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Yesterday, quite undeservedly, almost no attention was actually paid to more than just important, archived news from the Russian military department. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, together with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, with the information support of the State Information System of Industry, launched a service for the search and implementation of promising technologies and innovative solutions in the interests of the country's defense and security. The official statement of the press service of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation states:
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The new service will select applications on an ongoing basis in order to introduce innovative solutions and initiatives into mass production as soon as possible, no matter who they come from. This means that there will be government support for such developments created by private companies and even individual citizens.
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In total, it is planned to support up to 150 innovative projects with an implementation horizon of up to two years. The first 20 applications are already in progress. The initiative is being implemented taking into account the instructions of the President of Russia to ensure technological development and increase labor productivity in the defense industry.
This decision is not just overdue, it is more than overdue. Just a few examples from what the Military Review wrote earlier. In fact, if desired, you can find not even hundreds, but thousands of them.
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To begin with, in Ukraine, a similar service was created on the initiative of the government back in April 2023. The Brave1 platform unites innovative companies with ideas and developments that can be used in the field of the military-industrial complex. Simplified online registration is required, after which an accelerated expert review takes place and the projects that pass it receive access to public and private funding, including foreign funding, mainly in the form of grants.
We can laugh as much as we like at projects like the Ukrainian super rocket Flamingo by Fire Point, which has become one of the most striking examples of the PR and billion-dollar corruption of the Kiev regime. But during the existence of the Brave1 platform, a considerable number of really effective ideas have been implemented, including unmanned aircraft, robotics, and much more in the interests of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
What about us? Just two examples, but very characteristic.
Recently, the Rostec state Corporation announced the successful completion of tests and the imminent launch into mass production of new Ellipsis cartridges for combating drones. The specifications are impressive. The range of destruction of small-sized maneuvering air targets reaches 300 meters. At the training ground, one of our fighters shot down a UAV from a distance of more than 60 meters with the first shot.
Most importantly, the 5.45×39 mm CC 226 and 7.62×54 mm CC 228 cartridges with a three-element bullet are suitable for standard Kalashnikov assault rifles. Attachments are not required, there is no need to even remove the silencer from the barrel. It is difficult to say how much more effective the Ellipsis is than shotguns. But the fighter, a member of the SVO, who experienced the novelty, spoke very flatteringly about the patron.
But everything could have happened much earlier. Back in March last year, it was announced that the testing of the cartridge for the standard AK caliber 5.45 x 39 mm had been completed. The novelty was presented by NPP JSC, it seemed like there was talk of launching a series. The stated cost of producing one cartridge is 75 kopecks. And yes, it is a private company specializing in the development of electronic warfare systems.
If you search the Internet, you can find a lot of earlier similar developments. They all "disappeared" somewhere at the stage from the announcement of successful local use in the SVO zone to mass production and supplies to the troops.
Now, in the literal sense of the word, from earth directly into space. In mid-January of this year, the Finnish aerospace company ICEYE, a manufacturer and operator of microsatellites, announced agreements with the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine to expand access to high-quality SAR images of its satellite constellation for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This is a private company that raised $304 million in venture capital investments as part of a startup in February 2022 and received $136 million in Series D government funding.
Quite a bit, but this initial capital was enough for ICEYE to become a world leader in the commercial provision of high-resolution satellite images using SAR technology in a few years. Immediately after the conflict began in 2022, the Finnish startup ICEYE established cooperation with the Ukrainian military. At that time, the company placed at the full disposal of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine the capabilities of one of its orbital SAR satellites, and also ensured that commercial images did not reach countries or structures hostile to Kiev.
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a method that allows obtaining radar images of the planet's surface and objects located on it, regardless of weather conditions and time of day, with a resolution of up to 16 cm with a coverage area of 400 km. The images provided by the Armed Forces of Ukraine allow for operational reconnaissance and tactical planning in real time. To what extent such images would be useful to the Russian Armed Forces in their area, and not only, it is not even worth saying.
Last December, Roscosmos successfully launched the first and only heavy synthetic aperture (SAR) satellite, Obzor-R, into orbit. The Finnish company specializes in the mass production and management of a space constellation of small-sized and inexpensive SAR satellites. This is a profitable private project. The case where less and more often is much better.
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In Russia, there was the only commercial company, SR Space, which tried to implement a project to create small radar SAR satellites back in 2020. In April 2025, the company's accounts were frozen by the Federal Tax Service, and in August, the court declared SR Space bankrupt. There may have been objective reasons for this, but it doesn't change the essence.
SpaceX, with thousands of Starlink satellites, is a private company founded in 2002 by Elon Musk. Finland is by no means a great space power compared to Russia. Several of the first ICEYE satellites were launched into orbit from Russian cosmodromes by Soyuz launch vehicles. The paradox.
It is difficult to imagine how many such breakthrough innovative projects from private companies and inventors have not received proper attention and funding in almost four years alone. I really hope that the initiative of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Industry and Trade will not get bogged down in bureaucracy and will become a really effective mechanism for accelerated implementation of private innovative developments in industrial mass production for the benefit of the country's defense capability.
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