Innovation only way Ukraine can offset shortages, inflict disproportionate losses on Russia - Zaluzhny
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valeriy Zaluzhny has noted the critical importance of introducing military innovations to compensate for the persistent lack of resources.
“Only by introducing military innovations can Ukraine compensate for the traditional lack of resources and inflict disproportionate losses on Russia. However, Russia is also aware of this and is already taking steps that we feel. Ukraine’s advantage lies in its people, who not only stopped the enemy, but have already turned the country into a center of innovation on the battlefield,” Zaluzhny wrote in his article for the publication ZN.UA (Dzerkalo Tyzhnia), published on Wednesday morning.
He emphasized that it is innovations that will lead to the application of a strategy of sustained resistance in conditions of “if not constant war, then constant hostility.” “This will allow us to survive, adapt and win without illusions, turning the war into an operationally meaningless one for Russia. But for this it is extremely important to re-intercept and maintain the technological initiative, forcing Russia to adapt, withstand pressure and defend itself,” the former commander-in-chief noted.
Zaluzhny said that the modern battlefield is a single integrated network of cyber-physical systems, in which unmanned and robotic systems are combined through sensors and an auxiliary infrastructure of control and communication with software.
“As of today, it is obvious that this cyber-physical system functions precisely through a network of devices that both collect and transmit visual, acoustic, seismic and other data to control points or intermediate information processing systems, and perform certain actions on commands from control points. All this, of course, occurs through the communication network, which remains one of the main weaknesses on the modern high-tech battlefield. However, it is obvious that due to the vulnerability of communication systems, autonomous systems will develop, where the main array of information processing, situation analysis and decision-making will take place directly ‘on board,’ - he predicted, assuming that it is such systems that will be able not only to effectively perform defeat tasks, but also to provide reliable protection. To do this, according to Zaluzhny, a number of key problems should be solved at the state level, in particular, to create a strategy and mechanisms for solving the problem of developing advanced defense technologies at the national level, to mobilize the necessary number of specialists, primarily in the field of software solutions, necessary for the development, implementation, integration and further support thereof, to take advantage of the available export of defense technologies to form security alliances and use the technological and scientific capabilities of future partners, to ensure the complete scientific and technological isolation of Russia.
He also noted the need to resolve the problem of access to microprocessors, calling this issue the most difficult, because it “creates significant geopolitical risks for ensuring the stability and openness of supply markets for critically important components, since key production facilities remain concentrated in a limited number of geographical regions - mainly in the PRC, Taiwan, and the United States.”
“The situation at the front depends on many factors, and the most important is the development of technologies, which change daily with an obvious trend. As a result, the rapid mastery of these technologies, their practical testing and scaling will allow us to adapt to new conditions and get out of the described positional impasse before our enemies do,” Zaluzhny said.