Lessons from Ukraine's Brave1 initiative

Mapping Canada’s defence tech ecosystem is a great and necessary step, but understanding who’s doing what is only part of the puzzle. More important is figuring out how to create reflexive networks between front-line forces and the domestic startups who might have capabilities to support them, and streamline procurement processes to enable their adoption in the process. On these two points Canadian defence stakeholders stand to learn a great deal from Ukraine’s fast-track efforts to build a defence tech ecosystem in the wake of the February 2022 full-scale invasion launched by Russia. 

Prior to the invasion the concept of defence tech was foreign to Ukraine. When I first visited in the fall of 2022 to film what became Made with Bravery, the use of drones was limited to individual soldiers and volunteers turning to off-the-shelf DJI drones, transforming them into “weapons of war” for intelligence gathering and the unorthodox strikes on enemy assets, alongside foreign supplied drones. 

Less than 3 years later, Ukraine’s defence tech cluster is a world leader in the development of UAVs (drones) and dual-use AI and communications systems. As Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Federov notes, “two years ago we were importing these (tools), today…Ukrainian innovations (are raising millions).” 

Key to this transformation was the creation of Brave1 in late April 2023. Structured as a cross-departmental platform, Brave1 brought together the ultimate users (and funders) of defence tech innovations on the battlefield with the innovators and researchers developing them. More than just mapping what capabilities might exist, Brave1 created a reflexive system that, in near-real time, transmitted battlefield experience to the startups creating, and refining, the at-times unorthodox tools required. Since its start in 2023, Brave1 has become the largest funder of defence tech projects in Ukraine, issuing over 560 grants worth over 2.2 billion Ukrainian Hryvnia or $75 million CAD. Over 3,600 tech solutions have been supplied, albeit not all adopted, as part of the initiative. 

Key to this impact is the fact that the initiative was spearheaded not by the Ministry of Defence, their job has remained focused on military strategy and operations, but rather by the Ministry of Digital Transformation. As a result of this structure, potential regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles present in traditional defence procurement have been forced to adapt through modernized processes authored by the same people who created Ukraine’s world-leading e-government initiative, DIIA. The result is a system built to incentivize the development, adoption and scaling of innovative inputs into Ukraine’s defence system rather than one focused on buying the cheapest tires and armaments. 

Having seen it work with drones and hardware, the government recently announced the creation of K4 Startup Studio to do the same for AI-powered technologies with applications in Defence. 

And while the priority impact of these initiatives is about sovereignty and what happens on the battlefield, the economic impact, measured via production capacity, investment and, eventually, the creation of a major export industry are the long-term dividends that result from this effective networking of tech and defence. 

On all fronts, Canada (and others) stands to learn a great deal from Kyiv on this file.  

DH