Defence Vision Day took place in Kyiv, featuring innovative solutions for the military based on virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) technologies.
The Ministry of Defence recently announced a competition for creating VR/AR complexes for training and simulations. The aim of Defence Vision Day was to identify the best solutions and present them to the Ministry of Defence, the General Staff, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and potential investors.
Out of 55 submitted projects, 24 were selected for presentation. These included shooting simulators for air defense, first aid training, and drone management. Three projects — Lifesaver Lab: Lifesaver SIM, a joint project of SoftServe, Lviv National University, and the 7th Carpathian Border Guard Unit, as well as STRATA22 — received grants from Uklon co-founders, the event’s main partner. The Ministry of Defence will continue to collaborate with these teams to implement their solutions in the defense forces.
“These projects demonstrate that training and educating people can be achieved through various methods. VR simulators can do this more effectively and cost-efficiently. We need to increase the number of such events so that good ideas are not hidden but realized and bring benefits,” emphasized Deputy Minister of Defence Kateryna Chernohorko.
The event also showcased solutions from the Defence Builder startup accelerator. Thirteen teams presented their developments to military personnel, investors, and event guests. Among the solutions were heavy and river drones, mine detection and demining systems, turrets, robotic platforms, topographic platforms, and systems for calculating firing parameters to hit targets from concealed positions.
“The number of participants at Defence Vision Day and the readiness level of the products demonstrate the growth of defense technologies and the potential of VR/AR for military training in Ukraine. The first cohort of Defence Builder teams shows significant progress, and we are excited to implement these projects with the Ministry of Defence and partners Sigma Software Labs, Genesis, and KSE,” noted Kateryna Bezsudna, co-founder and COO of Defence Builder.
Ksenia Semenova, acting rector of the National Aviation University, added: “NAU, as the country’s first defence-tech university, is interested in providing our engineers with access to new VR/AR-based technical solutions. NAU will also use the presented technologies to train students at the Department of Military Training. Defence Vision Day inspires and creates synergy for new collaborations.”
Defence Vision Day was organized by the Ministry of Defence’s digital team and Defence Builder Accelerator with support from the National Aviation University.
