The Military Technological Arms Race in Ukraine

Modern War Institute

John Amble

News, Government

4.8 • 818 Ratings

🗓️ 5 October 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Almost since the very beginning the war in Ukraine triggered by Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the conflict took on characteristics of a technological arms race, with each side seeking to innovate to gain a battlefield advantage. As the war has continued, that contest for advantage has taken place on an increasingly rapid scale. The rollout of a drone optimized for a new mission, the development of a new tactic, an advance in electronic warfare—each of these has produced a shorter and shorter window of advantage until the other side counters it with its own innovation. In this episode, John Amble is joined by Sam Bendett, an adviser and member of the Russia Studies Program at CNA and a close observer of the way Ukraine and Russia are leveraging technological innovation in the war. The MWI Podcast is produced with the generous support of the West Point Class of 1974.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In the battle for Kursk territory, Russians started fielding large numbers of fiber optic control drones
0:11.0	to counter-Ukrainian electronic warfare countermeasures.
0:15.0	A lot of these developers and technologies have contacts with the frontline forces,
0:20.0	and they can modify and change something just based on the feedback they receive directly,
0:24.1	and they can modify it and then send it to the front.
0:27.1	Russia and Ukraine are the first countries to actually stand up this separate branch
0:33.9	dedicated to the rapid development and deployment of unmanned systems.
0:39.6	Ukraine has announced that it has gathered something like two centuries worth of battlefield
0:44.6	data or the equivalent of 200 years worth of battlefield data in order to train algorithms.
0:52.8	Hey, welcome back to the MWI podcast, brought to you with the generous support of
0:56.9	the West Point Class of 1974.
0:59.0	I'm John Amble, and this episode examines the military technological arms race taking place
1:04.3	in the Russia-Ukraine war.
1:06.4	New technological capabilities are being rolled out more quickly in that war than during
1:10.2	any other conflict in history. Russian and Ukrainian forces are locked in a cycle of action and reaction
1:16.2	to gain a technological and tactical advantage. And while the key role of drones in the war
1:20.7	is apparent to even the most casual observers, the types of drones, the missions they're
1:25.0	designed for, and the way they're employed are evolving
1:27.5	constantly. To explore all of these dynamics of the war, I'm joined on this episode by Sam Bendett,
1:33.4	an advisor and member of the Russia Studies program at CNA and a repeat guest on the podcast.
1:39.0	Before we get to it, as always, a couple quick notes. First, a very special thank you to the
1:43.6	West Point Class of 1974 for their generous support to MWI, and couple quick notes. First, a very special thank you to the West Point class of 1974 for their generous support
	...

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