Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion has shown Western militaries the value of cheap weaponry in a large-scale conflict, and the advantages go beyond cost.
Cheap weapons matter because they enable mass. That mass allows militaries to absorb losses, overwhelm defenses, and more.
“We don’t go for mass because it’s cheap,” retired Air Marshal Greg Bagwell, who spent 36 years in the British Royal Air Force and served as its joint warfare director, said. The cheaper it is, the better, he said, but the appeal of massed weaponry “is not just because they’re cheap.” There are operational effects.
Mass allows for failures, losses, and ineffective outcomes. Think cheap quadcopter drones like Ukraine is using to target troops and tanks. Many never reach their target.
Cheap weaponry is often less effective, meaning more is necessary to get the job done, though it is still significantly cheaper than some higher-end capabilities. Thousands of these weapons can be acquired for the cost of only a handful of exquisite systems.
The real value of that mass of low-cost weaponry is that it allows militaries to overwhelm enemy defenses.
“You need to throw enough that you shut down their system and then exploit that gap,” Bagwell said.
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Militaries have to balance cost, volume, and effectiveness. “The calculation is one that we’re going to have to continually look at,” he added.
For decades, the West has heavily prioritized smaller quantities of advanced but expensive systems built for precision, not mass.
But Ukraine’s experience against Russia has forced a rethink. In this conflict, both nations are chewing through weapon inventories in a fight that’s defined by extensive use of cheaper weaponry like drones.
Russia’s war against Ukraine has pushed Western militaries to boost their defense spending.
Troels Lund Poulsen, the Danish defense minister, previously told Business Insider that “one of the lessons” from the war in Ukraine was that the West needed far greater quantities of low-cost weaponry to meet the demands of a large-scale, high-intensity war.
Ukraine’s defense industry leaders are making similar observations from their country’s experiences.
Serhiy Goncharov, the CEO of the National Association of Ukrainian Defense Industries — which represents about 100 Ukrainian companies — previously told BI that the West’s longtime focus on a smaller number of exquisite systems would be the wrong approach if it were to find itself in a protracted conflict.
“You don’t need 10 Archers from the Swedish that are probably one of the best artillery systems in the world,” he said, referring to the artillery system made by BAE Systems that Sweden gave to Ukraine. Instead, you need 200 cheap howitzers, such as the Bohdana one that Ukraine makes.
