Ukraine’s experience has demonstrated the need to adapt quickly to changing security conditions. Fredrik Wesslau, Senior Fellow with the European Security Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), said in an interview with PISA that European countries have many lessons to learn from their neighbour when it comes to defence.
According to Wesslau, speed rather than perfection should be the priority, particularly given the pace of technological developments. For example, he believes Ukraine is now only weeks away from developing countermeasures against Russian drones.
“This is just one example of how quickly the situation on the battlefield — and, consequently, in this war — is changing. So I think ‘speed over perfection’ is one of the essential lessons.
“Secondly, I also believe it is about scale. We have seen in this conflict that scale is absolutely crucial. For example, Ukraine is expected to produce approximately 10 million drones this year — an astonishing figure, but, in a sense, that is the scale required to fight Russia.
“Therefore, I believe European countries need to develop systems and mechanisms that allow their capabilities to be scaled up rapidly, so that significant production volumes can be achieved within a very short period,” the researcher said.
He added that it is important to establish production lines capable of rapidly increasing output when needed. According to Wesslau, Ukraine has rewritten the rules of warfare. However, he stressed that armoured vehicles and artillery remain important.
The full interview is available in the accompanying video.