From 'Each Managing Its Own Segment' to 'Cloud-Network Integration': The Barriers to Data Fusion Have Been Broken
In the height of summer, inside a certain unit's server room, indicator lights on specialized equipment blink on and off, and rows of servers emit a low hum. An engineer from the unit stares intently at his screen, fingers moving rapidly across the keyboard, sending out streams of data.
Thousands of kilometers away, inside a certain joint command post, numbers flash continuously across a massive screen. Situational data from participating units across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and other services updates in real time, converging and fusing together, as a joint operational picture takes shape before the command and control stations.
"Combat units belonging to different services and branches share a single network and a common 'language.' Even when participating units are separated by thousands of kilometers, battlefield situational information flows without obstruction." Inside the command post, a commander told reporters that thanks to the data and information support provided by the unit's technical team, their awareness of the battlefield situation is clearer and their grasp of it more comprehensive.
"In the past, different units' databases each formed their own systems with no interconnection—like isolated 'information islands.' Now, data flows into a shared information hub and can reach all the way to the terminal nodes." A senior engineer from the unit explained that over the past several years, he has led a team of engineers with an average age under 27—going up to plateaus, onto islands, and into the Gobi Desert—to build an "information expressway" for data residing in different network domains, allowing all types of operational data to circulate on a single link.
The starting point of this exploration was a failure. During a joint exercise and training event, an Air Force pilot, after receiving target designation from a neighboring unit, discovered that the same target had two different names in the two units' data systems. On the support situational display, data formats varied: some were precise to two decimal places, others only to the nearest whole number.
With fleeting windows of opportunity, Engineer Feng from the accompanying support unit had no choice but to export data from both units' systems and verify them line by line. By the time he had manually completed the data "alignment," the optimal strike window had long passed.
"If the systems cannot speak the same language, combat operations cannot be effectively conducted—let alone winning future wars." At the after-action review, Engineer Feng's words struck the team members deeply: decision windows in command are fleeting, yet cross-network information transfer still depended on manual transcription and physical disk delivery. Breaking through this barrier was urgent.
In the period that followed, Engineer Feng and his team members pooled their ideas and settled on an approach to breaking the impasse. The first step: issue each unit's data system an "identity card." They went through each system one by one, registering every item, ensuring every system had a unified "name tag." The second step: build a "translator" for the systems. They developed a data conversion component capable of transforming commands that different platforms could not read into a unified standard format.
"In the past, personnel at terminal positions had to carry specialized equipment to configure interfaces; now, cloud services can provide the conversion." Speaking of the change, Engineer Feng said with pride.
Once the language was unified, "physical isolation" became the new obstacle—data could only circulate within each unit's dedicated network. Senior Engineer Gao offered an analogy: "Even though everyone speaks 'Mandarin' and can understand each other face to face, the moment a wall is placed between them, the other side can hear nothing at all."
Senior Engineer Gao led the technical backbone personnel in another round of problem-solving. They built a shared cloud platform, standardized data management… After a period of effort, the "walls" were broken down and different units achieved data connectivity.
As Senior Engineer Gao opened an animated demonstration, he told reporters: "We also equipped each node with an independent physical isolation platform to ensure data flows in a single direction, securely and reliably." The platform has now passed security testing by higher authorities.
The technical team's efforts quickly produced results on the exercise and training ground. During one joint exercise, after a naval vessel captured target data, it was simultaneously uploaded through a cross-network link to a land-based command terminal in real time. At the same time, personnel from a marine unit maneuvering in unfamiliar terrain needed only to tap the screen of a certain type of terminal device for the latest target coordinates and intelligence information to appear clearly.
"In the past, requesting data across domains was a very cumbersome affair. Now, as long as you connect to this terminal system, you can call up whatever data you need at any time, wherever you are." Speaking of the change, an officer from the marine unit could not conceal his delight—the network barriers of physical isolation that once existed have been quietly broken by cross-network links.
What surprised the participating personnel even more was that open-source data could also be fused with operational data during joint exercises. During one exercise mission, a message suddenly appeared on the command post's main screen: an unreported vessel was traveling along the edge of the mission area.
After the duty staff officer activated the cross-network link, open-source intelligence was simultaneously integrated, and the vessel's identity, track, and background information were laid out at a glance. The commander immediately adjusted the plan, and joint cross-domain coordination was executed seamlessly.
Through the team's sustained efforts, "network interruption without link interruption (断网不断链)" also became a reality. During one deep-sea simulation exercise, a formation's satellite link was suddenly disrupted by heavy jamming. On the command screen, "enemy" positions, system status, and detection data continued to refresh in real time—it turned out that in the minutes before the signal was cut, the primary data center had already pushed critical operational data packages to each terminal node.
Today, data aggregated across networks has pooled into "a living body of water." A piece of data is no longer "discarded after use" but instead follows a model of "collected once, reused by many." Reporters observed in a certain unit's server room that the platform's data "ammunition depot" holds all types of data packages on standby at all times.
In the past, Staff Officer Liu from a certain unit was frequently troubled by a lack of representative data when drafting training plans. Now, he only needs to type keywords on a keyboard to quickly retrieve the historical data packages he needs. "The data that is retrieved does not simply disappear—it is re-entered into the shared repository for use by others or other units," said Staff Officer Liu.
The server room indicator lights blink in silence; data surges across an invisible battlefield. From "each managing its own segment" to "cloud-network integration," from "information islands" to "joint sharing," cross-network interaction is profoundly reshaping the form of command and control. The reporter could not help but reflect: data barriers dissolve imperceptibly, the arteries of the battlefield grow ever more unobstructed, and the odds of winning naturally increase.
Future war is a contest of system against system (体系与体系的对抗). If each data system "talks only to itself," unexpected situations may cause a "broken link" at critical nodes, or even cause the loss of a fleeting opportunity for battle.
At present, joint training across multiple services and branches has gradually become the norm. From "a forest of stovepipes (烟囱林立)" to "one network running through all," from "manual transcription" to "joint sharing," a certain unit's innovative practice of "unifying system language" and "breaking down network barriers" is a microcosm of the drive to transform the mode of combat power generation, and a portrait of efforts to advance joint operational capability building.
Breaking down barriers requires breaking down not only the barriers of data, but also the barriers of thinking and the barriers of joint culture (联合文化). At every level, the concept of "system-of-systems victory (体系制胜)" must be firmly established, joint thinking must be cultivated, and joint competencies must be elevated—only then can one find the right position and make a meaningful contribution in joint operations.