Military Command & Control: US vs China in the Age of AI
An apples-to-apples comparison of the Command and Control (C2) ecosystems powering the US military versus the Chinese military. In the Age of AI, the side with the cleanest data pipeline wins. AI models cannot easily traverse fractured ecosystems. These charts visualize why fragmentation is an expensive “tax” for the US military, while integration is a force multiplier for the Chinese military.
⚠️ The Fragmented Military (USA)
AI punishes fragmentation. The US military’s Command & Control ecosystem is a “Best of Breed” tangle of incompatible vendors (Microsoft vs AWS, SAP vs Oracle). Data is trapped in silos across Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. To make AI work, the US military must pay a massive “Integration Tax” ($10B) just to stitch the C2 nervous system together.
🚀 The Integrated Military (China)
AI rewards uniformity. The Chinese military’s Command & Control ecosystem is built on a “Unified Stack” mandate that removes data friction by design. With one OS, one cloud, and one chip architecture across all PLA branches, there are no silos to bridge. The result is a native AI nervous system that scales instantly for a fraction of the cost.
US MILITARY The “Best of Breed” Tangle
Fragmentation Everywhere: Lines cross at every layer. Army on SAP/Windows/DISA/Custom ESB; Navy on AWS/Linux/SIPRNet/MuleSoft; Air Force split between Azure & AWS. Then Palantir sits on top trying to unify the chaos—for $10B.
Layer Costs (Annual)
Total: ~$26B+
BRANCH
CLOUD
CHIPS
OS
DATABASE
NETWORK
MIDDLEWARE
API
ANALYTICS
CHINESE MILITARY The “Xinchuang” Pipeline
Perfect Vertical Integration: Straight lines all the way down. JLSF mandates one stack: Inspur Cloud → Huawei/Hygon → Kylin → Dameng → Military Backbone → Unified Integration → Built-in Analytics. No translation layers. No Palantir needed.
Unified Stack Costs
Total: ~$8-12B
💰
Result: ~$10B+ saved
(Palantir Saving)
BRANCH
CLOUD
CHIPS
OS
DATABASE
NETWORK
MIDDLEWARE
API
ANALYTICS
Full Stack Layer Comparison with Technology Details
| Branch | Cloud | Chips | OS | Database | Network | Middleware | API | Analytics |
|---|
