Enabling Defence Innovation through Design Thinking — ULOTC Drone Hackathon

Situation

The Deputy Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team (16X) issued a direct challenge during a visit to the University of London Officers’ Training Corps (ULOTC): how might 16X soldiers mitigate the threat from enemy drones? Recognising this as an opportunity to both address a real operational problem and to expose future Army leaders to user-centred innovation methods, MilUX proposed and delivered a one-day hackathon centred around this emerging challenge.

Context

Operating at the intersection of defence transformation and design-led problem solving, MilUX was uniquely positioned to lead this initiative. The hackathon, held on 29 January 2025, brought together 10 Officer Cadets from ULOTC, facilitated by the MilUX team, alongside support from WO2 Julius Davidson (Defence BattleLab) and Lt Col Karl Eze (SO1 Drone Capability Development, 16X). Drawing on open-source intelligence and current operational insight from the war in Ukraine, the cadets were tasked with developing innovative responses to the growing drone threat using a structured Design Thinking framework.

Prior to the event, cadets were provided with a curated Problem Pack and Design Thinking Pack, offering a grounding in drone warfare and the five-step process of Design Thinking: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test. The hackathon aimed not only to generate creative military concepts but also to introduce participants to methods that foster innovation through empathy and iteration.

Activity

The cadets were divided into three teams, each focusing on a different military user and operational context:

• Team One tackled protection of an Air Assault Light Infantry Platoon in a patrol harbour within 5km of the front line.

• Team DEWS addressed the needs of a Company Headquarters operating in an EW-contested environment.

• HOVERCREW sought to safeguard a Regimental Aid Post (RAP) under threat of drone detection and targeting.

Guided by MilUX facilitators, Matt Odell (CEO) and Uma Odedra (Senior User Researcher), the teams worked through a day-long sprint. They used empathy mapping to understand the users, problem statements to clarify their design briefs, and low-fidelity prototypes to visualise their ideas. The day culminated in a competitive pitch session judged on innovation, user understanding, and feasibility.

Result

Three compelling and conceptually distinct solutions emerged:

• Team One proposed a layered defence system incorporating early detection sensors, autonomous counter-drone drones, smoke screens, and lightweight missile launchers. Their idea leveraged distributed kit carried across a platoon.

• Team DEWS, the winning team, envisioned a mesh network of autonomous drones capable of passively detecting enemy UAS signatures and providing persistent aerial surveillance. The network was designed to be self-healing, redundant, and centrally monitored—maximising situational awareness for Coy HQs under electronic threat.

• HOVERCREW focused on deceptive visual signatures and smart thermal camouflage for RAPs. Their “smart plating” concept aimed to fool AI-equipped drones by manipulating visual and thermal profiles to either misrepresent or conceal assets.

All three ideas demonstrated not just technical ingenuity but also an understanding of end-user realities in combat environments, exactly the mindset fostered by Design Thinking.

Impact

The hackathon delivered value on multiple fronts. For the cadets, it provided an authentic and intellectually stretching experience that connected strategic design to real-world Defence problems. For 16X, the concepts produced were described by the Deputy Commander as “thought provoking” and have since been shared with the Brigade’s UAS Centre for further exploration.

More broadly, this event served as a live demonstration of how MilUX facilitates Defence innovation. By blending structured creative methods with operational relevance, the hackathon showed how even junior personnel can co-create novel solutions with potential strategic impact. The event also reinforces MilUX’s position as a trusted design partner capable of bridging military and civilian expertise to create high-impact, user-focused innovation opportunities.

The team were presented with a challenge coin from the Deputy Commander of 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team (16X) for their support to this activity.