Toomas Hanso
Over two years into Russia’s war against Ukraine, the People’s Liberation Army announced a structural change: the Strategic Support Force (SSF) was disbanded, and the new Information Support Force (ISF) was launched, signalling yet another step forward in the PLA’s push for informationisation.
This analysis examines the extent to which the creation of the ISF is linked to lessons that Beijing has learnt from the Russian operations in Ukraine. A strong correlation is suggested by two factors: multiple Russian Network Information Systems (NIS) failures and the temporally coinciding publications by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and PLA, with the language identical to that used during the ISF’s launch event. This analysis further identifies four key areas where the Russian military made NIS-related mistakes, thereby outlining the lessons that China could have derived: namely, in the areas of general communications, Command, Control, Communications, and Information (C3I), cyberspace operations, and Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR).
A thorough and critical assessment of military conflicts around the world and subsequent, corresponding changes to the PLA can provide a window into Chinese military thinking, as well as hint at where PLA capabilities are strong and where they are lacking. As PLA exercises around Taiwan continue to grow in frequency and threaten the status quo, the importance of making such observations cannot be overstated in analysing future conflicts and anticipating their outcomes.
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