Lessons from an Intelligence Officer on Ukraine’s Frontline

This essay from Proceedings at the U.S. Naval Institute, “Lessons from an Intelligence Officer on Ukraine’s Frontline,” draws on firsthand experience with Ukrainian intelligence operations near Bakhmut to offer operational insights. Austin Gray argues that modern war demands mastery of countertargeting, a clear distinction between survivable and attritable platforms, organic tactical-level information warfare capabilities, and resilient leadership.

Four lessons from my time in Ukraine apply directly to naval warfighting. First, countertargeting is an essential competency for all units. Second, effective platforms are either very survivable or very attritable; anything in the middle becomes covered in ash or irrelevant. Third, operational and even tactical units need organic information warfare capabilities… And fourth, leadership in a warzone is tougher than I expected.

He shows how Ukrainian forces operate through concealment, dispersion, expendable systems, and decentralized ISR to survive in a highly targeted environment. The essay also contends that future U.S. naval effectiveness will depend on adopting these practices, particularly through distributed operations and unmanned capabilities. Ultimately, Gray concludes that leadership, not war itself, creates unity and combat effectiveness in prolonged conflict.

Key Recommendations

Countertargeting

• Continue thorough EmCon- and TacSit-focused training
• Ensure countertargeting becomes instinctive for intelligence professionals and command-track line officers

Survivable-Attritable Dichotomy

• Assume that, once targeted, units stay relevant only if they are survivable or attritable
• Evaluate U.S. Navy force structure through this lens, scrapping platforms that are neither, or sending them to secondary theaters
• Proliferate expendable platforms throughout the fleet

Information Warfare Capabilities

• Equip all units with organic ISR, preferably unmanned so it is expendable
• Evaluate at what level each of the information warfare community’s many capabilities are held and whether they are needed at a lower level

Leadership

• View everyday stressors as opportunities to hone leadership
• Assume these same stressors and many others will be more severe in wartime
• Instill historical lessons—an objective of the Chief of Naval Operations’ reading list—to avoid relearning those bought with blood