In the light of the war in Ukraine, Europe is seeking to adapt to new forms of conflict taking place far from the traditional front line.
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00:00We are under constant threat and attack. Ukraine every day, but also Europe is under attack.
00:06Be it targeting critical infrastructure, be it targeting our cyber security, be it targeting us personally.
00:14We need to develop the means to be able to defend ourselves.
00:19In the context of the war in Ukraine, Europe wants to adapt to new forms of conflict that are holding on the front lines of front.
00:28I am in Poland, which has made the defense one of the priorities of its turning president of the Union.
00:34The promotion of new technologies in the service of the defense is one of the development areas recognized by Varsovie,
00:40and by many other European countries.
00:43European armies have more and more on the emerging technologies to increase their operational efficiency,
00:53to better protect their adversaries.
00:57Here are some categories.
00:59The artificial intelligence, or IA, capable of analyzing very quickly a large volume of data,
01:05will allow the military to better anticipate the threats and improve the precision of operations.
01:11The robotics and autonomous systems, such as the transport robots, the stations of recharge of batteries,
01:18and especially drones, are in full effort.
01:20In development, the exosquelets, which will make the soldiers more perform.
01:25The weapons hypersonics.
01:27Propulsable at extreme speeds on very long distances,
01:31they are also very difficult to detect by the adverse defense systems.
01:35The advanced materials and new procedures of fabrication, like the Impression 3D,
01:40will, according to them, provide the equipment more resistant and performants to the soldiers.
01:46Finally, the technologies quantiques open many perspectives.
01:50Calculs intensifs, cryptographies, detection and surveillance via des captures ultra-sensibles
01:55pouvant localiser des objets sous-marins and terrestres invisibles.
01:58De plus en plus de start-up mises sur les technologies émergentes appliquées à la Défense,
02:08comme en témoigne le Hackathon qui se déroule autour de moi,
02:12un rassemblement de développeurs venus d'Europe et d'ailleurs
02:15pour présenter leurs projets dans ce centre dédié à l'innovation à Varsovie.
02:20I'm Benjamin, co-founder and co-organizer of the European Defense Tech Hub.
02:30We're building a network for defense innovation,
02:32to inspire young folks to work on solutions that can save lives,
02:36to work on urgent security challenges.
02:39Europe needs to be waking up.
02:41We need to have the means to defend ourselves.
02:44Financé par des fonds publics polonais et des sponsors privés,
02:47l'événement était le sixième du genre organisé par le réseau à travers l'Europe.
02:51Objectif des participants, mettre au point en 24 heures
02:55des projets présentés à un jury à l'issue du Hackathon.
02:58Yes, what are you working on?
03:00We are working to find the direction of the enemy by using software defined radios
03:06to find where is the signals coming to identify from which positions
03:13the enemy controlling devices.
03:16Cette équipe, elle, combine l'intelligence artificielle à la thérapie phagique
03:21utilise des virus pour éliminer les bactéries
03:24pour fournir aux soldats ukrainiens des traitements rapides contre les infections.
03:28Around 71% of wound infections are actually resistant to antibiotics.
03:36If they don't work, it means amputations or death.
03:39We're using cutting edge phage therapy, but it takes time to develop it in the lab.
03:44So we are using machine learning to match specific bacteria with the right virus.
03:50And then that happens in minutes.
03:53Then we can produce that cocktail and deliver it directly to the soldier.
03:56Estudiant, ingénieur, scientifique, créateur de start-up,
04:00quelques 200 hackers de nombreuses nationalités
04:02étaient venus à leurs frais l'espace d'un week-end.
04:05Parmi eux, de nombreux Ukrainiens.
04:08We are doing this spherical ground robot.
04:13It's gonna be used for kamikaze applications.
04:18And it's mainly to attack and hunt russians in the trenches.
04:24It will be autonomous. It can go underwater. It will be silent.
04:28We can also control it by joystick.
04:31I think that's the direction that Europe should take.
04:34Go towards autonomous systems because that's the future.
04:37That's the way you can save actual people if the war happens.
04:41But the robots will fight, not people.
04:43We created a guided dropping munitions that has some control surfaces and visual navigation.
04:53And will go directly to the target.
04:56Because we want the war in Ukraine will end as soon as possible.
05:00We really believe that this project can contribute a lot in our victory.
05:04Like all of us, these Portuguese developers are coming to relever a technological challenge,
05:10but also to defend their ideas.
05:12In the front line, there is no GPS information.
05:15So effectively, the drone pilots are blind.
05:17We are creating a solution using some AI and image comparison,
05:22so that the operators can know where the drone is,
05:25even though they don't have access to the GPS signal.
05:28We have expertise in the areas of systems engineering, navigation and computer vision.
05:33But above all, this is something that aligns perfectly with our values.
05:38We're fighting for what we believe in, our freedom as Europeans.
05:42The front line from Ukraine is the front lines from Europe.
05:45You know, it's the front line from democracy.
05:47So I think this is the things that we are trying to defend.
05:51The technologies émergent transform the military operations
05:55and create also new threats far from the battlefield.
05:58L'Europe is-t-elle in order to raise the new security challenges?
06:01I asked the European Defense Agency.
06:04We see indeed cyber security attacks.
06:10We see particular importance of energy infrastructure
06:14and the space capabilities becoming more and more concrete and tangible threats.
06:20The attack on the undersea cables that we have seen happening in several places across Europe
06:25are really showing us that the operational theater is really everywhere,
06:29in cyberspace and in space as well.
06:31In the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine,
06:34the jamming of space capabilities and the use of supporting capabilities from space
06:40have created a completely different dynamics on the battlefield.
06:44Through the hub for your defense innovation,
06:46we are trying to stimulate faster adoption of these technologies to respond to these new threats.
06:53The EU wants to boost its defense, yet it is lagging behind, including in the field of defense innovation.
07:00So what are the hurdles that need to be addressed?
07:04We see several hurdles that are interconnected.
07:07For instance, the fragmentation in terms of defense investments across the member states,
07:12or the division between civil technology that is going actually much faster pace than defense technology.
07:20Last but not least, access to capital remains an issue, especially for the more up and coming defense startups
07:27and new companies to really find investors that are interested in accessing the defense market.
07:34Plus defense spending alone, it's not yet sufficient or it's not paced at the right timing.
07:42So what we really need to do is to coordinate and channel these defense investments more and more towards coordinating defense innovation action.
07:52We'll see you next time.