It starts with a message on the secure messaging app Signal.
Front line units in Ukraine see an issue with their equipment and send notes to translators, who soon share those with the U.S. military. Then, operating from one of seven stations in Poland, American forces schedule video calls with the Ukrainians to help them repair the weapons.
This is the process for the Army’s virtual repair mission to help keep equipment working as long and as close to the front line as possible in Ukraine.
The equipment in the shop ranges from howitzers to tanks, and repairs can take anywhere from hours to weeks. Altogether, soldiers assisting with it said, the work is helping Ukraine keep its weapons in working order, and teaching the U.S. how to repair on the fly.
“The capability is forward. They’re able to fix forward just with some backup support on the telephone,” said a member of the Army’s 16th Sustainment Brigade, speaking from a video call in Poland at one of the Army’s seven stations where they help troubleshoot such issues.
Brigade tents look like small warehouses, filled with the same equipment that Ukrainians are handling on the front lines. The 16th Sustainment Brigade operates the facilities as part of the Remote Maintenance and Distribution Center-Ukraine, or RDC-U.
When the Ukrainians have an issue and share it with the translators, the team in Poland consults with their technical manuals — like a maintenance book kept in a car’s glove department. They then tinker with their own equipment, trying to recreate the same issue the soldiers are having on the front lines. From there they can discern the root issue.
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On occasion, these problems surpass the Army’s technical expertise. In those cases, the 16th relies on a team of 276 contractors from the companies that build the equipment the Ukrainians are using on the front lines. On one call from Poland, two engineers from the British defense giant BAE Systems discussed repairs to the M777 howitzer — a system they had worked on for 20 years.
The engineers spend much of their time writing or filming what they call “white papers,” an index of video clips and technical documents translated into Ukrainian and then shared with soldiers on the front. Amid more enduring problems, the Army will hold meetings as necessary with their counterparts to resolve the issue.
“In the fight”
Speaking on the show floor of the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual conference, Col. Matthew Alexander, of the 16th Sustainment Brigade said that Ukraine has 172 towed artillery systems, like the M777, donated by the U.S.
Aside from small, commercial-style drones, these howitzers have been one of the defining weapons of the war so far. America recently donated its millionth 155mm artillery round, compatible with the M777, Alexander said.
“We’re seeing them put rounds through that particular weapon system more than any U.S. unit has seen,” he said.
The volume itself presents an opportunity for the U.S. Army, Alexander said.
On one end, it can better study the needs of artillery warfare. Both sides in the conflict are firing so many rounds back and forth that they’re wearing through the barrels of their launchers. The only facility that makes those in the U.S. is in Watervliet, New York, and Ukraine’s demand far exceeds their supply.
Alexander said the Ukrainians are helping expose these bottlenecks in America’s defense industry and how the weapons themselves manage wear. For example, the maintenance team has helped study the effect of firing a NATO-class round through a U.S. system, which rattles the chamber more than an American shell would.
The other main lesson the Army is learning is how to quickly repair equipment under duress. America hasn’t fought a war in which its logistics are threatened for decades, instead engaging in counterinsurgency wars such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon has since started to prepare for the risk of larger wars against countries like Russia or China that could threaten these supply lines.
The tele-maintenance occurring in Poland right now is a chance to practice operating under imperfect conditions.
“They are finding new ways to bring something out of the battle… something that we thought may be irrecoverable,” Alexander said of the artillery systems Ukraine has been able to salvage.
That said, the Ukrainian military has had varying levels of success learning to repair western weapons. It’s been more successful working on its howitzers than the 30-odd Abrams tanks America has donated. In response, the Army has tried to more thoroughly train Ukrainians on repairs that go beyond normal services, like a broken track or turret rather than an oil change.
When those larger issues appear, Alexander said, the tanks have to go back into U.S. hands across the border. He cautioned against reading too far into that level of expertise though; Alexander expects it to improve.
“When we first started, there was a bit of back and forth of them passing equipment back to the area in Poland. Now not a single M777 platform comes out of Ukraine,” Alexander said. “We’re also learning things as a U.S. Army: how to repair our equipment and keep it in the fight.”
Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Defense News. He previously covered national security for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and government from the College of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.
