Kyiv hosted the Defence Vision Day, an event that brought together the best virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) projects for the military.

 The Ministry of Defence recently announced a contest for designing VR/AR training and simulation systems. Defense Vision Day's objective was to find the best solutions and present them to the Ministry of Defenсe, the General Staff, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and potential investors.

 From a total of 55 submissions, 24 projects were selected for presentation. These include air defense live fire simulators, first aid training, and drone control. The co-founders of Uklon, the event's main partner, awarded grants to three projects: Lifesaver Lab: Lifesaver SIM, a joint project of SoftServe, UCU, and the 7th Carpathian Border Guard Detachment, as well as STRATA22. The Ministry of Defence will continue cooperating with the teams to implement their solutions within the Defence Forces.

 "These projects demonstrate that there are different ways in which people can be educated and trained. By using VR simulators, this can be done better and at a lower cost. We need to increase the number of such events. That way, good ideas won't remain hidden but will be implemented and bring benefits," emphasized Deputy Defence Minister Kateryna Chernohorenko.

 The event also featured presentations by teams from the Defence Builder (Defence Startup Accelerator). Thirteen teams presented their solutions to the military, investors, and guests. The demonstrated solutions included heavy drones, river drones, mine detection and clearance systems, turrets, robotic platforms, topography and map change tracking platforms, and a system for calculating firing parameters for hitting targets from closed firing positions.

 "The number of Defence Vision Day participants and the product readiness level are evidence of the growth of defense technologies and the potential of VR/AR systems for military training in Ukraine. The first Defence Builder cohort teams are making significant progress, and we are excited to implement these projects with the Ministry of Defence and our partners - Sigma Software Labs, Genesis, and KSE," said Kateryna Bezsudna, Defence Builder co-founder and COO.

 Ksenia Semenova, the Acting Rector of the National Aviation University, added: "As the nation's premier defense engineering university, NAU is interested in providing our engineers with access to new VR- and AR-based engineering solutions. NAU's Department of Military Education will also use the presented technologies to teach students. The Defence Vision Day is a source of inspiration and synergy for new collaborations.

 The Defence Vision Day event was organized by the Digital Team of the Ministry of Defence and the Defence Builder Accelerator, with the support of the National Aviation University.