New information technology applied to Chinese Artillery Force training

June 9, 2011 by Liang Pengfei, Zhang Qi / PLA Daily – defpro.com

In early summer, a remote off-site synchronous online research and training activity was held in the three-level headquarters of the Second Artillery Force (SAF), the bases and academies, and the missile brigades and regiments of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Information grid, materials internet and other new-generation information technology (IT) achievements entered the classrooms and training grounds to accelerate the transformation of the combat power generation mode.

For days, 10-odd IT experts and professors from the PLA and the SAF took turns to hold special-topic lectures on cutting-edge information technology, key supporting technology and emerging information-based operation theories that are much needed in future wars. More than 40,000 persons/times of officers and men from the command-and-staff organs at all levels and SAF units of the PLA simultaneously learned and exchanged online, and jointly discussed how to resolve "bottlenecks” that affect the strategic missile force to further improve the information-system-based systematic combat capability.

At the scene, the reporters learned that the SAF at all levels applied information support technologies including information grid, satellite communication and others to military training, and gradually embedded into the operation command platforms and weapon and equipment terminals. Tang Yongji, director of Communication Department under the SAF Headquarters of the PLA, told the reporters that these new ideas, new technologies and new achievements would maximize the leading role of information in generating combat power.