When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, many predicted that Russia’s far greater military might would secure it a swift victory.
Instead, Ukrainian forces drove the Russians away from the capital, forcing them into a brutal yearslong fight in the east. And throughout its fight, Ukraine has developed weaponry, tactics, and defense production processes that partner nations now want.
“In the last two years, in particular, it’s been very obvious that Ukraine has developed technologies as well as battlefield tactics that are of use to other military organizations,” former Australian Army Maj. Gen. Mick Ryan, a warfare strategist, told Business Insider.
Now, partners want access to Ukrainian weaponry, to learn from its production techniques, and to integrate Ukrainian tactics into their own militaries.
Ukraine’s armed forces are now “undoubtedly the most combat-hardened and the best at the moment in Europe,” Michael Clarke, a former UK security advisor and now a defense analyst, told BI. And allies are paying attention.
Ukraine is teaching allies
Partner countries have long trained Ukrainian troops to fight Russia, but increasingly the roles are being reversed, with Ukrainians sharing their expertise with NATO militaries and joining their training programs, particularly on drone warfare.
NATO last year opened the Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training and Education Centre (JATEC) to integrate Ukraine’s battlefield lessons into the alliance.
Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, chair of NATO’s Military Committee, said this week that the alliance has been increasingly using Ukrainian drone operators to act as the adversary in training exercises for the alliance, to test NATO readiness. He said that Ukraine has transitioned from a security consumer to a security provider.
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German army chief, Lt. Gen. Christian Freuding, told Reuters in March that Ukraine was sending military instructors to German army schools to teach them lessons they learned in the war, explaining that “the Ukrainian military is currently the only one in the world with front-line experience against Russia.”
Denmark is also using Ukrainian drone specialists for counter-drone efforts, and Poland on Monday announced a new drone fleet backed by Ukrainian expertise
Western training for Ukrainian troops is continuing. Western militaries often have decades of experience and training in types of warfare and weapons with which Ukraine’s military is less familiar. But increasingly, these training sessions are serving as an exchange of tactics and combat approaches, not a one-way street.
Ukrainian troops have at times pushed back on Western training, explaining why some tactics are unlikely to work against Russia while also feeding front-line experiences back to their instructors. That know-how is reshaping how partner militaries train their own forces, trainers in a UK-led program told Business Insider.
On the opening of a new training camp for Ukrainian soldiers in Poland last year, Poland’s defense minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, said, “This is not a one-way process,” sharing that “we will be drawing on Ukrainian experiences.”
Ukrainian tech is in demand
Officials across NATO say Ukrainian defense tech is crucial for future warfighting. Secretary General Mark Rutte said last year that “Ukraine is a powerhouse when it comes to military innovation and anti-drone technology” and that Ukraine’s willingness to share expertise with allies is “very important.”
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Ukraine says multiple allies have expressed interest in buying its weaponry, but exports remain limited as the war takes priority.
Foreign interest accelerated with the start of the Iran war, as the US and partners faced drone threats similar to those Ukraine has fought for years.
Those threats drove demand for Ukraine’s cheap interceptor drones and its expertise in countering such attacks. Ukraine said its technology is now being used in the region, with its experts advising partners on air defense.
Ukraine’s defense industrial base has a “world-first advantage,” Clarke said, calling it “the best and only supplier of short-term anti-drone technologies that are proven and can be produced very quickly.”
“Ukraine has become a center of expertise,” Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Program, told Business Insider. The war, he said, “has significantly strengthened Ukraine’s position globally.”
Ukraine is also producing weapons in partner countries to speed output and reduce risk from attacks, a process that exposes Western firms to its methods.
Partners want to learn from how Ukraine makes weapons, acknowledging that Ukraine is often able to do it faster and cheaper, with different processes, less red tape, and more collaboration with soldiers. NATO officials have praised Ukraine’s speed and innovation and said Western firms should take note.
Troels Lund Poulsen, Denmark’s defense minister, previously told BI that he wants his country’s defense firms to learn from Ukrainian ones, to “get some of the lessons learned from the defense companies in Ukraine back to Danish defense companies.”
He also said producing Ukrainian weapons in Denmark would give its military access to newer technologies and combat experience.
Norway’s defense minister said this week that a deal to produce Ukrainian drones in Norway “strengthens Norway’s defense industry.”
Western companies are also teaming up with Ukrainian ones to work in Ukraine, seeking to benefit from their battle-driven innovation.
Ihor Fedirko, the CEO of the Ukrainian Council of Defence Industry, a body that represents more than 100 companies, told BI that foreign companies working in Ukraine engage with Ukrainian local specialists, so that allies “have the opportunity to get this battlefield experience and expertise directly from our army.”
Ukraine is increasingly making more of its own weaponry, but it still relies on advanced Western hardware. The US, for example, makes key weaponry like air defense systems that Ukraine has no replacements for.
Kyiv aims to decrease its dependence on foreign technology and lean more on funding and partnerships, using its growing expertise to deepen long-term ties with partners.
