Special Report: Ukraine shares lessons learned at NATO unmanned exercises

Nordex Seawolf R USV at NATO Exercise ‘Dynamic Messenger/REPMUS 25' in Portugal. (Janes/Neil Dee)

Ukraine led the opposition ‘red forces' as part of NATO's Exercise ‘Dynamic Messenger/REPMUS 25' (Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping with Maritime Unmanned Systems) held in Portugal in September. Ukrainian forces also shared lessons learned with the alliance during Exercise ‘Bold Machina 25' in Den Helder, Netherlands, held in the same month.

Tactics and techniques

In a briefing to media on 23 September in Troia, Portugal, Director of the Portuguese Navy Operational Experimentation Centre (Centro de Experimentação Operacional da Marinha: CEOM) Captain Nuno Palmeiro Ribeiro said Ukraine was leading the simulated opposition force during the exercise, adding that ‘REPMUS 25' used blue and red forces to make the exercise more realistic, with umpires judging the outcome.

In a separate briefing on the same day, Captain Valter de Bulha Almeida, commander of Task Group 443.90, said Ukraine was using surface and air assets as part of the exercise. Capt Almeida, who led the ‘blue forces' at the exercise, emphasised that an important element of using red and blue forces was learning and recording the exercise so that actions could be reproduced. “The question is not who is winning or not,” he said, adding, “For me, I'm more interested to develop the tactics and techniques and we are learning a lot [from the Ukrainian participation].”