Ukraine Conference: Drone Tech And Venture Capital
This is an interesting video of a Miltech conference in Ukraine, which includes a lot of the drones we’ve talked about here, as well as some things we haven’t seen yet.
There’s a wide range of people interviewed here:
“We’re back in Lviv at the second Ukrainian Defense Tech Valley Summit.”
“Judging by this massive unmanned submarine, Ukraine’s defense tech has grown a lot.”
One thing shown is the “RATEL-M logistical case evac UGV,” a remote controlled ground vehicle for logistics and casualty evacuation.
A Fire Point rep talks about the FP-1, “the most used Ukraine deep strike drone by amount and by effectiveness as well. FP-1 is responsible for around 60-65% of the deep strike missions that are currently happening on the front line, and it’s also the cheapest one.”
She also shows off a miniature copy of the Flamingo cruise missile so much in the news this year. “This is our way to deliver big payloads on even deeper distances in a very asymmetric way in returns of price to effectiveness, because this missile costs less than $1 million and is the biggest in the world by payload capacity, and by the distance.”
Ukrainian solder attending the conference: “I believe it’s the good platform to find industrial and manufacturers who create the best products that servicemen like me and my fellow brothers in arms can use on the battlefield.”
“It’s the second edition of defense tech by Brave 1. We had the first one in October 2024. This time we are four times bigger. We have representatives from more than 50 countries. More than 200 companies represent their solutions and we also have more than 300 investors from many countries around the globe.”
“More than $100 million to be invested in the Ukrainian defense ecosystem.”
“One of the brave one ecosystem companies, they raised $16 million in private investment from US and European investors.” Last conference the largest investment was $2.9 million.
STARK UK (not the Tony kind) rep: “We’re a German company with a Ukraine arm. So, we do all our operational testing and R&D in Ukraine. But we also bring the benefits of those systems back to the UK, back to Germany, to the European NATO market.”
“Roma dreamed of taking out one tank, at least one. Now he has personally destroyed 500 enemy vehicles.”
“Our mission is to bring international capital into Ukraine’s domestic defense industry, to get the Russians out and to help integrate Ukraine into Europe’s security architecture.”
There’s some coverage of United24, the Ukrainian initiative whose YouTube channel this is on.
There’s some talk about AI controlled air defense turrets called Sky Sentinel, with prototypes of the system on display. “We’re trying to get multiple ones of these all across cities.”
“Only in Ukraine do you have almost no distance between the technologist, the factory and the war fighter. So the feedback loop is continuous. There’s no Pentagon separating them. There’s no MOD separating them.”
The video provides a glimpse of a Ukrainian defense industry operating under tech startup rules: Move fast, break things, and rapidly iterate through quick prototypes. While that’s probably not the right approach to build, say, a stealth bomber or an aircraft carrier, it’s probably much better for quickly deploying new technology to the field in response to enemy action.
The U.S. Department of Defense weapon procurement system operates more like the IBM of old: Methodical, through, bureaucratic and slow. For the newly rechristened U.S. Department of War to win future wars, we’re going to need less IBM and more tech startup speed to defeat our foes.
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12 Responses to “Ukraine Conference: Drone Tech And Venture Capital”
The German military-industrial complex failed during WW II by dissipating its efforts on too many different designs and platforms, most of which were suffering from teething pains right to the end of the war. The Ukrainians seem to be repeating this mistake.
The Russians’ military-industrial complex, on the other hand, has relentlessly focused on only one or two designs in each category and their production & deployment of weapons is far superior to Ukraine and NATO as a result. IFW Kiel Institute for the World Economy states that Russia’s military-industrial complex is being throttled back because they are now overproducing military hardware:
‘Fit For War By 2030?_European Rearmament Efforts Vis-a-Vis Russia’
By Burilkov et al – Kiel Institute for the World Economy Report 2025-3
June 2025
OD Napoleon called for an aerial cease fire this morning after Russia launched an overnight cleanup campaign on Ukrainian natural gas facilities in Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odessa, and Chernihiv. The Russians have launched over 100 Iskander M missiles and 1,000 Geranium turbo drones since the beginning of October – 5 days! Russia’s only limitation now seems to be the availability of launch facilities. This validates Russia’s industrial focus on just a few weapons platforms.
The word around civil aviation is for Flamingo the Ukrainians bought up small jet engines that were no longer repairable for return to civil aviation service in business jets, or otherwise not economically overhaul-able, basically at salvage prices, and reworked them using 3d printed and otherwise inexpensive parts to good-enough-for-a-few-hours-at-one-throttle-setting. By designing the Flamingo engine compartment to accommodate a variety of small jet engines, they can use whatever they can get.
“The Russians’ military-industrial complex, on the other hand, has relentlessly focused on only one or two designs in each category and their production & deployment of weapons is far superior to Ukraine and NATO as a result.”
You boasted that Russia accelerated artillery shell production, which would prove to be decisive in overrunning Ukraine ‘s defensive positions. Yet battlefield casualties primarily resulted from drone strikes. This “relentless focus” resulted in misallocation of military resources. To hide their shame, Gerasimov and Shoigu blamed the shortages on “corruption” by military officers.
Russian wunderwaffen are inferior to their NATO counterparts and drunken untrained mobiks are no match for disciplined Ukranian and NATO troops.
As “FM” points out, Ukrainians are able to rapidly deploy cheap, rocket propelled drones with a range of 3,000 km to strike oil processing facilities in Russian rear areas. These attacks have crippled production to the point where Russia must now import a large share of its gasoline (benzene) to support domestic consumption.
Donald Trump is correct in his assessment that Russia is a paper tiger.
“You boasted that Russia accelerated artillery shell production, which would prove to be decisive in overrunning Ukraine ‘s defensive positions. Yet battlefield casualties primarily resulted from drone strikes. This “relentless focus” resulted in misallocation of military resources. To hide their shame, Gerasimov and Shoigu blamed the shortages on “corruption” by military officers.”
This is absolutely false. RUSI has repeatedly stated that 70%+ of casualties – on both sides – are due to artillery strikes. 10% are due to mines, and the rest are due to small arms fire and drones. You vastly overestimate the number of suicide drones employed by both sides. And most drones target vehicles and high value targets, not individual soldiers. Watch fewer Suchomimus videos and read more.
“Russian wunderwaffen are inferior to their NATO counterparts and drunken untrained mobiks are no match for disciplined Ukranian and NATO troops.”
The 05 October Iskander M strikes destroyed the last available natural gas pumping stations in Ukraine, in Lviv. The Iskanders traveled across the entire breadth of Ukraine, across at least a dozen Patriot and NASAMS batteries, without a single loss. Those 50 primitive Russian Iskander M missiles evaded billions of dollars worth of Patriot and NASAMS interceptors.
Disciplined Ukrainian troops are deserting at the rate of 35,000 per month. The TRC cannibals cannot replace the desertions fast enough to maintain a stable FEBA. The consequent Russian advances across the entire FEBA are why Putin is in no hurry to settle this conflict. You don’t seem to realize that the remaining military aged Ukrainian males not yet recruited speak Russian and think of themselves as Russian. This now poses an existential threat to Kiev.
The Ukrainians have no “rocket propelled drones”. The Flamingo has RATO to get it off the launch rail, but is jet propelled after the RATO unit burns out (in less than 500 meters). The Russians are fairly certain that they destroyed the Fire Point factory yesterday in their Lviv fireworks extravaganza.
The French government collapsed today after only a fortnight in power. Evidently the Frogs are less adept at establishing globalist control in their own country than they are in Moldova.
Few people realize that Germany and the USSR actually worked together on military projects (included armored warfare tactics) in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s.
“RUSI has repeatedly stated that 70%+ of casualties – on both sides – are due to artillery strikes…”
Oh, do you mean to suggest that the UK think tank RUSI is suffering the same intellectual schizophrenia that afficts you?
“A new report rom the UK defense think tank RUSI is a trove of information gleaned from interviews with Ukrainian military personnel in frontline units. The most obvious conclusion: this is a drone war, and using drones effectively for both offense and defence is critical for armies going forward.
“A key finding is that tactical drones are inflicting roughly two-thirds of Russian losses. In other words, they are twice as effective as every other weapon in the Ukrainian arsenal put together.”
“The 05 October Iskander M strikes destroyed the last available natural gas pumping stations in Ukraine, in Lviv.”
Two can play at this:
Oct 6 (Reuters) – The Kirishi oil refinery, one of Russia’s largest, has halted a crude distillation unit, CDU-6, its most productive unit, following a drone attack and subsequent fire on October 4, with its recovery expected to take about a month, two industry sources said on Monday.
“The stoppage could lead to a small decline in oil product output, amid a fuel crisis in Russia, which is grappling with a shortage of some popular types of gasoline amid persistent attacks of Ukrainian drones on its energy infrastructure.”
“Oh, do you mean to suggest that the UK think tank RUSI is suffering the same intellectual schizophrenia that afficts you?”
Hadn’t seen this latest report from Watling and Reynolds yet:
‘Tactical Developments Third Year Russo-Ukrainian War’
By Watling and Reynolds – February 2025
Nowhere does this latest RUSI report say that FPV drones are inflicting two-thirds of Russian personnel losses. It says that FPV drones are inflicting 60% to 70% of Russian systems losses (i.e. vehicles and artillery, not soldiers). This is still quite a reversal from the previous Watling & Reynolds claims, which I stated accurately. But the new report provides an unsettling rationale.
It turns out – if you read the actual new RUSI report on its page 11 – that the Ukrainians are now out of artillery shells & charges and cannot inflict an significant number of casualties with artillery. Hence FPV’s are all they have to inflict casualties. This is a new and ominous development for the AFU because – as the new report states on its page 10 – “Between 60 and 80% of Ukrainian FPVs fail to reach their target”. Russian jamming writ large. This also means the AFU has no offensive capacity whatsoever in inclement weather. Drones don’t work in the rain and snow.
The Russians suffer no such shortages of artillery shells and charges. But the Ukrainians embargo any information on their own casualties, so you have to rely on the dead body exchanges for information on the causes of Ukrainian casualties. The Ukrainian casualties are all mangled meat puzzles, so bad that AFU opened another 20 identification laboratories this year. These are artillery casualties, not FPV casualties. The mangled messes of the Ukrainian dead is their primary explanation for refusing more that 1,000 bodies per month at the exchanges.
Oct 6 (Reuters) – The Kirishi oil refinery, one of Russia’s largest, has halted a crude distillation unit, CDU-6, its most productive unit, following a drone attack and subsequent fire on October 4, with its recovery expected to take about a month, two industry sources said on Monday.”
The attack on Kirishi is but a pinprick when compared to the complete ruination of the Shebelinsky natural gas field. A small loss of middle distillate, which Russia produces at twice the rate of their consumption is incidental when compared with cutting off an entire nation’s natural gas supply.
But this isn’t the real story.
The really interesting story is the launch point of the Ukrainian attack drones. Russian radars vectored the launch point on a boat or ship just west of Vaindloo Island in Estonian (Gulf of Finland) waters. You might remember Vaindloo as the pretext for Estonia’s claim that three MiG 31’s traversed Estonian airspace on 19 September.
Russian MilBloggers are all atwitter over this. They believe the phony 19 September Estonian charges were a device on the part of Estonia to discourage Russian maritime patrol aircraft from observing the refinery attack drone launching ship. If they are correct, this would constitute a casus belli on the part of Estonia.
If they are correct, this would constitute a casus belli on the part of Estonia.”
Putin has already bit off more than he can chew. All he has left is the threat of nuclear warfare against US/NATO, which would lead to St Petersburg and Mosciw becoming an historical curiosity, of interest only to paleontologists.
“Putin has already bit off more than he can chew. All he has left is the threat of nuclear warfare against US/NATO, which would lead to St Petersburg and Mosciw becoming an historical curiosity, of interest only to paleontologists.”
There are likely going to be a lot of international legal actions after Ukraine collapses. Illegal actions by ostensibly noninvolved nations such as the Nord Stream II attack, the assassination of Colonel-General Kirillov, and this refinery attack will result in substantial legal damages and criminal prosecutions.
Speaking of nuclear weapons, the Russians just disavowed the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA). Russia will restore at least 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium to their nuclear warhead construction operations. This will be enough for at least another 5,000 Teller-Ulam devices. If I were you, I would not be much worried about “St Petersburg and Mosciw” just now. Your problems will be much closer to home.
The German military-industrial complex failed during WW II by dissipating its efforts on too many different designs and platforms, most of which were suffering from teething pains right to the end of the war. The Ukrainians seem to be repeating this mistake.
The Russians’ military-industrial complex, on the other hand, has relentlessly focused on only one or two designs in each category and their production & deployment of weapons is far superior to Ukraine and NATO as a result. IFW Kiel Institute for the World Economy states that Russia’s military-industrial complex is being throttled back because they are now overproducing military hardware:
‘Fit For War By 2030?_European Rearmament Efforts Vis-a-Vis Russia’
By Burilkov et al – Kiel Institute for the World Economy Report 2025-3
June 2025
OD Napoleon called for an aerial cease fire this morning after Russia launched an overnight cleanup campaign on Ukrainian natural gas facilities in Lviv, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Odessa, and Chernihiv. The Russians have launched over 100 Iskander M missiles and 1,000 Geranium turbo drones since the beginning of October – 5 days! Russia’s only limitation now seems to be the availability of launch facilities. This validates Russia’s industrial focus on just a few weapons platforms.
The word around civil aviation is for Flamingo the Ukrainians bought up small jet engines that were no longer repairable for return to civil aviation service in business jets, or otherwise not economically overhaul-able, basically at salvage prices, and reworked them using 3d printed and otherwise inexpensive parts to good-enough-for-a-few-hours-at-one-throttle-setting. By designing the Flamingo engine compartment to accommodate a variety of small jet engines, they can use whatever they can get.
“The Russians’ military-industrial complex, on the other hand, has relentlessly focused on only one or two designs in each category and their production & deployment of weapons is far superior to Ukraine and NATO as a result.”
You boasted that Russia accelerated artillery shell production, which would prove to be decisive in overrunning Ukraine ‘s defensive positions. Yet battlefield casualties primarily resulted from drone strikes. This “relentless focus” resulted in misallocation of military resources. To hide their shame, Gerasimov and Shoigu blamed the shortages on “corruption” by military officers.
Russian wunderwaffen are inferior to their NATO counterparts and drunken untrained mobiks are no match for disciplined Ukranian and NATO troops.
As “FM” points out, Ukrainians are able to rapidly deploy cheap, rocket propelled drones with a range of 3,000 km to strike oil processing facilities in Russian rear areas. These attacks have crippled production to the point where Russia must now import a large share of its gasoline (benzene) to support domestic consumption.
Donald Trump is correct in his assessment that Russia is a paper tiger.
“You boasted that Russia accelerated artillery shell production, which would prove to be decisive in overrunning Ukraine ‘s defensive positions. Yet battlefield casualties primarily resulted from drone strikes. This “relentless focus” resulted in misallocation of military resources. To hide their shame, Gerasimov and Shoigu blamed the shortages on “corruption” by military officers.”
This is absolutely false. RUSI has repeatedly stated that 70%+ of casualties – on both sides – are due to artillery strikes. 10% are due to mines, and the rest are due to small arms fire and drones. You vastly overestimate the number of suicide drones employed by both sides. And most drones target vehicles and high value targets, not individual soldiers. Watch fewer Suchomimus videos and read more.
“Russian wunderwaffen are inferior to their NATO counterparts and drunken untrained mobiks are no match for disciplined Ukranian and NATO troops.”
The 05 October Iskander M strikes destroyed the last available natural gas pumping stations in Ukraine, in Lviv. The Iskanders traveled across the entire breadth of Ukraine, across at least a dozen Patriot and NASAMS batteries, without a single loss. Those 50 primitive Russian Iskander M missiles evaded billions of dollars worth of Patriot and NASAMS interceptors.
Disciplined Ukrainian troops are deserting at the rate of 35,000 per month. The TRC cannibals cannot replace the desertions fast enough to maintain a stable FEBA. The consequent Russian advances across the entire FEBA are why Putin is in no hurry to settle this conflict. You don’t seem to realize that the remaining military aged Ukrainian males not yet recruited speak Russian and think of themselves as Russian. This now poses an existential threat to Kiev.
The Ukrainians have no “rocket propelled drones”. The Flamingo has RATO to get it off the launch rail, but is jet propelled after the RATO unit burns out (in less than 500 meters). The Russians are fairly certain that they destroyed the Fire Point factory yesterday in their Lviv fireworks extravaganza.
The French government collapsed today after only a fortnight in power. Evidently the Frogs are less adept at establishing globalist control in their own country than they are in Moldova.
A German company building advanced weapons in Ukraine to prepare for a future war. Treaty of Rapallo (1922) & Guernica live!
I sure hope the USA is catching up on this intercontinental drone warfare.
Few people realize that Germany and the USSR actually worked together on military projects (included armored warfare tactics) in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s.
“RUSI has repeatedly stated that 70%+ of casualties – on both sides – are due to artillery strikes…”
Oh, do you mean to suggest that the UK think tank RUSI is suffering the same intellectual schizophrenia that afficts you?
“A new report rom the UK defense think tank RUSI is a trove of information gleaned from interviews with Ukrainian military personnel in frontline units. The most obvious conclusion: this is a drone war, and using drones effectively for both offense and defence is critical for armies going forward.
“A key finding is that tactical drones are inflicting roughly two-thirds of Russian losses. In other words, they are twice as effective as every other weapon in the Ukrainian arsenal put together.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2025/02/18/new-report-drones-now-destroying-two-thirds-of-russian-targets/
“The 05 October Iskander M strikes destroyed the last available natural gas pumping stations in Ukraine, in Lviv.”
Two can play at this:
Oct 6 (Reuters) – The Kirishi oil refinery, one of Russia’s largest, has halted a crude distillation unit, CDU-6, its most productive unit, following a drone attack and subsequent fire on October 4, with its recovery expected to take about a month, two industry sources said on Monday.
“The stoppage could lead to a small decline in oil product output, amid a fuel crisis in Russia, which is grappling with a shortage of some popular types of gasoline amid persistent attacks of Ukrainian drones on its energy infrastructure.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/russias-kirishi-refinery-halts-largest-unit-after-drone-attack-sources-say-2025-10-06/
“Oh, do you mean to suggest that the UK think tank RUSI is suffering the same intellectual schizophrenia that afficts you?”
Hadn’t seen this latest report from Watling and Reynolds yet:
‘Tactical Developments Third Year Russo-Ukrainian War’
By Watling and Reynolds – February 2025
Nowhere does this latest RUSI report say that FPV drones are inflicting two-thirds of Russian personnel losses. It says that FPV drones are inflicting 60% to 70% of Russian systems losses (i.e. vehicles and artillery, not soldiers). This is still quite a reversal from the previous Watling & Reynolds claims, which I stated accurately. But the new report provides an unsettling rationale.
It turns out – if you read the actual new RUSI report on its page 11 – that the Ukrainians are now out of artillery shells & charges and cannot inflict an significant number of casualties with artillery. Hence FPV’s are all they have to inflict casualties. This is a new and ominous development for the AFU because – as the new report states on its page 10 – “Between 60 and 80% of Ukrainian FPVs fail to reach their target”. Russian jamming writ large. This also means the AFU has no offensive capacity whatsoever in inclement weather. Drones don’t work in the rain and snow.
The Russians suffer no such shortages of artillery shells and charges. But the Ukrainians embargo any information on their own casualties, so you have to rely on the dead body exchanges for information on the causes of Ukrainian casualties. The Ukrainian casualties are all mangled meat puzzles, so bad that AFU opened another 20 identification laboratories this year. These are artillery casualties, not FPV casualties. The mangled messes of the Ukrainian dead is their primary explanation for refusing more that 1,000 bodies per month at the exchanges.
Always go to the original source material.
“Two can play at this:
Oct 6 (Reuters) – The Kirishi oil refinery, one of Russia’s largest, has halted a crude distillation unit, CDU-6, its most productive unit, following a drone attack and subsequent fire on October 4, with its recovery expected to take about a month, two industry sources said on Monday.”
The attack on Kirishi is but a pinprick when compared to the complete ruination of the Shebelinsky natural gas field. A small loss of middle distillate, which Russia produces at twice the rate of their consumption is incidental when compared with cutting off an entire nation’s natural gas supply.
But this isn’t the real story.
The really interesting story is the launch point of the Ukrainian attack drones. Russian radars vectored the launch point on a boat or ship just west of Vaindloo Island in Estonian (Gulf of Finland) waters. You might remember Vaindloo as the pretext for Estonia’s claim that three MiG 31’s traversed Estonian airspace on 19 September.
Russian MilBloggers are all atwitter over this. They believe the phony 19 September Estonian charges were a device on the part of Estonia to discourage Russian maritime patrol aircraft from observing the refinery attack drone launching ship. If they are correct, this would constitute a casus belli on the part of Estonia.
If they are correct, this would constitute a casus belli on the part of Estonia.”
Putin has already bit off more than he can chew. All he has left is the threat of nuclear warfare against US/NATO, which would lead to St Petersburg and Mosciw becoming an historical curiosity, of interest only to paleontologists.
“Putin has already bit off more than he can chew. All he has left is the threat of nuclear warfare against US/NATO, which would lead to St Petersburg and Mosciw becoming an historical curiosity, of interest only to paleontologists.”
There are likely going to be a lot of international legal actions after Ukraine collapses. Illegal actions by ostensibly noninvolved nations such as the Nord Stream II attack, the assassination of Colonel-General Kirillov, and this refinery attack will result in substantial legal damages and criminal prosecutions.
Speaking of nuclear weapons, the Russians just disavowed the Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement (PMDA). Russia will restore at least 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium to their nuclear warhead construction operations. This will be enough for at least another 5,000 Teller-Ulam devices. If I were you, I would not be much worried about “St Petersburg and Mosciw” just now. Your problems will be much closer to home.