Good afternoon from the team at Resilience Media
We were in Munich last week to run an event in partnership with the U.S Defense Innovation Unit: The Future of Defence Tech Manufacturing & Innovation. The conference was designed to be a call to action to stress that the West is at war and it is not prepared. The stakes are high. Should President Donald Trump freeze the war in Ukraine, the West would enter a four-year arms race with Russia.
Little did we know when we planned this event that its message would become so timely. History was being made across the ocean and directly outside the Literaturhaus in Munich as we discussed how NATO Allies and Partners should be responding to this existential threat. The severity of the moment was palpable; while there were smiles as our guests talked with each other at the breaks, the mood was serious and nervous.
Dedication to the defence of democracies was evident across all of our panels. I had the great honour of interviewing on stage Lorenz Meier, CEO of Auterion and Klaus Kapper, CTO of Rheinmetall, as they announced their era-defining partnership: An American startup building operating systems for software-defined warfare joining forces with an established European manufacturing powerhouse. More from my interview can be found here.
We’ve devoted this newsletter to the incredible people featured on our stage and the critical messages they made in every panel. We’ll be sharing pieces from each panel in next week’s issue, but for now, you can watch the video from the event here, find pictures here, and read more below.
-Leslie, co-founder, Resilience Media
The event had a real sense of urgency, as world events were unfolding quite literally outside the building. The announcements from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance sent palpable ripples through the city. It is clear now that Europe has to stand on its own and defend itself, and therefore everything we’ve been discussing about defence funding and innovation needs to happen now, not sometime in the future.
Reflecting the energy in the room, Eveline Buchatskiy explained to our audience, “I’m dressed all in black for a reason. I feel like I just came from a funeral. But it gets better, folks. Of course the announcements from yesterday are uninspiring to say the least, but we are ultimately…in this business because we are optimistic people. We believe in a brighter future and we believe in contributing to that and not just being on the sidelines.” Read the full piece here.
Brave1 Defence Tech Innovation Forum: the event in Kyiv on February 18–19 arrives at a pivotal moment for Ukraine’s defence tech ecosystem. As the defence tech industry gains momentum, Brave1 has curated a platform that showcases the tech innovation developed by Ukrainians to defend their country, and brings together global stakeholders, from manufacturers and investors to government representatives and defence experts. More here.
Our correspondent, Oleksandr Ihnatenko will be there. If you’ll be there, too, send him a note to arrange a meeting.
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