The game-changing hypothesis: NATO is using Ukraine to test its next-generation weaponry
Photo: Reuters
Ukraine’s war with Russia gives NATO countries a chance to test their advanced weaponry on a real battlefield and thereby gain valuable information, notes the Financial Times. NATO members, including the US, Canada, Britain, Germany, and France, have provided Ukraine with weapons and training since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022. And the types of weapons they have handed over have become increasingly advanced since the war began, with Ukraine pushing for modern tanks, air defence, and aircraft, Insider writes. Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told the FT that because of this, Ukraine’s allies “can actually see if their weapons work, how effectively they work, and if they need to be upgraded”. “For the world’s military industry, you can’t invent a better testing ground,” he said. Reznikov revealed that Ukraine shot down a Russian Kinzhal missile in May using a US-made Patriot system. Experts believed the Patriot was probably capable of shooting down a Kinzhal, the FT reported, but Ukrainian troops were able to prove it. Russia has previously boasted that these missiles are unstoppable. Several Kinzhal missiles have been shot down over Ukraine since then. Reznikov said Ukraine is also showing NATO countries how their weapons could work when used together.
At the same time, he said, Russia’s attempts to thwart Ukraine’s weaponry with moves such as signal jamming mean constant updates to technology such as GPS-guided munitions and drones, again providing valuable learning opportunities. “The Russians come up with a countermeasure; we inform our partners, and they make a new countermeasure against this countermeasure,” Reznikov said. Petro Piatakov, a retired colonel who is now a consultant to the arms industry, told the FT that there was an “active interest from Western artillery manufacturers to get feedback from Ukrainian gunners… to iron out the shortcomings.” I said the fighting in Ukraine exposed some problems. “It became apparent during operations that these systems were not intended for such intense warfare.” A German defence contractor also said they learned “a lot from the soldiers in Ukraine,” who, once they notice something, “suggest it, and our software engineers sit down so they can have an update.” Meanwhile, Jack Watling of the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London told the FT that the fighting had also given the West new information about how Russian weapons work. But he warned that the West “has exposed a lot of its own capabilities to Russia and China, and so it will have to change the way some of its equipment works to retain its competitive advantage.”
By Roberto Casseli
