From bomber drones and interceptors to ground robots and autonomous control, Ukrainian companies at BEDEX showed how wartime innovation is reshaping the future of combat

At this week’s BEDEX exhibition in Brussels, Ukraine’s defence technology sector did not merely display equipment. It presented a view of modern war already tested under the harshest possible conditions.

What emerged from the Ukrainian presence at the Brussels European Defence Exhibition and Conference was a picture of warfare in which drones are no longer a supporting tool, but part of the central logic of combat. Yet even that is now too narrow a description. The more significant shift is towards a wider unmanned ecosystem: bomber drones, FPV strike systems, interceptors, reconnaissance platforms, unmanned ground vehicles, remote fire modules, battlefield software, and the first steps towards greater autonomy in navigation and targeting.

The lesson repeated across the exhibition floor was simple enough. In Ukraine, survival and combat effectiveness increasingly depend on the ability to remove people from the most dangerous areas, to scale production rapidly, and to adapt faster than the enemy in a battlespace saturated by electronic warfare, surveillance and cheap precision strike.

That context matters because the drone war is no longer about who has more quadcopters. It is about who can combine engineering, software, battlefield data, affordability and production speed more effectively. In that contest, Ukraine is trying to preserve an advantage against a larger opponent by turning necessity into a new defence-industrial model.

A new drone playbook

That wider point was made directly during BEDEX’s 12 March panel discussion, The New Drone Playbook, in which Oleksandr Danyliouk, President of Destinus, argued that many of the trends being discussed in Europe as emerging are already well established in Ukraine.

“To me, it’s not emerging anymore,” he said.

Danyliouk identified three principal trends shaping the sector. The first is AI-enabled autonomy: the move from direct remote piloting towards systems capable of navigation and target recognition even in degraded communications conditions. The second is the shift towards cheaper products and mass-scale production. The third is the fight for dominance in the electromagnetic domain, where jamming, sensors and spectrum management increasingly determine what can survive and what can strike.

“Mass really, really, really matters,” Danyliouk said.

That argument ran through almost every Ukrainian discussion at BEDEX. The war has imposed a brutal lesson: expensive, exquisite systems are often vulnerable to much cheaper means of attack. By contrast, systems that are robust, flexible, easy to produce and fielded in numbers can have disproportionate battlefield value.

BEDEX and the European setting

That this conversation took place in Brussels is itself significant. BEDEX, the first event of its kind in Belgium, is positioned not only as a defence fair but as a strategic meeting point linking industry, governments, armed forces and policymakers at the political centre of Europe.

For Ukraine, the setting was particularly apt. Several of the companies present are already working with European partners, producing abroad, or exploring future export and industrial opportunities. The technologies displayed in Brussels were developed in the pressure of war, but increasingly they are being discussed in the language of European defence integration, scalability and longer-term industrial cooperation.

The Ukrainian exhibitors therefore represented not just wartime improvisation, but a sector that is beginning to look outward.

RoverTech: replacing soldiers in the kill zone

One of the clearest examples of how battlefield necessity has created entirely new military categories is RoverTech, represented at BEDEX by co-founder Borys Drozhak. The company specialises in unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, designed to operate in precisely those areas where movement by troops or ordinary vehicles has become most dangerous.

“It started in 2023, basically,” Drozhak said. “Out of necessity, there were three people who started it. We had a veteran, and he had comrades on the battlefield who needed a mining machine at the time, at least something which could cut grass.”

That practical requirement led first to the ZMI demining machine, a compact platform weighing under one tonne and built to deal with both tank mines and smaller threats such as PFM mines. Its battlefield role is clear enough: opening routes and reducing direct risk to engineers in mined and drone-threatened areas.

Rover Tech then moved into armoured logistics platforms and more advanced UGVs designed to survive in what Drozhak called the “kill zone”. “The main idea is that all of our robots basically serve in the kill zone,” he said.

The company’s Zmiy platform, shown at BEDEX with a turret supplied by DevDroid, reflects a wider change in ground combat. These are not simply robotic carriers. They are systems intended to move supplies, support positions and, where needed, bring firepower into areas where ordinary movement is now acutely dangerous.

“This is the next revolution in ground vehicles,” Drozhak said. “The idea is to substitute people in the kill zone.”

He argued that this is already changing battlefield practice. “We are already able to take prisoners of war with the machine. We are able to sustain some positions. Instead of having about ten people, you can substitute that with one machine.”

Drozhak also described ongoing work with major Ukrainian formations on new methods of using UGVs in offensive operations. “There is an ongoing process with big military units like the 3rd Corps, where we are basically inventing a new type of war art,” he said, “how we are going to conduct counter-offensive operations with UGVs, with Brownings and grenades.”

That may sound ambitious, but it captures a real shift. In Ukraine, innovation is not confined to hardware. It is also about inventing new tactics for a battlespace where the cost of exposure has risen sharply.

Rover Tech is also adapting its platforms for non-combat emergency roles, including firefighting robots intended for use after missile strikes on ammunition depots or infrastructure. “It is very hard for people to go there and extinguish the fire, because there could be a double explosion or a second rocket,” Drozhak said.

DevDroid: from direct control towards autonomy

If RoverTech illustrates the hard mechanical side of this transformation, DevDroid points towards the software side. Roman of DevDroid described work aimed at reducing the degree of constant operator control required for unmanned ground systems.

“At the moment, we are working on optimising the control system, so that you can simply tell the droid what to do, and it will go to that point and fire in the direction you have indicated,” he said.

That is not full autonomy, but it is a clear move in that direction. It also mirrors the wider point made by Danyliouk at the panel: systems increasingly need to function even where communications are disrupted or limited.

Roman linked DevDroid’s work to Delta, Ukraine’s battlefield situational awareness system. “At present, we have integration with Delta,” he said. “Now you can tell flying drones to go to a certain point, and in the future you will be able to do the same thing with unmanned ground vehicles as well.”

That matters because it suggests that UGVs are moving into the same digitally networked battlespace as aerial drones. Once that becomes normal, reconnaissance, movement, fire support and logistics begin to merge into one connected system rather than a set of separate battlefield functions.

Frontline Robotics: a robotic defence line

Frontline Robotics, represented by Alina Zhukovska, presented one of the most coherent system-level concepts at BEDEX. The company describes its offering as a “robotic defence line”: an integrated mix of aerial drones, ground robots and remote fire modules intended for reconnaissance and fire support.

“The main idea behind the company is to remove people from the most dangerous areas and send robots instead, while keeping human operators fully in control,” Zhukovska said.

Its flagship product is the Linza drone, now in its third iteration and already battlefield-tested. Frontline also showed Zoom, a reconnaissance platform designed to locate targets and monitor activity close to the front, and Buria, a grenade launcher system that can be used in a static role or mounted on a vehicle.

The Linza sits at the centre of the company’s line as a combat-proven aerial platform now in production. Zoom serves the reconnaissance function that is now indispensable in trench and strike warfare. Zhukovska said it is available in day and night variants, with infrared capability for low-light use. Its endurance is up to 50 minutes, though in practice it is usually employed for shorter frontline missions.

“From what we see in practice, the military usually uses it for around 20 to 30 minutes,” she said. “They need to go out, check what is happening, and come back.”

The Buria system extends the same principle to close fire support. “The main idea is to bring the grenade launcher closer to the enemy and engage the target without placing people in immediate danger,” Zhukovska said.

Frontline’s presence in Brussels also highlighted the European dimension of Ukrainian defence technology. Zhukovska said production takes place in Ukraine and also in Germany through the joint venture Quantum Frontline Robotics with Quantum Systems. Those systems are then sent back to Ukraine.

“Our first priority, however, is to meet the needs of the Ukrainian military,” she said. “After that, we will think about possible expansion into other countries.”

She also offered one of the more revealing observations about the social basis of Ukraine’s wartime innovation. “Entrepreneurship in Ukraine is extraordinary,” she said. “I know filmmakers who have moved into defence tech and are now working on loitering munitions and other completely different systems. Many IT specialists have also changed sectors and started building robots.”

Tencore: logistics under fire

Another important strand of the war’s technological evolution was represented by Tencore, whose UGV platform is designed above all for frontline logistics.

Its representative described the problem in stark terms. “Ordinary pick-ups, civilian vehicles, and even heavily armoured platforms such as the M113 often cannot go right up to the forward positions, because they can be hit almost immediately. In those circumstances, only unmanned ground vehicles can carry out these missions safely and effectively.”

That observation helps explain why UGVs are moving towards the centre of Ukraine’s battlefield adaptation. In a low-altitude airspace filled with drones, resupply itself becomes a high-risk operation. Unmanned ground platforms can therefore become as important to frontline endurance as traditional armoured transport once was.

Tencore’s platform is modular. It can be used for logistics, evacuation of wounded soldiers, recovery of civilians or bodies, and different engineering roles. The version shown at BEDEX was configured for mine-laying, using TM-62 mines placed remotely.

The representative also highlighted the company’s work on firefighting modules, again reflecting the reality of Russian follow-up strikes on first responders. “Many firefighters have been killed in those follow-up attacks, and many ambulance workers as well,” he said. “For us, this is a very painful reality.”

Perhaps the most important part of Tencore’s message was its emphasis on simplicity. “Everything has to be robust,” the representative said. “Very robust. And also simple. Very simple, in fact. It also has to be cheap, and available in large quantities.”

That is one of the war’s hardest lessons. Sophistication alone does not guarantee battlefield value. Survivability, affordability and scale matter more.

SkyFall: scale, flexibility and a drone ecosystem

If any one company at BEDEX illustrated the speed of Ukraine’s wartime industrial transformation, it was SkyFall. According to the company spokesman interviewed in Brussels, SkyFall began in 2022 with “four engineers in a garage”and has since grown into a defence technology company employing several thousand people.

Its principal systems include the Vampire heavy bomber drone, the Shrike FPV family, and the P1-SUN interceptor.

SkyFall’s best-known platform is the Vampire, also known to Russian forces as Baba Yaga. The spokesman described it as “the most effective bomber drone on the front line”. Its role extends beyond bombing. It is also used for remote mining and logistics, including delivery missions to frontline positions.

The company also mass-produces the Shrike FPV line in more than 100 modifications, reflecting a familiar truth of the war: different sectors of the front demand different configurations and trade-offs.

The newest and perhaps most strategically significant product is the P1-SUN interceptor, designed to destroy fixed-wing drones, reconnaissance drones, and Shahed-type aerial threats. According to the spokesman, it has already been operating successfully on the front line for four months.

“The P1-SUN is already one of the most effective interceptor drones on the front line in terms of the number of downed Shaheds, success rate and cost-effectiveness,” he said.

The specifications he gave were notable. The drone reportedly flies at 310 kilometres per hour, can return if it misses, and costs roughly $1,000 for the Ukrainian army. It is modular, with day, thermal and computer-vision camera options, and is designed for rapid reconfiguration.

SkyFall is also pushing further into remote and automated control. “As for innovation, the next step is remote control,” the spokesman said. “In practical terms, you can operate a P1-SUN interceptor in Ukraine while the operator is in another part of the world, over the internet.”

Beyond that lies greater autonomy. “The final stage we can speak about at the moment is full autonomy and full automation,” he said, describing a system in which radar and launch logic are increasingly integrated.

SkyFall also defines itself as an ecosystem, not merely a manufacturer. That includes SkyFall Academy, through which the company says it has trained more than 20,000 people across 2023, 2024 and 2025, with another 20,000 planned for 2026.

That ecosystem model is significant because Ukraine’s advantage, where it exists, does not come from one single platform. It comes from the speed with which firms can design, modify, produce, train and deploy across an entire operational chain.

Destinus: international scale and the next phase of the drone war

The presence of Destinus added another dimension to the exhibition. The company is not simply part of the immediate battlefield improvisation associated with Ukraine’s early wartime drone sector. It also represents the effort to translate wartime requirements into a broader European and international defence-industrial model.

Danyliouk’s panel remarks gave the clearest indication of where this is heading. On autonomy, he said the sector is moving “from the remote piloting systems to the systems that are capable of navigating, recognizing the target in a cooperative manner” in degraded communications environments. On production, he stressed that affordable electronics and new manufacturing methods now allow “a large number of scalable products”. On spectrum warfare, he offered perhaps the clearest single warning of the day: “The war really happening in this invisible spectrum. And whoever masters this, wins.”

That analysis is important because it helps frame what companies such as Destinus are positioned to do. Destinus matters not only because of product development in unmanned aviation and defence systems, but because of its international scaling model. It is part of a wider trend in which combat-driven lessons from Ukraine are increasingly feeding into multinational production, broader industrial partnerships and future European defence capacity.

In other words, the significance of Destinus at BEDEX was not simply one platform or one product family. It was the company’s place in the broader industrial transition from wartime experimentation to cross-border scale.

The real significance of the Ukrainian presence

What BEDEX made clear is that Ukraine’s military innovation can no longer be reduced to a story about drones alone.

RoverTech and Tencore showed how unmanned ground systems are taking over frontline logistics, engineering and emergency-response roles. DevDroid showed how such systems are being drawn into a more connected and semi-autonomous command environment. Frontline Robotics showed how reconnaissance, fire support and robotic systems can be combined into a local defence architecture. SkyFall showed how bomber drones, FPVs, interceptors, training and rapid modification can be organised as a single industrial ecosystem. Destinus helped place all of this in a wider framework of autonomy, mass production, electromagnetic contest and international scale.

The underlying principle is the same across all of them. Ukraine cannot match Russia in manpower or industrial depth by conventional means alone. It must therefore seek advantage through faster adaptation, cheaper precision, broader integration and a defence-industrial culture shaped by live combat feedback.

That does not guarantee strategic advantage. Russia is adapting too. The competition remains dynamic, contested and unfinished. But the trajectory visible in Brussels was clear enough. Ukraine is no longer simply reacting to the changing nature of war. In important parts of the unmanned and robotic battlespace, it is helping define it.

For DefenceMatters.eu, that may be the central conclusion from BEDEX. What Brussels hosted this week was not just an exhibition of new military hardware. It was evidence that the war in Ukraine is producing a new playbook for European defence — one built around mass, software, autonomy, survivability and the relentless compression of the gap between battlefield necessity and industrial response.