Since 2017, the NATO Innovation Challenge has been a recurring initiative led by Allied Command Transformation that invites individuals, start-ups, academic institutions, and industry leaders to propose bold, deployable solutions to real-world operational problems. Held several times a year with NATO nations volunteering to host duties, the Challenge serves both as a competition and as a collaborative platform that accelerates problem solving beyond traditional procurement cycles.
In its three most recent editions, the Challenge focused on advancing capabilities in support of Ukraine. Leveraging the country’s combat experience and NATO’s operational needs, these events addressed three of the most urgent battlefield threats. From landmine contamination and massed glide bombs to fibre-optic-controlled First-Person View drones, each round has targeted an urgent battlefield challenge. Together, they marked a shift in tempo and relevance, moving ideas from concept to test-range in a matter of weeks, and potential for deployment in months.
Demining at Scale: Remote Solution to a Hidden Threat
In mid-2024, the fourteenth Innovation Challenge addressed a critical and often invisible danger: landmines. The United Nations Mine Action Service estimates that over twenty percent of land in Ukraine is affected by explosive remnants of war. The priority was on developing scalable, remote systems capable of supporting battlefield breaching through mined areas.
Lithuania’s BROSWARM won the challenge with an autonomous drone-based solution that uses multi-sensor technology and artificial intelligence to detect, map, and clear mines in hazardous areas without endangering human operators. The system integrates commercial parts and NATO-compatible components, making it deployable, modular, interoperable and cost-effective.
The challenge attracted 51 entries from 13 nations, all aiming to deliver faster, safer, and more intelligent methods for explosive hazard mitigation. Finalists were judged by a panel of NATO personnel, subject matter experts, and representatives from the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence.
Beyond the Battlefield: Innovation as a Humanitarian Enabler
The strategic implications of the demining challenge extended beyond immediate military benefit. BROSWARM’s solution demonstrated how NATO innovation can address the long tail of conflict by restoring access to farmland, infrastructure, and civilian life in liberated areas. The winning concepts reinforced NATO’s commitment to applying innovation to life-saving missions, not just force projection.
By selecting a challenge that demanded both technical creativity and humanitarian sensitivity, Allied Command Transformation signalled a broader role for the Innovation Challenge as a platform for responsible innovation. In doing so, it further established Ukraine as not only a beneficiary of NATO innovation, but an active contributor in shaping the priorities and performance criteria for solutions.
Countering Glide Bombs – A Strategic Leap
In the Spring of 2025, NATO’s fifteenth Innovation Challenge concentrated on a pressing threat: glide bombs. These are low-cost precision guided munitions launched from a distance, often deployed en masse to overwhelm traditional air defence systems, especially in the conflict in Ukraine. The cost disparity (relatively cheap glide bombs versus expensive bullets or missiles) made finding scalable and affordable countermeasures urgent.
The winning entry, submitted by the French team Alta Ares, introduced an Artificial Intelligence enabled system capable of early detection and threat identification. The platform uses computer vision and machine learning to analyze visual, acoustic, and other data streams. Designed to integrate seamlessly into existing NATO sensor networks, the system operates offline and supports rapid alerts for both protective and pre-emptive action.
The competition drew 40 submissions from 10 countries. Finalists presented a range of cutting-edge technologies, including acoustic sensor arrays, radar fusion systems, swarm drones, and electronic warfare solutions. Germany’s TYTAN Technologies took second place, and France’s ATREYD claimed third.
This challenge showcased not just technological ingenuity, but also NATO’s ability to crowdsource practical battlefield solutions at speed. With multiple viable prototypes and cross-national collaboration, it marked a decisive step toward neutralizing one of the most cost-asymmetric threats in modern warfare.
From Concept to Field – Rapid Integration in Action
Only weeks after that Innovation Challenge, Allied Command Transformation, in close collaboration with the Joint Analysis, Training and Education Centre (JATEC), the French Defence Procurement Agency, and Ukrainian defence representatives, conducted multi-layered defence trials in France to test these ideas.
Start-ups Alta Ares, ATREYD, and TYTAN participated in these accelerated tests under demanding simulated battlefield conditions. The integrated sensor systems and engagement mechanisms were evaluated under realistic scenarios, ranging from glide bombs to slower drones, to validate a multi-effect defensive approach.
Results were encouraging. The systems held up well enough for minor refinements to be made, with Ukrainian representatives projecting that initial deployment could begin before the end of 2025. Plans for further integrated testing are already in motion. This rapid transition from concept to live testing underscored a new model for defence innovation: one where operational relevance, coalition cooperation, and frontline urgency drive immediate, tangible outcomes.
Addressing Fibre Optic First Person View Drones
Just weeks after the glide bomb trials, and in response to an urgent request from JATEC and Ukrainian officials, Allied Command Transformation launched its sixteenth Innovation Challenge in Tallinn, focusing on a new and elusive danger: fibre optic controlled First Person View drones. Immune to radiofrequency jamming, these tethered drones pose significant challenges due to their low observability, agility, and frontline usage.
The challenge received a record setting 162 submissions, the highest in Innovation Challenge history, including 42 entries from Ukrainian teams. This underscores Ukraine’s growing technical engagement in NATO innovation pipelines based on their real-time battle-tested experiences.
The finalists covered all phases of the threat response: detection, tracking, and neutralization. Solutions included software defined radars, modular turrets, shotgun arrays, and tether friendly intercept systems. Allied Command Transformation called for solutions that were lightweight, cost effective, field deployable, and able to detect small aerial threats within 500 meters in adverse conditions.
The overwhelming response reflected both the urgency of the threat and the growing momentum behind NATO’s innovation efforts. With Ukraine’s battlefield insights shaping the problem set, the challenge produced not just creative concepts, but operationally grounded solutions ready for rapid transition.
Countering Fibre-Optic Controlled First-Person View Drones: Winners and Operational Readiness
The final results of the sixteenth Innovation Challenge highlighted a critical shift in NATO’s approach to emerging threats: prioritizing solutions that are not only inventive, but immediately usable. Submissions were evaluated against five criteria: technical innovation, operational relevance to Ukraine, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and modularity, underscoring Allied Command Transformation’s intent to move from experimentation to application without delay.
The winning concepts reflected this ethos. The top entry from KMB Telematics offered a modular, low-cost radar system assembled from commercial components, proving that battlefield readiness does not always require bespoke complexity. Sentradel’s second-place turret system balanced adaptability with affordability, while DONS, a Ukrainian team, delivered a compact, stabilized weapon station tailor-made for frontline conditions.
Together, these solutions reinforced a core principle of the NATO Innovation Challenge: that speed, simplicity, and integration are as valuable as sophistication. By aligning technical ingenuity with practical constraints, the challenge advanced not just technology, but the operational agility of the Alliance.
Strategic Implications and Institutional Momentum
These Innovation Challenges illustrate how NATO has built an ecosystem where urgency meets innovation. The collaboration with JATEC, embedding Ukrainian combat experience directly into challenge design and evaluation, enables solutions tailored to immediate operational needs.
This model significantly compresses development timelines. The March glide bomb challenge led to field trials in under three months, a pace that defies traditional innovation cycles.
By focusing on lightweight, modular, interoperable, and cost-effective solutions, the Alliance ensures resilience in the face of saturation attacks, electronic countermeasure evolved threats, and frontline unpredictability. It also signals a turn toward rapid adaptation as a structural posture, not just tactical reaction.
From Innovation to Impact
Together, these two Innovation Challenges showcase NATO’s agility in responding to evolving threats: glide bombs in the spring, fibre optic controlled drones soon after. Winning concepts are already moving from pitch deck to test range, with potential deployment by yearend. Ukrainian expertise is no longer peripheral; it plays a central role, which will be critical in shaping battlefield innovation that is grounded in real-time operational experience and directly responsive to evolving threats. NATO’s strategic edge now rests not just on equipment superiority, but on speed, collaboration, and adaptability.