War 3.0: Europe’s smart defence challenge

euronews (in English)

In the light of the war in Ukraine, Europe is seeking to adapt to new forms of conflict taking place far from the traditional front line.

Transcript

00:00We are under constant threat and attack. Ukraine every day, but also Europe is under attack.

00:06Be it targeting critical infrastructure, be it targeting our cyber security, be it targeting us personally.

00:14We need to develop the means to be able to defend ourselves.

00:19In the context of the war in Ukraine, Europe wants to adapt to new forms of conflict that are holding on the front lines of front.

00:28I am in Poland, which has made the defense one of the priorities of its turning president of the Union.

00:34The promotion of new technologies in the service of the defense is one of the development areas recognized by Varsovie,

00:40and by many other European countries.

00:43European armies have more and more on the emerging technologies to increase their operational efficiency,

00:53to better protect their adversaries.

00:57Here are some categories.

00:59The artificial intelligence, or IA, capable of analyzing very quickly a large volume of data,

01:05will allow the military to better anticipate the threats and improve the precision of operations.

01:11The robotics and autonomous systems, such as the transport robots, the stations of recharge of batteries,

01:18and especially drones, are in full effort.

01:20In development, the exosquelets, which will make the soldiers more perform.

01:25The weapons hypersonics.

01:27Propulsable at extreme speeds on very long distances,

01:31they are also very difficult to detect by the adverse defense systems.

01:35The advanced materials and new procedures of fabrication, like the Impression 3D,

01:40will, according to them, provide the equipment more resistant and performants to the soldiers.

01:46Finally, the technologies quantiques open many perspectives.

01:50Calculs intensifs, cryptographies, detection and surveillance via des captures ultra-sensibles

01:55pouvant localiser des objets sous-marins and terrestres invisibles.

01:58De plus en plus de start-up mises sur les technologies émergentes appliquées à la Défense,

02:08comme en témoigne le Hackathon qui se déroule autour de moi,

02:12un rassemblement de développeurs venus d'Europe et d'ailleurs

02:15pour présenter leurs projets dans ce centre dédié à l'innovation à Varsovie.

02:20I'm Benjamin, co-founder and co-organizer of the European Defense Tech Hub.

02:30We're building a network for defense innovation,

02:32to inspire young folks to work on solutions that can save lives,

02:36to work on urgent security challenges.

02:39Europe needs to be waking up.

02:41We need to have the means to defend ourselves.

02:44Financé par des fonds publics polonais et des sponsors privés,

02:47l'événement était le sixième du genre organisé par le réseau à travers l'Europe.

02:51Objectif des participants, mettre au point en 24 heures

02:55des projets présentés à un jury à l'issue du Hackathon.

02:58Yes, what are you working on?

03:00We are working to find the direction of the enemy by using software defined radios

03:06to find where is the signals coming to identify from which positions

03:13the enemy controlling devices.

03:16Cette équipe, elle, combine l'intelligence artificielle à la thérapie phagique

03:21utilise des virus pour éliminer les bactéries

03:24pour fournir aux soldats ukrainiens des traitements rapides contre les infections.

03:28Around 71% of wound infections are actually resistant to antibiotics.

03:36If they don't work, it means amputations or death.

03:39We're using cutting edge phage therapy, but it takes time to develop it in the lab.

03:44So we are using machine learning to match specific bacteria with the right virus.

03:50And then that happens in minutes.

03:53Then we can produce that cocktail and deliver it directly to the soldier.

03:56Estudiant, ingénieur, scientifique, créateur de start-up,

04:00quelques 200 hackers de nombreuses nationalités

04:02étaient venus à leurs frais l'espace d'un week-end.

04:05Parmi eux, de nombreux Ukrainiens.

04:08We are doing this spherical ground robot.

04:13It's gonna be used for kamikaze applications.

04:18And it's mainly to attack and hunt russians in the trenches.

04:24It will be autonomous. It can go underwater. It will be silent.

04:28We can also control it by joystick.

04:31I think that's the direction that Europe should take.

04:34Go towards autonomous systems because that's the future.

04:37That's the way you can save actual people if the war happens.

04:41But the robots will fight, not people.

04:43We created a guided dropping munitions that has some control surfaces and visual navigation.

04:53And will go directly to the target.

04:56Because we want the war in Ukraine will end as soon as possible.

05:00We really believe that this project can contribute a lot in our victory.

05:04Like all of us, these Portuguese developers are coming to relever a technological challenge,

05:10but also to defend their ideas.

05:12In the front line, there is no GPS information.

05:15So effectively, the drone pilots are blind.

05:17We are creating a solution using some AI and image comparison,

05:22so that the operators can know where the drone is,

05:25even though they don't have access to the GPS signal.

05:28We have expertise in the areas of systems engineering, navigation and computer vision.

05:33But above all, this is something that aligns perfectly with our values.

05:38We're fighting for what we believe in, our freedom as Europeans.

05:42The front line from Ukraine is the front lines from Europe.

05:45You know, it's the front line from democracy.

05:47So I think this is the things that we are trying to defend.

05:51The technologies émergent transform the military operations

05:55and create also new threats far from the battlefield.

05:58L'Europe is-t-elle in order to raise the new security challenges?

06:01I asked the European Defense Agency.

06:04We see indeed cyber security attacks.

06:10We see particular importance of energy infrastructure

06:14and the space capabilities becoming more and more concrete and tangible threats.

06:20The attack on the undersea cables that we have seen happening in several places across Europe

06:25are really showing us that the operational theater is really everywhere,

06:29in cyberspace and in space as well.

06:31In the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine,

06:34the jamming of space capabilities and the use of supporting capabilities from space

06:40have created a completely different dynamics on the battlefield.

06:44Through the hub for your defense innovation,

06:46we are trying to stimulate faster adoption of these technologies to respond to these new threats.

06:53The EU wants to boost its defense, yet it is lagging behind, including in the field of defense innovation.

07:00So what are the hurdles that need to be addressed?

07:04We see several hurdles that are interconnected.

07:07For instance, the fragmentation in terms of defense investments across the member states,

07:12or the division between civil technology that is going actually much faster pace than defense technology.

07:20Last but not least, access to capital remains an issue, especially for the more up and coming defense startups

07:27and new companies to really find investors that are interested in accessing the defense market.

07:34Plus defense spending alone, it's not yet sufficient or it's not paced at the right timing.

07:42So what we really need to do is to coordinate and channel these defense investments more and more towards coordinating defense innovation action.

07:52We'll see you next time.

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