The U.S. military will launch the “Replicator” plan to disrupt the CCP’s human wave tactics – The Epoch Times

[The Epoch Times, November 18, 2023](Comprehensive report by Epoch Times Special Topic Department reporter) The U.S. Department of Defense disclosed that the U.S. military will make strategic adjustments and implement a new strategy using drones and artificial intelligence (AI). The Ministry of National Defense plans to deploy thousands of “autonomous systems” such as drones and unmanned ships using artificial intelligence technology in the next one and a half to two years to cope with the numerical superiority of the Chinese Communist Party’s military.

On November 15, after President Biden held talks with the leader of the Communist Party of China in San Francisco, the U.S. government issued a statement emphasizing that the United States and the CCP are competing. The United States will always defend its interests, values, and allies and partners. The United States supports a free and open society. , connected, prosperous, secure and resilient Indo-Pacific region. The statement reaffirmed the United States’ steely commitment to defending its Indo-Pacific allies. President Biden also called on China to exercise restraint in and around the Taiwan Strait.

The Taiwan Strait, East China Sea and South China Sea are areas where the United States is most concerned and continues to make strategic deployments.

On the 15th local time, the U.S. Marine Corps held the founding ceremony of the 12th Marine Coastal Regiment (MLR) at its camp in Okinawa, Japan. Senior officials from the Japan Self-Defense Forces attended the ceremony. The newly reorganized task force consists of 2,000 officers and soldiers. Its key task is not to engage in large-scale all-out operations, but to exert its mobility. The force will be equipped with an anti-ship missile system (NMESIS) to deter enemy Navy and Marine Corps expeditionary ships, enhance mobility and long-range strike capabilities, and have autonomous air defense capabilities. This is the second Marine Corps Coast Regiment created following the one in Hawaii last March.

Both the United States and Japan believe that the CCP may have a strategic advantage if a war breaks out in the Taiwan Strait. In the process of fighting the CCP, it becomes critical for the frontline troops to prevent the CCP’s attack before reinforcements arrive. The Marine Corps Coastal Regiment was created and deployed on Japan’s southwestern islands, which are most vulnerable to attacks by the CCP, in order to effectively block the CCP’s attack at the first opportunity.

The US military is deploying a major killer system

In addition to traditional and conventional strategic deployment, the United States is accelerating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the military to occupy the strategic commanding heights.

In the Russo-Ukrainian war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, intelligence and high technology played an increasingly important role in the military. Ukraine used drones with certain autonomous capabilities to fight against Russian invasion and became a proving ground for testing AI-driven drone technology.

In order to counter the CCP’s challenge to the strategic position of the United States and prevent the use of force to invade Taiwan, US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks disclosed in her speech on September 6 that the United States will develop thousands of sea, land and air AI systems. Strive to be “small, smart, and low-cost.” She said that the Pentagon announced the “Replicator” program, which will help the United States dismantle the CCP’s advantages of more warships, more missiles, and more troops.

She noted that the system could deter aggression, reduce the number of personnel in a war, and be manufactured, fielded and upgraded at the speed the warfighter needs and without the need for long periods of maintenance.

She emphasized that now is the time to scale up and that our systems are harder to attack and harder to defeat than those of potential competitors. At the same time, we are committed to taking a responsible and ethical approach to artificial intelligence and autonomous systems. The Department of Defense has been a world leader in this effort for more than a decade.

She further emphasized that because we need to urgently break through barriers and catalyze change, we have set an ambitious goal for “replicators”: to deploy thousands of autonomous systems in multiple fields within the next one and a half to two years. .

At the same time, she also emphasized that this strategy is always one of deterrence, because competition does not mean conflict. We must ensure that Chinese leaders wake up every day, consider the risk of aggression, and conclude that today is not the day. Not just today, but every day for the foreseeable future.

In fact, the US military has created troops using drones and AI and deployed them in the Middle East. Today, the U.S. military is officially introducing drones and AI systems to the Indo-Pacific region on a large scale and applying them extensively in multiple fields on land, sea and air. It is becoming increasingly clear that drones and AI will be vigorously used in future wars.

In April this year, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia held a joint military exercise, using a swarm of AI drones to track ground targets such as combat vehicles and armored vehicles. When the drones were flying, the organizers sent updated information to the AI ​​targeting program to target them. It retrains.

Earlier this year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency also provided a “swarm-of-swarms” project, which may combine land, sea and air AI-guided drone swarms.

Ensure victory over the CCP’s “anti-access/area denial” capabilities

The Biden administration announced the “National Defense Strategy” in October last year, aiming to surpass the CCP and contain Russia in the next few years. The report makes it clear that in the long run, the United States is more worried about China than a declining, battered Russia: it is seeking to rewrite international rules, including on commerce, surveillance and influence on other countries. The CCP is “the only country that not only has the intention to reshape the international order, but also has more and more economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to advance this goal” and is “challenging the United States step by step.”

The strategy proposes that in order to strengthen its response to the challenges posed by the CCP, it is necessary to ensure the ability to confront the CCP. Once the CCP invades Taiwan with force, if the U.S. military and its allies cannot prevent the CCP’s anti-ship missile attacks, they will not be able to dispatch aircraft carriers to the waters surrounding Taiwan. The report shows that the United States can break through the CCP’s defense line and fight in the Taiwan Strait. This is a strong deterrent against the CCP’s attempt to invade Taiwan with force.

At present, the CCP’s hypersonic missile technology has reached the level of the world’s advanced countries, with more than 500 nuclear warheads, which is expected to increase to 1,000 by 2030. In addition, for a large number of Chinese soldiers, military aircraft, warships, etc., it is indeed difficult to break through the Chinese Communist Party’s “Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD)” if traditional strategies are adopted. The latest strategic change will fundamentally change this pattern.

Editor in charge: Lian Shuhua#