Last fall, as Ukraine won back large swathes of territory in a series of counter-offensives, it hit Russian forces with American-made artillery and rockets. Some of that artillery was guided on the battlefield by a domestic targeting system developed by Ukraine.
A piece of Ukrainian-made software has turned readily available tablet computers and smartphones into sophisticated targeting tools now widely used throughout the Ukrainian military.
The result is a mobile app that feeds satellite imagery and other information into a real-time targeting algorithm that helps units close to the initial direct fire to hit specific targets. And because it’s an app, not a piece of hardware, it’s easy to update and upgrade quickly, and it’s available to a wide range of personnel.
US officials familiar with the tool say it has been extremely effective in directing Ukrainian artillery fire at Russian targets.
The targeted app is among many examples of battlefield innovations that Ukraine has made over nearly a year of war, often finding cheap solutions to expensive problems.
Small plastic drones, buzzing quietly overhead, drop grenades and other ordnance on Russian troops. 3D printers now make spare parts so soldiers can repair heavy equipment in the field. Technicians have converted ordinary pickup trucks into mobile missile launchers. Engineers have figured out how to strap sophisticated US missiles onto older Soviet fighter jets such as the MiG-29, helping to keep Ukraine’s air force flying after nine months of war.
Ukraine has even developed its own anti-ship weapon, the Neptune, based on Soviet rocket designs that can target the Russian fleet nearly 200 miles away.
This kind of Ukrainian ingenuity impressed US officials, who praised Kyiv’s ability to “MacGyver” solutions to its battlefield needs that fill key tactical gaps left by larger and more sophisticated Western weaponry.
While U.S. and other Western officials don’t always have a perfect view of how Ukraine’s customized systems work — largely because they’re not on the ground — both officials and open-source analysts say it’s a true battlefield laboratory. Ukraine. cheap but effective solutions.
“His innovation is truly remarkable,” said Seth Jones, director of the international security program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine has given the United States and its allies a rare opportunity to study how their own weapons systems perform under heavy use — and what munitions both sides are using to win. to score in this modern war which is a big battle. US operations officials and other military officials have also tracked how successfully Russia is using cheap expendable drones that explode on impact, supplied by Iran, to destroy Ukraine’s power grid.
Ukraine is “absolutely a weapons laboratory in every sense because none of this equipment has ever been used in a war between two industrially developed nations,” said one source familiar with Western intelligence. “This is a real world battle test.”
For the US military, the war in Ukraine is an incredible source of data on the use of its own systems.
Some high-profile systems given to the Ukrainians – such as the Switchblade 300 drone and a missile designed to target enemy radar systems – have been less effective on the battlefield than expected, according to a US military operations official with knowledge of the battlefield. battlefield, as well as a recent British think tank study.
But the lightweight American M142 rocket launcher, or HIMARS, has been critical to Ukraine’s success — even as officials have learned valuable lessons about the rate of maintenance repairs those systems require under such heavy use.
How Ukraine has used its limited supply of HIMARS missiles to damage Russian command and control, strike command posts, headquarters and supply depots is eye-opening, a defense official said, adding that military leaders would be studying this for years.
Another crucial insight was the M777 howitzer, the powerful artillery that was a vital part of Ukraine’s battle power. But the barrels of the howitzers lose their rifling if too many shells are fired in a short period of time, another defense official said, making the artillery less accurate and effective.
The Ukrainians have also made tactical innovations that have impressed Western officials. During the early weeks of the war, Ukrainian commanders adapted their operations to employ small teams of dismounted infantry during the Russian advance on Kyiv. Armed with shoulder-mounted Stinger and Javelin rockets, Ukrainian troops were able to sneak up on unmanned Russian tanks on their flanks.
The US has also studied the conflict closely for more lessons on how war could be waged between two modern nations in the 21st century.
The operations official said one lesson the United States could take from this conflict is that towed artillery — like the M777 howitzer system — could become a thing of the past. It’s harder to move those systems quickly to avoid return fire — and in a world of ubiquitous drones and overhead surveillance, “it’s very hard to hide them these days,” this person said.
As for lessons learned, “there’s a book to be written about this,” said Democratic Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut, a member of the House Intelligence Committee.
US defense contractors also took note of the new opportunity to study – and market – their systems.
BAE Systems has already announced that Russia’s success with its kamikaze drones has influenced how it is designing a new armored fighting vehicle for the Army, adding more armor to protect soldiers from attacks from above.
And various parts of the US government and industry tried to test novel systems and solutions in the fight that Ukraine needed all the help it could get.
In the early days of the conflict, the National Geospatial-Information Agency sent five light high-resolution surveillance drones to the US Special Operations Command in Europe – just in case they could get their hands on Ukraine. The drones, made by a company called Hexagon, were not part of a so-called Department of Defense program of record, indicating the experimental nature of the conflict.
Vice Admiral of the Navy Robert Sharp, then head of the National Geospatial-Information Agency, even publicly boasted that the US had trained a “military partner” in Europe on the system.
“What you can do is go out under cloud cover and collect your own [geointelligence] data,” Sharp told CNN on the sidelines of a satellite conference in Denver last spring.
Despite the best efforts of a small group of US officials and outside industry, it is unclear whether these drones ever made it into combat.
Meanwhile, multiple intelligence and military officials told CNN they hoped the US military terms “attributable” drones — cheap single-use weapons — to be made a priority for defense contractors.
“I wish we could make a $10,000 one-way attack drone,” said one of these officials, enthusiastically.
How many Russian died in the Ukraine war?
A Pentagon official said in early August Russian casualties 70,000-80,000. See the article : Russia is buying North Korean artillery, according to US intelligence.
How many soldiers has Russia lost? US officials have said that Russia has lost between 60,000 and 80,000 troops in its misguided war on Ukraine. A soldier watches as Ukrainian artillery deploys an M109 tracked self-propelled howitzer at the Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, May 12, 2022.
How many Russian died in the Ukrainian war?
In November, US officials estimated that Moscow’s casualties were “well over 100,000 Russian soldiers killed and wounded. This may interest you : HIMARS and Ukraine: How America’s High-Tech Weapons Can Change War.” At the time, American officials estimated that the Ukrainian armed forces suffered “probably” the same number and that up to 40,000 Ukrainian civilians were killed.
Who has the strongest military in the world?
According to Statista, the most powerful army in the world is the United States military. Statista uses an index of 50 different factors such as military capability to budget to give each country a score. Read also : A new joint-use sports field opens at Sagami Depot with a youth sports event. The top eight most powerful militaries as of January 2022: the United States.
Who is the No 1 army in the world? In 2022, China had the largest armed forces in the world by active duty military personnel, with approximately 2 million active soldiers. India, the United States, North Korea and Russia rounded out the top five largest armies.
Is US military still strongest?
For the year 2023, the United States is ranked 1 out of 145 countries considered for the annual review of the GFP. The nation has a PwrIndx* score of 0.0712 (a score of 0.0000 is considered ‘perfect’). This entry was last revised on 01/05/2023.
How many Russian tanks have been destroyed in Ukraine?
And it is a huge figure as well. According to Dutch warfare research group Oryx, Russia has lost 1,450 tanks since the start of the war, with nearly 900 damaged or destroyed. The rest were abandoned by the Russians, many of whom have since been captured by the Ukrainians.
How many vehicles has Russia lost in Ukraine? 3,587 vehicles and fuel tanks. 2,216 tanks. 1,323 pieces of artillery. 925 unmanned tactical air systems.
How much equipment has Russia lost in the Ukraine war?
The Oryx website reports 8,000 pieces of equipment destroyed, damaged, abandoned, or captured, including approximately 1,500 tanks, 700 armored fighting vehicles, and 1,700 infantry fighting vehicles.
How many tanks has Russia lost so far?
Kahl did not specify exactly how many tanks the Pentagon estimates Russia has lost, but according to an open-source intelligence analysis by Oryx, at least 1,450 Russian tanks were destroyed, captured, abandoned, or damaged during the war, which would do. to be about half the pre-invasion tank force.
How many Russian tanks has Ukraine destroyed?
Based on independently verified images of Russian tanks that have been destroyed, removed, or captured, the report said the Kremlin has lost just over 1,500 tanks since the start of the war, including 859 destroyed, 64 damaged, 56 abandoned, and 521 captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).
