The full-scale war in Ukraine has demonstrated that Europe needs to revise traditional approaches to security and defense, as even the presence of large weapon arsenals does not guarantee their effectiveness in real combat conditions. This was stated on the eve of the international defense exhibition Eurosatory at Sciences Po in Paris by Iryna Terekh, CEO and CTO of the Ukrainian company Fire Point, during an executive masterclass dedicated to military innovation and the future of European defense, reports a correspondent for UNN.
I understand the full context behind the security doctrines of Europe and NATO. They are all designed for very safe movement in stable times. If you are not in stable times, you begin to view security issues from a different angle,
She emphasized that the war has posed an uncomfortable question for Western countries: can they be certain that the weaponry accumulated in arsenals for years will actually work when it is necessary.
Even if we have full arsenals of something – how do we know it works? I can think of many reasons why these specific weapon samples ended up in these arsenals: someone lobbied for it, someone is good at marketing, someone bribed a politician, someone is just a long-standing authoritative player with a good reputation. But if you have the urgency to take it off the shelf today and make it work – who is responsible for ensuring that it will work?
In her conviction, it is the war in Ukraine that has become a test for many defense solutions and approaches that were previously considered indisputable. The CEO of Fire Point is convinced that it is necessary to change approaches to evaluating modern technologies, particularly drones. According to her, drones today should be viewed by analogy with smartphones, which require constant software updates.
One of the things Ukraine is considering now is starting to view drones like your smartphone, which requires regular updates. And you need to make sure that your supplier can not only assemble a carbon fiber body with motors but also provide the correct updates on time. And these updates will not contain any "backdoors,"
Separately, she raised the issue of countries' dependence on foreign weapon suppliers and the possibility of external influence on the operation of critically important air defense systems.
Any Western weapon has a "kill switch." Right now, if something happens, we have certain Patriots, certain NASAMS, and other systems protecting the very beautiful Parisian sky. But they can be turned off at any moment remotely. If some old man took some pills in the morning and decided that's what needs to be done – that's what we would face. This already happened in Qatar recently. You don't have to look back years – you can look back months,
According to the CEO of Fire Point, all these challenges indicate the need to form one's own technological capabilities and move away from excessive dependence on the political decisions of allies.
And so many other questions, all of which lead us to the truth: perhaps the only way to truly be confident in your security is to rely on technological sovereignty, rather than on some political cycles, because political cycles are like a gamble. Today it's one thing, tomorrow another. The only thing you can truly rely on is what you can measure. And technology is the only thing you can measure,