“Actions taken directly against satellites are seen by some as tantamount to igniting a nuclear war.”
National Defence Technology, October 2023
The South China Morning Post carried an article on December 16 titled, “China unveils space war-gaming system for military operations and training.” The article describes a war game developed by Zhang Jin, an associate professor at the National University of Defense Technology in Changsha, PRC. While it is known that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) uses wargaming (see “Made in China Wargaming?” at Armchair Dragoons, Oct 20, 2021) it still seems rare to see an article describing a PLA war game reach the open press.
The SCMP article reports the war game (which is never named in the article) was used by more than 400 military cadets (from an unnamed military institution) broken into 70 teams for a two-month competition that, “gave them a first-hand taste of wielding weapons they had only read about in textbooks or technical documents.” The few technical details indicate the game was designed not to run on supercomputers but on “a mobile military computer.” Given the graphic released, I wonder if the war game can be run on a laptop or notebook.
That article goes on to claim, “The space war game developed by Zhang’s team is fundamentally different from any war-gaming system previously used by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).” The article notes that the development of a space war game is very different from usual war games:
Also, as the movement of objects in space can often surpass the grasp of human minds, the military may need to rely more heavily on machines to guide decisions and carry out commands. This places huge demands on the architects and creators of war-gaming systems. The swiftness and precision of these systems not only impact the quality of daily drills but could well determine the outcome of an epic space battle, they said.
“China unveils space war-gaming system for military operations and training,” Dec 16, 2023
“…the outcome of an epic space battle.” They try to make it sound like EVE Online, eh?
Inevitably, there is a comparison to the United States:
The US military has also used war-gaming systems to help train soldiers and develop strategies. Its army’s Space Wargaming Analysis Tool – SWAT – extends into the realm of space weaponry, yet its essence remains tethered to the Earth, bound by maps of terrain and tactics.
Meanwhile, the Space Delta 10 unit of the US Space Force is responsible for developing and practically applying the most advanced space war-gaming system, though details have not been disclosed.
“China unveils space war-gaming system for military operations and training,” Dec 16, 2023
The U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command describes SWAT as, “a quick scenario generation and execution model to provide high-level analysis that includes space-based concepts.” How much it compares to this new, “epic” PRC space war game is hard to determine given the article writer’s lack of deeper analysis.1
The SCMP article claims, “the system has already proved its worth in a covert space mission.” Again, no details are provided. Interestingly, the SCMP article dropped just two days after the PRC reportedly launched a reusable space plane on its third-ever mission. Coincidence?
- The author claims credibility noting, “Stephen has produced a large number of exclusive stories on China research, some highly controversial or shrouded in secrecy.” ↩︎
Feature image: “A snapshot of the Chinese military’s space war game system. Photo: National University of Defence Technology”
The opinions and views expressed in this blog are those of the author alone and are presented in a personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Navy or any other U.S. government Department, Agency, Office, or employer.
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Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 
Fascinating- thanks for posting it.
Cheers,
Pete.