Clean at the front Ukraine, a soldier had trouble firing his 155mm howitzer. So he turned to a team of Americans on the other end of his phone line for help.

“What can I do?” he asked them US A member of the military team far away on a base in south-eastern Poland. “What are my options?”

A rapidly growing group of U.S. and allied troops and contractors are using phones and tablets to communicate in encrypted chat rooms and provide real-time maintenance advice to Ukrainian troops on the battlefield — usually through interpreters.

In a quick reply, the US team member asked the Ukrainian to remove the gun’s breech from the rear of the howitzer and manually fire the firing pin to allow the gun to fire. He did it and it worked.

The exchange is part of a growing US military hotline aimed at providing repair advice to Ukrainian forces in the heat of battle. As the US and other allies send increasingly complex and high-tech weapons to Ukraine, demand is increasing. And since no US or other NATO nations will send troops into the country to provide practical assistance – fearing being drawn into a direct conflict with Russia – they have turned to virtual chat rooms.

The US soldier and other team members and leaders stationed at a base in Poland spoke to two reporters who were traveling with Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when he visited the facility last week. Due to the sensitivity of the operation, the troops there spoke on condition of anonymity, according to guidelines established by the US military. Reporters also agreed not to reveal the base’s name or location or take photos.

Repairing a howitzer, the repair team said, was a frequent request from Ukrainian troops at the front. The need for help with weapons is growing. Just a few months ago, the so-called remote maintenance team numbered just over 50 employees. That will grow to 150 in the coming weeks, and the number of encrypted chatlines has more than tripled from about 11 last fall to 38 now.

The team now numbers around 20 soldiers, supplemented by civilians and contractors, but the military number may drop somewhat as more civilians come on board. And they expect that it will continue to develop as new sophisticated weapons are shipped to Ukrainians and new chat rooms are set up to deal with them.

“Often times we get calls directly from the fire line, so there’s going to be some outbound or inbound fire, while at the same time trying to help the front maintainers troubleshoot as best they can,” said a US soldier who is part of the maintenance team is. Sometimes, he said, chat has to wait a bit before troops can move to a safer location.

A key problem, one officer said, is that Ukrainian troops are pushing the weapons to their limits — firing them at unprecedented speed and deploying them long after a US soldier would turn them in for repair or retirement.

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The US soldier held up his tablet and showed photos of the barrel of a howitzer, the inner ribs of which were almost completely worn away.

“They are using these systems in ways that we didn’t necessarily anticipate,” the officer said, pointing to the tablet. “We’re actually learning from them by seeing how much abuse these weapon systems can take and where the breaking point is.”

Ukrainian troops are often reluctant to send weapons out of the country for repairs. They’d rather do it themselves, and in almost all cases — US officials estimated 99% of the time — the Ukrainians make the fix and move on.

Many of the chats are regularly scheduled with depot workers in Ukraine — like the one they call “Coffee Cup Guy” because his chat includes a coffee cup emoji. In other cases, they involve troops on the battlefield whose gun simply blew apart or whose vehicle stalled.

Sometimes video chats are not possible.

“Often when they’re on the front lines, they don’t take video because cellular service is a little patchy at times,” said a US caregiver. “They take pictures and send them to us over the chats and we sit there and diagnose it.”

There were times, he said, when you get a picture of a broken howitzer, and the Ukrainian says, “This Triple 7 just blew up – what do we do?”

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And what he called a notable new capability is that Ukrainians can now reassemble the split weapon. “They couldn’t weld titanium before, they can now,” the US soldier said, adding, “Something that was blown up two days ago is back in the game now.”

Doling out advice over the chats means that when something goes wrong, the US experts have to diagnose the problem, figure out how to fix it, and then translate the steps into Ukrainian.

Looking to the future, they plan to purchase off-the-shelf translation glasses. This way, when they talk to each other, they can skip the interpreters and see the translation as they speak, making conversations easier and faster.

They also hope to expand their diagnostic capabilities as weapon systems become more complex, and expand the types and quantities of spare parts they stock. For example, they said the Patriot missile system that the US is sending to Ukraine will be a challenge that will require more expertise in diagnosing and fixing problems.

The amount of weapons and equipment they handle and the questions they ask were too complicated even for a digital spreadsheet _ and forced the team to go low-tech. A wall in their maintenance office is lined with a series of old-fashioned, color-coded sticky notes to help them keep track of guns and maintenance needs.

The team in Poland is part of a constantly growing logistics network that stretches across Europe. As more and more nations send their own versions of weapon systems, they assemble teams to provide repair support in different locations.

The nations and the manufacturing companies are quickly compiling manuals and technical data that can be translated and sent to the Ukrainians. Then they stockpile spare parts and take them to places near the Ukrainian border where they can be sent to the battlefield.

Just days before Milley visited the base, Ukrainians traveled to the plant in Poland for parts. The visit gave US soldiers the opportunity to meet someone from their chat rooms in person and exchange military patches.

“The next video chat we had, he was wearing our patches on his video,” the US soldier said.

The linchpin for the growing logistical effort is the Lucius D. Clay Kaserne, the base of the US Army in Wiesbaden, Germany.

There, in booths that fill a vast space, the international coalition is coordinating the campaign to locate and identify widely scattered equipment, weapons and spare parts in other countries that are needed in Ukraine. They then schedule shipments — by sea, air, and ground — to border locations, where everything is loaded onto trucks or trains and taken to the war zone.

At least 17 nations have representatives in the so-called International Donor Coordination Center. And as the amount and type of equipment increases, the center is working to better match donations from the United States and other nations.

“Of course, as we send more additional advanced equipment, like Strykers, Bradleys, like tanks, those conservation activities have to increase,” said Douglas Bush, Army Assistant Secretary for Procurement. “I think the challenge is recognized. I think the army knows how to do it.”