Good afternoon from the team at Resilience Media
Last week during a meeting at the Estonian Embassy in London, I picked up a booklet called Life in Estonia. It is one of those extended pamphlets often found in embassies, written to extol the virtues of the country to potential visitors. This booklet, however, didn’t hit the usual high notes one might expect: instead is it subtitled ‘Powering Smart Defence.’ All 82 page dive into how Estonia is preparing itself for crisis or war across the breadth and depth of its population.
Juxtapose that with a disheartening exchange I had with the National Portrait Gallery, in London. I’d hoped that Resilience Conference could host a reception in the newly renovated galleries but was turned away due to the potential bad press a conference like ours could bring upon the organisation. This difference in attitudes between the UK and Estonia could not be more startling. Estonians — and the whole Nordic-Baltic region — are talking openly and honestly about the threats an aggressor like Russia poses. Meanwhile, those of us further away from NATO’s Eastern Flank rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic, worrying about reputational risk from allowing a company — whose mission is the defence of democracy — to use its space.
I am left wondering what it will take for the rest (and West) of NATO to catch up with the East in recognising how serious things are.
Elsewhere on Resilience Media this week, Kraken teams up with NVL, Fire Point’s Flamingo missile flies 3,000+ km, and we’re running an End of Summer sale on Resilience Conference tickets. Grab one today and I’ll be back in your inbox next week.
-Leslie, co-founder, Resilience Media
-Leslie, co-founder, Resilience Media
One of the primary ways that younger defence startups scale to win major deals is by teaming up with bigger legacy players that want to incorporate more cutting-edge technology into its own stack.
The latest partnership on that front was announced earlier today. Kraken Technology, a UK startup building autonomous and uncrewed maritime defence systems, and Germany’s NVL are forming a joint venture to develop a new wave of autonomous marine defence systems.
NVL is one of the oldest names in naval shipbuilding, formed out of Lürssen, founded in the 19th century. Its footprint includes a number of major shipyards in Germany, and it has contracts for providing major naval vessels for a range of countries. Read the full piece here.
Resilience Conference Announcement
Early Bird prices are back — for one week only.
To cap off the summer holidays, from 25–29 August Resilience Conference tickets roll back to early bird rates.
Join leading investors like General Catalyst’s Jeannette zu Fürstenberg and Lakestar’s Klaus Hommels, policy leader Dame Fiona Murray, and startup founders including Cameron McCord (Nominal), Mimi Keshani (Hadean), Lorenz Meier (Auterion), and Kusti Salm (Frankenberg Technologies). Our conference has no green room, just everyone in one space for two days, working towards a common mission.
⚠️ Offer ends 29 August at midnight. Secure your place now.
Ukrainian startup Fire Point has reportedly built a ground-launched cruise missile with real reach. The FP-5 Flamingo claims a 3,000 kilometre range and a warhead of roughly 1,150 kilograms. Politico spoke with the company’s chief, Iryna Terekh, who said the program moved from idea to first battlefield tests in under nine months. She added that the first airframes wore a pink nose, a quiet nod to the women running production. The name Flamingo stuck. The paint did not. Read more here.
Europe
Adversary Entente Task Force Update, August 20, 2025
Sabotage Shows How Russia’s Hostility Toward Europe Goes Beyond Ukraine
Startups
New zero-day startup offers $20 million for tools that can hack any smartphone
Ukraine
On the ground in Ukraine’s largest Starlink repair shop
