UK to use lessons of Ukraine ‘battle lab’ to boost its military: Defense secretary

UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace says Ukraine has “tragically become a battle lab,” but Britain will incorporate the lessons learned into its armed forces.

The British secretary was speaking on Wednesday ahead of the release of a revised Defense Command Paper, which was originally published before the February 2022 war began.

Wallace said the revisions were influenced by the effectiveness of weapons given to Ukraine by its allies.

“We would be very foolish to ignore these lessons and not import them into our own armed forces.”

The paper focuses on Britain’s additional £2.5-billion investment in defense.

“In this refresh we are focused on how to drive the lessons of Ukraine into our core business,” Wallace said of the revised paper.

“In the future, we will be allied by design and national by exception. Our support for NATO will remain ironclad.”

He said the British military is “enabling a culture of innovation.”

“New technologies are not gimmicks, they're fundamentally key to how we fight a modern war.”

The British secretary said analyzing the strategies playing out in Ukraine would help “make sure that we can be match fit for any future conflict.”

In June, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov said, “We are interested in testing modern systems in the fight against Russia and we are inviting the arms manufacturers to test their new products here. Give us the tools, we will finish the job and you will have new information.”

The UK provided £2.3 billion in military assistance to Ukraine in 2022 and has already committed the same level or an increased amount of support in 2023.

Britain has reportedly supplied Ukraine with long-range Storm Shadow missiles. The cruise missiles have a range of over 250 kilometers. The weapons have the longest range of any missile available to Ukraine. Russia has said the missiles have been used against its forces.

The UK has also provided battle tanks to Ukraine. In January, Britain announced that 14 Challenger 2 tanks along with 30 AS90 self-propelled guns would be supplied to Kiev.

The UK government has also sent hundreds of attack drones and air defense missiles of a range of over 200 kilometers to Ukraine.

M270 multiple-launch rocket systems with M31A1 precision munitions were sent to Ukraine in 2022.

The war in Ukraine began after President Vladimir Putin of Russia ordered the launch of a "special military operation" in the ex-Soviet republic on February 24, 2022 to “demilitarize” two eastern Ukrainian regions amid Kiev's vaulting ambitions to join NATO, which Moscow deems a redline.

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