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- Ukraine is turning its frontline into a proving ground for the West's newest prototype weapons.If firms send in their new tech and train Kyiv's troops to use it, they'll send a combat report back.Kyiv hopes this will also pave the way for its local manufacturers to partner with more outside firms.
Ukraine is inviting foreign arms manufacturers to send weapons prototypes for its troops to test in battle against Russian forces.
Its defense innovation unit, Brave1, on Thursday launched "Test in Ukraine," a program that it said would trial the new tech in combat and produce a detailed report for the defense contractor.
"This is an opportunity to gain experience that cannot be simulated in laboratories," said Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's minister for digital transformation, at an arms conference in Wiesbaden.
Among the program's listed top priorities are uncrewed aerial systems, robot ground vehicles, missiles, and laser weapons.
"Test in Ukraine" will require the contractor to teach Ukrainian troops how to use the prototype, though this can optionally be done online, Brave1 said in a statement.
After that, Ukraine will assume control over how the tech is used on its frontline.
"You hand over your product to Brave1, and we take care of the rest," the organization said on its website.
Kyiv also hopes to pair the foreign arms makers with its own manufacturers to produce the tested weapons locally.
Ukraine is already a testbed for many NATO weapons against Russian capabilities, from armored vehicles to long-range missiles to anti-tank munitions.
But the announcement comes amid some concern in the greater arms industry that contractors may be developing new weapons after studying the Ukraine war, but aren't testing them in combat.
"If you are a drone company and you do not have your kit on the frontline in Ukraine, you might as well give up," Luke Pollard, the UK's minister of state for the armed forces, said in May.
One British defense executive, Justin Hedges, told Business Insider earlier this month that drones have to be tested daily in combat to avoid becoming obsolete.
"If your system is not in day-to-day use on the frontline of Ukraine, it becomes very quickly out of date," Hedges told BI's Mia Jankowicz.
Drone warfare has evolved drastically over the last three years of the war. First-person-view UAVs have come to dominate the battlefield, but electronic warfare is increasingly stifling their effectiveness.
As a result, unjammable fiber-optic drones are now on the rise, forcing both sides to rely more on low-tech defensive measures such as 12-gauge shotguns to destroy drones kinetically and fishing nets to entangle them mid-flight.
Last month, Ukraine debuted a new type of rifle bullet that can discharge fragment spreads at greater range to counter incoming FPV drones. Russian troops were producing their own DIY version months ago.
Meanwhile, Ukraine is going all in on bolstering its defense manufacturing industry, offering its local weapons-making experience to Western countries while ramping up production of domestic arms.
Its new testing initiative could also provide additional weapons supplies for its troops fighting against Russia's war of attrition, both in manpower and matériel.
A spokesperson for Brave1 did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours. Russia's defense and foreign affairs ministries also did not respond to a similar request sent by BI.
