We hosted the European Defense Tech Hackathon in Kyiv where defense innovation was driven by the knowledge of the military in the room.
Over four days, 23 teams worked on challenges focused on air defense, counter-UAV detection, autonomous interception systems and others.
The part of challenges were built together with Ukrainian units — 3rd Army Corps, 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, 53rd Separate Mechanized Brigade, 412th Brigade of the Unmanned Systems Forces “Nemesis”, 80th Separate Air Assault Brigade, and 1st Separate Special Purpose Detachment “Omega” — ensuring the teams are working on the current technological battlefield gaps.
“Defense technologies must be built with the soldiers who know what actually works in combat, the people who understand the timing, the stress, the terrain, the enemy’s behavior, and the consequences of failure. One of today’s participants arrived in Ukraine with a prototype after an honest conversation with a Ukrainian soldier who had been a speaker at the European Defense Tech Hackathon in Prague. Fair communication with soldiers helps build defense tech for the battlefield, not for exhibitions.” — Viktoriia Honcharuk, Head of Defense Tech at Snake Island Institute.
We helped bring soldiers with frontline c-UAS experience directly into the program as challenge owners, panel and workshop speakers, mentors, and judges. Soldiers from three different units also selected three teams for further mentorship, choosing solutions they found potentially helpful for their work.
On Day 1, the opening panel brought together operators from air defense to share what they have to fix in the manufacturers’ UAVs and where innovation is urgently needed.
Workshops led by Ukrainian soldiers:
— How the Military Builds: R&D Inside Ukrainian Combat Units
— Interceptors in Modern Air Defense: Tactics & Applications
— Darknode: Effective Work of the Unmanned System Forces & AI in Interceptions
— Counter-Small-UAV Operations: Practical Lessons from the Field
