Senior commander: Ukrainian forces should get access to advanced technologies more quickly

The main task of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is to provide the Ukrainian Defense Forces with technologies so that Ukrainian defenders could surpass a more numerous enemy thanks to innovative solutions.

Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel Andriy Lebedenko, said this in a comment to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"I am convinced that innovation and technology are one of the key elements for obtaining a qualitative advantage over a numerically superior opponent. It is necessary to approach the planning of our needs comprehensively, first of all taking into account actual battlefield experience. The most important task that technologies and innovations must perform is to save the lives of our soldiers," Lebedenko said.

He noted that one of the priorities of the Ukrainian General Staff is to provide the Ukrainian Defense Forces with innovative technological solutions. These are unmanned, robotic systems and automated control systems. A separate emphasis should be placed on electronic warfare systems.

"The Armed Forces of Ukraine should get access to advanced technologies more quickly. The time from an idea to a finished said should be shortened as much as possible. Our team is working on this 24/7," Lebedenko noted.

Commenting on the creation of the Unmanned Systems Command, he noted that it was important to reinforce this process with a scientific and applied component to increase efficiency.

"The creation of such a Command cannot take place without combat experience, science, an applied component and without the potential of people - highly qualified engineers, programmers, scientists who have experience and competence in the development of robotic and unmanned systems," Lebedenko said.

He added that today an ecosystem had been created that combines science, production and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In this system, the Armed Forces determine the requirements for weapons, equipment or technologies, which are supplied to units for the performance of combat missions. Scientific military institutions study processes and needs at the front, as well as threats from the enemy, in order to improve technical solutions or apply them in new forms.

According to Lebedenko, such a structure will make it possible to force the issue of advanced innovative technologies, provide the Armed Forces with quick access to them, and help scale them in the shortest possible time and respond promptly to threats that change every day.

Photo: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine