KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian government on Wednesday 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.
As part of the initiative dubbed BRAVE1, 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.
“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.
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.
“Any assault without drones, right now, it’s like going blind into a minefield, and you don’t know what is waiting around the corner,” he said. “Technologies help save lives.”
Ametov said Ukraine was investing many more resources in military technology than it did before Russia’s invasion. He based his assessment on the various models of drones his unit has tried out.
“We always have something new to test, to understand if it’s needed for our unit or not,” he said.
Ametov, who is originally from Crimea, fights on the Ukraine war’s front line while still involved in running his company, which expects to play an advisory role in the BRAVE1 initiative.
His company distributes a portable anti-drone gun that uses radio signals to jam drones and to 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.”
“Every side is trying to use as many drones as possible,” Ametov said. “When you are staying at the position, this is the only way to protect yourself from the drone.”
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