Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the Ukrainians have continuously innovated to find the kinds of equipment they need for defensive operations. The allies of NATO might study the work done there and find out how to do it themselves, said the supreme allied commander Europe.
"All of us who've studied warfare know that there's nothing like combat operations to drive innovation; when your life depends on it, you change what you're doing," said Air Force Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich during a session yesterday at the 2025 LANDEURO symposium in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Until recently, with the invasion of Ukraine, Grynkewich said, he'd not seen how that need to innovate in conflict would look in a digital age that includes unmanned capabilities and additive manufacturing technologies.
"One of the lessons that I've taken away [from Ukraine] is we've got to figure out what mechanisms we can build in all of our militaries that allow that same pace of innovation that the Ukrainians have done so successfully," he said, while addressing an audience of NATO military leaders and defense industry experts. "Down at the brigade level, they're able to have a relationship with an industry partner that drives innovation — not in a matter of years, but in a matter of days."
What the Ukrainians have done while defending themselves, he said, is something NATO military leaders could study, reflect on and incorporate into their own formations.
The general also spoke to military leaders and the defense industry, both in the U.S. and in Europe, letting them know NATO is now in the market for innovative technologies, that industry needs to step up and that defense leaders need to make it easier for industry to meet the needs of NATO military partners.
"We have a shopping list; the shopping list comes from our plans, and we can tell industry exactly what it is that we need," Grynkewich said. "For all the leaders that are out there, it's our job, I think, to hold industry accountable to deliver quickly and to hold ourselves accountable for giving industry the ability to deliver quickly through our acquisition processes."
Equipping NATO with what it needs must happen fast, Grynkewich said.
"We need real capabilities, and we need them delivered as soon as possible," he said. "We can't afford to wait. Future pledges are no longer enough. We need things to start showing up in the armies and in the air forces and in the navies of the alliance as soon as they can."
What that will require, Grynkewich said, is that the defense industry across the alliance, in both North America and Europe, will need to ramp up.
"To do this, the defense industrial base on both sides of the Atlantic [Ocean are] going to have to become fully activated, in my view," he said. "There's plenty of work to go around, and it's a false choice to think that we can only invest in one or the other. It needs to be one seamless industrial base that can deliver capability and capacity for the alliance."
What NATO needs to accomplish its goals, Grynkewich said, is investment — and now it has that.
Last month, Grynkewich said, NATO allies agreed to spend 5% of their gross domestic product on contributing to their own defense, a "historic accomplishment."
"This demonstrates will across the alliance and every single nation backing the military requirements we have with a commitment to getting those requirements into the field," he said.