How Ukraine’s defense companies have adapted to two years of war

MILAN — With the third winter of war well underway in Ukraine, the country’s military-industrial complex is in a race against the technological clock to out-innovate Russian invaders .

The uncertainty looming over the future of foreign military aid to Ukraine and the slow deliveries of pledged equipment from allies have affected how Kyiv designs and develops weapons.

The recent rhetoric of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has put a stronger emphasis on the importance of localizing arms production and investing in domestic capabilities to the greatest extent possible.

This has entailed pushing innovations in key technological sectors, according to one of the leaders of Brave1, a Ukrainian government entity in charge of speeding up development and delivery of defense equipment samples to the frontlines.

“Two years of war has shown us that we are competing with technology — we are working with various solutions including drones, robotics, electronic warfare, cybersecurity and command-and-control management systems,” Nataliia Kushnerska, project lead at Brave1, told Defense News.

Thus far, 473 developments have received BRV1 status, which means they have passed the military expertise level of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, she added.

One of the companies involved in this process is Piranha-Tech, which since 2014 has specialized in manufacturing electronic warfare systems to protect combat vehicles against drone threats.

“Our Piranha AVD 360 system was designed to protect armored vehicles from Russian drones, by creating a protective dome up to 600 meters around itself and suppressing satellite navigation systems,” Anatolii Khrapchynskyi, deputy director general of Piranha-Tech, told Defense News.

New systems are developed so fast that some systems fielded only months ago are now deemed outdated.

“New challenges come up continuously, so our process of fine-tuning weapons is non-stop — hence the first variant of the Piranha AVD, presented in September, is already considered old and has already been supplied to our forces,” Khrapchynskyi said.

Another company rapidly adapting to the battlefield realities is Skiftech, a Ukrainian manufacturer of tactical simulators that uses laser technology. Over the last few months, it has been developing six new types at the request of Ukraine’s military.

Ukranian soldiers are shown wearing Skiftech laser equipment to conduct training. (Skiftech photo)

“One of them is a simulator for Stinger man-portable air defense systems, designed to train the algorithm of sequential actions to bring the weapon into combat readiness and improve skills in detecting air targets, using the mock-up of the FIM-92 Stinger,” Revide Ziiatdinova, media manager at Skiftech, said.

The representative said it took the company eight months from the initial request to supply the first two orders to the Ukrainian armed forces.

Unmanned capabilities

Another innovation developed by members of the Brave1 defense cluster is a combat robot dubbed Liut, of which a prototype was trialed in September.

Since then, engineers have improved it with greater cross-country mobility and equipped it with a new combat module to allow for a more compact size and more ammunition supplies, the developer said in a statement to Defense News.

Additionally, a sight has been developed that can be equipped with optical infrared cameras or a thermal imager for enhanced covert threat detection. Liut is currently undergoing internal testing to obtain final clearance before entering serial production.

Ukraine’s strategy has placed a special focus on the quantity of unmanned systems its defense companies are able to generate at the cheapest cost, which has enabled soldiers to continue to survive in a do-it-yourself battlefield.

“Given that anything that moves in the Ukraine combat will be observed, tracked and hit with a drone, many of these unmanned ground vehicle designs are very simple and inexpensive, DIY-ed at the front by units or delivered by volunteers,” said Samuel Bendett, an adviser on Russian military capabilities at the Center for Naval Analyses.

A counter-drone system by Piranha-Tech is shown during testing. (Photo provided by Piranha-Tech)

Aerial drones have also been at the forefront of the country’s defense priorities, resulting in the number of companies in this space growing from seven to 80 since 2022, according to the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

Many of those being tested were designed for mine detection purposes, such as the ST-1, developed by Ailand Systems.

“The search for mines is carried out by the autonomous drone, thanks to a simple metal detector it is equipped with such as those used by sappers,” the company’s chief executive, Dmytro Titov, said in an email.

Should the war last another year, some manufacturers are confident it would give Ukraine “a major technological boost,” Khrapchynskyi said.

Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo was a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide range of topics related to military procurement and international security, and specializes in reporting on the aviation sector. She is based in Milan, Italy.

米兰——随着乌克兰第三个冬季战争的全面展开，该国的军工联合体正在与时间赛跑，力图在创新方面胜过俄罗斯入侵者。

外国对乌克兰的军事援助前景不明朗，以及盟国承诺的装备交付缓慢，都影响了基辅设计和研发武器的方式。

乌克兰总统泽连斯基近期的言论更加强调了武器生产本地化和尽可能投资国内能力的重要性。

据负责加快国防装备样品研发和交付至前线的乌克兰政府机构 Brave1 的一位领导人称，这意味着需要在关键技术领域推动创新。

“两年的战争让我们看到，我们正在与技术竞争——我们正在使用各种解决方案，包括无人机、机器人、电子战、网络安全和指挥控制管理系统，”Brave1 项目负责人 Nataliia Kushnerska 告诉《防务新闻》。

她补充说，到目前为止，已有 473 个项目获得了 BRV1 级认证，这意味着它们已经通过了乌克兰武装部队总参谋部的军事专业水平检验。

参与这一过程的公司之一是 Piranha-Tech，该公司自 2014 年以来一直专注于制造电子战系统，以保护作战车辆免受无人机威胁。

“我们的 Piranha AVD 360 系统旨在保护装甲车辆免受俄罗斯无人机的攻击，它能在其周围形成一个半径达 600 米的保护罩，并抑制卫星导航系统，”Piranha-Tech 副总经理 Anatolii Khrapchynskyi 告诉《防务新闻》。

新系统发展如此迅速，以至于一些几个月前才投入使用的系统现在就被认为过时了。

“新的挑战层出不穷，因此我们对武器的微调工作永不停歇——因此，9 月份推出的 Piranha AVD 的第一个型号已经被认为是老旧型号，并且已经交付给我们的部队，”赫拉普钦斯基说。

另一家迅速适应战场实际情况的公司是乌克兰战术模拟器制造商Skiftech，该公司采用激光技术。过去几个月，应乌克兰军方要求，该公司一直在研发六种新型模拟器。

照片显示，乌克兰士兵佩戴着Skiftech公司的激光设备进行训练。（Skiftech公司供图）

Skiftech 的媒体经理 Revide Ziiatdinova 表示：“其中之一是毒刺便携式防空系统的模拟器，旨在训练顺序操作算法，使武器进入战斗准备状态，并提高探测空中目标的技能，使用的是 FIM-92 毒刺导弹的模型。”

该代表表示，从最初收到请求到向乌克兰武装部队交付前两份订单，公司花了八个月时间。

无人能力

Brave1 防御集群成员开发的另一项创新是名为 Liut 的战斗机器人，其原型机已于 9 月进行了试验。

开发商在给《防务新闻》的一份声明中表示，此后，工程师们对其进行了改进，提高了其越野机动性，并为其配备了新的作战模块，使其尺寸更加紧凑，弹药供应量更大。

此外，Liut公司还开发了一种瞄准器，可配备光学红外摄像机或热成像仪，以增强对隐蔽威胁的探测能力。目前，该瞄准器正在进行内部测试，以获得最终批准后方可投入批量生产。

乌克兰的战略特别注重其国防公司能够以最低成本生产多少无人系统，这使得士兵能够在自力更生的战场上继续生存下去。

“鉴于在乌克兰战场上任何移动的目标都会被无人机观察、跟踪和打击，许多无人地面车辆的设计都非常简单且成本低廉，由前线部队自行制造或由志愿者交付，”海军分析中心俄罗斯军事能力顾问塞缪尔·本德特说。

图为Piranha-Tech公司研发的反无人机系统测试现场。（图片由Piranha-Tech公司提供）

据外交关系委员会智库称，无人机也一直是该国国防优先事项的重点，导致该领域的公司数量自 2022 年以来从 7 家增加到 80 家。

许多受测设备都是为探雷目的而设计的，例如艾兰德系统公司开发的 ST-1。

“由于无人机配备了类似工兵使用的那种简易金属探测器，因此可以自主进行地雷搜索，”该公司首席执行官德米特罗·季托夫在一封电子邮件中表示。

赫拉普钦斯基表示，如果战争再持续一年，一些制造商相信这将给乌克兰带来“巨大的技术提升”。

伊丽莎白·戈斯林-马洛曾任《防务新闻》欧洲通讯员。她的报道涵盖军事采购和国际安全等广泛领域，尤其擅长航空领域的报道。她常驻意大利米兰。