Ukraine launches Brave1 initiative to boost military capability

The Ukrainian government launched a new initiative meant to streamline and promote innovation in the development of drones and other technologies that have been critical in the war with Russia.

What is the problem?

Brave1 is a united defense tech initiative. The government hopes to bring state, military, and private sector developers working on defense issues together into a tech cluster that would give Ukraine a battlefield advantage.

How does it work?

The project, designed to promote the development of defense technologies, was established by the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Digital Transformation, the Ministry of Strategic Industries, the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and the National Security and Defense Council.

Considering the enemy that is right next to us and its scale, we definitely need to develop the military tech so that we can defend ourselves, Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's minister of digital transformation, said.

The government had allocated about $2.7 million to fund projects that have the potential to help Ukraine win the 14-month conflict.

Currently, we have one main goal – the defeat of the aggressor. The BRAVE1 defense cluster brings us closer to victory, because it allows us to respond more effectively to the needs of the front. At the same time, Ukrainian defense tech has enormous potential. And this allows it to become one of the leading drivers of rapid economic growth after the victory, Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko, said.

The Ukrainian defense-industrial complex is already attracting increased interest from potential investors.

The task of Ukraine is to maximize the attraction of investments in the industry and shorten the time from requests to implementation of projects.

During the presentation of the platform on April 26 in Kyiv, representatives of state institutions signed a memorandum of cooperation and support within the framework of the project.

The BRAVE1 initiative was also presented, with the help of which developers and manufacturers can submit their own projects and get access to military expertise, grants, and other opportunities provided by the cluster.

The presentation featured some of the Ukrainian technologies already being used on the battlefield, such as unmanned ground vehicles, robotic systems to identify landmines, and unmanned aerial systems.

Fevzi Ametov, a Ukrainian soldier and co-founder of Drone.ua, a company that specializes in drones, said businesses and their engineers already try to incorporate feedback from military personnel into their products.

His company distributes a portable anti-drone gun that uses radio signals to jam drones and bring them down. According to Ametov, Ukrainian forces are using hundreds of the $12,000 guns, which can run for up to 30 minutes on a single fully charged battery, "with more and more coming."