Can NATO learn lessons from the three-year war in Ukraine to be better prepared for Vladimir Putin’s attack?
That’s the mission of a new center in Poland where NATO officials, civilians and Ukrainians will study lessons such as drone warfare, air defense, artificial intelligence and civilian resilience.
The center will be called the Joint NATO-Ukraine Analysis, Training and Education Center (JATEC) and will open in February in the Polish city of Bydgoszcz.
“The real question is what have we learned and what will we change?”
“Three years have passed and the real question is what have we learned and what will we change, knowing that the enemy is also adapting,” NATO’s top commander for transformation, French Admiral Pierre Vandier, told Politico.
One of the main areas of research centers on how the Ukrainian war combined space-age technology with brutal trench warfare and artillery bombardment, which Vandier described as “a mix of World War I and the war of the future.”
From weapons used more than 100 years ago to drones and artificial intelligence
“Today we have a better vision of a combination of legacy platforms – tanks, aircraft, ships – and new capabilities that use unmanned systems, that is, robotics and IT,” said Vandier.
Ukrainian soldiers fight in trenches and use artillery as they did more than a century ago, but they also use drones, artificial intelligence and space communications. As a result, Ukrainian artillery became more effective and lethal. Such lessons are crucial for NATO to remain conventionally and strategically credible, explained the French admiral.
JATEC was officially endorsed by leaders at the NATO summit in Washington in June last year. While Kiev is still waiting for an official invitation to join the alliance, the center is presented as the first joint institution of NATO and Ukraine.
NATO’s turnaround
The creation of the center also reflects NATO’s pivot away from post-Cold War counterinsurgency, expeditionary warfare in countries as far away as Afghanistan and Mali to refocus on preparing for a potential high-intensity conflict against Russia.
In addition to the huge increase in defense spending over the past three years, NATO members are also in the process of relearning conventional warfare by adapting training and military exercises to the new reality.
“We are returning to topics neglected since the end of the Cold War”
“We are returning to topics that have been somewhat neglected since the end of the Cold War,” Vandier emphasized.
JATEC will initially employ 70 people, including 20 Ukrainians, and is expected to expand gradually. It will operate under NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, which is charged with preparing NATO for the future of warfare.
The learning will be incorporated into the military exercises of the Joint Warfare Center and the Joint Forces Training Center.
“The center will begin work on Ukraine’s interoperability with NATO, protecting civilian infrastructure and defending against weapons that Russia successfully used during the war, such as the Lancet cruise munitions and cruise bombs,” Rear Admiral Placido Torresi told Politico.
Torresi was described by Vandier as “the father of JATEC”.
What is the goal of the new center?
Ultimately, JATEC will go beyond battlefield feedback to improve cooperation between NATO and the Ukrainian armed forces in areas such as training and doctrine, Torresi explained, adding that the center also has a civilian dimension.
However, in the early days of the center, one of the main focuses is expected to be the analysis of weapons and war tactics. In December, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe requested testing of air defense systems used in Ukraine.
“Within a few weeks we bought those materials, we put them in the field and we were able to assess their relevance to NATO. Tomorrow it will be JATEC’s job,” Vandier said, declining to give more details because they are confidential.
The focus on weapons development is crucial because Moscow is also learning and progressing – especially in the area of electronic warfare. According to a document recently released by the European Council on Foreign Relations, “Russia and Ukraine are playing a game of cat and mouse, with rapid innovation cycles for both unmanned aerial vehicles and counter-drones.”
“The Constant War of Adaptation”
On Ukrainian battlefields, the lifespan of drone software is about a month and a half, Vandier points out: “There are teams working to make sure the sword always stays sharp because an effective shield is emerging very quickly. It’s a constant war of adaptation.”
Ukraine has essentially become a giant laboratory for military artificial intelligence, and Western defense contractors hope to use the war to improve their equipment. For example, KNDS France and Helsing, a European defense technology start-up, are testing an AI-enhanced version of France’s Caesar self-propelled howitzer on Ukrainian battlefields.
The enormous importance of drones
Another lesson, which NATO militaries are already increasingly taking into account, is the importance of drones. In its analysis, the European Council on Foreign Relations called on the West to be able to quickly scale up drone production if needed and to limit reliance on China for components.
Ultimately, Vandier said, NATO will have to draw on the experience of Ukraine regardless of whether Kiev joins the alliance.
Although JATEC was initially presented by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense as a way to speed up Ukraine’s NATO membership process, the issue has become much more problematic since Donald Trump won the election in the United States. The new American president is even less ready than his predecessor to welcome the Ukrainians to NATO.
“The relevance of JATEC does not depend on whether Ukraine will join NATO. In any case, Ukraine is a NATO partner and we will need its lessons,” said the French admiral, Index writes.
(Vijesti.ba)
