In February 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian defense tech industry was working on almost exclusively UAVs. By now, numerous automated ground platforms and electronic warfare (EW) systems are in mass production, which involves dozens of domestic companies of various sizes.
The government has created and continues to improve the conditions for the development of the defense tech industry, while the Brave1 defense tech cluster helps navigate the byzantine procurement bureaucracy.
UAVs
A “war of drones.” Such a description of this war is quite appropriate, given the scale and intensity of the use of drones by both sides. What is characteristic of this new stage of the war is the rapid technological development of UAVs, which is taking place in several directions at once:
- increasing the flight range of UAVs;
- increases in payloads;
- integration of AI in UAV control and guidance;
- improvement of communication systems (better resistance against EW, better encryption, etc.).
The functionality of drones is constantly expanding, they’re becoming more difficult to detect and destroy. Therefore, it’s extremely important to keep up, and even better, to stay ahead of the enemy in this technological race.
Drones on the battlefield are crucial. Here, the key focus is on FPV (first-person view) drones. Thanks to these UAVs, Ukraine can somewhat compensate for artillery shortages. Almost every day we can see dozens of new videos of enemy equipment and soldiers being destroyed by FPV drones.
Their importance is obvious from soaring procurement figures: the government purchased 500 FPV drones in 2022, and about 100,000 in 2023.
Another vector of our developers’ work is reusable copters that can carry a warhead of about 10 kg over a distance of 10 kilometers or more. Their key advantage is accuracy, since artillery cannot deliver such an accurate first shot hit—artillery requires aiming and adjustment. The advantage over FPV is the warhead’s greater weight, which almost guarantees the destruction or significant damage to the target if it’s hit.
The Ukrainian army understands these advantages of copters, which is why their purchases have increased 80 times over the past two years alone.
In addition to strike drones, Ukraine is also working on “anti-drone drones.” Testing of UAVs capable of intercepting Russian reconnaissance drones Orlan-10, ZALA, and SuperCam is currently underway.
And of course, the Ukrainian defense industry is working to ensure that our drones can become the “long arm” of the military, able to reach targets hundreds or even thousands of kilometers beyond the front line. Initial results are already apparent—Russian oil refineries and depots are on fire almost every day, sapping Moscow’s resources away.
In general, over 200 drone manufacturers are active Ukraine, and we already have over 300 designs registered on the Brave1 platform.
Electronic warfare
It’s clear that air defenses cannot deal with the sheer volume of UAVs used in the war. Therefore, we need innovative approaches to counter them, the key to which is EW.
Today, Ukraine has a full-fledged market of EW manufacturers with about 80 companies creating EW solutions. Even a year ago, their number was in the single digits.
At the same time, the enemy is also developing and constantly changing their control frequencies, requiring constant adjustments from our EW. We already have more than 130 registered designs on the Brave1 platform, most of which are short-range.
The next important step is to determine how to build an EW management system, because tools alone aren’t enough, they need to be used skillfully. Here, we call on the military and developers to jointly come up with the best models for EW application.
Robots
Here, developers work on a whole range of tasks, including defeating the enemy, reconnaissance, logistics, evacuation of the wounded, landmine deployment and mine clearance. Robots should work wherever human involvement can be minimized. This way we’ll save thousands of lives of our soldiers.
We already have successful cases of using robots in combat. For example, a Ukrainian-made kamikaze robot blew up a bridge in Donetsk Oblast in March, which was used by Russian troops for logistics. These unmanned ground vehicles can be controlled from a safe distance. The Ukrainian military expects these systems will rise to a greater prominence as the war continues.
Over 200 ground robotics designs have been registered with Brave1, of which more than 50 have been tested, and 21 are certified and ready to be contracted by the state.
AI
We see how the enemy is constantly improving their own EW, making it difficult for the operators to maintain control of the drones. As soon as we devise a solution, the enemy comes up with a countermeasure, and vice versa. In this case, the priority is to develop autonomous systems, not reliant on a radio link with a human operator.
AI comes to the rescue here. An AI-controlled drone has no radio communication with the operator, which can be jammed by EW. This is the advantage that makes it possible to carry out an attack even if remote control is not possible.
But AI isn’t just about drones. Brave1’s priority now is to scale up data analysis, namely photos and videos collected by drones on the battlefield. With so much integrated data available, our commanders would be able to make better, more informed decisions. Other areas of AI applications include fighting disinformation, remote landmine and ordnance detection, and integrating artificial intelligence with ground robotics.
We have more than 200 projects using AI registered on the Brave1 platform. Some of them are already being tested.
War constantly creates new technological challenges that require agile responses. At Brave1, we constantly receive information from the military about these challenges, which we immediately pass on to the developers.
These are far from all areas where the Ukrainian mil-tech industry demonstrates good results. We invite everyone who is ready and has something to offer to join us in creating the best technological solutions for the Defense Forces.
To win this war, we need to succeed not only on the front, but also in the laboratories, workshops, and on testing grounds.