The wars in Iran and Ukraine show that opponents who seem weaker at first glance are not so easy to defeat. The military warns: if the West does not adapt, this will open the way for new forms of attacks. Europe in particular is running out of time, Die Welt writes, quoted by Focus.
The publication recalled that in February 2023, Russia suffered a bitter surprise. The rare and expensive A-50 reconnaissance aircraft was destroyed by a drone at the Belarusian Machulishti air base in the Minsk region, which was used by Russia. It is noted that the plane was parked without any security measures, since the Russians, located 200 kilometers from the front line, did not expect an attack.
Three years later, the Iranians managed to carry out a similar action. They destroyed an American AWACS reconnaissance plane at a Saudi air base located 700 kilometers from Iran.
"The difference between these two events is that the US Air Force received warnings about this threat for years, but did not learn any lessons from it. "In doing so, they have shown that they have not learned enough from the experience of other wars," noted former Australian general and military strategist Mick Ryan in a new study for the Lowy Institute, dedicated to the reluctance of Western armies to learn from foreign experience.
The publication emphasizes that until now, Western military thought has focused primarily on having technologically more advanced weapons systems and quickly defeating the enemy through superiority in military resources.
However, according to the publication, in the future this will no longer be enough. After all, as both the war in Ukraine and the recent war with Iran have shown, opponents who appear significantly weaker on paper are not that easy to defeat.
It is added that when the war drags on, completely different aspects suddenly come to the fore. For example, the resilience of the population, infrastructure and economy.
The article emphasizes that in such a case, it is also of key importance how quickly the defense industry will be able to increase mass production to replace ammunition and destroyed equipment. But even more important is how quickly the military and industry will be able to respond to changes in the situation on the front.
"When you are dealing with an adversary capable of adapting, it is the speed of innovation cycles and the level of training ability that matters, not the type of technology as such", noted in an interview with the Wall Street Journal Louis Mosley, head of the British branch of the company Palantir.
It is indicated that the American company Palantir has helped create in Ukraine a network system based on artificial intelligence (AI), which transmits intelligence data in real time to military units, which can then attack detected enemy targets.
According to military strategist Mick Ryan, the problem of the Western military is, among other things, that they simply try to fit new equipment into old tactical concepts without questioning the very premises of these concepts.
“The battlefield is changing rapidly. It is about artificial intelligence, quantum computing, lasers and automation. In the future, we will witness a fundamental change in strategic and technological relationships. Technology determines tactics. Scale determines strategy. We need flexibility and the ability to adapt. If we cannot constantly adapt our armed forces so that they can react to changing circumstances even in the short term, then at the decisive moment we will not be able to win“, said Bundeswehr Inspector General Carsten Breuer in early July during the security summit organized by the publication.
The publication emphasizes that Ukraine shows how this is done. In particular, it has created a new ecosystem of startups connected to the military through a digital platform (Brave1) so that the industry can respond as quickly as possible to new needs on the front line.
It is pointed out that Ukraine's innovation potential to some extent confirms the Western prejudice that free and democratic societies, when necessary, prove to be more flexible and inventive than authoritarian regimes.