A new joint NATO-Ukraine research centre will help the Alliance stay ahead of Russia, claims Admiral Pierre Vandier, NATO’s senior commander. It is a vital step to ensure the Alliance’s strategic credibility. The delicate issue of Ukraine‘s NATO membership is not relevant to this, he says.

How can NATO better prepare for a possible Russian attack? Allied officials hope to glean many clues from a new research centre to be inaugurated in Poland next month. Along with civilians and Ukrainians, they will explore areas such as drone warfare, air defence, artificial intelligence and civilian resilience.

The center will reside in Bydgoszcz, in the north of the country, under the name of the NATO-Ukraine Joint Analysis, Training and Education Center (JATEC), NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation, Admiral Pierre Vandier, told the news server Politico.

Ancient and modern

The Ukrainian war, according to Vandier, combines space-age technology with brutal trench warfare and artillery bombardment “in a mix between WWI and the war of the future,” the French admiral explained. Ukrainian soldiers are fighting in the trenches and using artillery in ways that would have been familiar more than a century ago. However, they are also using drones, artificial intelligence and space-based communications. As a result, Ukrainian artillery has become more effective and therefore more lethal.

“Today we have a better idea of the mix between older platforms – tanks, aircraft, ships – and new capabilities that use unmanned systems, i.e. robotics and IT,” Vandier said. That kind of learning is essential for NATO to remain “conventionally and strategically credible,” he said.

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JATEC was officially endorsed by leaders at the NATO summit in Washington last June. Kiev is still awaiting a formal invitation to join the alliance, even as the center was introduced as the first joint NATO-Ukraine institution.

The establishment of the center also reflects NATO’s move away from counterinsurgency, expeditionary warfare in distant countries such as Afghanistan and Mali. It is refocusing on the preparation for a potential high-intensity conflict against Russia. “We are returning to issues that have been somewhat neglected since the end of the Cold War,” Vandier stressed.

Against Russian glide bombs

JATEC will initially comprise 70 experts, including 20 Ukrainians, and is expected to grow. It will operate under NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, which is charged with preparing the alliance for the future of warfare.

“The center will begin work on Ukraine’s interoperability with NATO, protection of civilian infrastructure, and defense against weapons that Russia has successfully used during the war,” such as Lancet loitering munition or glide bombs, Rear Admiral Plácido Torresi, ACT’s deputy chief of staff for multi-domain forces, often nicknamed the spiritual father of JATEC, told Politico.

In December, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe asked ACT to test air defense systems that had been used in Ukraine. “Within a few weeks, we bought these materials, put them in the field and were able to assess their relevance to NATO,” said Vandier, who declined to provide more details because they are confidential.

The focus on weapons development is key because Moscow is also learning – especially in the area of electronic warfare. According to a document released in January by the European Council on Foreign Relations, “Russia and Ukraine are playing a cat-and-mouse game with rapid innovation cycles for both drones and anti-drone technologies.” On the Ukrainian frontline, the lifespan of drone software is roughly a month and a half, Vandier said.

“There are always teams working to keep the sword sharp because the shield works very quickly. It’s a constant war of adaptation,” the French admiral explained.

A massive laboratory

Ukraine has essentially become a massive laboratory for military artificial intelligence, and Western defence contractors are hoping to use the war to improve their equipment. Prominent among them are improving defence technology through artificial intelligence or research into the growing importance of drones.

Ultimately, NATO will have to incorporate the lessons of Ukraine whether or not Kiev joins the alliance, Vandier said. The Ukrainians initially presented JATEC as a way to “accelerate Ukraine’s NATO membership process.” The prospects for that have cooled with the arrival of Donald Trump. “The importance of JATEC is independent of the question of whether Ukraine will join NATO,” the French admiral said, however. “In any case, Ukraine is a NATO partner and we will need its lessons,” the French admiral added.