Four-and-a-half years later, his new startup Pdkinematics builds precision guidance systems that help drones strike targets more accurately even when GPS signals are jammed, which are supplied to both Ukraine and its European allies.He is one of several startup founders in the Baltics trying to invigorate the region's defensive capabilities, as NATO's eastern members face their own hybrid threats from Russia and its close ally Belarus."The beginning of the war was kind of a call for action for us," Markevicius told AFP.After Russia's February 2022 invasion, he launched a research and development programme to "understand what kind of technologies we could actually deliver to the battlefront", working with his co-founder from the space-tech sector.As states across NATO's eastern flank face a raft of hostile actions from Moscow and Minsk ranging from drone incursions to cyberattacks, experts say startups like his are improving the region's economic resilience and helping to deter Russian aggression. - 'Scalable solutions' - An active startup scene has developed in Lithuania and its fellow Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia in the decades since their transition from Soviet-controlled command economies. It is even home to several companies that are now well known far from the Baltics, such as Vinted, Bolt and Skype. Entrepreneurs are filling gaps left by traditional arms contractors.The conflict in Ukraine has seen a massive technological shift in warfare, with drones and robots taking on much of the fighting.