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Both the successes and errors of the Ukrainian and Russian militaries are a lesson learned for the French Armed Forces.
Three years of conflict and hundreds of thousands of dead on both the Ukrainian and Russian sides have pushed the French Army to rethink its military strategy.The high-intensity conflict which began after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, foreshadows the war of tomorrow due to the many technological and tactical innovations.It has even pushed the French army to go as far as to create its special defence innovation unit in 2023 known as the Future Combat Command (CCF).”In the end, it’s the innovation and adaptability that we’ve seen throughout this conflict, that mobilises our energy in terms of our own preparation,” said General Rodolphe Hardy, second-in-command of the French Army’s future combat unit, during a press conference held in Paris on Thursday.The rise of electronic warfareOne key takeaway this year: the hidden electronic warfare battle that’s reshaping the Ukraine war.Electronic warfare is a technology that interferes with radio communications that can interfere with GPS and drones.”If you can’t use your cell phone because it can’t connect to a network terminal, it’s a bit complicated. So in the military field, whether it’s for communications, or GPS-based guidance systems, or for aircraft exchange systems or even the guidance of a drone without a pilot, all of this exploits the electromagnetic field,” explained Vice-Admiral Emmanuel Slaars, Deputy Head of Operations to the Chief of Staff of the French Navy to a group of reporters.This has forced French military leaders to reconsider and adapt to the gaps in their capabilities.”We need to be able to influence it, in other words, to disable its use. And this is a domain that’s moving very, very fast. We need to be very active in this area because it’s a key element,” he said during the press conference.The second front on the Black SeaAlthough the majority of the fighting is on land, there is a second crucial front on the water.The French Armed Forces have also learned how Ukraine has defended parts of the Black Sea using drones.”We saw Ukrainian drones which were very basic at the beginning and which have now become high-tech, even capable of countering helicopters,” said Vice-Admiral Slaars.The crucial lessons learned throughout this conflict even inspired the creation of a new NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training, and Education Centre in Poland, inaugurated this week. The goal is to adapt to the new realities on the battlefield.
