Pentagon picks Israeli startup to build AI ‘one-way’ attack drones in the US

Crucially for Washington’s drive to onshore drone supply chains, XTEND will build and support the systems from its new headquarters and manufacturing hub in Tampa, Florida.

By Jewish Breaking News

Israel’s XTEND has won a new U.S. defense contract to develop and deliver AI-enabled, “one-way attack” drone kits tailored for tight, urban fights—another clear vote of confidence in Israeli defense tech honed against terrorist threats.

The deal, awarded through the Pentagon’s special operations/low-intensity conflict directorate, covers development, training, spares, and stateside production.

The program—formally dubbed the Affordable Close-Quarter Modular Effects Drone Kit (ACQME-DK)—focuses on low-cost, precision loitering munitions that can breach, hunt, and strike inside buildings and other confined spaces.

XTEND says the kits combine an electronic safe-and-arm device, hardened dual-link control (fiber-optic plus RF) to ride out heavy jamming, and operator-friendly autonomy that keeps cognitive load low while boosting survivability and accuracy at the tactical edge.

Crucially for Washington’s drive to on-shore drone supply chains, XTEND will build and support the systems from its new headquarters and manufacturing hub in Tampa, Florida—opened this summer to serve U.S. special operations customers and scale domestic output.

Local authorities and trade press say the site aims to create dozens of high-tech jobs and produce “thousands” of systems per year as orders ramp.

XTEND’s rise has tracked Israel’s accelerated battlefield innovation since October 7.

Reuters has reported that an XTEND platform filmed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in his final moments—an attribution the company declined to confirm—underscoring how small, smart, human-guided drones rewrote close-quarters combat in Gaza’s dense terrain.

The company has been building U.S. ties for years. In 2022 it secured a Pentagon order for hundreds of Wolverine Gen2 systems under a joint U.S.–Israel irregular-warfare program, part of a broader shift to affordable, software-defined autonomy at squad level.

The new ACQME-DK contract extends that trajectory: one operator coordinating swarms of specialized drones—breachers, scouts, and strikers—without sacrificing positive human control over lethal actions.

As CEO Aviv Shapira put it, it’s the first operational system that lets “one operator…deploy swarms of AI-enabled tactical drones remotely,” paired with zero-latency control to stay effective under jamming.

Money and manufacturing are moving in tandem. In July, XTEND completed a $30 million extension to close a $70 million Series B, explicitly to scale U.S. production and expand its AI-powered mission stack; the Tampa hub is the centerpiece of that plan.

At home, the Defense Ministry tapped XTEND to supply 5,000 FPV assault drones—low-cost single-use platforms optimized for battalion-level operations—after a competitive tender.

Israeli media put the per-unit price near NIS 3,500, highlighting the doctrine shift toward “cost-per-kill” efficiency against terror squads and rocket cells.

The U.S. contract follows the same playbook: swarm-ready, operator-centric, autonomous where it helps and human where it must.

Israel’s defense tech edge—born of necessity, refined in contact—now undergirds U.S. irregular-warfare needs, with American-made drones, American jobs, and a supply chain insulated from adversarial components.

Expect more procurement that privileges field-proven autonomy, modular effects, and rapid domestic scaling over exquisite, slow-cycle platforms.