Tel Aviv: American company Ondas has been awarded a multi-million-dollar strategic tender by the Israeli Ministry of Defence (IMOD) to develop and produce the next-generation tactical attack drone capabilities.
The programme represents a broader effort to advance the IMOD’s tactical drone capabilities. Under the programme, Ondas will lead the development of a new generation of low-cost tactical attack drones designed to meet evolving operational requirements and enable scalable deployment across frontline combat units.
“This strategic award represents an important validation of the defence technology platform we are building at Ondas and our growing ability to serve as a prime contractor for complex, next-generation defence programmes,” said Eric Brock, Chairman and CEO of Ondas. “The Israeli Ministry of Defence operates at the forefront of modern defence technology and has some of the world’s most demanding operational requirements. Their selection of Ondas reflects confidence in our internal engineering capabilities, operational experience, and ability to rapidly translate changing battlefield requirements into scalable, mission-ready systems.”
“We are seeing a fundamental shift in defence priorities toward affordable autonomous systems that can be produced and deployed at a significant scale,” Brock continued. “The US Drone Dominance Programme, a $1.1 billion initiative focused on rapidly fielding low-cost unmanned systems, including one-way attack drones, is a clear example of this broader trend. This programme reflects similar operational priorities: providing frontline forces with cost-effective, scalable and rapidly deployable tactical attack capabilities. We believe Ondas is well positioned to address this growing requirement across Israel, the United States and other allied defence markets,” he added.
The programme is intended to provide IMOD combat units with advanced tactical aerial capabilities that can be deployed rapidly and adapted to complex and changing operational environments. Tactical attack drones are becoming an increasingly important component of modern military operations, providing forces with responsive, precise and flexible aerial capabilities at the unit level.
The next-generation capability will be developed to support the IMOD’s evolving operational doctrine and its expanding use of unmanned and autonomous systems across tactical missions. The development effort is expected to address the complete operational capability, including the aerial platform, autonomous functionality, mission integration, system engineering, production readiness and compatibility with wider command-and-control environments.
The award expands Ondas’ position in tactical aerial attack and precision-strike systems, one of the Company’s core defence technology segments. Ondas is building an integrated autonomous defence platform across four principal mission areas: Air Defence and Counter-UAS, Aerial Intelligence, Aerial Attack and Unmanned Ground Systems. AI-powered command, mission-management and decision-support software serves as the connecting orchestration layer across these technology segments, enabling sensors, aerial platforms, robotic systems, operational units and command environments to function as part of a coordinated autonomous system-of-systems.
“This award represents an important opportunity to apply Ondas’ autonomous systems capabilities to one of the most important emerging requirements on the modern battlefield,” said Oshri Lugassy, Co-CEO of Ondas Autonomous Systems.
“Tactical forces increasingly require aerial systems that can be deployed rapidly, integrated directly into operational workflows and adapted as missions and threats evolve. Our approach is to develop the complete operational capability-not simply an individual drone,” Lugassy continued. “This includes the platform, autonomy, mission software, system integration, production infrastructure and operational support required to move from development into meaningful field deployment.”
Within this architecture, tactical attack drones are intended to provide frontline forces with rapidly available aerial capabilities that can shorten operational response times, improve precision and extend the reach of tactical units. The systems can also complement longer-range one-way attack and precision-strike platforms by providing commanders with a broader range of tools suited to different mission requirements, operational distances and target environments.
The tender award builds on Ondas’ continued expansion as a global defence and security technology company. Ondas’ strategic growth plan is focused on combining specialised technologies like those under the Digital Bat programme with shared engineering resources, manufacturing capacity, supply-chain capabilities, customer access, programme management and field-support infrastructure. The Company believes this integrated operating model enables its individual technology groups to pursue larger programmes, accelerate product development and provide customers with a broader range of coordinated capabilities.
In recent years, Ondas purchased some Israeli defence companies and expanded its activities in the Israeli market. Israeli sources said that the new tactical drone will be based on some proven Israeli technologies.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
