Did you catch our founder Steve Baxter on the Karl Stefanovic Show? A big topic was Ukraine’s innovative military marketplace. ⬇️
Brave1 is Amazon for Army. Tactical Temu. Military Marketplace. A portal that connects innovation to frontline need with a user experience we all expect when we access an app on our smartphones. This piece from the Australian Naval Institute sums it up well:
“It may look like an online shop, but the Brave1 Marketplace has been designed for war. Created by Ukraine’s state-funded defence innovation programme, Brave1, Ukrainian military units log on to the site to order kit directly from Ukrainian manufacturers to where it is needed most.”
Accelerating the innovation cycle by facilitating feedback from the frontline. Simple, brilliant and exactly the type of innovation that occurs when civilians become soldiers and disrupt the status quo of ‘this is way it has always been done’.
Consider one of the current Innovation Rounds live on Brave1. Right now bids are live for a competition focused on counter UAVs and navigation tools in Denied, Degraded, Intermittent and Limited communications environments.
“Unlike traditional grant competitions, the UNITE — Brave NATO program is based on the mechanics of ‘matchmaking’. Submission of an application requires the creation of joint innovations, where companies from Ukraine — on the one hand, and NATO member countries — on the other, combine their technologies to create a joint product. The ultimate goal is to accelerate the path of innovations from the TRL 7+ level (working prototype) to full-fledged combat use.”
Think of the layers of bureaucracy and hierarchy that the Australian Defence Force currently has between an end user and an innovator. War fighters would be weeping at the comparison between what Brave1 facilitates and the current state processes we use in the West.
Plenty of food for thought – we’ll add links to Steve’s podcast, Brave1 and the article mentioned in the comments!
📷 via Dev.Ua