GCS Ukraine took part in UTTC Technology Week 2026, one of the leading industry events for demonstrating, testing and evaluating advanced technologies for humanitarian mine action.

Over two days at the UTTC Training and Testing Centre in the Lviv region, more than 50 equipment manufacturers, mine action operators and technology developers worked in conditions closely replicating real operational environments. Beyond showcasing individual technical solutions, the event tested how well these tools actually worked together in practice.

The practical element centred on a full humanitarian demining scenario. Teams had a limited timeframe to plan and execute the entire mine action cycle on a simulated contaminated agricultural site, including non-technical and technical survey through to land clearance and quality assurance. Judges paid close attention to how well each team utilised equipment, coordinated across disciplines, and kept people out of harm's way during the full exercise.

GCS Ukraine represented the NGO operators' team alongside FSD, UDS and UDA. To complete the mission, the team combined various equipment. Mechanical clearance was carried out using the GCS-200 with Tiller and GERMINA platforms, manual clearance was performed by UDA deminers, and the operation ended with a full quality assurance check.

The results showed that success came less from any single piece of equipment and more from how well the team pulled everything together under time pressure.

Following the field trials, the NGO operators' team received two awards:

• Scenario Excellence - for the accurate and effective execution of the operational scenario

• Operational Excellence - for outstanding performance during the practical demonstrations

GCS Ukraine also received the Contribution to the Advancement of Mine Action Technologies award, recognising its role in developing, testing and rolling out new mine action technologies.

GCS Ukraine thanks the organisers the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture of Ukraine, UNDP Ukraine, with the support of the Government of Luxembourg for building a platform where new technologies can be tested, evaluated and prepared for real humanitarian mine action work.