Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1542142
Digal to support their own army. Understanding these processes is important for grasping how modernization happens in the Ukrainian military, because new technologies and solutions are often not deliberately created by military structures or the Ministry of Defense and are not implemented top-down. Quite the opposite: a large mass of motivated people arriving in the military from the civilian sector bring civilian experience and competencies with them and try to adapt those skills to the new environment. These people, observing the inefficiency of the outdated post-Soviet system, try to modernize it at the specific place and in the particular unit to which they are assigned. This modernization happens in a decentralized manner. A multitude of — often competing — solutions appear and are tested under combat conditions. The role of the state is frequently only to put order into this process. Over time the Ministry of Defense and Ukrainian command began to engage these active people in the process of change in the military, selecting the best already existing and proven solutions and rolling them out across the armed forces. This algorithm of change and reform is fundamentally different from what we are used to in the West, where states have strong institutions and society generally does not need to be deeply and directly involved in reforming the armed forces, operating on the assumption "we pay taxes and expect the appropriate institutions to use ANALYSIS