The 🇺🇦 war has totally redefined warfare and the defense industry's future. It's by far the fastest-developing technological war in human history. We are at the breaking point where most of the global armed forces are not relevant for today's frontline reality & need to rapidly develop their units and equipment to the growing threat of drones, electronic warfare + more. National Security is going through the biggest disruption of the last decades. 🇺🇦 strongest hope to win the war is pushing rapid defense tech development - turning this war into the battle between robots against orcs! Building hundreds of new drone units that are using the latest tech built by startups. For real success on the battlefield we need tens of cheap solutions, that can be scaled super-fast into mass production. However, Ukraine can only move faster with real and FAST help from global startup communities and investors. To kick-start the most promising Defence startups we organized the first Darkstar Camp in 🇺🇦 . We ended up working with 12 startups - 10 from Ukraine + 2 from Europe! Most of the companies were already combat proven - from laser guidance systems, gliding bombs for drones, UGVs to Ukraine-made thermal cameras. Most had worked on their solutions already for more than a year - and some received paid orders at the event to deliver their product into the frontline over the coming weeks! Despite the super short organizing time - the results, energy, MOTIVATION were mindblowing - way more than we ever expected - it was the best ultra hackathon that I ever organized. We worked closely with some of the best units of the Ukraine Armed Forces - including the new Unmanned Systems Force (USF) - with their feedback providing extremely useful insights for the teams to speed up product development. We also saw many teams building integrations and collaborations with each other, partnering up to make more effective products for the battlefield. Darkstar is building a Defence Tech ecosystem where founders help each other & share learning with each other is one the most critical thing for ultra-fast results! In the coming weeks Darkstar coalition will focus on finishing investing in some teams, but will help all of them to the next level. And YES - we have already begun the planning for Bootcamp #2 in the autumn!

This NAFO 🛻 from 🇪🇪 island Saaremaa served 🇺🇦 Army for 26 months! All soldiers survived! 🫡 Fellas - are you ready to help them to get new?

Don’t believe this leak - 🇺🇦 will never accept this kind of garbage. Ukraine is working very intensely with real peace plan and you see results every night. 🔥🔥🔥

Vox Populi - MEGA first results are in!

@Irokez18 Some countries are still extremely lazy & naive. Not Baltics, Nordics, Poland, Czech, Nederland and maybe UK.

@Irokez18 With all respect - Europe is slow as F***!

2025 first Estonian Defence Meetup will be already next Tuesday 04.02! Our core focus is topics ( + tech) that help to 🇺🇦 win so keep random bulls*** out! This time * one of 🇺🇦 Elite Battalions shares how Defence Tech newest product has made them more effective * we will share last weekend's Darkstar Military Hack results (there were some really crazy Mad-Max stuff), newly launched Estonian €100M Defence Fund will present their plans AND - 2025 first funding news by 🇪🇪 Defence Startup ( by unconfirmed rumours it is €5M+) + more! See Ya in Tallinn!

The biggest winner of the Estonian Startup Awards 2024 was the Defence Tech ecosystem - as Frankenburg & Defsecintel Solutions got 4 wins out of 11 categories, including Newcomer & Revenue Hack. And frankly - this is well deserved. Frankeburg - building minirocket - interceptor  against Shahed - has moved with real rocket speed - so analysts have started to compare the company with Helsing Ai & Quantum Systems. And Defsecintel hit last year 40+ mil revenue, doubling the team in 12 months. Just a few years ago Defence was the biggest underdog with less than 10 startups, now in just 12 months it has grown 100+. And just yesterday Estonian government launched 100 mil Estonian Defence Tech fund - the first in the EU with a focus on REAL military products - which is looking to make its first investments in the next coming months! Change in 🇪🇪 real. And Mordor will feel the heat soon every single night!

@sternenko сьогодні опівночі

I have personally organized 100+ hackathons, but never so much interested as next week's 🇪🇪 Darkstar Defence Tech Hackathon. It will be the biggest Military hackathon in Europe with 200+ participants from 10+ countries. Including many great teams traveling to 🇪🇪 to get a harsh reality check from 🇺🇦 frontline soldiers. And seniority level of the event is the highest I have ever seen in any hack - most of the folks we accepted are true builders with 10-20 years of experience! As we got so much interest then we started already organizing the next event in 🇫🇮 to join all Nordics community with 🇺🇦 real-time needs & experience! 2025 will be the real start of the Defence Tech decade in Estonia & beyond! Rock on!

@Tatarigami_UA Meanwhile new commander of ground forces general Drapatyi is moving rapidly with changes. Just last week he approved new military training with virtual reality, what is biggest change in training from 1950.

@RyanO_ChosenCoy @Tatarigami_UA Rejoining was in the thousands already in November. The main point was dropping criminal charges if they joined until 31.12 any unit.

@Tatarigami_UA Big surprise is statement by new head of land forces who made proposal - general Drapatyi - "Most of the systemic shortcomings were committed by the Ground Forces Command, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the Operational Command. 🫡

@Maks_NAFO_FELLA This is total horseshit! Only 🇺🇦& 🇷🇺 have understanding about modern warfare. Most of those armies will be beaten heavily in real FPV battles.

RT @David_Hambling: Supplying Ukraine with the low-cost FPV drones it needs is a big shift which could help everyone - except Russia - my…

Numbeo takes into account rent, groceries, restaurants prices & local purchasing power.

@bayraktar_1love Ukraine Navy has also few very skilled drone units. No surprise here ))

History of 2024!