Research on military innovation has traditionally been conducted from a top-down perspective. My study aims to highlight the role of the individual from a bottom-up perspective. By studying the Home Guard and their legal right to influence and individuals’ opportunity to propose improvements and adaptations to military innovation, I will examine how this has been affected by the outbreak of the Ukrainian war. With a theoretically testing comparison of two comparable cases from the period immediately before and after the outbreak of the war, I will have the opportunity to measure what impact the changed threat after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine has had on innovation within the Home Guard. The result shows a causal relationship between the new threat and increased military innovation, where the factor is increased unit activity with a considerable increase in the number of innovation proposals after the outbreak of the war.