ground to air missile
By: Arslan Mirza
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Evolution, Modern Combat, Surface To Air Missile, Virtualization

Introduction

With the accelerated development and evolution of information warfare, the complexity, diversity, and uncertainty of the confrontation of offensive and defensive systems have become increasingly prominent. At the same time, with the development of advanced information technology and military applications, battlefield information acquisition and organizational models are also quietly changing, bringing profound changes to the organization of war.

From the large-scale wars that have taken place worldwide in the past decade, we can see that airstrike operations have achieved systematization, informatization, and networking.

The form of warfare under the conditions of information warfare is developing from “platform-centric warfare” to “network-centric warfare”. The core idea of ​​network-centric warfare is to integrate all combat units into the combat information transmission network so that all units participating in combat.

The right information can be obtained at the right place, at the right time, and in the right way, that is, to realize the coordinated joint operation of all combat participating units

In the future, informatization and systematic warfare will break the boundaries between services and domains. It is necessary to integrate various power elements. The concept of “multi-domain warfare” of the US Army is proposed under this background. Fields use cross-domain firepower and maneuvering together to achieve physical, time, location, and psychological advantages, and realize the transition from “service union” to “multi-domain integration”.

To effectively counter the current and future information air strike system, future air defense should develop into a networked and systematic combat model.

The United States pays special attention to the development of coordinated combat command and control and communication systems, such as IBCS, CEC, and the “Next Generation Enterprise Network” project.

Through the command and control combat management and communication (C2BMC) system, the global detection sensors, interception weapons, and The level command and control system are connected into a whole, forming the resultant force of system operations.

In recent years, especially with the continuous development and integration of cloud computing, big data, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, its service areas have also continued to expand

In addition to being widely used in social intelligence, medicine, business, geographic information, biology, and other industries. The world’s major military powers are stepping up research on the application of cloud computing and other military intelligence technologies, hoping to transform information advantages into decision-making advantages and combat advantages through cloud computing and realize the transition to “network-centric warfare”.

With the help of cloud computing virtualization’s network service advantages, research the virtualized surface-to-air missile network cooperative combat mode, realize the optimal allocation of resources and information sharing, and enhance the networked air defense combat capability.

The concept of virtualization

The US “National Institute of Standardization and Technology” (NIST) defines cloud computing as follows: Cloud computing is an operating mode that needs to build configurable computing that can be accessed through the network anytime, anywhere, conveniently, and on-demand Resource sharing pool (such as network, server, storage, application, and service), and the resource sharing pool can quickly provide services and release resources with minimal management work or interaction with service providers.

According to the definition of NIST in the United States, cloud computing is a kind of distributed computing. Based on virtualization technology, the processing program is divided into multiple subroutines through the network, the calculation is allocated on a resource pool composed of a large number of computers, and the processing results are returned to the user.

Computing resources exist on the network and are collectively referred to as “clouds”, which are abstractions of various resources. Cloud computing is a supercomputing model that integrates large-scale and dynamically scalable computing, storage, data, applications, and other distributed computing resources for collaborative work.

In essence, cloud computing realizes the reasonable allocation of computing resources through the virtual organization, allocation and use of computing resources, avoids duplication and waste of computing processes, enables users to obtain computing power, storage space, and information services on demand, and improves computing resources the utilization rate.

Therefore, virtualization is the core of cloud computing infrastructure and the foundation of cloud computing development.

In cloud computing, data, applications, and services are stored in the cloud. The cloud is the user’s supercomputer

Cloud computing requires that all resources be managed by this supercomputer. However, the differences between various hardware devices make them compatibility is very poor, which poses a challenge for unified resource management.

Virtualization technology can abstract the underlying architecture such as physical resources, making the differences and compatibility of devices transparent to upper-layer applications, allowing the cloud to uniformly manage the diverse resources at the bottom.

Virtualization technology means that computing software runs on a virtual basis instead of on a real basis

It can expand the capacity of hardware, simplify the software reconfiguration process, reduce software virtual machine-related expenses, and support a wider range of operating systems.

Virtualization technology can realize the isolation of software applications from the underlying hardware. It includes a split mode that divides a single resource into multiple virtual resources and an aggregation mode that integrates multiple resources into one virtual resource.

Virtualization technology can be divided into storage virtualization, computing virtualization, network virtualization, etc. According to objects, and computing virtualization is further divided into system-level virtualization, application-level virtualization, and desktop virtualization.

In the realization of cloud computing, computing system virtualization is the foundation of all services and applications built on the “cloud”.

Virtualization technology is currently mainly used in CPU, operating system, server, and other aspects, and it is the best solution to improve service efficiency.

Advantages of virtualization in military applications

Cloud computing technology has a potentially comprehensive and positive impact in the military field, the U.S. military has been committed to exploring and researching the use of cloud computing technology in recent years.

The U.S. Air Force recently proposed the concept of “combat cloud”, trying to maximize virtualization through cloud computing. Exploit the potential of advanced electronic information systems equipped with US Air Force combat aircraft, realize collaborative processing based on high-speed interconnection networks, and make full use of the intelligence and data information obtained by the entire combat formation.

This information can flow freely on demand throughout the network. Based on the comprehensive deployment of various combat forces, the concept of coordinated operations will be expanded, systemized, and specific.

The application of virtualization-based cloud computing technology in networked operations will make network collaboration more specific, more oriented to combat tasks, and will also bring subversive changes to future combat models.

Improve the effectiveness of coordinated operations

The core of cloud computing is the data exchange of each node based on the high-speed interconnection network. The virtual construction of the resource pool that each node can obtain on-demand, and the operation and management of the resource pool are as autonomous as possible, and the acquisition and release of resources are simple and fast.

Interconnect all combat nodes in the sea, land, air, and space in the combat space into a seamless, distributed operation, self-organization, and self-healing comprehensive information system, which is the so-called cross-combat domain and cross-dimensional comprehensive information system, Regard the functions of the combat platform such as reconnaissance, strike, logistics, etc.

As a shared resource pool, based on the system to achieve seamless sharing of information, multi-source integration, and data on-demand acquisition, and strive to achieve cross-domain combat capabilities such as detection, command and fire strike The integration of, logistics, etc.

In the way of system capability sharing, gives full play to the capabilities of each node and combat system, uniformly deploys on-demand, improves the overall combat effectiveness of each combat unit and system, and maximizes the effectiveness of networked collaborative operations.

Photo by israel palacio on Unsplash

Improve resource utilization

Virtualization technology provides a dynamic access resource pool for the combat system, incorporating all currently available equipment resources into the resource pool. In this way, the system has strong task scheduling capabilities.

When the system load increases rapidly during wartime, it can quickly apply for expansion resources, and when the resource demand is not high, system resources can be reduced. Distributed resources, network bandwidth, and even information flow can be allocated according to the needs of the client so that resources can support more users at the same time, which overcomes the limitations of the hardware.

Virtualization technology enables higher utilization of hardware computing resources and can improve resource utilization efficiency in wartime to meet the different needs of users at all levels.

Improve command and control efficiency

The information flow structure of traditional combat command and control is mostly a “tree-like” structure. This hierarchical model corresponds to the existing command model and intelligence collection, processing, and distribution model.

Although the structure is obvious and clear, it can be better realized. The balance of efficiency and capability. However, with the rapid increase of data on the battlefield and the increasingly urgent need for data support for coordinated operations of various combat units, the existing hierarchical structure has become an obstacle to the flow of data on-demand in some aspects.

And once the central node fails, the entire system is paralyzed. Virtualization technology uses an architecture similar to a heterogeneous structure to break the isolation between different levels and build a flat “cloud” structure combat command and control structure.

This distributed command and control mode will provide extremely high levels of combat command. Flexibility, showing more efficient characteristics.

Network co-operative combat mode of the surface-to-air missile-based system on virtualization

To meet the needs of future information warfare, implement the concept of networked warfare capability, and solve the real problems of traditional ground-to-air missile weapon system command and control architecture, poor flexibility and openness, poor network reconfiguration and reconstruction capabilities, and insufficient firepower-level cooperative combat capabilities.

The specific discussion is as follows

a) Broadband wireless autonomous collaboration, dynamic network reconfiguration.

Facing the needs of coordinated operations, the use of communication systems with strong hardware performance and support for software upgrades enables the communication network to achieve flat weapon system combat equipment and non-centralized networking, supports dynamic network access and disconnection of various combat equipment nodes, and supports the battlefield environment Real-time dynamic reconstruction of networked collaborative operations.

b) Decoupling of combat resources and dynamic resource allocation.

Adopting the virtualization design concept, based on the concept of “resource decoupling”, resource pooling of resources such as detection and tracking, command control, fire control, guidance, and launching in the weapon system is used to build a weapon system resource pool, and the command and control center can deploy according to operations Dynamically gather the relationship with the task to form a virtual combat unit to ensure optimal interception in a complex and highly dynamic battlefield environment.

Communication network architecture

ground-to-air missile networked coordinated operations adopt a flat network structure, based on a networked coordinated communication network, builds a distributed, multi-hop reachable, real-time or non-real-time business mixed interactive network, realizes distributed networking, and supports network without a center.

The communication function and status of each node in the network are equal, and any two points can transmit voice, data, image, and other services through wired or wireless channels, which can realize the information-sharing ability of “discovering at one point, knowing the whole network”.

Each combat unit inside can achieve “access to the network wherever it happens”. At the same time, using environmental intelligent perception technology, according to the electromagnetic environment characteristics of the battlefield, geographic location, communication distance, information volume, etc.

Combat application architecture

Surface-to-air missile networked coordinated operations adopt the “edge cloud-end” architecture. The “Edge Cloud” is deployed in each combat unit to summarize the information of each device in this unit and provide centralized computing and information services for it “End” refers to the physical equipment that interacts with the “edge cloud”, including equipment entities such as radar and optoelectronics, and human-computer interaction terminals such as control seats.

The “edge cloud” uses servers as the hardware platform and uses virtualization technology to integrate the server’s computing, storage, and data resources to form a computing resource pool and storage resource pool to provide support for distributed computing and storage.

When a computing service fails, computing resources can start backup services as needed to ensure the flexible organization of combat mission channels.

The specific functions are as follows

1. The “end” equipment of the combat unit can be resourced, and equipment such as radar and photoelectric can be virtualized as available combat resources.

2. The algorithm model and the strategy model can be decoupled and packaged into services.

3. It can act as a gateway, publish resources and services, and push services to designated consumer nodes.

The “end” requests computing resources from the “edge cloud” in a service-oriented manner and performs data interaction with it. The “end” hardware uses different hardware platforms according to different equipment, and conventionally is the equipment node in the combat unit.

With the help of the “edge cloud” end management service, the virtualized ground-to-air missile networked cooperative combat mode can break the strong closed-loop state of combat resources in the past, and integrate the detection unit, tracking unit, fire control unit, guidance unit and launch unit of the weapon system Combat resources (including missiles) are directly connected to the collaborative communication network to provide various services.

The command and control system relies on the “edge cloud” to coordinate and dispatch these functional units in time and space to form optimal combat resource allocation rules and build The virtual combat unit organizes and implements collaborative operations centered on the virtual combat unit and supported by resource services, to realize the reasonable allocation of combat resources in interception effectiveness.

Combat mode design

In the process of networked coordinated operations of surface-to-air missiles, the system always guarantees a command center.

In the normal mode, the command center is the command vehicle. On a very large scale, other combat vehicles can be selected to be upgraded to the command center. The command center is used to provide data and computing resources and can aggregate all the detection resources in the system to form an air situation resource pool.

At the same time, according to the combat situation, the system’s tracking resource pool, guidance resource pool, and launch resource pool are optimally combined to form cloud combat capabilities.

If the battle environment requires two or more systems to coordinate, there will be two or more command nodes on the battlefield, and the edge cloud data of each command node will be automatically integrated, and one command node can be upgraded to the main command center, and the remaining command nodes will take on backup tasks.

Besides, it can also provide computing resources to load balance system calculations. Each combat unit connected to any command node can obtain the required services and perform its own tasks.

In this mode, the edge cloud of the command center receives real-time internal and external combat information of the system, calls related services of the edge cloud to display comprehensive situation information, and accepts manual operations.

The edge cloud of each combat unit aggregates its own vehicle tracking resources, guidance resources, and launch resources to the command center

The command center acquires system detection resources, receives real-time internal air situation information and ground status information in the system, and uses edge cloud-related services to perform unified filtering of resources, air situation fusion, and multi-station positioning to form a unified air and ground situation, and receive the system in real-time, Various internal resources, and aggregate the above information into a resource pool.

The command center dynamically optimizes the allocation of firepower resources according to the resource pool and summarizes the combat resources it belongs to. The system resources can be allocated to each combat unit in manual or automatic mode, which is virtualized as a virtual combat unit.

In the course of operations, the command center can designate another command node as the active and standby command node. The active and standby command node performs a hot backup of key data in the edge cloud of the command center.

When the command center cannot continue operations, the command node can be upgraded to a command center, To perform related command tasks. The active and standby command nodes will automatically select the secondary and standby command nodes, and send key data to the secondary and standby command nodes for hot backup.

Main technical approaches

The so-called dynamic allocation of combat resources is to coordinate the use of resources to maximize combat effectiveness. Combat resources include tracking resources, guidance resources, missile resources, etc. To achieve a dynamic allocation of tracking resources, dynamic allocation of guidance resources, and dynamic allocation of missile resources.

1. Dynamic allocation of tracking resources, through dynamic adjustment of tracking targets, to maximize the total benefit of target tracking.

2. Dynamic allocation of guidance resources. By flexibly forming a firepower enable chain, the guidance resources and missile resources are used in a balanced manner to avoid shortcomings or waste of resource use.

3. Missile resource planning selects a quantitative plan for the optimal use of firepower on the target through the constraints of boundary benefits.

According to whether the combat targets are confrontational, they are divided into non-confrontational (such as cruise missiles, some types of unmanned aerial vehicles, guided bombs) and confrontational targets (such as fixed-wing manned aircraft, armed helicopters, etc, anti-radiation missile carriers, anti-radiation missiles).

Radiation missile two cases are considered. This distinction is due to the different enthusiasm of the strategies adopted for the two types of goals.

For non-adversarial targets

There is no need to consider the countermeasures of the target. It is a purely optimized resource allocation problem.

For adversarial targets

The confrontation and tactical behavior of the target need to be considered, and the use and allocation of resources need to be properly arranged through the use of resources. Induce and guide the enemy’s behavior to the most favorable situation for shooting.

Networked collaboration mechanism technology

In the traditional platform-centric warfare mode, the sensors and missile resources of each combat unit are controlled by the firepower of the unit to form a closed loop of control, tracking, and guidance of the combat unit.

Each combat unit accepts the unified command of the upper-level command and control system to form a unified situation field. Optimal allocation of goals.

Under the networked cooperative combat mode, through distributed perception, on-demand integration and intelligent management and control of sensor resources, firepower resources, and launch resources, comprehensive and optimized use of various platform resources.

The wide-area spatial distribution of resources in information, signals, Different levels such as radiofrequency are shared to realize the system combat capability against the enemy.

This mode is a cloud combat mode under the concept of networked combat, and its core is the virtualization and pooling of combat resources.

Conclusion

With the development of world weaponry and military technology, new technologies such as cloud computing, big data, and other network deepening development will have a profound impact on the development of major battlefields in the future.

In response to the needs of networked operations, this paper applies cloud computing virtualization technology to networked coordinated operations of surface-to-air missiles, studies the virtualized networked coordinated operations model, designs a distributed and flat communication architecture, and establishes an “edge cloud” and The “end” combat application structure makes the organization of coordinated operations more flexible in the form of service.

At the same time, due to the use of backup and fault-tolerant processing, the system reliability is further increased, and the degree of information about future air defense operations will be greatly improved. Improve networked collaborative operations capabilities.

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