Ukraine becomes ‘Testbed’ for US weapons : CNN
“Ukraine is `absolutely a weapons lab in every sense because none of this equipment has ever actually been used in a war between two industrially developed nations’,” a source familiar with Western intelligence said.
Ukraine has become a testbed for the US and its allies’ weapons, and the United States has also closely studied the conflict for future lessons, CNN said on Sunday, referring to data and opinions from unnamed intelligence and Pentagon officers.
Ukraine has been “a veritable battle lab,” analysts say. According to CNN, this has offered the United States and its allies “an opportunity to study how their own weapons systems perform under intense use” and what munitions both sides are using to win a victory. Also, the US military has tracked how successfully Russia has used its cheap, expendable drones.
“Ukraine is `absolutely a weapons lab in every sense because none of this equipment has ever actually been used in a war between two industrially developed nations’,” a source familiar with Western intelligence told CNN. The Ukrainian crisis has been “an incredible source of data on the utility of its own systems” for the US Department of Defense, the source added.
For example, the Switchblade 300 drone and a missile have proved to be less effective than anticipated, a military operations officer with knowledge of the battlefield told CNN.
According to him, the HIMARS multiple rocket launcher has required a high rate of maintenance under heavy use, and the M777 howitzer loses its rifling if too many shells a fired in a short time period. Western military officials, the officer said, would be studying this data for years.
Thus, the M777 howitzer system may be a thing of the past, because it is harder to move quickly to avoid return fire.
Russia has repeatedly said that Western weapons supplies to Kiev will only prolong the conflict and have caused civilian deaths and damaged civilian infrastructure.
