Naval Stakeholders Assess Lessons Learned from Ukraine Conflict for Future War at Sea

Ships from multiple NATO nations including Italy, Spain, Germany and the United States, participate in Exercise Mare Aperto 22-2, a high-end exercise sponsored by the Italian Navy aimed at strengthening and enhancing the combat readiness of participating assets in the conduct of maritime operations. U.S. NAVY / Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ezekiel Duran

PARIS — Naval stakeholders are continuing to learn lessons from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and are considering the implications of these lessons for future naval warfare.

In workshop briefings given at the Euronaval 2022 exhibition in Paris, France, in mid-October, navies and naval industry alike discussed lessons ranging from strategic to operational to technological contexts.

Capt. Yann Briand, a French Navy officer serving as strategic policy branch head in France’s Ministry of Defence, set out several lessons France is learning from the Ukraine war.

“The first one is that it recalls the fundamentals of naval combat at sea — that is to say, violence, velocity, and attrition,” Briand said. Second, he underscored the wider strategic context of “the central role of nuclear deterrence” in the crisis.

“Another point — one not specific to the French navy, but the same for all the world’s navies — is we are in close contact with our competitors,” Briand said. In other words, he continued, “at sea, there is the possibility to send different political messages in a very subtle way.”

“You use a fire-control radar, you come very close to another ship: all this is something you can do at sea that you cannot do on land.”

This process works due to professional approaches on all sides, he said. However, he noted, instability persists.

Finally, Briand said, “Alliances and partnerships are more than very useful,” with countries and their navies not able to address all such challenges alone.

The lessons learned are also indicative of a wider shift in the nature of security.

“In the last 30 years, the stability of France and Europe was based on laws, regulations and treaties; now, it is more based unfortunately on physical defense — weapons, fighters, aircraft carriers,” Briand said.

Richard Keulen, a former Royal Netherlands Navy officer and frigate commander and now Dutch shipbuilding company Damen Naval Division’s director for Naval Sales Support, mirrored this perspective.

“The Baltic and Black Sea show us that Europe is flanked by important and disputed waters. Europe is depending for its prosperity and freedom to maneuver on a mare librum, in the Mediterranean also, the wider Atlantic, and even waters east of Suez.”

“So, innovation in defense is extremely important, as clearly witnessed for example in the Ukraine war,” Keulen said. “We have seen the pictures.”

“We saw the extensive use of drones. We saw the sinking of the [Russian Slava-class cruiser] Moskva. We also witnessed the extension into northern waters of hybrid warfare towards the seabed.”

In the Baltic Sea, the two Nordstream gas pipelines both suffered ruptures recently, although the cause of the ruptures has not been confirmed publicly. Such incidents prompted regional concerns about the security of sea lines of communication, including on the seabed.

“This latter phenomenon for example raises concerns and awareness in the Netherlands and its neighboring countries in the North Sea area, around the busiest waters in Europe,” Keulen said.