A Technology Gap In The Ukraine War

A Ukrainian soldier speaks with a fellow soldier on a portable radio transmitter in their military camp near Luhansk on Wednesday. ROMAN PILIPEY EPA/LANDOV

Washington Post: On the frontlines in Ukraine, a technological gap

He had been fighting in eastern Ukraine since March, and it was the first time he was able to get real-time imagery of the Russian-backed separatists and their trenches a little more than a half-mile away.

The aircraft? A small quadcopter more common in toy stores than combat zones, with a GoPro camera strapped to its underside. The drone flew one mission before its owner, a foreign volunteer, left with it.

Bak’s shortage of drones is just one piece of the many technological shortcomings he faces. His unit — the 7th Company of the 93rd Brigade — talks primarily on unsecure radios or field telephones left over from the Cold War that are frequently disabled when artillery rounds sever the wires that connect them. With no secure way to transmit data to other units, important messages such as company rosters and battlefield reports are delivered by hand.

WNU Editor: Ukraine's military has bigger problems than just not having enough radios and drones .... soldiers that have been conscripted and who have no desire of finding themselves on the front line, poor command and control, leadership problems, corruption, discipline, poor morale .... I can spend the entire night making a list. But the biggest problem is not hardware related but the following .... the Ukraine military is engaged in military operations in a region of Ukraine that is predominantly Russian-Ukrainian .... and who have no love for the central government and its military. This is a conflict that is hungry for a political solution .... unfortunately .... obtaining "better weapons" has become the primary goal for both Kiev and the rebels.