Ukraine is ‘Battle Lab’ for War Tech, Admits Defence Minister.
The war in Ukraine has become a ‘battle lab’ for the United Kingdom’s military technology and effectiveness, according to the British Secretary of State for Defence, Ben Wallace, who warned this week: “[w]e would be very foolish to ignore these lessons and not import them into our own armed forces.”
Wallace – who was recently considered a potential replacement for NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg – made the remarks after a ‘Defence Command Paper’ was released by the British government on Tuesday.
The paper, among other things, supports an additional £2.5 billion ($3.2 billion) investment in British stockpiles and “great focus on science and technology,” yet does not address the recent claims by former NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson that the UK’s munitions stocks are “dangerously low.”
“New technologies are not gimmicks, they’re fundamentally key to how we fight a modern war,” argued Wallace, adding that the Ukrainian war has assisted Britain in ensuring “that we can be match fit for any future conflict.”
“Originally we were taking things out of service, having a bit of a gap in the middle of the decade, and then we’d have the new equipment. That’s something I don’t want to risk any more [sic],” Wallace added.
This follows Wallace’s assertion over the weekend that the UK will be dragged into a conflict by the end of the decade due to growing international threats, such as Putin’s Russia, the Chinese Communist Party, and Islamic terrorism.
https://thenationalpulse.com/2023/07/18/ukraine-is-battle-lab-for-war-tech-admits-defence-minister/