Last week, our association, represented by CEO Dmytro Kuzmenko, had the honour of participating in and mentoring at "Flaming Shield '26: Defend the Sky", a Lithuanian hackathon focused on defence, cybersecurity, and space technology. It was a rare chance to glimpse early, unseen prototypes and solutions from European allies firsthand.

• More than 500 participants from Lithuania and abroad.

• 55 teams developing technological solutions to real defence challenges.

• €33,000 in cash prizes, along with numerous additional awards from partners.

• 40 mentors representing businesses, the Lithuanian Armed Forces, Ukrainian defence tech investors and accelerators, Finnish universities and defence accelerators, private companies, and global defence industry players, including AIRBUS representatives.

• More than 24 teams demonstrated their solutions, with some testing drones and autonomous logistics systems in a dedicated testing environment.

• The event saw the highest level of financial support in its four-year history.

We greatly appreciate the organisers' goal of moving from ideas to working prototypes, real-world testing, and beyond, to market-ready products. Trials are already planned at Lithuanian military testing grounds and, hopefully, later in Ukraine as well (much needed!). You can find the link with info on the winners in the comments section, as they deserve a full post.

Dmytro also delivered welcome remarks at the event’s opening ceremony, alongside Vice-Minister of National Defence of the Republic of Lithuania Gabriel Gorbačevski, Vice-Minister of the Economy and Innovation of the Republic of Lithuania Paulius Petrauskas, and Deputy Commander at the Lithuanian Armed Forces Training and Doctrine Command Laurynas Ivanauskas.

Not only that, a panel discussion followed, From Need to Working Technology, featuring Joseph Bray from Airbus Defence and Space (UK), Inga Juozapavičienė, representing the Lithuanian Defence Resources Agency, Matti Hämäläinen from Defence Innovation Network Finland (DEFINE), Andris Baumanis from Latvian UniLab, and Lithuanian Mach Industries’ delegate Sigutė Stankevičiūtė.

What a great meeting it was. And now, a juicy photo report!

The Lithuanian Riflemen's Union and Tech-Park Kaunas organised the hackathon.