"If the war breaks out tomorrow, the battle will have started yesterday." If we want to win the war of "tomorrow", we must be prepared for the "day after tomorrow". Novels with science fiction themes containing military elements, new weapons, new tactics, and new combinations of people and weapons and equipment in movies can be said to be repeated deductions of the "acquired" war. Although military science fiction cannot be regarded as an accurate prediction of future wars, it shows the infinite possibilities of future war styles and changes in the military field.
After the mid-1990s, with the development of computer special effects technology, more and more military science fiction novels were brought to the screen: "The Rise of the Cobra Force" showed super individual equipment and incredible nanoweapons armed to the teeth; "Top Secret Flight" presented the majestic posture of galloping on the future battlefield ; "Edge of Tomorrow" showed the super combat capability of equipped mechanical powered exoskeleton soldiers. Science fiction and military are blended in reality, and military science fiction has become a powerful driving force for the development of weapons and equipment, the research of combat theory, the establishment of military institutions, and military disciplines.
U.S. military weapons and equipment
U.S. military weapons and equipment have typical science fiction. Electromagnetic railgun, powered exoskeleton armor, laser weapons, flying Hummers, unmanned fighters... These weapons that seem to be people's ultimate imagination of future wars that only appear in the Hollywood science fiction blockbuster " Transformers " have been realized by the US military one by one.
Not only are the cool weapons and equipment gradually becoming a reality in the movie, but even the "King Kongs" who can transform at will are gradually entering the real battlefield. A research project called Programmable Substances is being conducted by the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). "Programmable substances" not only increase equipment flexibility but also reduce weight and volume burden, thereby greatly simplifying soldier equipment. In the future, soldiers on the battlefield will no longer be overwhelmed by their heavy backpacks. They only need to carry a certain amount of "programmable substances" and turn them into the weapons or tools they need by issuing instructions, including ordnance, smart military uniforms, remote-controlled attack robots that can enter the bunker, and even transportation vehicles. Once the "programmable substance" is successfully developed and applied to the military field, it will become a revolutionary new weapon.
"Captain America" Steve Rogers in Marvel comics stimulates the human potential because he was injected with the government's super soldier serum. He has a high intelligence and strength, agility and physique that surpasses ordinary people. He can quickly metabolize the fatigue substances in his muscles and maintain a vigorous combat state at all times. This is not only the imagination of super soldiers in the comics. As early as 2014, the US Defense Advanced Research and Project Agency established a Biotechnology Office and carried out research on rapid relief of muscle fatigue and 7 days and 7 nights of sleeplessness. It used brain-computer interface technology to improve soldiers' cognitive ability on the battlefield. Soldiers identified 100 threatening targets in 3 seconds, greatly improving soldiers' ability to respond quickly on the battlefield.
Get out of the war form of science fiction works
In 1995, Major General of the Air Force and Professor of National Defense University Qiao Liang published a long military novel "The Doomsday" reflecting his in-depth thinking on the future war form. We have insight into the attack form of future terrorist use information technology as weapons; we have proposed the "Flying Army" war concept, and will use large-scale aircraft subsidence as the main force of the war. In 1999, Qiao Liang proposed the "Super Limit Warfare" theory in " Super Limit Warfare ", believing that there is no difference between battlefields and non-battlefields in future wars, and anti-terrorism war, resource war, financial war and cyber warfare will all appear. In the book, he predicted the occurrence of the "9/11" terrorist attack two years later. The concept of new weapons and new tactics that appear in these science fiction works is not only forward-looking, but also warlike.
A best-selling military science fiction novel "Ghost Fleet" published by the United States in 2015, describing the fantasy of "a future war between China and Russia joining forces with the United States."As a military novel with extraordinary "author, content, and influence", this book is not only selected as a recommendation book for the US military, but also provides decision-making reference for the White House National Security Council, and becomes a reference for military research and lectures.
The novel first describes the military situation of China, the United States and Russia in the Pacific, China's war philosophy and logic of going out. The battlefield of the Sino-US and Russia war extended from various fields of land, sea and air conditioning to bars, universities, docks, and optoelectronics. In the book, the combat concept is mainly "air-sea integrated warfare", and the war concept of seizing the "initiative" of war, "maintaining and developing initiative", "asymmetric combat", as well as blinding in the space field, long-range raids, front-line combat branches, the US military's hybrid war theory, drone "swarm combat" and cyberspace combat can all be found in "Ghost Fleet". The fictional science fiction novel "Ghost Fleet" is also a prediction of future wars.
Military science fiction has become an important means of military training
US military uses military science fiction games as a training method, promote the improvement of weapons, equipment and tactics, and reduce accidental casualties and training costs. US Army As the most innovative creator in the game industry, as early as 2009, the US Army developed the military version of the Armed Raid computer game for tactical research, command decision-making and collaborative training.
Infantry offensive and defensive positions, infantry and tank coordination; sniper assassination, reconnaissance and survey, in-depth destruction of special forces; mechanized assembly of armored personnel carriers ; logistics vehicles supply, aviation transport; Air Force combat departments and artillery fire support, etc. Training subjects that consume a lot of manpower and material resources in actual military exercises can also achieve similar training effects in the game system of "Armed Raid". In the game, three-dimensional technology is used to develop all valuable architectural and landform characteristics in the entire combat area into maps, providing weapon configurations and digital camouflage combat uniforms for both offensive and defensive sides, important factors related to civilians, etc. All-weather simulation of all possible situations in the modern land battlefield allows each individual unit participating in the battle to further improve the experience of collaborative combat. The game can also replay the entire combat process and repeatedly study the problem of combat.
The US Navy has also established a "War Game Research Laboratory". The various naval equipment control games it develops have become an important means for naval troops and school motto combat personnel. The US Air Force actively cooperates with computer game dealers in Hollywood and Silicon Valley to jointly develop game software for promoting the "Aerospace Leader Training Program". Military science fiction games have become an important means to improve the US military's "actual combat" command capabilities and design future wars.
Looking at the Future from Science Fiction Works War
2016 The first "Mad Scientist Science and Technology Writing Competition" calls on soldiers to write creatively on the "War from 2030 to 2050", and requires participants to imagine various changes that may occur in science and technology, society, economy, etc., describe the future war environment, encourage breaking conventional thinking, and looking forward to a rapidly changing world. American military strategist John Collins commented on the event: "Looking at the future war from science fiction is very combative."
This science fiction creation is no longer a pure literary creation, but a US military preparation activity. Using military science fiction literature to study future wars is not utopianism, and imagination has become the source of inspiration for future military research. Just as many scientific and technological achievements today, such as submarines, artificial satellites, and communication relay technologies, actually exist in science fiction novels a hundred or two hundred years ago. The new combination of people and weapons in science fiction works will inevitably lead to the formation of new tactics and tactics, thus giving birth to a new form of war. The use of new weapons and new tactics, such as machine guns in the Battle of the Somme and atomic bombs exploded on Hiroshima, will greatly affect the development of the war.
Looking at the future war from science fiction works, using the creativity of military science fiction writers to combine the latest technological achievements of existing social science, natural science, and information science to study future technological development and predict military theories. These fantasies can become the research direction of future wars.Starting from military science fiction, preparing for the "acquired" war, transcending the constraints of traditional thinking modes, further exploring various possibilities of future wars, and thus preparing for the "acquired" war. (Guangming Daily Client Zhang Wen)
