On February 10, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington (USA), French Admiral Pierre Vandier - Commander of NATO's Transformation Command - gave frank and somewhat pessimistic assessments of the disparity in adaptability between the two sides.
According to Admiral Vandier, the nature of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is changing at a "dizzying" pace, especially in the field of high-tech combat. He said that what is happening is no longer just conventional battles, but has shifted to the stage of a confrontation between unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and robots.
We are witnessing the terrible pace of evolution of the conflict. The first and most important lesson is whether NATO is capable of organizing its apparatus to adapt to that pace in time," Admiral Vandier questioned the media and military experts.
He did not hesitate to point out the fatal weakness of the West today: Lateness. While NATO is still struggling with long-term procedures and plans, the Russian army has continuously changed tactics right on the ground to deal with modern weapons.
Russia is really very good at changing and adapting, much better than us at the moment. We need to "turn oil on all the gears" of the NATO machine immediately if we want to catch up with that speed," Vandier emphasized.
He believes that NATO has been "too static" and "too predictable" over the past time. This lack of flexibility has caused Western aid to Ukraine to be quickly deceived.
Battlefield reality shows that many types of precision guided weapons of the US and Europe have been significantly reduced in effectiveness due to Russia's electronic warfare (EW) systems continuously being updated with jamming frequencies.
Observers believe that Admiral Vandier's statement is a rare admission that NATO's huge military apparatus is lagging behind in the race for combat thinking. Russia not only produces weapons faster, but also knows how to integrate civilian and military technology to create cheap but highly effective solutions, something that Western rigid defense procurement procedures cannot do.
Concluding his speech, Mr. Vandier warned that if NATO does not learn to change its thinking and act faster, this alliance will lose its inherent technological advantage over its opponent.
