BILD: NATO Reshapes Eastern Flank Defense Based on Lessons From Ukraine War

NATO is restructuring its approach to defending the eastern flank, taking into account Ukraine’s experience in the war with Russia.

The German publication BILD reports this.

The alliance plans to integrate drones, satellites, sensors, and strike systems into a single network, designed to accelerate the detection and repulsion of potential Russian attacks.

On the eastern flank – from Finland to the Black Sea- unmanned systems could eventually perform a significant portion of reconnaissance and target-identification tasks.

One source of inspiration for developing these technologies is Ukraine’s experience. Ukrainian forces are already using artificial intelligence for drone navigation, decision-making, terminal guidance, and improving strike accuracy.

U.S. Army Major Ben Schiff, responsible for NATO’s digital systems, said in an interview that humans should determine the tasks assigned to drones, but do not necessarily need to control their flight themselves.

“Humans decide what the drone does. But they don’t necessarily have to control the flight themselves because we don’t have a million pilots. We can’t launch a million drones simultaneously,” he explained.

According to him, in the future, autonomous systems will be able to independently carry out some tasks on the battlefield. Drones will search for potential targets, while ground-based robotic platforms will be able to deliver supplies and perform tasks that are dangerous for military personnel.

Meanwhile , NATO emphasizes that the goal of automation is not to replace humans in warfare, but to reduce risks to service members and maintain human control over the use of weapons.

Threat to NATO Countries

U.S. intelligence believes that Russia could attempt to test NATO’s readiness for collective defense by launching an attack on one of the Alliance’s member states sometime between this fall and 2029.

U.S. officials are considering various scenarios – ranging from cyberattacks and hybrid operations to a localized invasion of a NATO member state on the Alliance’s eastern flank.

Previously, U.S. officials believed that Putin would not provoke a NATO member state as long as Russia continued to wage war in Ukraine. However, that assessment changed earlier this year.