Pentagon Studies Ukraine to Prepare for Wider Conflicts

The ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia is prompting the Department of Defense to shift the focus of its preparations away from counterinsurgency and toward large-scale conflicts with more sophisticated enemies.

The Washington Post reported that for the past year, the Pentagon has prepared a classified analysis of the war in Ukraine to provide background for the next national defense strategy.

The project, which was led by a group of almost two dozen military officers, focused on five key components: information warfare, ways to grow and sustain forces, air power, ground tactics, and long-range firing capabilities.

Part of that project includes simulated war drills in the Mojave Desert, conducted out of the National Training Center in Fort Irwin in California by Army Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor to help American troops prepare for real war using information gleaned from the invasion of Ukraine.

According to military officials, precision weapons, drone fleets, and digital surveillance are becoming far more valuable to troops than in previous large-scale conflicts.

Army Chief of Staff Randy George pointed to drones specifically as having "fundamentally changed" aerial reconnaissance.

One senior defense official, who spoke under the condition of anonymity, told the Post, "We immersed them in this conflict to make sure they were really understanding the implications for warfare."

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