

First, high wisdom will become an important feature of war. Data is the bearer of knowledge. The problem that big data needs to solve is not just how to store and compute data, but how to find wisdom in "Big Data".

In the traditional information battlefield, through intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance systems, as well as people, unmanned aircraft, an army can almost "see, hear and feel" to all the situation, but the force or commanders can penetrate the battlefield of various complex phenomena, timely take appropriate action is unknown.

Zakari Lannios, Deputy Secretary of the Department of Defense for Scientific research and engineering, said large data technology could solve the problem.

The new generation of large data systems being developed by the U.S. military can understand and interpret the real world through the speed and precision of the computer and the agility of the human being, helping commanders and analysts understand the massive data collected by the sensors at 100 times times the current rate.

For example, as the drug lords in Afghanistan prepare to fund terrorists such as al-Qaida, U.S. intelligence analysts are able to use large data technology to link the data in the battle plan database with the data in the Al-Qaida database in real time and independently, directing the U.S. military to take action first.

Secondly, the battle will be developed by the combination of forces and data fusion. As we all know, modern warfare is an integrated joint operation with high efficiency and integration. However, under the influence of military organization system and other factors, the barriers between the services can not be dismantled, which seriously restricts the effect of joint action. Large data technology can be used to realize the Union of the armed services through data fusion without breaking the existing military system.

U.S. DRC Company is the U.S. military engaged in large data research and development task of the important contractor, and its senior technical director Patri Drenhe that how to enable people to more effectively across the organization, is the big data technology needs to focus on the problem solved. Each combat system is producing its own data and storing it in a data silo, creating a cluttered pile of data "Babel Towers".

DRC Company is developing a large data software can solve the army across the armed forces, cross-sectoral collaboration, through the time and space for the data collected to standardize and coordinate, can provide commanders and troops a unified view of combat space.

Third, autonomous combat platform will become the main body of future operations. Large data technology will give unmanned combat platform a certain "initiative". Taking unmanned aerial vehicles as an example, under the demand of large data technology, the U.S. military is developing a "near-sensor computing (NSC)" product which can be used for high-speed data processing on the basis of combat platform.

The product would allow drones to avoid collisions with potential other aircraft, without relying on expensive, power-consuming communications systems or bulky, large storage systems.

Get the big data ready.

Information, the key to see the data. With the advent of the large data age, the armies of the world's major countries have taken large data technology as an important direction in the development of military science and technology. The U.S. military is at the forefront of this.

Senior Pentagon executives believe that big data will change the rules of war games, and that the U.S. military must become the leader in new, unconventional ways to use big data in full spectrum military operations. To achieve this goal, the U.S. military has established a national project based on the commercial operation of the important development path.

The Obama administration launched a "Big Data research and development program" in March 2012, hoping to help the U.S. government address some of the most pressing challenges by improving its ability to tap knowledge and intelligence from a large number of complex data. November 12, 2013, the Obama administration released a second round of big data research projects to stimulate the development of large U.S. data industry.

The U.S. military's Big Data program is an important part of U.S. national programs, with the Pentagon investing 250 million of dollars a year for big data construction. At present, the U.S. military's big data projects focus on three major areas.

One is from data to decision-making, mainly is the development of analysis of massive data technology and software tools.

The second is the autonomous tool, which is mainly to develop intelligent tools that can judge trends, adapt to realistic conditions and work in dynamic and complex environments without human intervention.

Third, the artificial system, mainly to promote the integration of human-machine, to achieve coordinated combat and training.

In order to get a breakthrough in these three areas as soon as possible, as the leading department of Military data Research, the U.S. Defense Advance Research Project Bureau launched the nine major research projects, including XData, the eye of the brain, and worked closely with the government, business and academia.

Chris White, senior director of the U.S. Defense Advance Research Program's Big Data program, said the use of business and academia in the vast data analysis and processing of the progress is a very meaningful thing, the U.S. military is calling for all technical institutions in the field to help the army to improve the capacity of large data development and utilization.

Through cooperation with local enterprises, the U.S. military has made great progress in the development and utilization of large data. According to a spokesman for Lockheed Martin, a key U.S. partner, the company has developed a distributed public ground system (DCGS) that can provide access to sensitive information, surveillance and reconnaissance data from U.S. military services, national institutions and alliance partners.

In addition to technology research and development, the U.S. military has continued to strengthen the construction of large data centers. The U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency is working to create a unified, federated and secure end-to-end data service platform to meet the large data requirements for operational command, training and construction.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense website October 31, 2013, the bureau closed the data center, located in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Fort City, Penn, to transfer its related functions to other defense computing centers to improve the economic efficiency of large data services.

In fact, with the development of large data technology, large data is gradually replacing the traditional reconnaissance means, which becomes the important basis for the senior military to make decision. U.S. intelligence agencies "have not yet formed sufficient organization and capacity" to detect nuclear weapons development in other countries, the US National Security Agency has suggested that the NSA introduce large data technology to search for evidence of the development of nuclear weapons by scientists and engineers in e-mails.

Experts believe that this has proved the important value of large data technology, but also on the other hand to alert us, the data in the maintenance of national security important role.

(Author Unit: Military Academy)

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)