MOSCOW, July 18. /TASS/. Western arms makers will likely be all for Kiev’s proposal to test new arms on the battlefield against Russia, a Russian military expert told TASS.

"There is a high probability that Western companies will respond to this call. Because when weapons are developed, first of all operational requirements are developed, i.e. what the army wants from industry. After that, industry develops a prototype and a series of trials, manufacturer’s, joint, official, follows. After official tests, the defense ministry makes a decision on bringing the weapon into service and organizing mass production. But, after all, the most crucial trial for any weapon is a war," said Mikhail Khodarenok.

According to the expert, it is rather difficult to mock up actual battlefield conditions and weapons that were tested and entered into service in peacetime may turn out to be not that effective on the battlefield as expected.

Reuters reported earlier, citing the Ukrainian government-backed Brave 1 platform for coordinating defense technologies development, that Ukraine had invited foreign weapons manufacturers to test their new weapons on the combat engagement line in the zone of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.