The NATO international innovation competition dedicated to combating FPV drones has ended in Tallinn. Among the three winners was the Ukrainian company DONS, which proposed a solution against drones using fiber optic technology.
The NATO international innovation competition dedicated to combating FPV drones has ended in Tallinn. Among the three winners was the Ukrainian company DONS, which proposed a solution against drones using fiber optic technology.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the NATO Innovation Challenge 2025-II hackathon brought together 11 teams from eight countries in Tallinn, including: Ukraine, the USA, Denmark, France, Italy, Lithuania, Canada and Poland. The task of the competition was to find technological solutions for detecting and neutralizing FPV drones operating via fiber-optic control.
First and second places were taken by American companies: KMB Telematics Inc. and Sentradel. Third place went to Ukrainian DONS, which develops solutions for the defense sector in conditions of full-scale war.
The participants were evaluated by a jury consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, NATO Command, and experts from the Joint Analytical Center JATEC. The competition itself was held with the support of the NATO Joint Forces Command Transformation and the NATO Center for Advanced Technologies for Cyber Defense.
«The participation of Ukrainian companies in NATO innovation initiatives is critically important for the miltech sector. This allows us to adapt combat experience to scalable solutions that are compatible with Alliance standards,» said Deputy Minister of Defense Valery Churkin.
This year, the hackathon gathered a record number of applications: 162, of which 42 were submitted by Ukrainian teams. This confirms the high level of the Ukrainian engineering school and the flexibility of military technology developers in wartime. If NATO is interested, the winners will receive support in further refining their solutions and a chance to implement them in military practice.
This is a Ukrainian defense-technical startup within the Brave1 cluster, which is rapidly transforming from a laboratory into a powerful developer of combat robots. Its key product is the ground drone «Lyut», resistant to electronic warfare (up to 700 m), equipped with 4th class armor and a 7.62 mm weapon caliber. The robot is undergoing codification according to the standards of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and is preparing for serial production. DONS combines domestic innovations and international recognition, demonstrating the potential of the Ukrainian defense industry in difficult modern conditions.
The Joint NATO-Ukraine Center JATEC has become a platform for technological cooperation between the Alliance and Ukrainian developers. This format allows to accelerate the adaptation of solutions to the real needs of the front and to promote Ukrainian technologies at the international level.
We previously wrote how the Ukrainian parliament exempted imported fiber optics used in the production of military drones from value-added tax and import duties.
