Over the 10 months since the war began, the IDF and the Defense Ministry have racked up a number of achievements on the battlefield, including the acquisition of advanced technologies. Since October 7, the Defense Ministry’s Research and Development Directorate has purchased a range of products from more than 100 startups operating in both the defense and commercial markets. Some of them have signed contracts with the Defense Ministry worth more than NIS 20 million each, with the total value of the deals amounting to about NIS 1 billion, people familiar with the matter told Globes.
A demo day was recently held for startups that graduated from the DDR&D Accelerator Program, attended by the Director General of the Ministry of Defense, Major General (res.) Eyal Zamir, and the Head of DDR&D, Brigadier General (res.) Dr. Danny Gold.
“This is a complex period,” Zamir said. “We anticipated some challenges and we didn’t anticipate others. We see what’s happening in the world, in Bab el-Mandeb, in Ukraine. There’s an entrepreneurial spirit and we’re here to help. Led by DDR&D, we encourage entrepreneurship and risk-taking, and we’re investing a lot in this. We work on sensors, the world of computing and networking, energy and space. These things bring great value to defense and provide us with a technological advantage. Our role is to help startups from the early stages of a product — all the way to an operational product.”
Gold added that the State of Israel is fighting with varying degrees of intensity in a range of sectors: from Gaza and Lebanon to Iraq, Iran, Syria and Yemen. “We have brought startups into the field. We are benefiting from international and bilateral cooperation and we are seeing growth in the sector,” he said.
Colonel Nir Weingold, head of planning, economics and IT at DDR&D, also attended the event. He noted that government investments in security around the world are on the rise: “Research from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that investments reached $2.4 trillion last year. Europe is preparing for a confrontation with Russia in the next decade, so it is looking for technologies that can be found in startups.”
Globes highlights five of the key startups the Department of Defense has been working with since the war began: Smartshooter, Xtend, Regulus, CopterPIX, and Robotican.
Among the companies that have fueled DDR&D’s growth is Smartshooter from Kibbutz Yagur. Among other things, the company has developed the Smash (Dragon) fire control system, which can hit ground and air targets such as drones, and helps the combat soldiers who operate it to independently identify and accurately hit targets. With the help of artificial intelligence and algorithms, the scope tracks the target and adjusts the rate of fire for a quick and accurate hit.
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The company’s success has attracted international customers, with the UK buying 500 drone surveillance systems to be mounted on weapons in service with the British Army.
Smartshooter also recently unveiled a new remote-controlled weapon system called Hopper, which weighs around 15 kilograms and is intended for installation on manned and unmanned vehicles, as well as air and naval platforms.
Based in Tel Aviv, Xtend makes drones for attack and surveillance. In 2024, the company was named to Globes’ list of the top 10 most promising startups in Israel.
Among other things, the company is working on a joystick-based control interface and virtual reality goggles that relay the drone’s perspective to the operator. The company’s operating system allows operators to select a specific point on a map to which the drone will be sent, and it will fly to it autonomously. Xtend’s drones also assist in various missions, such as dropping grenades, clearing tunnels, or crashing to thwart terrorists. These measures help the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) fight in dense urban areas in the Gaza Strip. In May, the company closed a $40 million Series B funding round.
Regulus develops cybersecurity solutions for GNSS/GPS systems. A few months before the Gaza war broke out, the company launched the Ring ARM-V system designed to protect armored vehicles from drone attacks. The system can operate at low power and provide protection at a distance of 150-1000 meters, or at high power to protect 1000-5000 meters.
CopterPIX products are used by security forces in combat for surveillance missions in difficult navigation conditions. The company is developing autonomous solutions and applications using drones.
The company won the prestigious Innovation Award at the Milipol exhibition in Paris, after developing an autonomous security and patrol system based on small drones below the threshold of aviation regulation.
Robotican Drones, based in Omer, near Beersheba, has developed a variety of autonomous robotic products, including the Goshak: an autonomous drone designed to catch drones in a net rather than intercept them. The development is aimed primarily at urban environments, where there is a risk of falling shrapnel and intelligence gathering on the enemy. Another tool the company has developed is the Rooster: a drone protected by a rigid, durable and flexible cage that allows it to crash and roll on the ground, hitting windows and other objects without being damaged, during combat in densely populated built-up areas.
This article was published in Globes, Israeli Business News – en.globes.co.il – on August 15, 2024.
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