China’s Vision of the Future Network-Centric Battlefield: Cyber, Space and Electromagnetic Asymmetric Challenges to the United States

This article examines the intersection of the evolving Chinese command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR) military paradigm, with the cyber, space, and electronic warfare asymmetric challenges posed to the U.S. on the future network-centric battlefield. In contrast to China’s conventional weapon systems, far less ink has been spilled on Chinese thinking in the development of the critical support architecture, which enables and enhances China’s war-fighting capabilities. A central argument this article makes is that the technologically advanced offensive weapons fused by C4ISR systems, pose greater threats to the U.S. than the sum of their parts. The destabilizing dynamics emerging in the Asia-Pacific will likely increase the incentives for both sides to strike first, and preemptively against the others C4ISR systems.