Introduction

Over the course of the last 2 years we have held 5 UK-UA Defence Tech Forums at RUSI in London. The series of conferences was convened to enhance the collaboration between Ukrainian, British and international defence tech firms, together with the VC community, to scale up production and speed up R&D and new innovations.

We cooperate with the Embassy of Ukraine in the UK, UK Ministry of Defence and the Department for Business and Trade on the delivery of the events. Keynote speakers have included General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ambassador of Ukraine to the UK, Luke Pollard MP, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, then Chief of the UK Defence Staff, Andy Start, then UK National Armaments Director, and Air Vice-Marshall Mark Farrell, Director of Ukraine Capabilities, Ministry of Defence and other senior MOD and DBT officials. The forums have been supported by the Ukrainian government and military, with representatives from the Ministry of Defence, National Guard of Ukraine, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Brave1 clarifying Ukraine’s front line technology advances.

To produce tangible outcomes on each occasion we have brought 15 hand-picked leading Ukrainian defence tech companies to London to create partnerships with technology sector members of ADS Group and to meet with leading VCs.

We are grateful to the outstanding Sponsors of the Forums, namely Vyriy Industries, Ukrspecsystems, Deviro, UAC, Auterion, Shield AI, Swarmer, Athlon Avia, Tytan Technologies, Elendil Alliance, Alpine Eagle, UKRTAC, Molfar Intelligence Firm, CYBER RANGES, Palantir, Helsing, Sigma Software Labs, Delian Alliance Industries, Tekever, Drone Evolution, Defence Builder, Evolve Dynamics, Destinus, Tetra Tech, FUIB, Vantiq, and Red Hat.

The Forums have attracted over 1500 participants and registration had to be closed well in advance of each event.