A British Army brigade was “destroyed” in a Nato wargame just miles from the Russian border.
In a military exercise in Estonia last year, the brigade was overrun by Ukrainian forces in “contested and congested” battlefield.
Hedgehog 2025, an exercise involving more than16,000 troops from 12 Nato countries, simulated a battle filled with drones, the head of Estonia’s unmanned systems unit said.
In one scenario, a group of thousands of troops which included a British brigade and an Estonian unit, was defeated by Ukrainian forces.
Described as a “horrible” result for Nato, the British brigade and Estonian unit were “just walking around, not using any kind of disguise, parking tents and armoured vehicles”.
A participant who portrayed the enemy told the Wall Street Journal: “It was all destroyed.”
Lieutenant Colonel Arbo Probal, the Estonian UAV chief, said the exercise was aimed to test soldiers’ adaptability under fire.
He said: “The aim was really to create friction, the stress for units and the cognitive overload as soon as possible.”
Defence secretary John Healey met with British personnel in Estonia last year
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GETTY
The scenario modelled a battlefield where tanks and troops had the ability to advance, resembling the early stages of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian team used Delta, a sophisticated battlefield-management system which allowed its troops to collect real-time intelligence and use artificial intelligence to analyse data, identify targets, and coordinate attacks.
A team of 10 Ukrainians counter-attacked the Nato forces, mock-destroying 17 armoured vehicles and carrying out 30 “strikes” in half a day.
Aivar Hanniotti, an Estonian systems coordinator who led another unit on the opposing side said the results were “horrible” for the Nato side.
READ MORE ON THE BRITISH ARMY:
British troops earlier this year participated in Exercise Winter Camp in Estonia
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PA
He added: “We quite easily found cars and mechanised units, and we were able to take them out quite fast with strike drones.”
The Nato was side “not able to fight any more” after the mock enemy destroyed two battalions in a single day.
A commander observing the drill reportedly said: “We are f***ed.”
The exercise underlined how drones have become the most important weapon in the Ukraine war, with analysts estimating the weapons are responsible for 70 per cent of all casualties.
The news comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky kicked off his attendance at the Munich Security Conference by visiting a joint Ukrainian-German drone manufacturer.
Volodymyr Zelensky kicked off his attendance at the Munich Security Conference by visiting a joint Ukrainian-German drone manufacturer
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GETTYOf the drones, the Ukrainian Government said: “The drone production technology is Ukrainian; the drones are powered by AI and have already proven their effectiveness on the frontline.”
Britain announced last year it would invest £2billion in drone technology to make the Army “battle-ready”.
The Strategic Defence Review, unveiled just one month after the exercise, said drones had become “an essential component of land warfare”.
Marco Rubio is also attending the Munich Security Conference, but reportedly did not attend a meeting on Ukraine.
The meeting was attended by other foreign leaders including Mr Zelensky, French president Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
