Using phones and tablets to communicate in encrypted chatrooms, a rapidly growing group of U.S. and allied troops and contractors are providing real-time maintenance advice -- usually speaking through interpreters -- to Ukrainian troops on the battlefield.
In a quick response, the U.S. team member told the Ukrainian to remove the gun's breech at the rear of the howitzer, and manually prime the firing pin so the gun could fire. He did it and it worked.
The team includes about 20 soldiers now, supplemented by civilians and contractors, but the military number may dip a bit, as more civilians come on board. And they expect it will continue to evolve as new sophisticated weapons are delivered to the Ukrainians, and new chatrooms set up to handle them.
"They're using these systems in ways that we didn't necessarily anticipate," said the officer, pointing to the tablet. "We're actually learning from them by seeing how much abuse these weapon systems can take, and where's the breaking point." And, in what he said was a remarkable new skill, the Ukrainians can now put the split weapon back together. "They couldn't do titanium welding before, they can do it now," said the U.S. soldier, adding that "something that was two days ago blown up is now back in play."
The expanse of weapons and equipment they're handling and questions they're fielding was even too complicated for a digital spreadsheet -- forcing the team to go low-tech. One wall in their maintenance office is lined with an array of old-fashioned, colour-coded Post-it notes, to help them track the weapons and maintenance needs.
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