🚨 Europe’s Defense Innovators On the Move

Fostering Defense Innovation for European Sovereignty

AuthorAuthor

Janick Bayer & Benjamin Wolba
September 04, 2025

Last weekend, we hosted the first European Defense Tech Hackathon of the second half of the year:

In Copenhagen, we brought 130+ hackers and mentors together for 42 hours of prototyping. Read more below on which of the 25 teams stood out, tackling challenges from drone sensing to autonomous naval systems.

We have many more hackathons, meetups, and drone building workshops coming up all across Europe —keeping defense innovators on the move, and helping them turn their ideas into prototypes. You can be part of it too!

🇩🇰 Copenhagen: 130 Participants, 42 Hours, 25 Teams

In Copenhagen last weekend, more than 130 hackers and mentors came together for 42 hours of relentless building. Out of 25 amazing teams, three stood out:

🥇 Stronghold AI
Rafael Licursi and Paulo Fonseca used an 8-microphone sensor array that allows drones to hear. Combined with other sensors, it helps unmanned systems detect and target threats in complex environments.

🥈 Mindfield Defence
Finnish teammates Jarno H., Kalle Kivistö, and Timo Kupsa trained an edge AI model to recognize dangers using acoustic signals.

🥉 DEEPDOCK
The team linked up their unmanned surface vessel “SHARK” by pairing Jetson computing power with Starlink connectivity.

Another hackathon is in the books. The mission continues.

🚨 Introducing The New Defense Post

We've launched The New Defense Post to provide a platform for the next generation of defense companies.

A new wave of startups is changing the industry: fast, adaptable, and venture-backable, thriving on rapid iteration, modular design, and software-first thinking. Unlike legacy primes, these “New Defense” companies are built to innovate at the speed the battlefield demands.

We created The New Defense Post to share sharp analysis, in-depth interviews, and stories from the people building the future of defense. Two interviews are already out, covering HIMERA’s founding journey in Ukraine and how Delian is building the architecture for tomorrow’s battlefields.

👉 Sign up for The New Defense Post newsletter here: new-defense.com

🛰️ Upcoming Events Across Europe

📍 London, England | Sep 25-28

200+ hackers. 66 hours. Our next hackathons will be among our most ambitious to date. Sign up here: https://lu.ma/edth-2025-london

The London edition brings multi-domain C2, drone resilience, and autonomy at the edge into focus — with strong support by our key partner STARK, our hackathon Partners Quantum Systems and ARX Robotics, and other partners, including Delian SurrealDB, Eyson, DroneAid Collective, Pilotix, and the Ukrainian MoD.

European Defense Tech Hackathon – London · Luma

Time to Accelerate European Defense Innovation Join us and 200+ hackers from all across Europe and beyond for the European Defense Tech Hackathon on September…

lu.ma/edth-2025-london

📍 Tallinn, Estonia | Sep 25

A first for us: the Defense Hack Day — hosted during Estonian Defence Week — challenges you to build something that matters in just one day.

Defence Hack Day

An intense one-day event where builders, engineers, and problem-solvers take on real-world security and defense challenges…

edw.ee/en/estonian-defence-week/defence-hack-day

📍 Milan, Italy | Oct 3-5

Join the first-ever Hackathon in Milan. Build solutions that matter—in just three days!

European Defense Tech Hackathon – Milan

Join us and 100+ inventors from all across Europe and beyond for the European Defense Tech Hackathon on October…

https://luma.com/edth-2025-milan

👀 Even More Events

Regular, 42-hour hackathons running Friday 6 pm till Sunday 12 pm:

​Flagship 66-hour hackathons:

New Defense Summit | November 17, Berlin 

A one-day conference helping innovators go from prototype to viable defense company, with three focused tracks: ​investment & soft funding, ​procurement & business development, and policy & legal frameworks:

​Supporting defense without being on the frontlines: 

The first-ever Aalto Defence Hackathon

We are excited to see others organizing events that advance the common mission of strengthening defence innovation and talent!

3–5 Oct, Otaniemi, Espoo 🇫🇮
Sign up: https://hackjunction.app/hackathons/defence-hackathon-2025 

🚀 EDTH Alumni Gaining Traction

On August 19, we had our latest virtual demo, with so many people joining that we maxed out our Zoom license and had to upgrade on the fly.

🐍 Defense Tech Monthly – August Edition

The Snake Island Institute just published the latest August edition of Defense Tech Monthly — take a moment, and give it a read!

This issue explores Ukraine’s growing use of uncrewed ground vehicles, ruzzia’s counter with thermobaric UGVs, and the evolution of Shaheds into mine-dropping drones.

It also covers Ukraine’s Flamingo missile campaign against Russian oil facilities, the rise of weaponized copter drones, the debut of the “Mongoose” jet-powered drone interceptor, and more: