From November 6 to 9, the European Defense Tech Hackathon will take place in the capital. More than 200 engineers, military personnel, funds, and companies will work in a 48-hour marathon format on practical anti-drone solutions.
As reported by Militarny, the event was announced by the European Defense Tech Hub (EDTH). The event will focus on counter-drone technologies, and tasks for the teams will be formed by Ukrainian units together with co-organizer Moodro and partner Nordic Air Defense.
The organizers explain the goal simply: to engage as many talented people as possible in the defense industry and to accelerate the path from idea to working prototype. The program includes lectures, workshops, mentoring sessions, and final demo presentations. Teams will receive real cases from the military: detection and classification of targets, interference‑resistant communication channels, autonomous navigation, integration of sensors and software to intercept Shaheds and other UAVs.
EDTH emphasizes that after more than two dozen events in 15 European countries, Kyiv logically became the next venue — here people with practical combat experience concentrate and understand how systems must work on the front. Participation is open to engineers and developers as well as product managers, designers, manufacturing and testing specialists. Teams are expected to produce solutions that can realistically be scaled to small-series production.
For investors and partners, the hackathon is an opportunity to see live early‑stage projects, evaluate teams, and arrange pilots. A special emphasis is placed on rapid feedback from the military: participants will be able to immediately check what needs refinement so that prototypes withstand field conditions and are compatible with existing systems.
It is a network of events and communities that connects startups, defense institutions, and industry in the European deftech sector. Its mission is to attract new talent, accelerate innovation, and build partnerships that turn prototypes into serial solutions. Holding the hackathon in Kyiv is recognition of the role of Ukrainian experience in defense technologies: approaches born here are later scaled across Europe — from UAV systems and EW tools to software for target detection and interception.
