PARIS (Realist English). The Chief of Staff of the French Army, Army General Pierre Schill, in an interview with Defense News on the eve of the Eurosatory exhibition, warned against turning the Ukrainian experience into the sole doctrinal model.
According to him, technological transformation does not cancel “archaic” forms of combat but overlays them.
Lessons of Ukraine: an overlay, not a replacement
Answering a question about the risks of “retraining” on the experience of the Ukrainian conflict, General Schill stated:
“The war in Ukraine is an immense source of knowledge, but the first risk would be to turn it into the sole model of future war. What Ukraine demonstrates first and foremost is an impressive acceleration of certain forms of warfare: drones, electronic warfare, battlefield transparency, data processing, artificial intelligence, and partial automation of tactical functions.
However, at the same time, this war shows that old, even archaic, forms of combat have not disappeared. Trenches, urban warfare, attrition, and close-quarters combat remain very real realities. The lesson is the layering of forms of war, not the replacement of old forms with new ones.”
‘France is not Ukraine’
Commenting on the prospects of directly extrapolating the Ukrainian experience, Schill emphasized France’s strategic distinctiveness:
“Excessive analogies should be avoided. France is not Ukraine. France is a nuclear power, a member of NATO, relying on a full-spectrum military model. We do not face the prospect of a massive ground invasion of our territory under the same strategic conditions as Ukraine.”
According to him, the French model must maintain its own coherence, allowing the army to operate in three strategic spaces: defense of national territory, operations in overseas territories and crisis zones, and high-intensity coalition warfare.
Technology vs. Man: ‘No absolute dependency’
Answering a question about the risks of system degradation and soldier overload in modern combat, General Schill noted:
“Systems can be jammed, degraded, or saturated. The accumulation of information and the tempo of modern combat can also overload soldiers. The answer is to use technology to simplify decision-making, not to complicate it.
Artificial intelligence should help prioritize information, accelerate certain tasks, and reduce cognitive load while preserving the commander’s ability to make decisions. Technology extends combat power, but it should not create absolute dependency.”
‘Surprise does not disappear, it changes its nature’
Speaking about tactical surprise against the backdrop of total battlefield transparency, the French army chief said:
“On a more transparent battlefield, surprise depends less on complete invisibility and more on speed, deception, dispersion, saturation, and the ability to disrupt the enemy faster than he can adapt.”
This, he said, requires strengthening electronic warfare capabilities, signature reduction, hybridized networks, dispersed headquarters, faster decision-making cycles, and autonomous systems capable of operating in a highly contested environment.
Europe’s responsibility and France’s place
Commenting on the role of European allies in light of signals from the US about the need for greater European self-reliance, General Schill emphasized:
“The message that the US is now sending to Europeans is clear: Europe must take greater responsibility for its own defense. This does not call NATO into question — NATO remains the framework for collective defense on the continent — but it requires strengthening Europe’s ability to act more independently whenever circumstances demand it.”
France, according to Schill, takes on “a special responsibility as a reliable framework nation capable of commanding a land coalition.” The priority is not to replace allies but to contribute to a stronger Europe capable of shaping its own strategic destiny.
Drones and robotization: changing the very nature of war
Commenting on the Pendragon robotization project and the future of armored vehicles, General Schill said:
“Robotics is not an additional capability; it changes the very way war is waged. The central issue becomes the combat cloud, connectivity, and cooperation between systems, not a single platform.
Future firepower will rely on a combination of highly protected manned platforms capable of decision-making and breakthrough, and swarms of autonomous systems providing mass, sensors, saturation, and attrition.”
Earlier, Schill also reported the deployment of Tiger helicopters to the Middle East to counter drones, noting that the priorities of the French army for 2026 remain strengthening logistics and firepower.