The sheer size and scale of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine necessitates that the U.S. defense industrial base continues to evolve to meet potential future challenges of similar proportion, U.S. European Command’s top official explained yesterday during keynote remarks at the Emerging Technologies for Defense Conference & Exhibition in downtown Washington.

Speaking remotely to conference attendees, Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, commander of Eucom and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said that the large-scale conflict in Ukraine is unlike other conflicts that the U.S. has observed over the last 30 years.     

“And that has profound implications, I think, for the sort of technologies and the sort of defense industry that we need based on the size of the conflict,” Cavoli said.  

Cavoli went on to explain that, in conflicts as geographically big as the current one in Ukraine, quantities of equipment matter more than they have in recent decades. 

“If you have a very exquisite piece of equipment, but you only have one or two of them — and you’ve got a huge expanse geographically to cover — that might not turn out to be the best equipment strategy for the situation that you’re in,” Cavoli explained, adding that the U.S. hasn’t been in such a position for many years. 

“[In the past], we’ve mostly defined the areas of operations and the battle space. We’ve had the luxury of defining it, as opposed to having an adversary impose on us their definition — geographically and spatially — of the battle space,” Cavoli said.  

“That matters; and it makes numbers matter.” 

Cavoli said that the war in Ukraine has also demonstrated that conflicts can often wear on for months and years, which necessitates that industry production can facilitate the replenishment of materiel.  

“We need to have the systems that allow us to do that … with equipment; and that needs to be planned-in,” he said.   

Cavoli also discussed how the topics of cost and speed of production are intertwined, noting that some higher-end technologies simply can’t be produced as rapidly as desired because of their complexity. 

“This isn’t just as simple as telling Ford that they need to start building airplanes during [World War II] because an airplane and an automobile may have been somewhat similar during that period,” Cavoli explained. 

“There are qualitative differences between simple machinery and an F-35 [combat aircraft], for example,” Cavoli continued, in reference to the Defense Department’s high-profile, stealth multirole combat aircraft. 

“[The F-35] requires a specialized workforce to build it; [and] it’s hard to build exquisite stuff fast, which has to do with the cost, which has to do with the numbers — so I find all these [topics] to be related,” he added. 

Cavoli wound down his initial remarks on the topic of adaptability. 

“Something that’s remarkable about this war is the rate of adaptation that we see on both sides — tactical, operational, but also technical,” Cavoli said. “That means there’s got to be a mentality, and a capability and a system to adapt things quickly and then spread that adaptation across the force.” 

Cavoli closed by asking members of the defense industry to consider the topics he just discussed when considering what kind of overall defense industry and specific defense industry products and output would be needed going into the future. 

“It is critically important that we get this right, ladies and gentlemen because I believe that industrial production of defense articles is a critical part of our integrated deterrence,” Cavoli told the audience.  

“And if we want to keep peace in the world, we’re going to have to get the industrial part of it right, as well.” 

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