From Laser Tag in Kharkiv to $900M U.S. Army Contracts: How MilTech Startup SKIFTECH Trains Soldiers

From Paintball and Laser Tag to the Military Industry

In 2014, friends from the Military Institute of Tank Troops approached the Forpost club, which organized recreational paintball and laser tag battles. They asked to host training sessions for their cadets at the park’s facilities. It was then that the club’s co-owners, Yurii Lavrenov and Mykhailo Obod, first considered moving into the military domain. By 2018, that vision materialized into SKIFTECH, a Ukrainian miltech startup focused on laser-based military training simulators, built on Forpost’s original platform.

«During the first training sessions with the military, it became clear that the issue wasn’t shooting itself, but the lack of teamwork, use of cover, and decision-making in the first seconds — and our tools captured this clearly», — says Yurii Lavrenov.

He adds that a turning point for SKIFTECH came from feedback provided by the military instructors, along with their demand for statistics, control and performance analysis. The company then made a strategic shift abandoning gaming logic and redesigning its products as practical training systems for unit-level preparation.

The company expanded into defense segment as an organic extension of its operations, without launching a separate startup or assigning a specific budget, building on its engineering foundation. 

«Funding was entirely internal: for several years, we reinvested revenue from commercial products into building and testing training solutions. As a result, the cost structure developed gradually, keeping pace with advancements in technology, software and methodologies. Only after these solutions demonstrated their effectiveness in practice did government contracts begin to emerge», — says Lavrenov.

According to the speaker, the practical integration of the systems into military training started in 2014. The company’s first government contract was awarded in 2018, approximately four years after its technologies were first deployed in operational units.

The co-founder says that investment in the defense product was several dozen times higher than in the entertainment one. Not only due to the complexity of development, but also the certification process, meeting military standards and documenting the technology in detail.

Yurii confirmed that the company has already reinvested upwards of $1 million. 

The company works closely with the military

The company collaborates with the military at multiple levels — from soldiers in individual units to the leadership of training centers and ranges, Lavrenov says.

The process typically begins with a direct request from an instructor, commander, or unit seeking a specific training solution. The SKIFTECH team travels on-site and conducts a demonstration session: soldiers immediately work with the equipment, while commanders see how it integrates into real training scenarios.

This is followed by the standard military procurement procedure. Once the paperwork is completed, the team delivers the equipment, trains instructors, supports the first sessions and remains available for ongoing assistance. The final stage is a unit already training on a system tailored to its specific tasks and pace of operations.

Last year, the average time from request to active training was 2.2 months. At the same time, with the company’s in-house stock readily available, most orders are shipped within a week of signing the agreement, the source notes.

«For a long time, most of our deliveries were individual soldier kits for tactical group training, as well as training systems involving different types of mines. 

But since last year, demand has shifted sharply toward counter-drone capabilities, especially FPV. We’ve developed and started delivering kamikaze UAV and payload-drop UAV simulators. Currently, we’re developing new solutions, among them an interceptor drone simulator», — says Yurii Lavrenov.

The company collaborates with a broad range of military units and training institutions, including the 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade of the Air Force known as the «Ghost of Kyiv», the 39th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade, the National Academy of the State Border Guard Service, the 151st Training Center and the 242nd Armed Forces Training Center, among others.

Since its founding, the company has produced around 1,000 simulators for weapons and combat systems. It has also manufactured around 3,000 individual sensor-equipped gear kits and more than 500 units of integration and networking equipment. In total, over 100 models of military hardware (including tanks and IFVs) have been created.

«SKIFTECH now employs up to 200 people, with around 10% of the team made up of engineers working on the development and continuous improvement of our technologies», — says Yurii Lavrenov.

Shifting demands

As Lavrenov explains, the full-scale war has transformed demand, from training isolated skills to preparing units to operate under sustained pressure: rapid reactions, team coordination and decision-making in unpredictable threat scenarios.

One clear example is the combination of tactical training and added stress factors that force units to act as they would in real combat conditions.

«At the request of a special operations unit, we developed a dedicated simulator that helped them carry out a widely known special operation», — Lavrenov says.

Cooperation with the U.S. Department of War and the U.S. market

Winning trust in a new market means going beyond expectations, says Yurii Lavrenov:

«The U.S. is actively moving toward a vendor-agnostic model, looking for alternatives and reducing reliance on a single supplier. What matters most is reliability, flexibility, speed of end-to-end delivery and innovation. These are exactly the parameters on which we managed not only to meet the requirements, but to exceed expectations.

In the U.S., SKIFTECH competes with Cubic Corporation, SAAB, General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin — major players with extensive contracts and resources, Lavrenov notes: «Our advantage is speed. We build products in wartime. The battlefield changes constantly and training has to keep up. We’re used to rapidly updating our systems in response to real needs on the ground».

In March 2025, SKIFTECH joined the pool of companies selected under the U.S. Army’s 10-year BEST MAC framework, with a total funding ceiling of up to $921.1 million through 2035. The program allows participants to compete for individual task orders awarded on a competitive basis.

• «Our cooperation with the U.S. Department of War started at the I/ITSEC exhibition. Government representatives invited us to demonstrate our solutions during a Soldier Touch Point event, where military personnel test and evaluate technologies. This is followed by direct feedback and discussions on how to improve effectiveness.

Later, we were selected among a group of contractors to deliver specific developments. After testing and proving our capabilities, we were admitted to the BEST MAC program», — Yurii Lavrenov says.

Program funding is allocated for the development and enhancement of tactical training systems and appropriated only upon winning individual task orders. For now, the company is focused on preparing its technical solutions, processes, and documentation to compete for its first contracts.

Built to NATO standards

As part of the contract, SKIFTECH is developing equipment aligned with NATO standards, a process that goes far beyond conventional product development in terms of standardization and interoperability.

«NATO standards cover virtually everything — from the smallest details to complex aircraft systems — enabling fast deployment and seamless coordination in joint operations. 

Some of our simulators were built with these standards in mind from day one. In other areas, however, such standards don’t exist yet. Our task, therefore, is to create solutions that can, over time, become the foundation for new standards in the field of training systems», — says Yurii Lavrenov.

One example is the RPG-7 simulator developed in 2023 and later codified under NATO standards in 2025. For instance, no separate codification standards for software currently exist, so these requirements do not cover it.

«A concrete case is the upgrade of the optical communication channel receiver, the component that detects a laser pulse, identifies its parameters, and decodes the signal.

To meet NATO standards, we redesigned the decoding algorithms and adjusted signal reception parameters. This allows seamless integration with other compatible systems during joint exercises and ensures more precise hit data transmission», — Yurii Lavrenov explains.

What the U.S. gets wrong about Ukrainian deftech

The difference between Ukrainian and Western approaches to defense lies in the reality shaped by war.

«In Ukraine, solutions are built under resource constraints and constant change in tactics, weapons and technologies that reshape the battlefield almost daily. 

For decades, Western countries have relied on long-established doctrines and built their systems around them. Ukrainian developers, by contrast, think in terms of survival and rapid adaptation often responding to immediate threats in real time. Western defense strategies, meanwhile, are focused on preparing for a potential future invasion, the nature of which is increasingly hard to predict as warfare technologies constantly evolve», — Lavrenov explains

Development continues in Ukraine

SKIFTECH started in the Kharkiv region, but following the start of the full-scale invasion, most of its production was relocated to western Ukraine.

This is where product engineering logic, software and training methodologies are shaped, says Yurii Lavrenov. «Our team is distributed across locations, but all key decisions are synchronized».

Реклама у Vector

Found a mistake? Select it and press Ctrl+Enter