NATO is learning from Ukraine that a lot of good-enough weapons today beat a few perfect ones that come too late

RIGA, Latvia — Russia's invasion of Ukraine has shown NATO that it can't afford to wait 10 years for perfect weapons. It needs weapons that are good enough and available now.

Fears of further Russian aggression have pushed the West to absorb a host of lessons from Ukraine's fight, and Western officials have been warning that arsenals are insufficient.

Heico Hübner, the vice chief of the German Army, said his country is "pursuing a very pragmatic approach" focused not on having the "perfect solution in 10 years, but usable capabilities today."

He said time is "a decisive factor of military credibility."

"Ukraine has demonstrated how rapidly innovation cycles evolve today, and adaptation no longer happens over years as in the past. Today, in many cases, it happens within weeks," he said.

Speaking at a drone summit in Latvia, he said the war has shown that the real test is no longer who can design the most advanced technology, but who can produce it at scale and get it into troops' hands fast enough to matter.

Carsten Breuer, Germany's chief of defense, made a similar point at the summit, saying the first question in weapons procurement is whether a system is "available in time" because Germany believes Russia could be ready to attack NATO by 2029, meaning "we have to be ready as soon as possible."

It's better, he said, "to buy off the shelves than to procure something which has to be developed and will be here in 2035." Breuer added that allies need "the advantage of speed because this urgency counts."

These alarm bells have been sounding across the alliance, but they are taking on new urgency.

Gen. James E. Rainey, then the commanding general of US Army Futures Command, wrote in 2024 that "perfect is the enemy of good enough," arguing that, in many cases, the US was "allowing the aspirational to stand in the way of the doable."

"There are technologies that would be useful in our formations right now but are not yet fielded because we are waiting until they can do even more," he said.

Tarja Jaakkola, NATO's assistant secretary general for defense industry, innovation, and armaments, shared at the drone summit in Latvia that the alliance is looking at what capabilities civilian and dual-use companies can give "faster, at scale, but also cheaper."

Civilian technology is typically cheaper and already available. "So we are very much talking about what is good enough."

Ukraine's different approach

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said last year that the alliance makes weapons too slowly, and should make less effective ones so it could work faster: "Speed is of the essence, not perfection."

He said Ukraine makes, approves, and uses equipment that could be rated a "6 to 7" out of 10, while NATO militaries insist on reaching "9 or 10."

Defense companies, both in and out of Ukraine, are taking note. Kristian Brost, the general manager for the US division of Robin Radar, a Dutch company that makes drone-detection radar systems used by Ukraine and US allies in the Middle East, told Business Insider that the war shows an imperfect answer "right now, sometimes, is better than a perfect solution later."

He said there is "a lot we can learn" from Ukraine, which is "in a spot where sometimes they need duct tape and rubber bands."

Ultimately, he said, "I think that's in itself a lesson: Use what works, use what is cheap."

Building faster and cheaper

Russia's war has shown the West that Moscow is willing to use attritional tactics that chew through masses of weaponry, a kind of war the West hasn't faced in decades but could in the future.

Attritional warfare is grinding combat that consumes huge numbers of troops, weapons, and ammunition over time. It has led to a new way of thinking about weaponry in the West, which, since the Cold War, has focused on having fewer pieces of advanced equipment.

Now, much of the West sees larger volumes of cheaper weapons that it can get quickly as essential too.

Sir John Stringer, NATO's Deputy Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, said at the recent drone summit that the West needs to move much faster and get "comfortable with procurement cycles which are faster than what we have been brought up with," instead of big programs that last decades.

The West is now "in a race," he said, and "we need to be in that space where we are testing, adjusting, failing and learning, procuring much, much faster than has been the case."

It means "the what, how, where, and when of production is going to change."