Since this autumn, an armored division of the Beijing Military Area Command has adopted a new approach to playing "the Blue Army" in military drills and has basically lived up to the requirements of the future information war. In the new drills, electronic assaults, remote strikes and air strikes are combined with cyber attacks including logic bombs and parameters revisions. The expanded role of the "Blue Army" has made the drills more real.

　　In the past, because of limited drill grounds, poor equipment, fighting formation, firepower allocation and others, those drills were far from being real and many of their elements needed to be improved to simulate future war. In order to conduct these drills in a more real manner and confront the "Red Army" with a foe worthy of its steel, the armored regiment playing the "Blue Army" against the "Red Army" this year not only called out all tanks and armored vehicles, but also strengthened the roles of communications, special fightings, technical reconnaissance and army aviation.

　　The "Blue Army" deployed its troops, equipment and weapons in a more than 10, 000 square kilometers area according to the requirements of a real battlefield. Multi-dimensional spheres including the ground, sky, space were all part of the drills. The "Blue Army" was no longer under the direct control of the directing board of the drills and only the initial status was set. All the information gathering and decision-making were left to the independent "Blue Army". The "Blue Army" upgraded its commanding system and digitalized its equipment and pooled all land and air resources together including artillery troops, field operation commanding vehicles, advanced mobile broadcasting stations. Special staff of the "Blue Army" were trained to study cyber attacks and maximize the application of information technology in the drills. A strong rival forced the "Red Army" to try its best and fully test its abilities.

　　In mid-October, the "Blue Army", led by Wei Wenhao, regiment commander, used strong electromagnetic signals to jam the devices of the "Red Army". Officers from the "Red Army", after hard drills, commented that they had realized the gap between drills and a real war. They believed that hard drills that resembled real war would pay off in the future.

　　By Li Biao and Li Wancheng

　　(November 4, PLA Daily)