How Ukraine War Is Reshaping US Military

The Ukraine war is the biggest conflict Europe has seen since World War II, and it’s the first to feature some of the newest weapons of the 21st century. But it’s also made the United States military realize that it might not be up to the task of fighting a modern conventional conflict. Lessons learned from Ukraine are changing everything from the way America fights, to even redesigning some of its most well-known combat systems. Check out how the Ukraine-Russia War has changed the US military’s approach to war.

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The Ukraine war is the biggest conflict  Europe has seen since World War II,   and it’s the first to feature some of  the newest weapons of the 21st century.   But it’s also made the United States military  realize that it might not be up to the task of  

Fighting a modern conventional conflict. Lessons  learned from Ukraine are changing everything from   the way America fights, to even redesigning  some of its most well-known combat systems. The Ukraine war will soon have been raging for  two years as Russia continues to throw itself  

Against the brick wall that is Ukraine. The once  mighty former superpower, feared by the world   and widely considered the second most powerful  army on earth is a shadow of its former self,   and has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that  Russia is far more bark than actual bite. But  

That doesn’t mean this has been an easy  war, and lessons learned here indicate   that nobody- including the US military-  is prepared for a conflict of this scale. The first lesson the US learned is how voraciously  modern war consumes stocks of weapons and  

Ammunition. Both Russia and Ukraine are expending  thousands of shells a day, going through nearly   a full year’s worth of production in just one  month of fighting. The war between Russia and   Ukraine has become a number’s game for Russia.  Long believed to be a capable, modern power,  

Russia instead is forced to resort to brute force  to attempt to break Ukraine’s military. Meanwhile,   Ukraine is in a race against time, employing  superior western weapons and a whole lot of   determination to dismantle the Russian military  before it in turn can bleed Ukraine dry.

The race for supplies is in full swing for  both sides, and it turns out that neither   side is prepared for the demands of  a modern conventional war. Russia,   which began with a 20 to 1 artillery advantage,  is now only conducting between 5 and 6 times more  

Shelling missions than Ukraine. For its part,  Ukraine is firing about 6,000 rounds a day,   but says that it needs 10,000 rounds  to break Russian lines. At its peak,   Russia was firing a whopping 60,000 rounds a day-  and still didn’t manage to break Ukrainian lines.

German defense manufacturer Rheinmetall has  estimated that Ukraine needs 1.5 million   rounds every year. Nobody knows how many  artillery shells the US has stockpiled away,   that information is kept confidential in  order to undermine enemy efforts- but we   do know that the US has supplied over  2 million shells to Ukraine throughout  

The conflict. However, last year the US was  only producing about 16,000 shells a month,   and Europe wasn’t doing much better. New  legislation in both Europe and the US aims   to dramatically increase production capabilities,  but those are going to take time. The US is aiming  

To make as many as 24,000 shells by the end  of 2023, and 100,000 shells a year by 2025. Combined with current European production of  300,000 shells a year at the start of 2023, the   allies are a long way off from meeting Ukraine’s  needs. And when looking at these figures, one  

Has to keep in mind that not all of these shells  can simply be shipped off to Ukraine- each nation   has its own need for shells to use in combat  operations, training, or simply to stockpile   away for the next time Russia decides to do  something stupid. And every western nation is  

Now expanding its reserve stocks in anticipation  of another major conventional war, meaning in   the best case scenario, Ukraine could probably  receive about half of what’s produced every year. This puts Ukraine in a rather precarious  position as the war grinds on, which is why the  

West has also been expanding access to alternative  munitions like cluster shells. These controversial   munitions are especially effective against  infantry in trenches, but widely denounced for   their habit of leaving large amounts of unexploded  ordnance behind that can pose a significant risk  

To friendly troops and civilians years after a  conflict concludes. It should be noted though   that Russia has been using cluster munitions  since the start of the fighting, including   even against civilian targets. We shouldn’t allow  ourselves to sink to Russia’s level by any means,  

But one must remain sober and clear-eyed about  Russia’s historical willingness to resort to   every imaginable depravity- because they already  have in just a year and a half of fighting. Whatever the official figure, the US clearly  does not believe it has sufficient ammunition  

Stockpiles- but even more importantly, it  doesn’t have the capability to produce more   ammunition. Having deep reserves is nice,  but artillery shells can age out after   about thirty years. Even more importantly,  a nation needs the ability to rapidly ramp   up production of warfighting goods, and shells  are amongst the most important goods. This is  

A critical deficiency that the US has been  dealing with since the end of the Cold War,   when the vast network of defense contractors were  either driven out of business or consolidated   into a handful of companies. Defense plants  across the nation were shuttered, and very few  

Of these were kept in any state of readiness  to be reopened again in case of an emergency. On one hand, it makes sense- a military would  rather have money for ‘active’ capabilities   like new tanks, airplanes, and equipment,  than for reserve capabilities like keeping  

Arms manufacturers open and its employees  paid without actually producing anything.   But the war in Ukraine has shown that defense  investments cannot just be for active inventory,   modern war is absolutely brutal and  consumes resources at truly apocalyptic   rates- going forward, defense investments  must include investing into the ability to  

Quickly ramp up manufacturing at large scales.  Currently, the US arms industry is basically a   boutique shop that makes everything to order-  Lockheed Martin only makes 156 F-35s a year,   and only a part of those are for America’s  military, the rest are for its partners.

Now when specifically talking about artillery  shells, US future needs come with a very   specific caveat. The fighting in Ukraine  is not truly an accurate representation   of what a major conventional war with  direct US involvement would look like.   The Ukrainian war very quickly turned  from a combined arms, maneuver war,  

To something more closely resembling the  vast trench networks of World War I. This   is due to Ukraine’s inexperience and lack of  capabilities to conduct combined arms operations,   and while Russia has access to all the right  equipment for it, its military is a clown factory.

The US military is, to put it bluntly,  incredibly lethal. This is not an accident,   the US has invested significant resources  into learning from its past mistakes and   developing the best war colleges in  the world. Official US doctrine is   to present an adversary with multiple-domain  challenges simultaneously in order to stress  

And break their ability to respond  adequately to all, or any of them. And it’s very well equipped, and most  importantly- trained- to do just that. US   aviators regularly train to coordinate with  ground forces, while planners exercise at   deconflicting air space for US ground-based  air defenses so Russia can continue winning  

The gold medal at shooting down its own  aircraft. The emphasis is on maneuver   warfare in order to keep the enemy off guard  and avoid the strategic quagmires of the past,   and just about every weapon in the US arsenal  is designed for these combined arms operations.

A war between the US and Russia would not devolve  into trench-to-trench fighting simply because   American all-domain capabilities are significantly  more advanced than Russia’s. This means that   there’s a very low likelihood of a war devolving  to the quagmire that Ukraine’s eastern front finds  

Itself in- but that chance isn’t zero. As a French  parliamentary member recently said, “We believed   we could do everything with airplanes”, when  referencing the west’s lack of artillery shells. The US doesn’t like losing conventional wars,  but really doesn’t mind taking runner up in  

Unconventional ones apparently. This means  that while the chance of a war devolving   to an artillery duel is extremely low, the US  wishes to be prepared- and to do that it needs   to dramatically increase both its reserve of  shells and its capability to create new ones.  

But it’s not just shells, because this war has  been eating up other weapons at a prodigious   rate as well. America has sent around 5,000  Javelins to Ukraine since the fighting began,   and its unknown how many Javelin anti-tank  missiles it has left in its own stockpiles,  

But like artillery shells, America is  looking to ramp up production here as well. About 50,000 Javelins are in service  with the US and its allies and partners,   which means in just a year and a half alone 10%  of this stockpile has been sent to an active war  

Zone. In twenty years of fighting in Iraq and  Afghanistan, the US expended 5,000 Javelins-   so one year of conventional war has expended as  many Javelins as the US needed in twenty years. Another lesson the US has learned from the war  in Ukraine is that the next major war America  

Fights may not be as permissive an environment  to its high tech weapons as it would like. When Russia launched its initial invasion  of Ukraine, it waged a largely unreported   but extremely effective electronic war against  its victim. Russian electronic warfare platforms   completely overwhelmed Ukraine’s ability to  coordinate and communicate- but they worked  

A little too well and in typical Russian  fashion, affected Russia’s own abilities   to the point it had to significantly  curtail the use of electronic warfare. That initial expertise in EW was quickly  diminished though as Ukraine regained its   balance and Russia didn’t have the upper  hand anymore. What would follow is a  

Conflict where Russia’s significant  EW capabilities were poorly used,   though that doesn’t mean they haven’t still had  a significant effect. One of the first major aid   packages from the US to Ukraine was thousands  of secure radios to avoid the worst effects  

Of Russian electronic warfare and to help  better coordinate the troops on the ground. The introduction of HIMARS was revolutionary,  single-handedly making the famous fall   counter-offensive of 2022 a stunning success.  HIMARS uses GPS-assisted precision munitions,   but as the war wore on its effectiveness has  been increasingly limited. Today, Russia is  

Interfering with a large number of HIMARS strikes  against its most sensitive targets, though   seems relatively unable to protect front-line  troops from its devastating precision effects. Around May of this year it became clear that  Russia was doing a decent job of interfering  

With HIMARS strikes. By jamming the GPS signal  the rocket uses, its precision was significantly   reduced. This in turn prompted the US to rush  to develop new software aimed at circumventing   Russian jamming, and Ukraine and the US made  striking at Russian Zhitel R-330Zh jamming  

Stations a top priority. These mobile jamming  units however can be difficult to identify and   quickly eliminate, though a leak from the Pentagon  showed that US officials were strongly pushing for   Russian jamming units to become priority  targets over pretty much anything else.

Ukraine promptly deployed special forces deep  behind enemy lines with the sole purpose of   hunting down these vehicles and destroying them.  The jammers weren’t just causing issues for HIMARS   batteries, but for other western-supplied  precision weapons like JDAMs and precision   artillery shells. The developments in Ukraine  have shown how vulnerable American smart weapons  

Can be in a near-peer conflict, and prompted  both the US and Britain to work together to   develop new ways of protecting their systems from  jamming, or eliminating adversary jamming systems. Forty years ago, early GPS units were credited  with the coalition’s stunning success on the  

Ground against Iraqi forces- it wasn’t just the  might of western tanks and close air support,   it was the ability to navigate with extreme  degrees of precision across a featureless   desert. The Iraqis thought it would be  impossible to move large forces in this  

Way and thus set up their defenses towards  the major roads- only to be hit in the   flanks by surprise attacks from the deserts. The  importance of GPS has only increased since then,   but so have incidents of GPS-jamming and spoofing.  From Ukraine to the Middle East and the South  

China Sea, GPS jamming and spoofing has affected  everything from militaries to civilian traffic. BASE Systems has developed a Digital GPS  Anti-Jamming Receiver which is quickly   proliferating across western militaries, but  the US has banked on M-Code GPS tech to make  

Its weapons resilient to jamming. Basically  GPS 3.0, M-code utilizes a new type of signal   to make it much more difficult for GPS signals  to be spoofed or completely jammed. It’ll be   transmitted in the same frequency ranges as  old GPS, but users will only need part of the  

Signal to autonomously calculate their position.  GPS 3 satellites will also be able to broadcast   spot coverage and regional coverage, making it  extremely difficult to disrupt an incoming signal. The war in Ukraine has accelerated the US’  need to purchase anti-jamming equipment and   jam-resistant add-ons to its arsenal,  as well as the deployment of M-code.  

Unfortunately satellite launches  are significantly behind schedule,   and the US won’t be able to make full use  of its new GPS tech for years to come. The US has been carefully analyzing Russia’s  failures in Ukraine- an exhausting job for   whoever got it- and two major points of  failure have become clear. The first is  

A lack of battlefield command and control,  with Russian military leadership often far   in the rear or simply not having the tools or  capabilities to coordinate a number of large   formations at once. The second major failure  is a lack of initiative by Russian troops,  

And this is a result of two things:  low morale and poor doctrine. The US prides itself on having a force  that’s extremely resilient to command   disruption. Junior leaders at every level are  encouraged to act on their own initiative,   creating a military that is highly resistant  to the type of decapitation strikes Ukraine  

Is delivering every other day. Russia on the  other hand is the opposite, with its military   entrenched in old Soviet doctrine of a heavy  top-down command structure. Troops do as higher   command tells them to, and if higher command  doesn’t exist anymore because the general used  

His cell phone to call home and Ukraine responded  with a Storm Shadow strike, then they do nothing. It’s never been clearer to the US that it must  maintain its competitive advantage by fostering   the type of carpe-diem attitude that’s been its  hallmark since World War 1. Renewed focus on NCO  

And junior leader training attempts to insulate  US command chains from decapitation strikes,   and with the proliferation of electronic  warfare and radio jamming, US units must   be able to operate on their own while being  out of contact for prolonged periods of time. This means more individual  and junior leader training,  

And to counter the same morale problem  that is plaguing the Russian military,   the daily allotment of HUAs (pronounced ‘hoo-ahs’)  in the US military has been increased threefold. The Ukrainian war has shown that US combat  vehicle design may be outdated as well though,   and it’s been scrambling to correct that mistake.

The greatest killer of tanks in  Ukraine has been the anti-tank missile,   with a combination of landmines and  artillery being a close second. Tank   on tank combat accounts for only  a fraction of total tank kills,   as the anti-tank guided missile has proven it’s  the king of killing tanks- especially if you  

Have awful amour doctrine like Russia and don’t  properly support them with dismounted infantry. Most anti-tank missiles work by attacking the  thin top armor of a tank, often penetrating the   turret and delivering a shaped rod of molten metal  which punches into the tank and does very unkind  

Things to any crew in the way. The US has taken  note of the way Russian tanks have been savaged   by ATGMs, and now believes that it’s time for a  significant redesign of the legendary Abrams tank. It might look like America is taking a  page from Russia’s book, except it was  

The US who originally pioneered the concept of  a remotely controlled turret. This is what the   Abrams might be bringing to the table in its  next iteration, as it moves vulnerable crew   out of the turret and into an armored capsule at  the front of the tank. All the way back in 1980,  

The US experimented with the concept, but  because the height of technology at the   time was the Sony Walkman, it was deemed too  immature a concept to risk bringing to the   battlefields of Eastern Europe. Thus the US  opted for a traditional turret on the Abrams.

But that’s changing, as the US looks at the  use of a remote controlled turret once more.   This would make the crew safer even from an  anti-tank missile, as it moves them out of the   likely path of penetration. It also means the  US will have to adopt an auto-loader however,  

Something it hasn’t wanted to do thus far. But  in the end, America might not have a choice,   because even though ATGM protective measures  are becoming increasingly more advanced,   the fact of the matter is that the Abrams tank is  already too fat for its own good- and studies from  

Ukraine show that to be survivable, the tank as it  is, is going to have to put on even more pounds. Modern Abrams tanks are already too heavy for safe  transport on many different types of vehicles,   and far too heavy to safely cross most  bridges. Adding more weight for more  

Protective measures simply isn’t an option-  but the Abrams may be able to take on the   weight of additional countermeasures by  adopting a remote controlled turret. Such   a turret could be made much smaller than a  traditional turret, and be less well armored  

As there’s no crew inside to protect. This  would allow the tank to shed tons of pounds,   and come down to something a bit more  manageable for US logisticians. Tank   manufacturer General Dynamics already revealed  its Abrams X program back in March of 2023,  

Featuring a remote controlled turret that  could be the future of the legendary Abrams. Ukraine has delivered one final lesson to the  US military, and it’s one with a significance so   important that the US has taken unprecedented  action to immediately meet this challenge.

It’s estimated that Ukraine uses up 10,000  drones a month. This includes drones lost to   anti-drone weapons and jamming, as well as suicide  drones used to deliver explosive love letters to   the Russian Ministry of Defense in Moscow. In  September 20th, Ukraine launched the largest  

Drone attack in history, using over 100 drones to  attack Russian defenses and facilities in Crimea.   The attack was a stunning success, with the drones  drawing the attention of Russian air defenses   and forcing them to expend their missiles.  The attritable swarm then continued on to  

Its various targets, and opened up the skies for  Neptune missiles to strike at a Russian naval HQ. From attriting enemy air defenses to recon and  spotting for artillery, drones are the ‘it’   weapon of the war- and the US has realized just  how critical these sometimes very small weapons  

Are for fighting a modern conflict. Despite  being completely overmatched in every category,   Ukraine’s advantage in drones has  been one of its biggest saving graces,   and it’s used that overmatch to make life  absolutely miserable for Russians. Aircraft   and radar systems worth hundreds of millions  of dollars have been destroyed or severely  

Damaged by thousand dollar drones, and that’s an  economic exchange that no country can hope to win. The US has prioritized anti-drone weapons across  the entire military. In any future conflict,   it’s inevitable that enemy agents will strike  far behind the front lines using disposable  

Drones. The B-2 bomber is the world’s  second-most capable bomber, now that its   successor the B-21 is operational, but it can  easily be destroyed by a three-ship flight of   $200 dollar DJI drones equipped with explosives  and launched from close to its flight line. Everything from multi-million dollar aircraft  and systems to civilian infrastructure is  

Vulnerable to drone attacks, and point drone  defense weapons are a critical need for the   American military. But traditional point  defense weapons use expensive interceptors,   and that’s simply not an option- again, swapping  million dollar patriot missiles for $1,000 drones  

Is a quick way to lose a war. Instead, the  US is turning to directed energy weapons,   and is already fielding the most powerful  battlefield lasers in the world with more to come. But the drone itself is a weapon supremely useful  not just to overmatched powers like Ukraine,  

But even the world’s most powerful military. In  a stunning announcement, the US Department of   Defense announced the Replicator program, aimed  at producing and fielding quote- thousands upon   thousands- end quote, of drones in the US  military by 2025. That’s just two years,  

And the US is expecting to have massive drone  swarms not just in inventory, but in active use. Drone swarms are supremely useful, as Ukraine has  proven, and the US has named a specific adversary   for its future drones: China. Citing China’s  growing numbers superiority in the Pacific,  

The DoD is turning to vast swarms of  drones to level the playing field,   and then tip it in its advantage.  These drone will do everything from   recon to saturating enemy defenses and even  delivering suicide attacks, and Replicator  

Aims to have vast quantities of expendable  drones for use in both the sky and at sea. America is an apt pupil of war, and the Ukraine  war has been a master class on the challenges of   future combat- and how ill prepared in places  the US and its allies have been. However,  

The advantage of the United States  military over any potential adversary   is its dedication to professional military  education, with the best war colleges in the   world where US servicemembers attend class  side-by-side with allies and partners from   around the world. If the US is going to  keep its competitive advantage though,  

It’s got to keep evolving and avoid letting any  amount of hubris stagnate its military culture. Now go check out Why Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine  is a Failure, or click this other video instead!