National hackathon mobilizes academia, industry and defense actors around emerging drone threats
How can airports and critical infrastructure be protected against emerging drone threats? That question brought together students, researchers, startups, industry experts, authorities, defense stakeholders and Ukrainian operational expertise during Drone Defense Hackathon 2026 (DDH26), a national initiative organized by KTH Center for Total Defence, KTH Innovation, LiU Innovation, and academic partners within the SNITTS Special Interest Group for Defense Innovation (SIG).
On 7 May, the first Drone Defense Hackathon kicked off at KTH and national hubs around Sweden.
"The initiative reflects a growing national effort to strengthen Sweden’s innovation capacity within defense and societal resilience. Across Europe, defense agencies and public sector actors are increasingly emphasizing the need to accelerate innovation cycles, broaden collaboration, and shorten the path from research and development to operational capability", says Tom Magnergård, Business Development Coach at KTH Innovation.
64 proposals
Two weeks later, the results are in: 35 participating teams have developed 64 proposals addressing operationally relevant defense and security challenges.
“Protecting airports from drone activity is complex and requires collaboration between industry, academia, authorities and other stakeholders. Initiatives like DDH26 help accelerate innovation by bringing together new perspectives, technical expertise, operational insights and important cross-sector collaboration,” says Mats Berglind, Innovation Manager at Swedavia.
A platform to accelerate development
By bringing together universities, startups, established industry, operational end users and public sector stakeholders, the hackathon created a platform where ideas could rapidly move from concept toward testing, validation and operational relevance.
"DDH26 demonstrates how academia can play a more active role in contributing technical expertise, interdisciplinary talent and new capabilities to the defense innovation ecosystem", says Tom Magnergård from KTH Innovation.
Broad collaboration across Sweden and Ukraine
The organizers highlighted the broad collaboration behind the initiative, with participating organizations spanning academia, industry, defense, public authorities and innovation ecosystems across Sweden and Ukraine.
The submitted proposals included solutions focused on counter-drone technologies, protection of airports and critical infrastructure, AI-supported situational awareness, sensor integration and detection systems, resilient communication and operational coordination, as well as scalable security and defense applications.
"The ambition is not only to identify promising concepts, but also to establish long-term collaboration pathways that can accelerate innovation adoption and strengthen Sweden’s and Europe’s defense capabilities over time", says Tom Magnergård.
The next phase
The participating teams are now entering the next phase of evaluation, dialogue and potential further development together with partners and operational stakeholders
“Many of today’s defense and security challenges require shared situational awareness and coordinated innovation. DDH26 demonstrates the value of bringing together academia, industry, authorities and defense actors to accelerate learning, strengthen collaboration and develop more relevant solutions faster,” finishes Mattias Hjorth, former CEO of Scandinavian Astor Group.