Covenant, co-founded by former Rafael Iron Dome engineer Ofir Dayan, exits stealth with a Dallas missile factory and a northern Israel plant producing 2,000 Anthem cruise missiles a year, backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Peter Thiel's Founders Fund.
Covenant, a defense startup co-founded by former Rafael Iron Dome engineer Ofir Dayan and Israeli-American entrepreneur Michael Kaufman, exited stealth mode on September 9, 2026, opening a 105,000-square-foot cruise missile factory in Dallas, Texas. The company's Israeli facility, a 32,000-square-foot site in northern Israel combining research, development and manufacturing, is set to produce approximately 2,000 long-range Anthem missiles annually, according to Calcalist.
Who Founded Covenant and Why It Matters for Israel
Michael Kaufman, who holds dual US and Israeli citizenship, founded Covenant in 2024 with Ofir Dayan, described in company materials as one of the most experienced missile engineers in Israel's defense industry, according to a founding letter Kaufman published through venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. Kaufman previously worked as an investor at Peter Thiel's Thiel Capital and has since relocated to Israel to help build Covenant's operations there, according to Calcalist.
Kaufman has described Dayan as leading Covenant's engineering team, made up of veterans who worked inside the American, Israeli and German defense establishments before joining the company, in Kaufman's own words, to build the most advanced offensive and defensive weapons in service. Covenant has staged flight tests nearly every week since its founding, Kaufman wrote, and has flown Anthem more than 200 times since its maiden flight in August 2025, according to Calcalist.
Covenant has raised more than 250 million dollars across three funding rounds, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Thiel's Founders Fund, Lux Capital, 8VC, Aleph and Lightspeed Venture Partners, according to CNBC. The company's valuation now exceeds 1 billion dollars, according to Calcalist. Covenant is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and does not disclose its total employee count, though estimates put its Israeli workforce at several dozen people, according to Calcalist.
What Is the Anthem Missile and How Is It Built
Anthem is a ground-launched, long-range cruise missile carrying a payload of more than 200 kilograms, powered by a solid rocket motor for takeoff and a heavy-fuel jet engine for cruise flight, according to Reuters reporting carried by U.S. News. Covenant designed the system as an end-to-end solution, including its own storage, transportation, launch and reloading equipment alongside proprietary mission-planning and command-and-control software, according to Calcalist.
The company deliberately avoided sole-source suppliers, lining up three solid rocket motor providers with a fourth in development, and locking in agreements for more than 4,000 jet engines over the next two years, according to reporting carried by Reuters. Kaufman has said Anthem is meant to fill what he calls the biggest gap in the arsenal of the West: heavy payloads capable of destroying hardened targets deep behind enemy lines, work that lighter, hundred-pound-warhead munitions cannot do.
Kathleen Hicks, a former US deputy secretary of defense who now advises Covenant, said the system aligns with the Pentagon's Replicator Initiative, which is aimed at rapidly scaling affordable, autonomous, long-range capabilities, according to the Jerusalem Post. Former US Representative Mike Garcia also advises the company, according to the Jerusalem Post.
How Much Will Covenant Produce at Each Facility
Covenant operates three production sites. The Dallas plant is scheduled to begin serial production in the first quarter of 2027 and ramp toward 5,000 units a year, according to Calcalist. A second facility in Leipzig, in the German state of Saxony, spans 110,000 square feet and is expected to reach a similar capacity, with the Jerusalem Post reporting the company aims to build 1,000 missiles a year there starting next year. The Israeli site, at 32,000 square feet, is smaller and combines engineering with manufacturing, producing roughly 2,000 units annually, according to Calcalist.
The company employs more than 200 people across the United States, Germany and Israel, according to CNBC. Covenant President Abby Denburg has said the missile was designed with an eye toward potential conflict with China, telling reporters the system was built for what she called the China fight, according to reporting carried by the Times of Israel.
Kaufman put the strategic logic more starkly in Covenant's own founding announcement: "When you look at our adversaries, you see thousands of hardened targets, beyond the range of current capabilities. Anthem was built to credibly hold those targets at risk in a prolonged conflict. If our stockpiles run thin, so does our deterrence."
What Military Contracts and International Interest Has Covenant Secured
Covenant has received orders worth approximately 130 million euros, according to a report cited by SBS. The company is working with the US Navy's Rapid Capabilities Office on a maritime variant of Anthem valued at roughly 70 million dollars, and operates under an Other Transaction Agreement with the US Army for accelerated testing and qualification, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Germany's Ministry of Defense has also examined Covenant as part of a broader search for lower-cost, quickly fielded long-range missiles, according to Politico reporting carried by Calcalist. Company materials reviewed by Politico describe Covenant as a US-Israeli-linked firm working to build a sovereign European supply chain, with production capabilities planned in Germany and the United Kingdom, as Berlin pursues what Politico described as a four-track strategy for acquiring long-range strike capability.
Kaufman has said Covenant is pursuing a dual approach of low cost and high productivity by relying on readily available parts, with a goal of providing precision deep-strike systems in large quantities to Europe, the United States and allied nations, positioning the company against established contractors such as Raytheon, whose Tomahawk missile has historically been produced at a rate of about 60 units a year before a recent 23 billion dollar contract to scale toward 1,000 annually.
