Ukraine constantly tests and upgrades its weaponry in a way the West says it needs to learn from.
Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Ukraine's defense industry can test new products and changes to gear in days, giving it a wartime edge from which Western militaries and arms makers can learn, officials and companies say.Ukraine is in a fight for its life against Russia in a war that changes so fast that weaponry can swiftly become out of date in weeks. Its response has been to collapse the distance between the battlefield and the factory. Soldiers test weapons, send feedback directly to manufacturers, and companies push out fixes or upgrades in days or weeks.Sir John Stringer, NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told Business Insider that one of the things visible in Ukraine that allies need to learn from is the "sheer pace of adoption and adaptation in technology. It is measured in weeks."He said Ukraine's "success is rooted, amongst other things, in the fact that at the front line, you don't just have operators." You have tech and industry too, which means "lessons are genuinely applied rather than admired."The West needs "accelerating capability development, measured in weeks and months, not just years and decades," he said, speaking at a drone summit in Latvia that Business Insider attended.That kind of rapid innovation cycle — testing, failing, fixing, and fielding again — is what Ukrainian companies described as their central advantage.Drone and weapons maker Frontline Robotics makes up to 20 changes to its products a month, driven by constant soldier feedback and battlefield testing. Mykyta Rozhkov, its chief business development officer, told Business Insider that the company wants to be as "agile as possible," something "very unique that we have in manufacturing culture in Ukraine in comparison with Europe."
