What NATO can learn from the war in Ukraine: important conclusions

 

Ukraine is said to have launched more than 80 drones - some of which were aimed at Moscow. Russia has launched more than 140 drones at targets in Ukraine.

The intensive use of drones as strike weapons is one way to revolutionize warfare.

Combined with electronic warfare and artillery, drones have proven to be very effective in defense.

 

Drones: all-seeing eyes on the front line

 

According to Phillips O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, drones have become one of the main features of the war in Ukraine and are having a profound effect on its course.

"They made the battlefield much more transparent," O'Brien believes.

Reconnaissance drones can spot troop movements or attack preparations across the front line in real time. When they see a target, they can send its coordinates to a command center, which can order an artillery strike.

This sequence of actions - from target identification to engagement - is called the "attack chain" in military parlance, and has been greatly accelerated by drones, Professor O'Brien says.

"Everything is detectable, unless it's in deep cover. That means you can't put tanks and other armored vehicles together for an offensive without attacking them," O'Brien points out.

Drones are used to attack the enemy alongside artillery. Ukrainian troops managed to repulse the attack of Russian tank columns, using only unmanned aerial vehicles.

At the start of the war, Ukraine used the TB-2 Bayraktar, a Turkish military drone capable of dropping bombs and missiles.

However, both sides are increasingly turning to cheaper kamikaze drones.

These are often commercial drones with explosives attached to them. They can be controlled from a distance of several kilometers and can hover over the target before impact.

Russia also uses thousands of kamikaze drones, such as Iran's Shahed-136, to attack military and civilian targets in Ukraine.

He often launches them in whole groups, trying to bypass Ukrainian air defenses.

 

Artillery: war water

 

Artillery has become the most widely used weapon in the war in Ukraine.

According to Britain's Royal Joint Defense Research Institute (RUSI), Russia produces about 10,000 missiles a day, while Ukraine produces between 2,000 and 2,500.

 

Artillery constantly monitors the movement of enemy troops and hits his armored vehicles, defense facilities, command posts and supply depots.

 

"During the war, ammunition is like water that you have to drink all the time or like fuel for your car," artillery expert Petro Pyatakov told the BBC.

Both sides have spent millions on foreign-made artillery shells. The USA and European countries give them to Ukraine. Russia imports them from North Korea.

According to Justin Crump, chief executive of British defense analytics firm Sibylline, Western countries have failed to provide Ukraine with all the ammunition it needs, exposing a problem in their own defense industry.

“Western defense companies currently produce a relatively small number of high-precision weapons. However, they do not have the ability to produce large types of weapons, such as missiles, in large quantities," says Crump.

Both Russia and Ukraine use high-precision artillery. Ukraine - Excalibur satellite-guided munitions supplied from the West, and Russia - Krasnopolj laser-guided missiles.

The US and other Western countries are providing Ukraine with long-range HIMARS satellite-guided missiles. With their help, the Armed Forces can attack Russian ammunition depots and command posts behind the front line.

 

KABs: simple, destructive and hard to counter

 

Since the beginning of 2023, Russian forces have dropped thousands of guided aerial bombs (UAVs) on Ukrainian positions, as well as on civilian residential areas and infrastructure facilities.

These are conventional free-fall bombs equipped with folding wings and satellite navigation systems.

Russia uses KAB most often. They weigh from 200 to 3,000 kilograms or more.

"Guided aerial bombs are becoming increasingly effective at destroying fortified positions and buildings," says Professor Justin Bronk, an air warfare expert at RUSI.

According to him, Russia has widely used them to destroy Ukrainian defenses around the strategically important city of Avdiivka in eastern Ukraine, which the Russians captured in February 2024.

Guided bombs cost only $20,000 or $30,000 each to produce, Professor Bronk said.

They can be launched tens of kilometers from the target, and are difficult to shoot down, except with the most advanced anti-aircraft missiles.

Ukraine uses guided bombs provided by the US and France, such as the long-range Joint Standoff Weapon.

In addition, Ukrainian experts have created their own analogue of KAB, attaching wings to American small-diameter bombs that carry about 200 kilograms of explosives.

However, Ukraine has fewer guided bombs than Russia.

REB: a cheap way to disable the most expensive weapons

 

In the Russian-Ukrainian war, means of radio electronic warfare are used more intensively than ever.

Thousands of soldiers from each side work in specialized units, trying to disable the other side's drones and communications systems, as well as shoot down enemy missiles.

Russian troops have at their disposal systems such as "Zhitel", which are able to disable all satellite communications, radio communications and mobile phone signals in a radius of more than 10 kilometers. They suppress radio waves by emitting huge pulses of electromagnetic energy.

With the help of the "Šipovnik-AERO" installation, the Russians shoot down drones from a distance of 10 kilometers. This system locates drone pilots and transmits their coordinates to artillery units so they can open fire on them.

Western countries may have been shocked by how easily Russian electronic warfare systems disabled Ukraine's high-tech HIMARS missiles, says Marina Myron of the Department of Military Studies at King's College London.

"This is asymmetric warfare. NATO has weapons that are technically superior to Russia's, but Russia has shown that it can use relatively cheap electronic means to disable it," says Myron.

Duncan McCrory of the Freeman Air and Space Institute at King's College London believes NATO military leaders should learn from the way Russia conducts its electronic warfare in Ukraine.

"They must train their troops how to behave when they are being hunted by drones and when the enemy is listening to their every radio signal. Electronic warfare can no longer be treated as something secondary. It must be taken into account when developing tactics, training and new weapons systems,"  says McCrory.