At the end of December 2015, the Strategic Support Forces (SSP) were formed as part of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA), the definition is also found: "Strategic Support Forces." Two years have passed, but very little is still known about this military formation, Beijing keeps information about the SSP secret. It is known that the Strategic Support Forces are entrusted with the tasks of conducting reconnaissance, including space reconnaissance, as well as carrying out actions in cyberspace, but there is no detailed information on the structure and tasks of these troops.
The Strategic Support Forces are the youngest of the branches of the Chinese army. The PLA JSP was formed with the aim of gaining superiority over potential adversaries in space and cyberspace. Their main tasks are called: the organization and conduct of space reconnaissance; collection, analysis and processing of information received from reconnaissance satellites, as well as radar and optoelectronic reconnaissance means; the management of the nationally developed radio navigation satellite system known as the Baidou, as well as the strategic early warning and control of outer space; conducting various operations in cyberspace. This is how the authors of "Foreign Military Review" see the purpose of the SSP.
It is worth noting that Beijing has repeatedly emphasized the fact that the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated precision, long-range, smart and unmanned weapons, including those built with elements of stealth technology, poses a potential threat to the country. There is talk in China that outer space and cyberspace are turning into areas of decisive battle in the future. In addition, Beijing points out that the process of integrating information technology into the course of warfare ("informatization") is constantly accelerating. In this context, the creation of the BSC is a response to the challenges of the new era.
The activities of the PLA Strategic Support Forces are classified. At the same time, the decision of the Chinese government to unite 4 or 5 military departments into a single structure, which today acts on the same level with the country's navy and air force, suggests that Beijing is very serious about the possibility of waging non-kinetic wars. In the PRC, non-kinetic weapons are considered their "trump card", and the SSP is the force that will help the traditionally weaker strategic forces and the Chinese army to defeat such a powerful rival as the American army, military journalist Bill Hertz believes in his article "The new strategic support forces of the PLA remain a mystery. "Published in the" Asia Times"
The Strategic Support Forces of the Chinese Armed Forces represent the structure that combines strategic capabilities that are very important from Beijing's point of view - superiority in cyberspace, space, electronics, intelligence and information. These forces are directly subordinate to the Military Council of the CPC Central Committee, and not to the PLA General Staff. At the same time, it is not known exactly how the SSP and the regional commands of the Chinese army relate, as well as what role they are assigned in the event of a military conflict.
According to experts from the CNAB, the Center for New American Security, Beijing, with the help of the Strategic Support Forces, will be able to make much more active use of high military technologies - from the capabilities of artificial intelligence to advanced weapons - in the field of electronic warfare and cyberspace. The CNAB report says: "The PLA's Strategic Support Forces are designed to improve the country's cyberspace capability, and China's machine learning and Big data research will help reap the benefits of the future." In a broad sense, “big data” is spoken of as a socio-economic phenomenon that is directly related to the emergence of technical capabilities to analyze huge amounts of data, and the resulting transformational consequences. The CNAB believes that researchers from the University of Information Technology, collaborating with the PLA SSP, are using the capabilities of artificial intelligence to defend against large-scale cyber attacks.
PLA Strategic Support Forces badge
Chinese experts are working to use machine learning and artificial intelligence in "cognitive electronic warfare" - the ability of aircraft and other weapons systems, when they enter a war zone, to quickly recognize all existing electronic threats and effectively defend against them. Also, the Chinese armed forces are funding work that will allow in the future to quickly and efficiently track any radio technical signals.
Most Western analysts observing the increasing military power of the PRC most often mention the SSP and warn that very little is known about these troops. The most detailed information about the Strategic Support Forces was presented in the annual report of the Commission on the assessment of military and economic relations between the United States and the PRC. It is reported that since its inception in December 2015, the SSP began to conduct PLA operations in space, cyberspace, as well as in the field of information and electronics.
The General Staff of the PLA was reorganized in the course of reforms in 2015, after which the SSP included the radio and radio technical intelligence services (the Third Department of the General Staff of the PLA), as well as the electronic warfare service (the Fourth Department of the General Staff of the PLA). According to the report prepared, the military intelligence service (Second Department of the PLA General Staff) was also included in the SSP. China's military intelligence collects, processes and analyzes data, carries out military intelligence and conducts special operations. Apparently, at present, the JSP is engaged in military intelligence and surveillance, closely cooperating with all types of the armed forces of China, and also additionally dealing with the issues of "information" warfare.
US intelligence officials believe that the Second and Third Departments of the PLA General Staff are involved in cyberattacks on American companies and government agencies. Back in May 2014, the US Department of Justice brought charges against 5 PLA hackers who were associated with the Third Department. It is also believed that the SSP are involved in the creation of advanced weapons, among which may be directed energy weapons. In a possible cyber war, they will be able to conduct reconnaissance, defensive and offensive operations, actively interfering with the networks of a potential adversary.
The report states that two Pentagon analysts believe that in a possible war in space, the PLA's Strategic Support Forces will conduct offensive operations and carry out actions to provide engineering support for the work of the space group. This work will include assistance in positioning, ensuring stable communications, navigation, etc. The SSP will also be engaged in space reconnaissance and surveillance, including monitoring the launches of ballistic missiles and spacecraft.
American analysts refer to the offensive capabilities of the SSP the possibility of using three types of anti-satellite missiles, as well as land-based directed energy weapons. It is believed that the Chinese army has satellites that can get close to the enemy satellites and inflict damage on them. The PRC has conducted 6 tests of such satellites. The main task of the SSP, according to the American side, is similar to the concept of restricting and denying access and maneuver; these forces will focus on supporting Chinese troops in the fight against the enemy (mainly the American army) near the territory of the PRC and the Chinese coast. At the same time, members of the American Commission on the Assessment of Military and Economic Relations between the United States and the PRC agree that the created SSPs increase the military power of Beijing and allow the country to more effectively resist the United States in the Indian-Pacific region.
Another US analyst, Heritage Foundation's Ding Cheng, argues that the arrival of the Strategic Support Forces in the PLA reflects Beijing's desire for "information dominance," which the Chinese military believes will be necessary to win the wars of the future. James Fanell, retired captain of the first rank of the US Navy, who previously led the intelligence of the US Pacific Fleet, notes that very little is still known about the activities of the SSP, and their entire work is shrouded in secrecy. "Xi Jinping created the PLA Strategic Support Force two years ago, and today they support the PLA's non-kinetic defensive and offensive operations while in the shadows," Fanell said. "Satellites for spectral research, a new synthetic aperture radar, all this allows the PRC to more effectively control sea territories, or take, for example, the integration of cyber warfare specialists - thanks to all of the above, the combat capability of the Chinese army is growing every day, and the SSP is actively helping in this." …
Defending against cyberattacks by the PRC's Strategic Support Forces will be a challenge for Washington and its allies. At the same time, they themselves will have to create and improve offensive cyber weapons that will be able to bypass the defenses of the PLA. James Fanell notes that the Pentagon's budget should include cost items to counter existing cyber threats from China.
The United States traditionally considers the cyber threat from the Russian Federation and China to be very high. News regarding this problem appears in the information space regularly. For example, on November 30, 2017, Elaine Duke, the acting head of the US Department of Homeland Security, during her speech at a hearing in the House of Representatives of the Congress, expressed her opinion about the "cyber threat emanating from Russia and the PRC." According to her, if you count on a ten-point scale, then she would stop at an assessment of 7-8 points.
And at the very beginning of 2017, the Director of US National Intelligence James Clapper, speaking in Congress, noted that China does not stop cyber espionage against the United States. According to him, cyber espionage by Beijing continues, although there has been a slight decrease in its activity. The reason for calling James Clapper to Congress with a report was the publication of information that the Chinese had stolen 22 million files with sensitive information, including those belonging to American intelligence.
The collapse of the Soviet Union significantly changed the priorities of China's grand strategy. Since China is no longer threatened by an invasion by a first-class ground army from the continent, the focus of strategic planning has shifted towards the sea. Focus on Taiwan and the United States. Most likely, Beijing is proceeding from the assumption that any serious conflict between Beijing and Taipei will cause Washington to intervene. In order to fend off such interference, China actually turned to a national version of the "strategy of indirect actions." Within the framework of such a strategy, power, most often, is subordinated to diplomacy, and it is usually used to deter the enemy, and not to crush him. Unable to quickly form an ocean-going fleet that could compete with the American one, the PRC relied on other weapons systems.
In particular, the creation of a powerful air defense system on the coast, the creation of a large "mosquito" fleet of the near ocean zone, the development and deployment of numerous cruise and ballistic missiles in non-nuclear warheads, allow China to keep under attack almost all US bases in the western Pacific Ocean and significantly impede actions fleet of the United States in the waters washing Taiwan. Within the framework of the bet on other weapons systems, it seems completely justified to create the Strategic Support Forces, whose role in a world where information, control over it and its dissemination are becoming more and more important.
Their creation also fits into China's plans to become a powerful cyberpower within the 13th five-year plan (2016-2020). China, as part of a new five-year plan, intends to increase its technical capabilities to control cyberspace, as well as to promote a multilateral, transparent and democratic international system for Internet governance. In addition, China "will strengthen the fight against enemies in the sovereign online space and increase control over public sentiment on the Internet."
Reforms of the PLA, according to Chinese military historians, designed for the period until 2049, also pay great attention to informatization. The main goal of the reforms is to create an informatized armed forces that will be able to effectively operate in military conflicts using information technology. The main content of the modernization of the PLA at the present stage of their existence is the informatization and computerization of the armed forces, strengthening their combat capabilities by improving the interaction of all types of troops during joint operations. The Chinese leadership sees the ultimate goal of the ongoing military reforms in the creation of such armed forces that will effectively carry out the tasks of nuclear deterrence, successfully operate in modern high-tech wars (on a local scale) and successfully conduct anti-terrorist operations.
Chinese and foreign military analysts today agree that the three main areas of activity in which the SSP will operate will be the space direction (providing space reconnaissance, navigation and satellite communications), the electronic direction (electronic warfare, jamming, disruption, and decrease in the effectiveness of command and control systems and communications of a potential enemy, as well as protection of their own troops from similar actions by the enemy) and cyberspace (carrying out attacks on the enemy's computer networks, as well as the defense of their own national network resources). The PLA's strategic support forces have united most of the units and subunits that previously worked on solving similar tasks as part of the ground forces, the country's navy and air force, as well as various directorates of the PLA General Staff disbanded as part of the reform being carried out. It is noted that a separate task of the SSP will be information support for the political and military leadership of China in peace and wartime.
