\n<\/p>\n
Last week, the UK announced its <\/span>largest ever<\/span><\/a> military support package for Ukraine. T<\/span>he bill takes the U.K.\u2019s total support for this financial year to \u00a33 billion \u2014 not quite the $50 billion the US pledged recently, but still substantial. <\/span><\/p>\n But while most of those funds will be spent on very traditional military hardware, a new tech initiative launched last weekend was aimed at enhancing Ukraine\u2019s asymmetric warfare capabilities against Russia. <\/span>In fact, the <\/span>London Defense Tech Hackathon<\/span><\/a> was the first-ever event to bring together some of the UK\u2019s brightest minds in technology, venture capital, and national security in a military setting. The idea was to hack together ideas to both assist Ukraine and also to create a far more porous layer between the worlds of fast-paced civilian tech and the very different world of the military.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Put together by Alex Fitzgerald of <\/span>Skyral<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and Richard Pass of <\/span>Future Forces<\/span><\/a>, the two were joined by co-organizers that included the Honourable Artillery Company,\u00a0 <\/span>Apollo Defense<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>Lambda Automata<\/span><\/a> and D3 VC among others.<\/span><\/p>\n The event brought together developers skilled in both hardware and software to foster innovation in defense, national security, and deeptech. There was a key focus on drones and their applications on the battlefield, both the hardware and the electronic systems needed to fly them to their targets and counter-drone systems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As most observers of the war have pointed out, this war has taken on a completely new dimension compared to previous wars. Today, drones and electronic countermeasures are the order of the day, as Ukraine has endeavored to fight off Russia, a much larger aggressor, with asymmetric methods.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fitzgerald told me: \u201cThere <\/span>are three groups of people coming to these events. There\u2019s the builders, investors, and the military. I think for everyone, it\u2019s trying to convince their colleagues to think more about defense technology as an option to either build or invest in.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He explained that there were two main tracks of work: electronic warfare and drone or aerial systems: \u201cThere\u2019s an acronym I learned from someone cleverer than me, which is that the future of defense technologies comes small, cheap\u00a0 and uncrewed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He explained that one main aim was to get people who had traditionally not been involved in defense either building for or investing in defense: \u201cWe\u2019ve got people like the NATO Innovation Fund, the UK National Security Strategic Investment Fund. So yeah, it\u2019s a mix of people who already invest in defense or who haven\u2019t thought about investing before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He chose the hackathon format because \u201cthe focus is on getting stuff done. Get actual builders, not to just talk about building, because that\u2019s actually where most of the innovation is happening.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n One of the inspirations for the event was the recent El Segundo, Calif., defense tech hackathon <\/a><\/span>in February of this year.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think the key thing with military technology is making it as easy to use and as powerful as some of the the consumer technology that\u2019s been built,\u201d said Fitzgerald \u201cThere\u2019s the classic line, \u2018There\u2019s more AI in a snap in Snapchat than there is often some most modern military systems.’\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Also attending the event was Catarina Buchatskiy, representing <\/span>Apollo Defense<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0 <\/span>As engineers pored over cameras, Starlinks, and drones, she told me: \u201cDefense tech is a difficult industry to enter. And it\u2019s a difficult market to break into, for obvious reasons. We\u2019ve found Hackathons an extremely exciting way for people to get involved because defense technology can seem like a giant black box of contracts that take 10 years, and technologies that are built [are often] hidden from the public eye. At a hackathon, you have 24 hours. Make something really cool.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Interceptor done<\/p>\n<\/div>\n She said the firm had seen \u201ca lot of success\u201d with the <\/span>El Segundo <\/span><\/a>event.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe just realized that if people think it\u2019s something that\u2019s accessible to them [and] can do something quickly and make an impact, they want to participate,\u201d she told me.<\/span><\/p>\n Buchatskiy, who is Ukrainian, also spoke powerfully about Ukraine: \u201cThese are very real things to me. When I say that I need a drone detector, it\u2019s because I\u2019m looking at one outside my window that we didn\u2019t detect in time and it is going to kill my neighbor. That is the reality that we face.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n She added that it\u2019s important for hackathon attendees to know \u201cthat they\u2019re building for someone and this could actually save my family\u2019s life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the controversy surrounding defense technology in some quarters, she added, \u201cTo be involved in technology is to be interested in a better future. And I really, truly can\u2019t think of a more interesting and better future than one that\u2019s safe and one where we can guarantee peace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n NATO, in the shape of the NATO Investment Fund, a fund with a billion euros to invest in defense tech over the next few years, was also represented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fund partner Patrick Schneider-Sikorsky told me the fund was set up to back startups \u201cthat bolster our collective defense security and resilience. We invest in dual-use deep tech, but the fund was conceived before the war in Ukraine. The conflict has now very much impacted our investment thesis and we\u2019re keen to invest in defense technologies that can make Europe safer and more secure.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But why was NATO funding a hackathon?<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think defense tech is new to a lot of a lot of founders and a lot of developers,\u201d Schneider-Sikorsky said. \u201cIt\u2019s not that easy for them to understand the problem statements and the challenges and also to get access to the end users.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He said the hackathon format particularly lends itself to that: \u201cIt would normally, for many founders, take them months if not years to get in touch with the right people at defense ministries, and a lot of them are here today. So hopefully it will accelerate things substantially.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Another attending investor, <\/span>Alex Flamant from HCVC<\/span><\/a>, told me: \u201cThere was a need for people in Europe to invest in proper defense technologies. It seemed from the investor standpoint, there\u2019s restrictions around certain investors investing. One of the goals of this is to demystify what a lot of this is amongst young builders, and really to get people more aligned with the big mission that we\u2019re all on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Machine learning specialist was there to focus on drone detection: \u201cThat\u2019s in our machine vision and object detection knowledge. Ukraine are fighting for the whole of Europe at the moment and obviously the UK is pivotal to that. It\u2019s essential that we that we ally with them and utilize what we have to help.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The hackthon came at a time of increased tension around the use of technologies in defense.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Google recently fired 28 employees after their sit-in protest<\/a> over the controversial Project Nimbus contract with Israel, for instance.<\/span><\/p>\n However, defense is clearly rising up the tech agenda.<\/span><\/p>\n Anduril recently <\/span>moved<\/span><\/a> ahead in a Pentagon program to develop unmanned fighter jets, and more broadly as we learned last year, venture capital is <\/span>opening<\/span><\/a> the gates for defense tech.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n And in the UK, there is <\/span>much talk<\/span><\/a> about how high-powered lasers could be among the next wave of weapons. The DragonFire weapon is said to be precise enough to hit a \u00a31 coin from a kilometre away, according to the MoD, and cost barely $15 to fire.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The projects to emerge from the hackathon<\/a><\/span> may not have been not quite so sci-fi, but they were pretty damn close. How about a \u201cHigh Speed Interceptor<\/a> to take down Orlan Drones\u201d? And at least they are likely to be deployed a lot sooner than a laser gun.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n