War is entering new stage, Ukraine needs technology – Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, believes that the war with Russia is moving to a new stage: "positional" warfare with static and attritional fighting. To win it, Ukraine needs high technologies.
Source: Zaluzhnyi, in his column for The Economist
Details: The Commander-in-Chief warns that such a war is beneficial to Russia because it gives it the opportunity to regain strength.
In such a situation, the Armed Forces need key military capabilities and technologies. The most important of them is air power. Control of the skies is essential for large-scale ground operations. This includes both manned aircraft and drones.
Zaluzhnyi noted that Russia currently maintains a significant advantage over Ukraine in the sky, and this makes it difficult for Ukrainian troops to advance.
Ukraine's second priority: means of radio-electronic warfare. "EW is the key to victory in the drone war," the general emphasises.
As he said, over the last decade, Russia has modernised its electronic warfare forces, creating a new type of military and developing 60 new types of such equipment. And the Russian Federation is now stronger in this regard than Ukraine.
Zaluzhnyi says that while Ukraine has built many of its own electronic defence systems, it also needs greater access to electronic intelligence from allies.
The third task is counter-battery fire, that is, the destruction of enemy artillery. In this war, artillery, missile and rocket fire make up 60-80% of all military tasks. When Ukraine first received Western weapons last year, the Ukrainian military was quite successful in detecting and engaging Russian artillery. However, the effectiveness of such weapons has sharply decreased due to the improvement of Russian electronic warfare equipment.
Russia's counter-battery fire has also improved, Zaluzhnyi adds. This is largely due to the use of Lancet loitering munitions, which work in conjunction with reconnaissance drones, and the increase in the production of high-precision projectiles that can be guided by ground correctors.
As he said, so far, Ukraine has managed to achieve parity with Russia thanks to more accurate firearms, albeit in smaller quantities. But it cannot last long. "And we need our partners to send us better artillery-reconnaissance equipment that can locate Russian guns," the Commander-in-Chief says.
Technology for mine-breaching is the fourth task. Given the extent of Russian minefields, which extend as far back as 20 kilometres in some places, even Western supplies have proven inadequate. Russia quickly restocks minefields when Ukrainian forces breach them by firing new mines from a distance.
Ukraine needs smoke-projection systems to hide the actions of its demining units and radar-like sensors that use invisible light pulses to detect mines in the ground. Ukrainian forces would also find useful water cannons, cluster munitions, or jet engines from retired aircraft to get past mine barriers without going underground. Additionally helpful are novel forms of tunnel excavators.
The fifth and last priority is building up Ukrainian reserves. Ukraine has a limited ability to train reserves within its own borders. The soldiers that are positioned at the front are difficult to spare. Russia can also attack training facilities. Furthermore, there are legal loopholes that let people avoid their obligations.
According to Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine is trying to solve these problems. A single register of those liable for military service is being implemented, and it is also planned to expand the category of citizens who can be called up. In addition, a "combat internship" is being introduced, which involves sending recently mobilised and trained military personnel to experienced frontline units for training.
Quote: "Russia should not be underestimated. It has suffered heavy losses and expended a lot of ammunition. But it will have superiority in weapons, equipment, missiles and ammunition for a considerable time. Its defence industry is increasing its output, despite unprecedented sanctions. Our NATO partners are dramatically increasing their production capacity, too. But it takes at least a year to do this and, in some cases, such as aircraft and command-and-control systems, two years.
A positional war is a prolonged one that carries enormous risks to Ukraine’s armed forces and to its state. If Ukraine is to escape from that trap, we will need all these things: air superiority, much-improved electronic-warfare and counter-battery capabilities, new mine-breaching technology and the ability to mobilise and train more reserves. We also need to focus on modern command and control—so we can visualise the battlefield more effectively than Russia and make decisions more quickly — and on rationalising our logistics while disrupting Russia’s with longer-range missiles. New, innovative approaches can turn this war of position back into one of manoeuvre."
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