TFL and Odd Systems event highlights: Odd Camera Factory One, the ’21st Century Manhattan Project,’ and more

On 26 February, defence tech companies The Fourth Law (TFL) and Odd Systems held a closed-door event in Kyiv titled ‘Autonomy and Sovereignty’. During the presentation, co-founder of TFL and Odd Systems, Yaroslav Azhnyuk, unveiled eight new technological capabilities across both companies, including the launch of a factory to manufacture camera sensors.

Defender Media attended the event and reports the details that the companies agreed to make public.

Odd Systems to launch sensor manufacturing plant

During the event, Odd Systems CEO Roman Medvedev announced the Odd Camera Factory One project — Ukraine’s first serial production facility for camera sensors. In an interview published the following day, Azhnyuk said the project could receive more than $70 million in investment.

The company says the need for domestic sensor production stems from the fact that one in five thermal imaging cameras produced globally is sent to the Ukrainian front. At the same time, Ukrainian drone manufacturers remain heavily dependent on Chinese camera suppliers. “Total annual production of thermal cameras in the EU would only cover 3–4 months of Ukraine’s needs, at a cost 4–5 times higher,” the company said. According to Odd Systems’ management, establishing a full-cycle domestic camera manufacturing capability is therefore a matter of national security.

Medvedev also announced a new product line of cameras. In particular, Odd Systems said it is launching serial production of the Kurbas-640 Beta thermal imaging camera.

The remaining new products are expected to be officially presented in the near future.

AI for the Battlefield – The 21st Century “Manhattan Project.” What Rick Smith, Oleksandr Kamyshin, Oleksandr Bornyakov, Yaroslav Azhnyuk and Major Hromov Discussed

The event also featured a panel discussion with Oleksandr Kamyshin, Strategic Adviser to the President of Ukraine; Oleksandr Bornyakov, acting Minister of Digital Transformation; and Rick Smith, founder and CEO of Axon Enterprise.

Smith’s company recently invested in The Fourth Law. During the discussion, he said Ukraine is innovating at a pace that most institutions and governments are structurally unprepared for. Axon’s investment reflects the fact that Ukraine has become a real-time development and testing ground for next-generation defence tech, Smith noted.

TFL is not Axon’s first investment in Ukraine. Earlier, Smith’s company led the seed round for Farsight Vision.

Representatives of Ukrainian state institutions stressed that the country’s key advantage lies in real-time innovation shaped by what they described as the world’s most intense technology-driven war. They referred to a “reality gap,” noting that global capital and international partners often fail to grasp the true speed of change on the front line.

Military representatives also shared feedback on the use of TFL’s systems and discussed the transition to industrial-scale production of autonomous platforms that provide an advantage in modern warfare.

According to Major Maksym Hromov, head of the unmanned systems unit of military unit A1376, his unit used 608 Lupynis drones over five months, 436 of which hit their targets — a 71% success rate. Of those hits, 284 struck moving targets. Hromov said this is a very strong result that has helped expand the effective kill zone from 3 km to 10 km. “If the state procured and supplied 50% of drones with terminal guidance capability, it would significantly help us,” he said.

Speaking at the event, Yaroslav Azhnyuk outlined three fundamental pillars of modern warfare:

1. Drones and Robots as Primary Platforms: The era of human-centric warfare is giving way to autonomous and remotely operated systems. These are no longer just “add-ons” to traditional units but the foundation upon which modern combat operations are built.
2. Technological Manufacturing as the “New Oil”: A state’s strategic power is no longer defined solely by natural resources. The ability to mass-produce high-tech hardware and software at an industrial scale is the highest form of national wealth and geopolitical influence.
3. AI for the Battlefield – The 21st Century “Manhattan Project”: Artificial Intelligence is causing a paradigm shift comparable to the invention of the atomic bomb. This is the defining arms race of our time, where the winner will set the rules for global security.

Overall, the ‘Autonomy and Sovereignty’ event brought together more than 200 participants, including representatives of Ukraine’s security and defence forces, government officials, Ukrainian and international industry players, and defence innovators and investors.