The war in Ukraine continues to demonstrate for other militaries the importance of rapid adaptation and innovation, a US Army commander said.
Lessons from Russia’s war against Ukraine have ranged from drone warfare and autonomous systems to air defenses. While US officials have said that not everything from Ukraine is applicable, certain tactics and the rapid pace of change in battlefield technology are not going ignored.
At the Association of the United States Army conference in Washington, DC, earlier this month, service leaders and soldiers spoke about how the Army is learning from the conflict.
Brig. Gen. Steven Carpenter, head of Multi-Domain Command Europe, told Business Insider that the war in Ukraine has “shown us that he or she that adapts, wins,” pointing out that “the battlefield we’ve seen in Ukraine is not the same battlefield that we saw in February 2022.”
Russia has ramped up production within its defense industry, while Ukraine, he said, has been “innovating so rapidly, and they’re learning from the changing environment on the battlefield, and they’re rapidly changing how they produce weapon systems and their capabilities based on what they’re seeing on the battlefield.”
Ukraine’s defense has, in part, depended on amassing substantial quantities of adaptable uncrewed systems for combat across air, land, and sea, while its homegrown drone industry continually uses battlefield feedback to update systems. The US military is paying attention. It’s also taken lessons from the way Ukrainian soldiers 3D print parts for drones and build the systems based on specific mission sets or countermeasures.
More recently, autonomous drone capabilities have been getting attention. Ukraine is increasingly using AI to help ground robots and drones navigate supply routes and reach targets. An uncrewed ground vehicle recently completed almost an entire 12-mile supply run on its own. The unit called it a first under combat conditions.
The US military is likewise expanding its use of autonomy for tasks such as navigation and data processing.
Multi-Domain Command Europe has created an AI system that helps soldiers process significant amounts of data from sensors and networks. Officials say that it could be valuable for supporting decision-making by human analysts.
At AUSA, other Army officials said that air defense fights in Ukraine have also provided useful lessons for the US. Russian forces have hunted MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system batteries and other air defenses while also trying to overwhelm them with complex barrages of one-way attack drones and missiles.
Lt. Gen. John Raffery, the head of Army Space and Missile Defense Command, told reporters that air defenders have been “probably the most aggressive community in the Army for learning lessons from Ukraine,” with an emphasis on concealment, survivability, protecting assets, and mobility.
At the same time, the Army and broader US military have said that not every observation out of Ukraine is always relevant. Officials have pointed out that Ukraine’s drone innovation was born out of necessity, specifically a lack of critical capabilities, and will not replace the advanced American weapons, aircraft, and naval power.
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