Western training manuals update too slowly to properly prepare Ukrainian troops for a fast-changing battlefield, commander says

Ukrainian soldiers are training to fight Russia's invasion at a camp in Poland.

Synne Nilsson / Forsvaret Ukrainian troops are training on NATO soil for war with Russia.

Battlefield tactics and technology change faster than Western training systems are used to.

Ukrainian feedback helps keep the training current when annual manuals are "just too slow." Western militaries training Ukrainian troops for war with Russia can't rely on the usual cycle of periodically updated manuals because battlefield lessons are changing too quickly, a NATO commander told Business Insider.

Norway is leading multinational training for Ukrainian troops at Camp Jomsborg, a purpose-built camp in eastern Poland, as part of Operation Legio.

The training needs constant updates about the tactics and weaponry that work on the rapidly changing battlefield, Brigadier Atle Molde, the commander of Task Force Legio, told Business Insider.

"You cannot do that based on bureaucratic training manuals issued once a year or stuff like that," Molde said.

"It's just too slow." The work happening in Poland "all comes down to being relevant for the sake of saving lives and helping the Ukrainians win this war," he said.

That means making the training as accurate to the battlefield as possible, where weapons and tactics are evolving and becoming obsolete far faster than Western militaries are accustomed to.

The tactics and technology that work best on the battlefield change at a rapid pace that Western allies are not used to.

Fermin Torrano/Anadolu via Getty Images Operation Legio strives to impart Western doctrine and best practices to Ukrainian soldiers, who can then combine them with their hard-won battlefield knowledge.

To do that effectively, trainers try to recreate the realities of the fight as much as possible, including the terrain, tech, and tactics.

The challenge is that the battlefield changes quickly.

Ukrainian soldiers say that tactics change every week, and cutting-edge battlefield tech can shift into obsolescence within a few weeks.