Investing in Ukraine’s military innovation: Weapons and Warfare

Oct 01, 2025 at 03:30 AM CDT

Ryan Robertson, Brett Baker

This week, host Ryan Robertson takes us to Ukraine for the world's largest investment summit for defense technologies. — Image credit: Straight Arrow News

This recording was made using enhanced software.

This week on Weapons and Warfare, host Ryan Robertson takes us to Lviv, Ukraine, for the second annual Defense Valley Tech 2025 event, the world’s largest investment summit for defense technologies. Organized by Brave1 in collaboration with Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation, this groundbreaking summit highlights cutting-edge innovations in AI, drones and electronic warfare, while uniting global investors, military leaders, startups and established industry players.

With over $100 million in new defense tech investments secured, the event underscores Ukraine’s emerging role as a global hub for military innovation and its potential to reshape the future of defense worldwide.

QR code for SAN app download

Download the Straight Arrow app today to get the stories that matter free from manipulation, bias or agenda.™

Point phone camera here

Also featured in this episode:

Check in with ShieldAI about their efforts in Ukraine.
Weapon of the Week: Meet VATAG, designed as a multipurpose heavy robotic platform capable of carrying more than 2 tons of payload.

You can subscribe to the Weapons and Warfare podcast on the platform of your choosing here.

Ryan Robertson is the anchor of the Straight Arrow News video podcast Weapons and Warfare. He wore many hats in his career — from photographer to news director — and firmly believes honest journalism will save our Republic.

Brett Baker

Brett Baker is a senior producer at Straight Arrow News, where he oversees the production of Weapons and Warfare. An Air Force veteran with more than 35 years in broadcast journalism, Brett combines his military experience and passion for storytelling to serve SAN's audience.

Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Drones, Russia-Ukraine War, Ukraine, Ukraine Defense Ministry

Make SAN preferred on Google Show Transcript

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, WEAPONS AND WARFARE HAS GONE INTERNATIONAL!

WE’RE ON THE GROUND IN UKRAINE AS SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN DEFENSE ARE HERE TO HELP THE CAUSE.

WE GO INSIDE THE SECOND EVER DEFENSE TECH VALLEY, ONE OF EUROPE’S FLAGSHIP DEFENSE TECH INVESTMENT SUMMITS.

HELLO AND WELCOME TO WEAPONS AND WARFARE. WHERE OUR GOAL IS TO GIVE YOU THE INFORMATION YOU NEED TO HAVE AN INFORMED CONVERSATION ABOUT NATIONAL DEFENSE WITH YOUR CO-WORKER, YOUR NEIGHBOR, OR SIGNIFICANT OTHER.

FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS, I’M YOUR HOST, RYAN ROBERTSON, AND AS YOU CAN SEE, WE ARE OUT OF THE STUDIO AND ON THE ROAD. IN FACT, WE’RE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ATLANTIC. IN LVIV, UKRAINE, FOR BRAVE-1’s DEFENSE TECH VALLEY SUMMIT AND EXPOSITION 2025.

FOR THE UNFAMILIAR, BRAVE1 IS AN INITIATIVE FROM THE UKRAINIAN GOVERNMENT, CREATED TO SPEED UP THE GROWTH AND USE OF CUTTING-EDGE DEFENSE TECHNOLOGIES.

THINK OF IT AS A HUB THAT BRINGS TOGETHER INNOVATORS, THE MILITARY, AND INVESTORS. AND THAT’S WHY IT’S THE SUBJECT OF THIS WEEK’S DEBRIEF.

ALL RIGHT, FOLKS, I’M JOINED NOW BY ARTEM AROZ THE HEAD OF INVESTOR RELATIONS FOR BRAVE 1. ARTEM, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING US TODAY. YES, THANK YOU FOR COMING SO TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS SHOW. IT’S DESIGNED TO GET EUROPEAN AMERICAN INVESTMENT INTO UKRAINIAN DEFENSE PRODUCTS.

[Artem Moroz, Investor Relations Dir. Brave 1]

“Exactly. So. Last year we had our first edition. We had people from around 30 countries, mostly 1500 people. And 100 people, and we saw a huge success of it. And the idea is exactly, we want to have more investors from Europe, from the United States, from other parts of the world, to invest in Ukrainian technologies to build, together with Ukraine, those technologies are able to protect Ukraine and also the allies. This year we are doing the second edition, and it’s actually, according to our knowledge should be the biggest investment summit focused on defense tech in the world. We do have representatives of more than 50 countries. We do have 1000s of people coming from the investor side, from company side, from startups to scale ups. So a huge range of different opportunities.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

LET’S TALK ABOUT THAT HUGE RANGE OF DEFENSIVE CONTRACTORS. I SEE A LOT OF UAVS, A LOT OF UGVS. THERE’S SOME DRONE INTERCEPTORS? IS THERE ANYTHING IN PARTICULAR THAT YOU’RE WANTING MORE INVESTMENT INTO ANY KIND OF TECHNOLOGY THAT BRAVE ONE REALLY WANTS TO SEE SOME INVESTMENT?

[Artem Moroz, Investor Relations Dir. Brave 1]

“So for us, we don’t focus on legacy solutions. We believe that our core value and strength is in technology. So we want to focus on new generation defense. Let’s say we work a lot with unmanned systems on all domains, from air, ground, water and underwater. We also focus a lot on artificial intelligence, because our idea is that we want to move people away from the front line. We want to save the lives, and in order to make that, you need to make equipment smarter. And artificial intelligence is coming. There also electronic warfare systems and signal intelligence. That is actually another point. It’s critical. It’s like fundamental, plus the communication systems to connect all the different platforms that operate now on the front line.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

EARLIER TODAY, THERE WAS A PRESS CONFERENCE. THERE WERE SEVERAL INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS THAT WERE ANNOUNCED. CAN YOU KIND OF WALK THROUGH SOME OF THOSE THAT HAVE COME OUT DURING THE SHOW?

[Artem Moroz, Investor Relations Dir. Brave 1]

“Yeah, absolutely. So we have tried to business breach as Bray one to connect its private investors with Ukrainian defense ecosystem, because it still because it’s still quite close, and a lot of investors, especially international, they don’t understand, how does it get in? So what we do? We signed today agreements with more than $100 million of the investment into Ukrainian companies, in startups and scale ups all the different kinds, from funds from Europe, from also from the US and also today, there was the biggest investment round on Ukraine defense tech announced, actually a company working on the swarming technology for drones. Latin one operator control multiple drones at once as they raised their series A $16 million round from US investors.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

THAT’S GREAT. THAT’S GREAT. NOW I KIND OF WANT TO KNOW ABOUT WHEN WE’RE WHAT DOES SUCCESS LOOK LIKE FOR THIS CONFERENCE, RIGHT? $100 MILLION RIGHT? THAT’S BIGGEST INVESTMENT IN DEFENSE TECH THAT YOU MENTIONED. BUT I IMAGINE THAT’S NOT GOING TO BE WHERE YOU WANT TO STOP, RIGHT? I MEAN, RUSSIA HAS MORE THAN $100 MILLION WORTH OF WEAPONS. SO WHAT, WHERE DO YOU GAUGE SUCCESS?

[Artem Moroz, Investor Relations Dir. Brave 1]

“So we definitely don’t manage success in terms of like investment amounts, because the impact that we want to create is on the battlefield. Those investments is extra resources that companies should have, in addition to grants that we give us, addition to contracts. But we need to do as much as we can to get resources from all the places to invest them into the technologies. Keep the technologies cutting edge, keep them always one step ahead of Russians. And then at some point, we believe this technology will have global potential, and those companies can become unicorns. Together with our partners.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

I WANT TO PICK UP ON THAT POINT, THE GLOBAL POTENTIAL OF SO MUCH OF THIS TECH, BECAUSE, YOU KNOW, AMERICAN DEFENSE CONTRACTORS, THERE WAS FOLKS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR WHO JUST SAID UKRAINE IS WAY AHEAD OF US ON DRONE TECHNOLOGY, TALK ABOUT THE ROLE THAT UKRAINE IS PLAYING TO BE THE SPRINGBOARD OF ALL KINDS OF DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY FOR THE FUTURE.

[Artem Moroz, Investor Relations Dir. Brave 1]

“Actually, that’s a good point, because I just had a conversation with one US startup who will be pitching tomorrow at our event. They are doing visual navigation for drones, so essentially letting drones operate in GNSS denied environment, and they were looking for the platform where they would put this like module to let drones fly in the US. They couldn’t find a platform that is fitting them. Particularly here they found it in two hours. That is like, about the variety, about the ecosystem, about getting it more mature. ”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

WHAT ELSE DO WE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BRAVE ONE BEFORE I LET YOU GO?

[Artem Moroz, Investor Relations Dir. Brave 1]

“So brave one we actually today United was in 2000 companies. Just to understand the scale of this ecosystem, we have been the biggest governmental investor in the companies, providing the grants and giving us the first boost, and also decreasing the risk for investors that are coming today, because we as a government have already invested in those companies. We help them move away from the prototype idea to something that’s already working the front line. So we invite investors from all the parts of the globe to come to see the technologies, to know that they have been working, indeed, not on like decks and not on the pictures, but really on the front line. Invest in them and become part of this like success story, both like from moral perspective, because we all want to protect democracies, but also commercially. These companies will become big and it will become important globally.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

YEAH, ABSOLUTELY. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING US TODAY. ERIC, APPRECIATE IT.

ONE OF THE MAIN AREAS OF INVESTMENT THAT UKRAINE IS LOOKING TO GET INTO IS UNMANNED GROUND VEHICLES. AND HERE TO TALK A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT THAT IS ANATOLY NIKITIN WITH VATAG UNMANNED GROUND VEHICLES. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING US TODAY.

[Anatoly Nikitin, Project Manager, VATAG]

“Thank you very much, Ryan, to take interested from this. Yes, we are producing and designing the new step of the unground vehicle, the heavy, unmanned ground vehicle in Ukraine. Because, as you can see here in exhibition, everybody more focused on the smaller ones, but our main idea was to create the vehicle who can easily replace on a battlefield the human operated APCs and the human operated transportation devices, because the human is the quite more, quite more vulnerable that the iron. So we provide the platform they should actually model and quite unique one, because we can easily install it because of their some of them, some of our competition said that it’s too big to be heated, but it’s also quite armored itself, and it’s also modular and quite flexible. You can easily place the assault model in there, or maybe the defensive one, but we are focusing on what we are not showing this because it’s for exhibition. Everybody excited about the big guns like in Texas, but we are more focusing in the logistic process, because the logistic now is the crucial one. Is the crucial part. I am retired, but from the third Assault Brigade and the nearest January, I was on the battlefield and provided all the military stuff. So for now, we are like payload capacity of the two tones we can easily remove moving by the speed of the 47 kilometers per hour off road, and that’s the main reason, like we are trying to reduce the human human losses on the battlefield. So we are focusing on this big guy. So it’s actually more looks like more Rhino or Buffalo. Where is it manufactured? We manufacture here, luckily, in Ukraine, so it’s totally Ukrainian. But we are also like foreseeing the next step is to have the production somewhere abroad, because the export is restricted for now because of the word production. But we are understanding that we can also be interested for guys in USA, also because we are much cheaper than them.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

ALRIGHT. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR JOINING US TODAY. REALLY APPRECIATE IT.

ALL RIGHT, FOLKS, FOR COMMS CHECK THIS WEEK, WE’RE CHECKING IN WITH FRIENDS OF THE SHOW, SHIELD, AI, AND SOME NEW PRODUCTS THAT I JUST LEARNED ABOUT HERE TO TALK A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT THAT IS JAMES WITH SHIELD. AI, JAMES, THANKS SO MUCH FOR JOINING US.

[James L. Head of Eastern Europe, Shield AI]

“Hey, thank you very much. Yeah, it’s great, great to be here and great to speak to you absolutely.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

SO WE HAVE THIS NEW UAV FIXED-WING. UAV RIGHT HERE. TALK TO ME ABOUT IT.

[James L. Head of Eastern Europe, Shield AI]

“Yeah, we’re super excited. This is the first time that we’re bringing Hive Mind into Ukraine. So we’ve had a lot of success with hive mind on board VBA, but this is the first time that we’re putting onto a strike platform. So this would be called D4, okay, it’s got about an 80 to 100 kilometer range, 3.5 kilogram payload, and it is a uses visual-based navigation and pixel look for terminal guidance. And essentially, the way that it will work is it will work in tandem with ISR platforms. Initially, it will work with VBAT. So VBAT will pass targeting data imagery to the platform, and then the platform will use that to conduct autonomous strike missions. So we’re super excited about this. Already started integration, and we are looking to go live operationally in October.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

YOU SAID IT’S HIVE MIND ENABLED, SO OBVIOUSLY IT’S GONNA HAVE THE SAME KIND OF BRAIN POWER AS YOUR V BAT, BUT THE LAUNCH IS GONNA BE DIFFERENT. I SEE A CATAPULT STICKER ON THE BACK, SO OBVIOUSLY I AM GOING TO ASSUME THAT MEANS IT’S A CATAPULT LAUNCH.

[James L. Head of Eastern Europe, Shield AI]

“Yeah, just to be clear, a lot of the software on board, this is by Iron Belly. They’re a fantastic company, and actually, Hive Mind is complementary to what they’ve already developed got to what is already a very impressive capability, but it is a catapult launched. Is not a veto. Is a one way attack like loading munition. Okay? So very different, super exciting, different type of technology that we’re working on, and this is an iterative process, right? We’re not done now. We will continue to refine new features as our engineers continue to work together over the coming months in what is a target rich and data rich environment. So we’re really excited about what we can do, and we’re really the roadmap we’re looking at for this is teaming to reduce that cognitive load on the operator. We’re looking at three to five of these, okay, and that’s on our roadmap, and something that we’re going to be working really hard over the coming months to develop.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

ALRIGHT. I CAN’T LET YOU GO WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT VBAT, RIGHT? I MEAN, IT’S YOUR BREAD AND BUTTER. SO TALK TO ME ABOUT YOU SAID IT’S THE FIRST TIME YOU BROUGHT HIVE MIND TO UKRAINE. ARE WE LOOKING TO KIND OF FIELD THESE THINGS HERE IN UKRAINE AS WELL?

[James L. Head of Eastern Europe, Shield AI]

“To be clear, these are already fielded in Ukraine. We already have five partner forces across Ukraine, and they’re active on operations all over Ukraine right now. And they’re all powered by our Hive Mind autonomy stack, our AI pilot, which essentially sits above the communication architecture, the ins and all the data on board that and fuses and gives us a position, allows us to operate without GPS.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

I SEE IN THAT OPERATING WITHOUT GPS AND DENIED ENVIRONMENTS IS SO VITAL TO THE MISSION SUCCESS. HOW DOES IT WORK? I MEAN, HOW DO YOU HOW DO YOU OPERATE WITHOUT GPS? YOU SAID VISION TRACKING ON THE CAMERA? I ASSUME IT’S KIND OF THE SAME SORT OF THING.

[James L. Head of Eastern Europe, Shield AI]

“No. So V-Bat is fully operational as I mentioned. So every single flight we’ve done over 200 so far, over 35 combat missions, none of those have had GPS. It’s always disabled right from the start. And so as I mentioned before, that’s a combination of the communication architecture and the radio on board, but then, with our hive mind, sat above that, okay, then uses the ins and other data on board from the payload wind speed bearing, puts that all together, fuses it, and then provides you an accurate grid of where the aircraft is. It’s not as accurate as GPS, but it is certainly accurate enough to operate here, and it’s accurate enough to target off, which you’ve done very effectively here in Ukraine.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

YOU BET MIGHT NOT BE AS ACCURATE AS GPS, BUT IF THERE IS NO GPS, THEN IT IS MORE ACCURATE THAN GPS, RIGHT?

[James L. Head of Eastern Europe, Shield AI]

“Absolutely. And like, just to be clear, like GPS does not work here, so anyone that’s flying here, it needs to be disabled as soon as you fly. Every single mission we’ve flown here has had zero GPS.”

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

JAMES, THANKS SO MUCH FOR JOINING US TODAY. REALLY APPRECIATE IT VERY MUCH FOR YOUR TIME.

ALRIGHT FOLKS, THAT’S GOING TO JUST ABOUT DO IT FOR THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, BUT BEFORE WE GO, I WANTED TO BRING IN SENIOR PRODUCER BRETT BAKER FOR SOME FINAL THOUGHTS ON THIS EVENT.

BRETT, ONE OF THE THINGS THAT’S HARD TO MISS HERE IS THE SHEER NUMBER OF DRONES. IT MAKES A REAL IMPRESSION.

[BRETT BAKER]

IT’S KIND OF LIKE GOING TO LOLLAPALOOZA OF DRONES. YOU WANT WING DRONES. WE GOT THEM. YOU WANT QUAD CAPTORS. WE GOT THEM. YOU WANT TINY DRONES. WE GOT YOU WANT A DRONE AS BIG AS A SMART CAR. THEY GOT THEM. IT’S KIND OF IT’S DEFINITELY WILD TO SEE THE ASSORTMENT. I THINK THE ONE THING THAT ALL OF THESE GUYS HAVE KIND OF GOING AGAINST EACH OTHER IS THAT THEY ARE LIKE A BAND TRYING TO MAKE THAT BREAKTHROUGH, RIGHT, AND TRYING TO GET THAT SALE AND BE THE ONE THAT GETS PICKED UP AND AND GOES ON TO BE A PARTNER WITH ANY OF THESE COUNTRIES. YEAH, IT’S, IT IS A CORNUCOPIA OF DRONES HERE TO BE SURE YOU CAN FIND ONE, I AM SURE, THAT WILL DO WHATEVER WHAT YOU NEED IT TO DO.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

RIGHT, RIGHT? AND SOMETHING YOU JUST KIND OF MENTIONED THERE. ANOTHER THEME HERE IS INVESTMENT. A HOST OF EU COUNTRIES HAVE PLEDGED TO INVEST TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, NOT JUST IN UKRAINE’S EFFORTS TO DEFEND THEMSELVES FROM RUSSIA’S ILLEGAL INVASION, BUT LEARN FROM UKRAINE AND PUT THOSE LESSONS TO USE IN THEIR OWN DEFENSE.

[BRETT BAKER]

AND I THINK THEY UNDERSTAND TOO THAT AN INVESTMENT IN UKRAINE RIGHT NOW IS ALSO AN INVESTMENT IN YOUR DEFENSE FOR THE FUTURE BECAUSE THEY’RE GOING TO BE DEVELOPING WEAPONS AND PRACTICES AND STANDARDS HERE THAT ARE GOING TO BE USED FOR YEARS TO COME. AND IF YOU’RE NOT ON BOARD WITH THAT, IF YOU’RE NOT HELPING FACILITATE THAT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT? SO I THINK THE INVESTMENT ASPECT OF ALL OF THIS IS UNIQUE AND VERY IMPORTANT.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

YEAH, WE HEARD SEVERAL TIMES ON THE TALKS, IF YOU’RE NOT TESTING IN UKRAINE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT? IF YOU’RE NOT, IF YOU DON’T HAVE YOUR WEAPON SYSTEMS FUNCTIONING IN UKRAINE RIGHT NOW, THEN YOU DON’T REALLY KNOW IF THEY’RE GOING TO WORK WHEN THE CRAP HITS THE FAN.

[BRETT BAKER]

OK, I’M GOING TO STEAL THE LAST ONE HERE AS I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. A COOL MOMENT FOR OUR SHOW, AND FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS, AS RYAN WAS ASKED TO MODERATE A PANEL ON TEST UKRAINE, SOMETHING HE’S PREVIOUSLY REPORTED ON. SO, WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO BE ASKED AND THEN SIT UP THERE WITH THOSE GENTLEMEN?

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

IT WAS, IT WAS INCREDIBLE. YOU KNOW, YOU YOU’RE ON STAGE WITH SOME OF THE TOP DECISION MAKERS FROM UKRAINE. YOU’RE ON THE STAGE WITH A UKRAINIAN DEFENDER WHO IS TESTING A LOT OF THESE NEW, YOU KNOW, PROTOTYPE VEHICLES AND PROTOTYPE WEAPONS, YOU KNOW, JUST KIND OF GIVES, GAVE ME A LITTLE BIT DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE, I GUESS. BUT IT’S ALSO GREAT FOR THE SHOW, AND IT’S GREAT THAT THEY, THEY WANTED ME TO DO IT BECAUSE OF OUR REPORTING, YOU KNOW, JUST KIND OF A LITTLE FEATHER IN THE CAP.

[BRETT BAKER]

WELL, I WAS PROUD OF YOU, WATCHING YOU UP THERE. YOU DID A GREAT JOB AND REPRESENTED ALL OF US IN STYLE.

[RYAN ROBERTSON]

WELL, THAT’S WHAT I’M TRYING TO DO. BRETT, REPRESENT ALL OF US IN STYLE. AND THAT’S GOING TO DO IT FOR US THIS WEEK ON WEAPONS AND WARFARE… AS ALWAYS, IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SAW AND OR HEARD–PLEASE LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE TO OUR SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS–AND DOWNLOAD THE STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS APP TODAY.

AS FOR US, WE’RE ON THE ROAD, AND IN THE AIR, HEADED TO WASHINGTON D.C. NEXT FOR AIR, SPACE AND CYBER 2025, HOSTED BY THE AFA.

UNTIL NEXT TIME–FOR SENIOR PRODUCER BRETT BAKER, VIDEO EDITOR BRIAN SPENCER, MOTION DESIGNER DAKOTA PITEO AND PHOTOGRAPHER SAM BEATTIE–

I’M RYAN ROBERTSON WITH STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS–SIGNING OFF.

Energy

12 hrs ago

3m read

Energy Department cancels 3 Biden-era power lines after local pushback
Law and Order

15 hrs ago

3m read

Surrogate fights for custody after fleeing to Texas to have baby that parents wanted aborted
Law and Order

16 hrs ago

4m read

Ukraine’s drone war offers hard lesson for US armory
Politics

16 hrs ago

11m read

Democrats’ left wing was on a roll. Then came Wisconsin. Let’s go Off Script