NEWS AND ANALYSIS:

The Pentagon lacks “strategic clarity” when it comes to conducting the cognitive warfare that analysts see as necessary for confronting China, according to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The committee’s report on the fiscal 2026 defense authorization bill warns that despite congressional action, the Pentagon and military services remain unclear in defining this new domain of nonkinetic warfare, which is a major focus of China’s People’s Liberation Army.

The panel wants the Pentagon to produce a report for Congress on cognitive warfare.

Chinese cognitive warfare involves an array of weaponry ranging from “brain control” arms, to sophisticated information warfare operations. The goal, according to the Pentagon’s annual report on the Chinese military, is to manipulate information to attack an adversary’s decision-making abilities.

“The PLA is exploring a range of ‘neurocognitive warfare’ capabilities that exploit adversaries using neuroscience and psychology,” the latest report said.

Examples include plans to use artificial intelligence-powered deepfake videos to mislead and confuse military and political leaders during conflicts, and psychological warfare to demoralize U.S. troops and polarize society.

PLA researchers are working on advanced voice synthesis tools that will be used for low-cost, high-impact disinformation campaigns to defeat enemies without conventional conflict.

The committee report said the global security landscape is rapidly evolving with the increasing sophistication of information-centric, strategic threats.

China, for example, “is actively engaged in developing what it terms ‘informatized warfare’ and ‘intelligentized warfare,’ with a strong emphasis on cognitive domain operations, involving the integration of information warfare across military and civilian sectors and viewing information as a critical domain for achieving strategic advantage in great power competition,” the report said.

“The committee believes there is an urgent need for a coherent understanding of and investment in cognitive warfare to address these challenges,” the report said.

Noting “ambiguities and challenges” in core definitions regarding information warfare, the committee is directing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to produce a report for Congress on cognitive warfare, as well as “narrative intelligence.”

“The committee notes that despite multiple congressional actions, there remain ambiguities and challenges in core definitions relating to information warfare, with frequent conflation of terms such as information warfare, information operations, cyberwarfare, cognitive warfare, and influence operations,” the report said.

“The committee believes this definitional ambiguity contributes to a lack of strategic clarity,” according to the report.

The cognitive warfare report, if contained in final legislation, would be due to Congress before March 31 and must “define cognitive warfare as it relates to the Department of Defense and assess how this definition aligns with or relates to existing doctrinal elements, including information warfare, psychological operations, and military information support operations.”

The committee also wants the report to include an assessment of which Pentagon organizations are responsible for waging cognitive warfare.

The defense policy bill passed the committee July 16 and next goes to the full Senate. The final bill also must be reconciled with a House version during a House-Senate conference later.

Chinese man guilty of espionage

A Southern California engineer for three U.S. high-technology companies pleaded guilty on Monday to stealing sensitive trade secrets used to detect nuclear missile launches, track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, and to help American warplanes detect and evade heat-seeking missiles, the Justice Department said.

Chenguang Gong, 59, a dual U.S.-China citizen from San Jose, offered the trade secrets for sale in China to help Beijing’s military develop similar unique technology, according to court papers in the case.

A plea agreement in the case states that Gong transferred more than 3,600 files from a Los Angeles-area research and development company where he worked to personal flash drives last year.

“The files Gong transferred include blueprints for sophisticated infrared sensors designed for use in space-based systems to detect nuclear missile launches and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles, as well as blueprints for sensors designed to enable U.S. military aircraft to detect incoming heat-seeking missiles and take countermeasures, including by jamming the missiles’ infrared tracking ability,” the department said in announcing the plea.

The plea agreement stopped short of stating that Gong sold or gave the documents to China.

However, the plea deal states that he traveled to China and gave presentations discussing the sensitive radar technologies in a bid to join a Chinese government “talent” program designed to obtain western military know-how, including details of advanced U.S. infrared sensors.

Much of the information was related to the design of integrated circuits that allow space-based sensors to detect missile launches and track enemy ballistic and hypersonic missiles.

Other information would help Chinese aircraft track missile threats in low visibility conditions.

The trade secrets were obtained from a U.S. defense contractor and two other American companies that were not identified by name in court papers.

The data also included next-generation sensors that could be used to detect radar-evading stealth targets.

China state media reports have said the PLA is working on technology that would allow its integrated air-defense networks to detect U.S. stealth bombers.

Gong sought employment in Chinese talent programs from 2014 to 2022 that are used to obtain advanced technologies for building up the Chinese economy and military.

In one application, Gong stated that he proposed to build a high-performance analog-to-digital converter in China that had military applications. The application stated that the converters “directly determine the accuracy and range of radar systems” and that “missile navigation systems also often use radar front-end systems.”

The plea agreement states that the economic loss from the trade secrets theft exceeds $3.5 million.

An FBI complaint in the case stated that the loss of the trade secrets was worth “hundreds of millions of dollars” and would damage U.S. security if provided to China.

One of the companies that Gong worked for was identified as HRL Laboratories, which works on space-based infrared sensor technology, according to a spokeswoman.

Sentencing is set for Sept. 29 in federal court in Los Angeles. He could receive a maximum of 10 years in prison.

A federal prosecutor in the case and a lawyer for Gong declined to comment on the plea deal.

“We know that foreign actors, including the PRC, are actively seeking to steal our technology, but we will remain vigilant against this threat by safeguarding the innovations of American businesses and researchers,” Martin Estrada, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement at the time of Gong’s arrest.

China, Russia coordination fears

NATO is facing the likelihood of simultaneous attacks in both Europe and Asia by Russian and Chinese military forces, the commander of the alliance said recently.

Air Force Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, who is also U.S. European Command commander, said the alliance needs to prepare for such a two-front conflict, with 2027 a potential year for such attacks.

“We’re going to need every bit of kit and equipment and munitions that we can in order to beat that,” Gen. Grynkewich said during a July 17 meeting of military and defense industrial leaders in Wiesbaden, Germany.

The four-star commander said that if Chinese President Xi Jinping were to move against Taiwan militarily, this likely would be coordinated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, leading to a potential global war.

“That, to me, means that both of these things could happen together,” he said.

Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin concluded an agreement in February 2022 dubbed the “no limits” partnership between Beijing and Moscow. The agreement came days before Russian forces invaded Ukraine.

The general’s warning was echoed by two other European defense leaders, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and European Union Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius.

Mr. Rutte said World War III will be set off if Mr. Xi invades Taiwan and gets Mr. Putin to launch attacks on NATO nations to prevent European military intervention in the Pacific.

“There’s an increasing realization, and let’s not be naive about this: If Xi Jinping would attack Taiwan, he would first make sure that he makes a call to his very junior partner in all of this, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, residing in Moscow, and telling him, ‘Hey, I’m going to do this, and I need you to keep them busy in Europe by attacking NATO territory,’” Mr. Rutte told The New York Times.

The NATO chief said it would be naive to think a Chinese attack on Taiwan would be limited to those two nations and predicted any war would be waged on two fronts.

Mr. Kubilius told reporters in Washington that “the most dangerous moment can be in 2027, when both Russia and China will make these aggressive moves in a coordinated way.”

Mr. Rutte said to avoid a global war NATO must bolster its forces to deter Moscow from expanding its Ukraine invasion deeper into Europe.

Western nations also must unite to curb Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific, he said, as China has been stepping up aggressive and provocative military maneuvers throughout the region.

• Contact Bill Gertz on X @BillGertz.

• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.