Paper: Russia-Ukraine War Holds Lessons for Future Fight

Paper: Russia-Ukraine War Holds Lessons for Future Fight

Soldiers in the field
Photo by: U.S. Army/Spc. Amy Carle

The Russia-Ukraine war underscores critical challenges for the U.S. Army, according to a new paper published by the Association of the U.S. Army.

“In its third year since the 2022 invasion, the Russo-Ukrainian War shows few clear signs of abating,” authors Charles McEnany and retired Col. Daniel Roper write. “What many assumed would be a short, decisive war has become a test of endurance and adaptation. The U.S. Army is studying the conflict as it ‘continuously transforms’ for large-scale combat operations.”

In “The Russo-Ukrainian War: Protracted Warfare Implications for the U.S. Army,” Roper, AUSA’s director of National Security Studies, and McEnany, national security analyst at the association, write that the conflict offers lessons for the Army as it prepares for the future fight.

“Predictions of quick, decisive outcomes in war are often overly-optimistic. The Department of Defense must apply this insight from Ukraine as it considers possible future demands on U.S. forces,” they write. “Adversaries who perceive that the United States and its partners are unprepared for the demands of a lengthy conflict may be more willing to risk aggression.”

The war also underscores “the dynamic character of warfare,” which will require the Army to combine its fundamentals with new developments to succeed.

For example, the Army may, “on a limited basis,” invest in “large numbers of cheaper capabilities better suited to prolonged attritional warfare” and “leverage advances in autonomy and robotics” to achieve the tactical edge, the paper, part of AUSA’s Spotlight series, says.

Future conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine war will “compe[l] military forces to adapt or to lose,” they write.

“Though the U.S. Army is not at war as Ukraine is, it does face transformation challenges on multiple time horizons that are interlinked,” Roper and McEnany write. “The rapidly changing character of warfare in Ukraine has made clear to the U.S. Army that transformation is not something the service can afford to do periodically every few decades. Instead, transformation must be continuous and work across … interconnected timeframes.”

The Army “is on the right path” to continuously transform and prepare for the future fight.

“This conflict is a reminder that grueling land warfare is not relegated to the past,” McEnany and Roper write. “[This path] can be accelerated by sustained commitment to preparing to fight and win a protracted conflict, continuously adapting to the changing character of warfare and learning from Ukraine’s military transformation.”

Read the paper here.