???? Accelerator of Innovative Development" Inititiative explained by Volodymyr Gavrylov Ministry of Defense ????

IMPLEMENTING NEW SOLUTIONS FOR THE VICTORY - SPEEDING UP OPERATIONS IN THE MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

Unique innovative ideas designed to strengthen the Defense Forces of Ukraine are often lost in the bureaucracy.?And the reality requires accelerated implementation of defense innovations to achieve technological superiority over the enemy.?In view of today's challenges, the Ministry of Defense decided to launch an Accelerator similar to those operating in the ministries of defense of allied countries.?And the Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksiy Reznikov, has already signed??an order ??on the formation of the Innovation Development?Accelerator ?.

Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Volodymyr GAVRYLOV told the ArmiyaInform Information Agency about this.

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— Mr. Volodymyr, what tasks should the launch of the Accelerator of the Ministry of Defense solve.?What is he?

—?The Accelerator of the Ministry of Defense (MoD) ?is designed to speed up the processes of development of innovative projects by the department in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.?Organizationally, it combines the expertise and powers of specialized divisions of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the special Project Office with the use of modern management methods and IT solutions.?Applications for cooperation with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine will be submitted to the Accelerator based on the principle of operation of the "Single Window" and process automation tools.?This is a completely new trend in the complex and regulated system of the Ministry of Defense.

The Accelerator team has already managed to prove effectiveness during the development of the process regarding applications for the introduction of new models of OVT within the framework of the changes to the??Resolution of the CMU No. 345 ?initiated by the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine .?It was possible to radically reduce the time spent by applicants.?But that was proactive work in "manual" mode.?And now we "put everything on the conveyor".

— How long will it take to study and implement the project by the Accelerator??What are the time frames for the admission to operation of a new type of weapon?

— When we talk about the receipt of a sample of a high level of technological readiness to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (?Technology readiness levels (TRL) — a method of assessing the maturity of technologies, measured on a scale from 1 to 9, where 9 is the most mature development. — Ed.?), and we are talking about an indicator from "7" and above, the decision-making period is up to 45 days.?This is from the submission by the applicant of the basic package of documents and the order of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on the admission of the sample to operation.

Before a large-scale invasion, it took years and required reams of paperwork.?Now, on the web platform, which will perform the function of a "single window", thanks to the contact and process management system, time is clearly regulated for those in charge and will be automatically controlled without unnecessary endless meetings and agreements between different departments.?And over time, the work system will become more and more automated and will objectively signal those who inhibit innovation.

Also, we have already held 2 focus groups with representatives of businesses that cooperate with the Ministry of Defense and saw their request to create a "single window" and feedback mechanism for issues that arise in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense system.?For this service, we in the Accelerator are creating a group of operational response and will open on the website of the Accelerator the possibility to register questions from enterprises executing contracts with the Ministry of Defense, developers-investors in the OVT.

— Recently, the Ministry of Defense supported the interdepartmental initiative of the Brave1 defense cluster (a platform that should unite investors, volunteers, journalists and everyone who brings victory closer through the introduction of new technologies. — Ed.).?This process was preceded by the Ministry's review of applications submitted to the Ukrainian Startup Fund (UFS).?Can we talk about some results already?

— Yes, we supported the Brave1 initiative and have high hopes for it: the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine is counting on an increase in the number of "mature" proposals thanks to this initiative of the Ministry of Digital.??The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Oleksiy Reznikov, also?emphasized ?this?.

Regarding the applications from the UFS: previously we processed all the applications received by the fund and recorded that only about 10% of them are mature enough.?We have studied them thoroughly.?Those projects, within the framework of which the declared tactical and technical characteristics and test results were confirmed, have already been codified and orders have been issued for the admission of the corresponding weapons samples to operation.

Now the work is distributed in such a way that the Brave1 cluster, together with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, performs the preliminary processing of applications and the initial examination.?And we are responsible for the development of cooperation with manufacturers regarding the careful processing of the most mature developments.?Recently, we received several dozen new samples of OVT for processing.

In addition to new models of UAVs, we are talking about ammunition for attack drones, robotic platforms, etc.

"Over the last year, more drones have been adopted than in the previous 10 years.?I want to invest in a drone that is made in Ukraine, not in China.?After that, you can consider me a nationalist,"?— Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov.?

— What is the Ministry of Defense currently focusing on in cooperation with developers and manufacturers of anti-terrorist weapons?

— We are interested in providing the Armed Forces with military innovations and new models of anti-terrorist weapons, as well as in developing such capabilities of the domestic defense industry sector.?Therefore, we invite everyone who has developments of a high degree of readiness to cooperate.

As I have already said, the Ministry of Defense is counting on a constant increase in the number of mature proposals thanks to the initiative of the Ministry of Digital Brave1, which we support.

In addition, we are ready to cooperate with everyone who will help us in the development of military-technical policy, making the right decisions for the development of the latest technologies in the military sphere, determining priorities in the purchase of experimental and serial samples of military equipment, etc.?We recognize that we need to find effective ways of working with all participants in the OCT sector.?Including the General Staff of the Armed Forces, the Office of the Commander-in-Chief, associations of defense and military enterprises, volunteer technical communities-clusters, charitable and investment funds that invest in OMT, structures of international partners for military-technical cooperation, innovation support, as well as involving technologically developed civilian companies in development of the defense industry sector.?At the same time, we believe?that the efficiency of the domestic defense industry will benefit the growth in the number and weight of competing private companies.?Through the Accelerator, we will help by systematically using the significant international potential of connections and expertise of the Ministry of Defense.

— What specific factors prompted the launch of such an unusual mechanism as the Accelerator of the Ministry of Defense?

— I have been working in the security sector of Ukraine for a long time, I have experience in the diplomatic field.?Both at us and at our partners, the very system of functioning of the defense department is built in such a way that internally there are many reasons for slowing down decision-making, and even more so non-standard, innovative ones.

We are now starting to introduce practices that will contribute to the creation of an innovative culture and encourage officials to show initiative.

The Accelerator team has already conducted research among enterprises that are partners-contractors of the Ministry of Defense and started consultations on the discovered data, claims and proposals to us.?The sample of participating enterprises is about 150, which represent all sectors of OCT.

At the same time, a study under the working title Defense Innovation Agenda is being prepared?together with KSHE?(?Kyiv School of Economics?) .?The development of reform ideas for the sector has begun with the specialists whom the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has attached to the Office for Support of Changes, and partners from the Ministry of Strategy and Industry, associations of defense industry enterprises.?With the Directorate of Digital Development of the Ministry of Defense, new cloud services are being introduced for the sector of OVT and defense industry of the Ministry of Defense.?With the Department of Military Policy and Strategic Planning and our foreign partners, the implementation of program and project management in the management of the development of OVT is being worked out.?From KMBSh?(?Kyiv-Mohyla business school)– a program on weapons management, participation in which will be an incentive for the best employees of the OVT sector who joined the development of the Accelerator.

For the collective preparation of relevant decisions of the Ministry of Defense in the field of anti-missile defense, the Arms Management Committee, which I head, started working in April of this year.?It unites specialized structural divisions of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other components of the Defense Forces.?This is part of the institutional reform that was prepared together with international partners even before Russia's large-scale offensive against Ukraine.?Among the partners of the NATO countries, there has been a permanent conference of arms directors since 2022, which I also chair, and where practical work is carried out in dozens of thematic groups.?At the same time, this constantly opens up opportunities for the development of effective cooperation tools in the field of innovation in the OCT on a bilateral basis with allied countries.

The accelerator should help the Ministry of Defense to build effective models of both horizontal connections and feedback with all stakeholders within the system of the Ministry of Defense and conditionally "external partners" in Ukraine and the world.?And with regard to the identified opportunities and problems, to seek solutions and accelerate the efficiency of the Ministry of Defense.

Understand: Ukraine is now in a state of war, and the "peacetime" system created for decades was not ready to work in the "agile" style.?Many believe that making drastic changes under these conditions in our department is very risky.?And on the other hand, the state of war opens up an opportunity to create a new system, which, probably, will become even more effective than that of colleagues from the defense departments of partner countries.

Reference:?Volodymyr Gavrylov graduated from the Military Air Defense Academy of the Ground Forces in Kyiv, where he taught for some time.?From 1993 to 2018, he served in command and operational positions in structural divisions of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.In 2014-2015?,?he was the head of the Military Diplomatic Academy named after Yevgeny Bereznyak.

He has considerable experience in diplomatic work as a defense attaché at the embassies of Ukraine in the USA, Great Britain and Romania.

Military service veteran, reserve major general.

In 2022, on the eve of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, he was appointed Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine.

— How do you see the modern Ukrainian army?

— This is an army that has combat experience, which is rapidly changing and strengthening, and which, I predict, will be an example for the armed forces of other countries.?The war taught us a lot.?We will not fight with Russia using its own methods.?They have a huge number of soldiers and equipment.?We will win this war because of the technological superiority and creativity of our leadership and society.

Let me remind you that at the beginning of the large-scale offensive of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, Western partners of Ukraine and commercial arms companies did not have a great desire to supply weapons, assuming that Ukraine would not be able to withstand the enemy's onslaught for a long time.?However, thanks to the courage, resilience of Ukrainian soldiers, the implementation of various "know-how", and the ingenuity of our defenders, by the end of 2022, Ukraine liberated 40% of the territories occupied after February 24, 2022, and a third of all occupied territories.

— What developments are currently the most relevant in the army?

— These are unmanned systems, robotic platforms and systems for controlling and combating them, EW/PER, secure communication systems, cyber defense, intelligence and analytics of collected data.?It is necessary to increase the effectiveness of the existing samples of OVT, and at the same time - to provide them with high-quality components.?At the same time, it is necessary to support the breakthrough innovations that are born thanks to the achievements in the IT sector, in particular, big data technologies, learning neural networks, in materials science, physics, chemistry, electronics, engineering, and so on.?Ukraine has always been strong in talent in all these techno-spheres.?What is important to us now are effective applied innovative solutions that the military is interested in and that can be manufactured industrially.

— How is it planned to resolve the issue of ensuring the ability of the MoD Accelerator to manage a diverse list of projects and coordinate a considerable number of divisions and partners?

— Of course, process automation is only a tool.?Efficiency will depend on the professionalism of the team of managers and analysts.?Therefore, we invite experienced specialists and talented young people who, in addition to modern soft skills, have their own vision of a technologically advanced army and an efficient defense industry sector to join the Accelerator Project Office.?Preference is given to those who have a successful experience of military service, innovation in the public sector, in business, assistance to the Defense Forces.?There is a possibility of transferring to our service both mobilized and specialists from the civilian sector.?The selection will be tough, but I personally and the team will provide the necessary support to the winners.

I invite those willing to join our team!?And the first step is to fill out?the??registration?form !

This article is a translation of the article :phttps://armyinform.com.ua/2023/06/11/gavrylov-rozpoviv-shho-take-akselerator-minoborony/

Website of the Accelerator Initiative: https://mil-tech.gov.ua/en