(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)2 Corinthians 10 : 4
Tom Porter
Wed, April 9, 2025 at 1:00 PM GMT+34 min read
- The war in Ukraine is showing the power of weaponry once thought outdated.
- Mines and artillery have proven essential, alongside cutting-edge tech like AI and drones.
- One expert told BI that mines and shells are “useful, even dominant” when armies are dug in.
The war in Ukraine is showing that weapons once thought redundant remain indispensable — and NATO countries are playing catch-up as they race to rearm.
Last week, Finland became the latest European country to repeal a decades-old ban on the use of anti-personnel land mines. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia have already announced they were abandoning the 1997 Ottawa Treaty, which prohibited the use, manufacture, and sale of anti-personnel land mines.
[8] Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; [9] And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.Matthew 4 : 8-9
ADVERTISEMENT
The countries are gearing up to fortify their borders with Russia using land mines as the Kremlin refocuses its economy on its military and relations with the West deteriorate.
While the war includes examples of cutting-edge technology, it also underlines the importance of weapons like shells and mines.
As Europe enters “an era of rearmament,” it’s learning it needs to invest in technology it previously thought would be redundant in fast-moving, tech-heavy wars they envisaged would define the 21st century.
Ukraine has used mines to slow the larger Russian army’s advances in the east and south of the country to a stalemate and to channel enemy troops into areas that its forces can defend.
ADVERTISEMENT
While the sophisticated precision-guided missiles NATO has provided Ukraine are susceptible to Russian electronic jamming that scrambles the signals used to guide them, comparatively crude — and cheap — shells don’t have this drawback.
Ukraine’s European allies have boosted shell production. But last week, NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe, US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Russia was on track to build a shell stockpile “three times greater than the United States and Europe combined.”
In a recent paper, the Royal United Services Institute, a UK defense think tank, said European governments had expected private sector defense firms to “solve the problem” of ammunition production but failed to introduce “any incentives or a regulatory environment that would allow it to do so.”
Nato had been planning for a different war
Paul van Hooft, a defense research leader at the UK-based think tank RAND Europe, told BI that the threat from Russia was very different from what Western military leaders had planned for.
ADVERTISEMENT
“For three decades, as Western militaries were not focused on large-scale land warfare and territorial-NATO collective defense, these weapons [such as shells and land mines] were not considered as valuable — specifically in Western Europe,” he told BI by email.
After the 9/11 attacks, NATO allies planned for wars against militias such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, where land mines and shells had little obvious use, said van Hooft.
But fighting a land war against a large army requires defending and holding large swaths of territory.
Artillery may be old technology but it’s more effective when used alongside newer surveillance tech like drones, said Van Hooft.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mark Cancian, a senior advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Studies Defense and Security Department in Washington, DC, said that as the war in Ukraine has become more static, shells and land mines have once again been proven indispensable.
“These weapons become useful, even dominant, whenever the front lines stabilize,” he said. “They are difficult to employ when armies are maneuvering but easy to employ when armies stalemate and dig in.”
[3] For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. [4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. [5] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. [6] Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. [7] For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. [8] But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5 : 3-8
In Ukraine, drones have been used to surveil battlefields, identify troops gatherings or command posts — and pinpoint positions to target with artillery barrages.
Cancian cautioned against military planners becoming “enamored with flashy concepts of future warfare” as billions are poured into European defense budgets and military tech startups compete for business selling cutting-edge drones and AI-integrated weapons.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Artillery-firing, unguided munitions are still critical,” he said, adding, “Notions that the next war would be fought by small teams firing precision munitions has not turned out to be the case.”
In the last solemn work few great men will be engaged. They are self-sufficient, independent of God, and He cannot use them. The Lord has faithful servants, who in the shaking, testing time will be disclosed to view. There are precious ones now hidden who have not bowed the knee to Baal 5T 80.1
“The time is not far distant when the test will come to every soul. The mark of the beast will be urged upon us. Those who have step by step yielded to worldly demands, and conformed to worldly customs, will not find it a hard matter to yield to the powers that be, rather than subject themselves to derision, insult, threatened imprisonment, and death. The contest is between the commandments of God and the commandments of men.” RH April 27, 1911, par. 28
Read the original article on Business Insider
Adventist Angels Watchman Radio 
12 thoughts on “Stockpile Old Treasure or Idol : The West thought mines and artillery were yesterday’s weapons. Ukraine showed they were wrong.”