In the run-up to the second world war, France built vast, expensive fortifications along its border with Germany, which became known as the Maginot Line. The flaws in this strategy were soon revealed when Germany attacked in the spring of 1940 using blitzkrieg — a tactic that punched through Luxembourg and Belgium, and then into France by driving around the Maginot defences, rendering them useless.   

Nato militaries are dangerously close to replicating such failures today. For decades, these armies have relied on expensive, hard-to-produce materiel such as aircraft carriers, fighter jets and precision munitions like Himars long range rocket launchers, whose missiles can cost $100,000 a shot. Nato armies also rely on a vast array of bespoke satellites and communications systems to target and fire precision-guided munitions. But the war in Ukraine has shown just how potentially vulnerable this kit is — or how easy to circumvent — especially during a fast-moving conflict.   

Two issues stand out. First, expensive precision missiles and other military hardware can be defeated fairly easily. In Ukraine for example, Russia has jammed GPS along nearly all the 1,200km front, rendering the US-donated Himar launchers and the Excalibur precision shells far less accurate than they should be. The Ukrainians have sometimes gone weeks without hitting a target due to Russian jamming, according to recent reports.

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