{"id":1373952,"date":"2022-03-13T08:31:06","date_gmt":"2022-03-13T12:31:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1373952"},"modified":"2022-03-13T08:36:40","modified_gmt":"2022-03-13T12:36:40","slug":"top-generals-discuss-three-key-lessons-learned-from-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/top-generals-discuss-three-key-lessons-learned-from-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Generals Discuss Three Key Lessons Learned From Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftop-generals-discuss-three-key-lessons-learned-from-ukraine%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1373952&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div id=\"attachment_209895\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-209895\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A member of a Territorial Defence unit guards a barricade on the outskirts of eastern Kyiv on March 06, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Chris McGrath\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>WASHINGTON: It\u2019s been two weeks since <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/tag\/russia\/\">Russia<\/a> began its invasion of <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/tag\/ukraine\/\">Ukraine<\/a>, and a conflict that some expected to be over in days appears to be stretching into <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2022\/03\/russian-invasion-plans-profoundly-flawed-but-ugly-next-few-weeks-for-ukraine-coming-us-intel\/\">a bloody and protracted war.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While President Joe Biden has repeatedly stated that the US military will not get involved, senior US defense officials and military leaders have been closely watching the conflict to better comprehend the risk to NATO allies \u2014 and to understand how the nature of warfare may be changing. And thanks to a series of public hearings and events, some of those assessments have entered the public sphere.<\/p>\n<p>Here, then, are the<a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2022\/03\/ukraine-offers-taiwan-a-wake-up-call-and-lessons-in-resistance\/\"> lessons learned<\/a> from the first two weeks of conflict in Ukraine, as identified by three key American officers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Logistics Are Not Optional<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It took months for Russian President Vladimir Putin to amass more than 175,000 Russian troops on the Ukrainian border. But since those forces mobilized <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2022\/02\/russia-opens-war-on-ukraine\/\">on Feb. 23,<\/a> the Russian military has been embarrassed by one logistical failure after another.<\/p>\n<p>Videos posted on social media showed lines of tanks and military vehicles stalled on Ukrainian roads, with no spare parts available to fix broken vehicles and no fuel to get them running again. Other viral videos showed hungry Russian soldiers who had apparently run out of rations accepting food from Ukrainians.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Ukrainian citizens have posted photos and videos of themselves with captured Russian equipment \u2014 everything from abandoned vehicles to air defense systems.<\/p>\n<div class=\"iframe-container\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Tractor pull of an abandoned Russian air defense system now confirmed as legit by Ukraine\u2019s military, which jokes about the harvest carrying on in February. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DVYF2LAxew\">https:\/\/t.co\/DVYF2LAxew<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michael Weiss \ud83c\udf3b\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddea (@michaeldweiss) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/michaeldweiss\/status\/1498277919256371205?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 28, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe often like to talk about amateurs study tactics and professionals study logistics, and we see that play out right before our eyes,\u201d Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re going to put an army on the move, if you\u2019re going to conduct combat operations, if you don\u2019t have logistics, if you don\u2019t have gas, if you don\u2019t have parts, if you don\u2019t have all the ammunition, then those weapon systems become paperweights. They just sit on the side of the road and you can\u2019t fight [with] them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s problem isn\u2019t a technological one, said Air Combat Command head Gen. Mark Kelly during the McAleese and Associates conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Russian surface to air missile systems \u201care operating pretty well when operated by Ukrainians,\u201d he quipped.<\/p>\n<p>Rather, Kelly suggested that the Russian military is used to training on its own turf, where it can use its layers of air defense systems and other weapons to wear down an attacking force. It may not be practiced in operating in an environment where its own forces are disaggregated and it does not already have control over both ground terrain and the skies, which means Ukrainian defenders are operating from a playbook Moscow hasn\u2019t seen before.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think \u2014 and think is a key word \u2014 is that they\u2019re struggling with fighting Russian systems and they [the Ukrainians] are not adhering to Russian doctrine,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cBut we also see the challenge of: What happens if your joint force is organized, trained, and equipped to operate with air superiority and not remotely designed to operate without air superiority? What happens when you don\u2019t have it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Humble \u201cLegacy\u201d Technology Can Still Play a Role Against a Sophisticated Adversary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As the US military looks toward a future fight against a technologically advanced foe like Russia or China, the services have made the case for why it\u2019s important to invest in cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons, and the next-generation of combat aircraft, ships and vehicles.<\/p>\n<p>However, the fight between Ukraine and Russia shows that older, less advanced tech can still make an impact against high-end threats.<\/p>\n<p>McConville pointed to Ukraine\u2019s success in using relatively inexpensive, <a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2022\/02\/ukraines-turkish-made-drones-face-off-against-advanced-russian-military\/\">Turkish-made TB2 Bayraktar drones<\/a> to take out Russian tanks and other military vehicles without putting human pilots at risk.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/breakingdefense.com\/2022\/03\/despite-problems-during-ukraine-invasion-do-not-underestimate-russias-subs-del-toro\/\">RELATED: Despite problems during Ukraine invasion, do not underestimate Russia\u2019s subs: Del Toro<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople envision that integrated air and missile defense is like a wall, that you can\u2019t get through it. There\u2019s ways you can get around it, There\u2019s ways you can get through it,\u201d McConville said. \u201cYou can\u00a0suppress with kinetic [fires]. You can suppress with non-kinetic\u00a0means. \u2026 You provide commanders with a lot of options and you also provide adversaries with a lot of dilemmas.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The expanse of the Indo-Pacific region and layered Chinese defensive systems have put a premium on systems that can hold an adversary hostage from a distance. However, there is no substitute for positioning some forces close to an enemy, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger said during the McAleese conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>By utilizing its intelligence and surveillance assets in Eastern Europe, the United States was able to build a picture of Russia\u2019s movements and strategically release information about Russia\u2019s plans, Berger said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would offer to you this validates the need for a stand-in force to be forward all the time, collecting [information] against the adversary,\u201d Berger said during the McAleese conference on Wednesday. \u201cIf we back up and cede that space, things are going to happen in there [and] we will be surprised. So, winning the reconnaissance\/counter-reconnaissance fight early on [is] critical, absolutely critical.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Human Element (Still) Matters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Russia has a 900,000-person military that dwarfs Ukraine\u2019s and a defense budget to match, but Ukraine\u2019s citizens have mounted a resistance campaign that has imposed a heavy cost on Russian forces, stalling their march toward Kyiv.<\/p>\n<p>If one were to run a virtual wargame knowing how Russian forces were postured and understanding their capabilities, the computer model would have said Russia would be victorious in a matter of 72 to 96 hours, Berger said.<\/p>\n<p>But those models don\u2019t \u2014 and can\u2019t \u2014 account for <span>the <\/span>Ukrainian people\u2019s will to fight on behalf of their homeland, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it\u2019s stories of the legendary (and likely fictitious) Ghost of Kyiv shooting down Russian fighter jets above the skies of Ukraine or the real footage of Ukrainian citizens making Molotov cocktails and distributing weaponry, Ukraine is winning the information war against Russia by showcasing the resolve of its people and contrasting it with the Russian military\u2019s blunders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe discipline, the leadership, the fighting spirit, whatever you want to call it, models don\u2019t account for that. They can account for a weapon system, they can do [calculations]. They cannot explain why Ukraine is still hanging on. Why is that?\u201d Berger said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to understand there\u2019s a human component to fighting \u2014 a brutality. All the technology in the world allows them [Russia] to win, but it doesn\u2019t replace the human.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Andrew Eversden, Jaspreet Gill, and Justin Katz contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A member of a Territorial Defence unit guards a barricade on the outskirts of eastern Kyiv on March 06, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Chris McGrath\/Getty Images) WASHINGTON: It\u2019s been two<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1373952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1373952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1373952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1373952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1373952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1373952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}