China Working On AI Tech, Big Data To Overtake West In Air Operations

China is working on artificial intelligence technology combined with big data to forge ahead of its rivals in air warfare.

According to a Peoples' Daily report quoting Yang Wei, deputy director of the Scientific and Technological Commission at the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), “Speed and agility are no longer most important. The key to winning air operations, electromagnetic operations, or cyber operations is ‘information agility,’ the priority and mobility of information,” said Yang, who is also the chief designer of FC-1 fighter jet.

He referred to the new era as “OODA 2.0,” an era when machine-based information-gathering and analysis and decision-making systems will make the famous military theory of the OODA (observe-orient-decide-act) loop more automatic and flexible.

As for “OODA 3.0,” Yang believes that it is being led by the technology of AI: “This is where China can overtake others, because we are all at the same starting line.”