Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown NATO that it cannot afford to wait 10 years for the perfect weapons. It needs weapons that are good enough and available now.
Fears of a new Russian aggression have prompted the West to learn more lessons from the war in Ukraine, and Western officials have warned that current arsenals are insufficient, according to Business Insider.
Heico Hübner, the deputy chief of the German army, stated that his country is "pursuing a very pragmatic approach," focusing not on achieving the "perfect solution in 10 years, but on capabilities that can be used today."
He said that time is "a decisive factor in military credibility."
"Ukraine has demonstrated how quickly innovation cycles evolve today, and adaptation no longer takes place as in the past, over several years. Today, in many cases, it happens in a matter of weeks," he said.
The war has shown that the real issue is no longer who can design the most advanced technology, but who can produce it on a large scale and get it into the hands of soldiers quickly enough to strike, he pointed out in Latvia at a drone summit.
Carsten Breuer, the general leading Germany's armed forces, made a similar observation at the same event, saying that the first question in acquiring weapons is whether a system is "available in time," as Germany believes Russia could be ready to attack NATO by 2029, which means "we need to be ready as soon as possible."
"It's better to buy off the shelf than to procure something that needs to be developed and will arrive in 2035," Breuer stated, adding that allies need the "speed advantage, as this rapidity matters."
The "good enough" enemy
These alarm signals have resonated throughout the alliance, but they now take on a new significance, notes the cited publication.
In 2024, American General James E. Rainey, then head of the U.S. Army Futures Command, wrote that "perfection is the enemy of 'good enough,'" arguing that in many cases, the United States "allowed aspirations to stand in the way of feasibility."
"There are technologies that would be useful in our units right now, but are not yet being used in the field because we wait until they can do even more," he said.
Tarja Jaakkola, NATO's Deputy Secretary General for Defence Industry, Innovation, and Armaments, stated at the drone summit in Latvia that the alliance is examining what capabilities civil and dual-use companies can offer "faster, on a larger scale, and cheaper."
Civil technology is usually cheaper and already available. "So, we are largely talking about what is good enough," he explained.
Ukraine is forced to do something else
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated last year that the alliance produces weapons too slowly and should produce some that are less effective in order to operate more quickly: "Speed is essential, not perfection," he pointed out.
He said that Ukraine produces, approves, and uses equipment that could be rated as "6 to 7" out of 10, while NATO armies insist on achieving a grade of "9 or 10."
Defense companies, both in Ukraine and beyond, are adapting. Kristian Brost, the CEO of the U.S. division of Robin Radar, a Dutch company that produces drone detection radar systems used by Ukraine and U.S. allies in the Middle East, told Business Insider that the war shows that an imperfect response "right now, sometimes, is better than a perfect solution later."
He said, "We can learn a lot" from Ukraine, which is "in a situation where sometimes they need duct tape and some pieces of rubber."
"I think this is a lesson in itself: use what works, use what is cheap."
Faster and Cheaper Build
The war unleashed by Russia has shown the West that Moscow is willing to use attrition tactics that consume large quantities of arms, a type of warfare the West has not faced for decades but may face in the future.
Attrition warfare is an exhausting battle that consumes a vast number of troops, weapons, and ammunition over time. It has led to a new way of designing armaments in the West, which, since the Cold War, has focused on having fewer advanced equipment.
Now, much of the West is considering a shift towards larger volumes of cheaper arms that can be obtained quickly.
Sir John Stringer, NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, stated at the recent drone summit that the West must move much faster and "get used to acquisition cycles that are faster than what we were brought up with," instead of large programs that last decades.
The West is now "in a race and we need to be in that space where we test, adapt, fail, and learn, acquiring much, much faster than we have been," he said.
T.D.