In the first half of this year, as part of innovation activities in the Armed Forces, an assessment of almost 600 projects for the development of high-tech models of weapons and military equipment was carried out, more than 40 of which received state financial support. This was announced by Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andriy Lebedenko during a briefing in Ukrinform “Military Innovations: Main Achievements in the First Half of 2026”, the PromPolitInform portal informs.
“The innovation generation system is a conveyor that should be dynamically operating. That is,.. this is a constant study, in fact – online formation of those requirements, a prioritized list of technical requirements, operational and technical requirements for the creation of new means. The next is the development of modern systems and weapons, this was also a priority area. These are drones, and NRCs, and systems that allow them to be controlled, information systems, new means – weapons, including futuristic ones, but today they are already used; these are laser weapons, “- said Lebedenko.
It was noted that in the first half of the year, within the framework of innovation activities in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, an assessment of almost 600 innovative projects for the development of high-tech samples of weapons and military equipment was carried out. Of these, more than 40 projects received state financial support in the form of grants from the Innovation Development Fund of the Ministry of Digital Transformation. The largest number of projects was submitted in the direction of “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” – 160, in the direction of “Samples and Systems (Complexes) of Weapons” – 107; “Robotic and remotely controlled systems (complexes)” – 56.
The Central Department of Innovation noted that in order to create favorable conditions for domestic developers and manufacturers, they interacted with the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Digital Transformation and other departments.
The priority in the search for innovative solutions remains air defense. In particular, effective solutions are being sought to counter enemy UAVs, and an unmanned aircraft system for intercepting drones is being created. It is planned to expand the network of companies that have joined private air defense, and to intensify the search for means of countering UAVs and carrier aircraft.
Unmanned aircraft systems remain an important area of innovation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In this context, emphasis was placed on the creation of interference-resistant navigation systems and the development of UAVs controlled via fiber-optic lines with a range of over 50 km; introduction of UAV identification technology based on the “friend-or-nobody” principle; development of strike UAVs, including carriers of strike disposable UAVs, increasing their autonomy, introducing elements of artificial intelligence and swarm application technologies; creation of new developments in the middle and deep strike direction.
According to Lebedenko, constant work is underway on the introduction of artificial intelligence technologies into various areas of combat operations. In particular, this concerns the creation of special software for processing primary radar information using AI elements; introduction of such elements to UAVs; development of innovative solutions for planning logistical support.
“We have created a special system that allows us to work constantly in the troops, in our combat units. This is done by groups formed by experts, they work cyclically with our combat brigades to collect relevant information – these are both problems and their proposals,” Lebedenko noted.
In addition, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are conducting systematic work to support manufacturers and users of innovative weapons. In particular, the Iron Proving Ground testing ecosystem has been created, through the web portal of which almost 250 applications from manufacturers have been processed. A system of technical support for unmanned systems (for combat units-users) and a system of information support for manufacturers have also been implemented, within the framework of which 457 and 330 applications have been processed, respectively.
The General Staff reported that during the first half of the year, 433 tests of the latest models of munitions and equipment were conducted – compared to last year, this figure increased by over 20%. In particular, within the framework of the Iron Proving Ground project, almost 150 experimental studies and tests of promising models (including those involving experimental combat units) were conducted, of which 113 were tests of unmanned systems, 15 were tests of unmanned ground systems, and 21 tests from other areas.
As Ukrinform reported, this year the Armed Forces of Ukraine have already admitted a thousand samples of new weapons and equipment to service.
