‘High-tech trench warfare’ was an oxymoron – until Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. On Ukraine’s battlefields, Cold War artillery meets 21st-century innovation. Shells fall while AI-enabled drones swarm the air, land and sea.
In the face of a better-equipped Russian military, Ukraine has fused necessity with ingenuity to leapfrog traditional defence innovation cycles. The result is a military-tech ecosystem, filled with innovators personally connected to those serving on the frontline, that now outpaces the peacetime capabilities of most nations.
Australia can and should involve itself with this frenzy of military innovation, reaping the immediate rewards of collaboration and access to systems we can deploy promptly, and learning how to create a similar innovation environment at home.
Brave1, the Ukrainian government’s defence technology accelerator organisation, lies at the heart of this transformation. Combining public grants, private sector innovation and real-time battlefield feedback, its companies produce rapid, scalable solutions.
The Ukraine’s armaments sector is like an overclocked early Silicon Valley, where innovations at first emerged from research funded by the US Department of Defense.
But unlike Silicon Valley, Ukraine lacks the domestic capital market capable of expanding production lines and taking these technologies global. That’s where countries like Australia come in.
Brave1 is a living example of wartime innovation. Since Russia’s invasion in 2022, Ukraine has developed world-leading capabilities, many of them from scratch. Its drones have not only reshaped the front lines but sunk a third of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
In Operation Spiderweb on 1 June, Ukrainian drones deployed behind Russian lines reportedly destroying more than US$7 billion in military aircraft. This is just one example of a sustainable systemic edge built on fast feedback, agile development and open communication between soldiers and innovators.
Ukraine’s system produces practical, scalable and networkable tech. One emergent firm, Vidar, has developed acoustic sensors that triangulate artillery fire in real time. Another, Swarmer, is building AI-enabled systems to let one operator control a full drone swarm, solving the pilot bottleneck that limits most drone programs.
Ukraine aims to produce 4.5 million drones in 2025 alone, three times as many as in 2024. It has tested drones with maximum ranges of 3,000 km. Australia’s 2024 drone innovation program, by contrast, funded just three companies to build 100 prototypes, each with a 5 km range. Australia’s ambition is modest and experimental; Ukraine’s is vast and operational.
Brave1 is about more than drones. Ukraine’s expansive ecosystem includes more than 3,500 domestically developed military and dual-use tech products, and Brave1 is now expanding grants to leading companies into more conventional equipment, such as guided missiles. Its competitive grant model, overseen by military and technical experts, weeds out the unworkable and accelerates what matters.
As Brave1’s head of international collaboration, Artem Moroz, says, Ukraine’s approach enables its industry to achieve ‘three innovations per day’, a volume and velocity almost unimaginable in Australia’s defence procurement system.
Australian innovators are capable. But we’re held back by legacy procurement models, limited risk appetite, and policy uncertainty. Our innovation sector risks being left behind. Ukraine offers an example of how to change that, if we’re bold enough to act.
There’s a diplomatic, economic and technological dividend to seizing this moment. Australia could invest in Ukraine’s Brave1 startups, either through a government fund, officially encouraged private capital or joint research and development. This would support Ukraine’s sovereignty, deepen bilateral ties and inject Australian investors and innovators into the world’s most dynamic defence tech lab.
An independent Ukraine will emerge deeply tied to Europe, with a tech sector hungry for capital, markets and scale. Australia, with its $167 billion tech sector and growing defence industry, should be positioning now for strategic partnerships — especially as Ukraine calls out for international support. Brave1 is showing us the future of warfighting and innovation.
The opportunity is clear, if Australia is brave enough to seize it.
Henry Campbell is the strategic engagement and program manager within the Australia Strategic Policy Institute’s National Security Program.
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