NATO leadership is looking for ways to mirror Ukraine’s battlefield feedback loop, in which issues from the front lines are relayed to the defense industry, which quickly fields solutions for soldiers.
US Air Force Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who oversees NATO military operations as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said Ukraine has built high-level contacts with the defense industry “that allow them to innovate very quickly.”
Grynkewich, one of NATO’s two strategic commanders, told Business Insider at the Farnborough International Airshow in England this week that some allied countries are already involved in these efforts.
For instance, NATO’s Forward Land Forces Battlegroup in Romania, led by France, is buying commercial off-the-shelf technology from trusted vendors and immediately testing it in the field.
“So we’ve got places where we’re learning,” Grynkewich said. “That’s a whole structural thing that’ll take some time to adapt across the entire alliance, but we know where we need to go.”
Grynkewich said one of the reasons thay he traveled to Farnborough, which showcases the latest in defense technology, was to build what he described as “connective tissue at the senior level.”
Ukrainian officials have likened the arms race between Ukraine and Russia to a cat-and-mouse game. In Kyiv, drones, robots, and other new technologies move from the design phase to field testing and, finally, into the hands of soldiers within weeks or months.
Battlefield feedback is quickly shared with arms makers so that they can develop solutions to pressing issues on the front lines. The goal for Ukraine is to innovate faster than Russia can adapt, especially in new drone capabilities, so the product doesn’t become obsolete.
NATO leadership has long praised Ukraine’s ability to quickly react to the changing battlefield. Some Western officials have said they want the alliance to demonstrate a similar sense of urgency for weapons development and procurement.
NATO isn’t driven by the same wartime pressures as Ukraine, but officials and security experts argue that the alliance can’t afford to sit back as it prepares for a potential future confrontation with Russia.
The development cycle for complex systems built by legacy defense contractors for past wars — warships, aircraft, and armored vehicles — can take years. However, newer Western startups breaking into the field are trying to more closely emulate the Ukrainian model.
Some war technologies have a quicker innovation cycle than others.
“All the software-centric capabilities are easy to update,” said French Adm. Pierre Vandier, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation.
“And so I think we are transitioning from complex-to-update to easy-to-update platforms, intrinsically. That means that the design is now fitted for rapid adaptation,” Vandier, NATO’s other strategic commander, told Business Insider in an interview this week.
“This is the good news, and I think everybody’s going on that. Some are quicker than the others, but it’s the global trend,” he said.
Because NATO isn’t in an active conflict, though, it is hamstrung by regulations and laws that could slow development and innovation.
“I think to match that, we need to have structures that are ready to shift,” Vandier said, adding that when the constraints are ultimately lifted, the alliance will be “ready to accelerate.”
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