🚨 From One Hackathon to a Defense Ecosystem

Two years ago, EDTH started with a single hackathon in Munich. This weekend we celebrated our anniversary the only way that made sense: running one hackathon across two locations in parallel: Munich and London.

Over the past two years, EDTH has evolved from a series of hackathons to an industry network for defense innovation, sparking the journey of dozens of defense tech startups — Cate from tech.eu just covered the journey in her latest article.

This weekend, we are at EDTH Rome.

And it’s only one more week until Berlin Defense Tech Week, which is at 11+ events: whatever you do in defense, you will find your people here. Just last week, we added a Counter-UAS Forum, Build With Ukraine, the Defense Innovation Showcase, and two new side events with lindenpartners and Sirius Computers.

Then in August, we've rented an entire secret airfield for a weekend for the European Defense Tech Festival. If you've built a prototype, this is where you fly it, the natural next step after a hackathon.

For even more events, read below, or check out our event calendar.

Also below:

• NATO DIANA’s 2027 Deadline for startups is approaching soon

• Policy Brief: The ECFR on how Europe can defend itself with less, or even no, America

• Article: The Council on Foreign Relations on how Ukraine's drones turned the war around

Upcoming EDTH Events

🇮🇹 Rome, Italy | July 3–5, 2026

On July 3–5, 100+ builders from across Europe will come together to tackle some of today’s most urgent defense challenges — from counter-UAS and autonomous systems to SIGINT and resilient communications in denied environments.

Register here: https://luma.com/edth-2026-rome

🚨 Berlin Defense Tech Week

For one entire week, July 6–12, Berlin turns into Europe’s densest defense tech gathering: builders, operators, investors, and policymakers all in one place.

We are now at 11+ events. See below for our latest additions, and find the full lineup here: https://eurodefense.tech/berlin-2026

The European Defense Tech Meetup is now fully booked, and The New Defense Dinner has only a few more open spots.

If you are an early-stage founder, you don’t want to miss our Legal Forum: We will talk about fundraising, export controls, and more with the legal experts from V14.

Build With Ukraine connects European manufacturers, defense companies, and investors to forge the partnerships that scale battlefield-proven Ukrainian tech into real production.

🚨 Our Latest Additions

Counter-UAS Forum, July 7

Counter-UAS Forum, with Growth Factory, Moodro, and CMS Hasche, gathers operators, founders, investors, and policymakers on the frontline question of European air defense: how to develop, test, and scale counter-drone capabilities fast enough. Sign up here.

FPV Arena, July 9

FPV Arena, hosted with Orqa FPV and DroneMasters, brings pilots, engineers, and curious newcomers together for live demos, hands-on flights, and drone racing, where the hobbyist scene meets the next generation of unmanned systems. Register here.

Defense Innovation Showcase, July 7

Defense Innovation Showcase, co-organized with the Cyber Innovation Hub der Bundeswehr (CIHBw), spotlights projects from the Bundeswehr innovation ecosystem plus startup pitches from the EDTH network on how new tech moves from idea to deployment. Sign up here.

Side Events

Have a look at our current Side Events.

Wanna be part of the week yourself? Submit a side event.

🚨 Europe’s Largest Gathering of Defense Tech Builders

​For almost two years, we’ve been running defense tech hackathons all across Europe and beyond ...

Hundreds of builders, operators, founders, engineers, investors, and military personnel came, and dozens of new projects and companies emerged. Now it’s time to see what they’ve actually built!

​On August 20–23, we’re hosting the first European Defense Tech Festival together with HANGAR: Start-up Zentrum

📍 Secret Airfield near Berlin, Germany | August 20–23, 2026
Registration: https://luma.com/edtf-2026

Event-Website: https://eurodefense.tech/festival/ 

Check out our announcement post for some more info

Upcoming Online Events (as part of our EDTH Community)

EDTH x Andreas Pilz — Getting Your Ideas and Products into the Defense Market. Sign up here.

Get free access to all EDTH Community events for one year, including hackathon demo days, webinars, networking sessions, and our flagship New Defense Summit.

Join our EDTH Community — https://eurodefense.tech/community

For even more events, check out Defense Tech For Ukraine’s 2026 Event Calendar and Defender Media’s Event Calendar as well.

🚨 NATO DIANA 2027 Deadline

July 3rd is the last day to submit a proposal for the official NATO DIANA Accelerator Programme. There are six security and defense challenges to choose from. Find out more about the challenges and submission.

How Ukraine’s Drone Innovation Reversed Russia’s Momentum

Over the past months, the headlines have followed one line: Ukraine's drones reaching deeper, hitting harder, and putting Russia increasingly on the back foot.

This piece from the Council on Foreign Relations explains how some of that shift actually happened, and why scaling drone operations let Ukraine retake ground in early 2026 after a year of losses.

Policy Brief: Making Defense European Again

The ECFR's plan for how Europe can defend itself with little to no US involvement, built on three pillars: NATO as the operational backbone, the EU for financing and industry, and flexible minilateral coalitions for rapid response. Read the longer policy brief here.