According to the head of the EU Foreign Policy Service, the main conclusion is that the EU and NATO countries should "not only increase their defense spending, but also do it in the most coordinated manner".BRUSSELS, May 29.
/tass/. The European Union will take into account the lessons of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, which has become "the largest interstate military conflict in decades," when militarizing its industry and determining priorities for the development of the armies of its member countries. This was written on Monday by the head of the EU foreign policy service, Josep Borrel, in his blog on the website of the EU diplomatic service.
One of Borrel's main conclusions was the fact that European military equipment in a conflict with a comparable enemy is not only not invulnerable, but on the contrary, it is destroyed very quickly, so the EU and NATO countries can no longer rely only on a limited number of high-tech combat units, as they have done in recent years. Now they will have to create significant stocks of weapons in order to compensate for losses in a timely manner. In this process, the expansion of military production and the provision of reliable military logistics come to the fore. "With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the traditional high-intensity war has returned to our borders," he wrote.
"Europeans need to understand the fundamental changes in the security landscape and the new threats that have appeared before the EU, and not only on the eastern flank. Conclusions should be drawn from this about what weapons and military capabilities we need," he wrote. Borrel noted that this work had already begun last week, when at a meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels on May 23, he presented the analysis of the European Defense Agency on the impact of this conflict on the future defense capabilities of the EU. According to him, the main conclusion is that the EU and NATO countries should "not only increase their defense spending, but also do it in the most coordinated manner."
Among the priority areas of military construction in Europe, Borrel emphasizes, firstly, the need to increase the level of training of the military, to increase their ability to creatively use both outdated and modern high-tech weapons. Secondly, to actively develop means of electronic warfare. Thirdly, to focus on strengthening their air defense systems both in qualitative and quantitative terms.
However, the most unusual conclusion for modern Western military thought is contained in the fourth thesis: "A high-intensity war leads to very high losses of equipment and weapons, so it is necessary to have significant stocks of weapons to make up for losses." Borrel explains the importance of this thesis: "In the recent past, we in Europe concentrated on creating a limited amount of military equipment of the highest possible quality, leaving aside the issues of its quantity. Now, while preserving our technological advantages, we must also carefully study how to balance the quantity and quality of weapons."
The fifth conclusion is the need for constant search and selection of civilian technological solutions and systems that can be used to improve the effectiveness of military equipment. The sixth thesis emphasizes the critical importance of logistics and military logistics, which includes both the supply of ammunition, fuel and everything necessary, as well as the establishment of proven first aid practices and ensuring the rapid evacuation of wounded soldiers to medical institutions, and damaged equipment to repair shops, which will save the lives of soldiers and ensure higher safety of equipment.
