The Anduril 10

These are the ten Israeli defense-tech startups DDR&D walked Palmer Luckey through in February 2026. Most of them have never been profiled together. They are about to be the most-watched portfolio in Israeli industry.

By Ronn Torossian

In February 2026, the Israeli Ministry of Defense's Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D) — together with Israeli defense-tech company ASIO — organized a private set of pitches for one American visitor: Palmer Luckey, the self-described "radical Zionist" founder of the $61 billion defense unicorn Anduril Industries.

Ten companies presented. Most of them get one mention in one Calcalist article and nothing else in English. This is the definitive reference.

Four months after the visit, Anduril is hiring a country lead in Israel, exploring acquisitions, and writing checks. These ten companies sit at the front of that pipeline. Some of them will be acquired. Some will partner. Some will use the Anduril proximity to win American defense procurement directly. All of them now operate inside a different valuation regime than they did the day before Luckey landed.

This is the Anduril 10.

The Public One

Smart Shooter

Founded: 2011, by Michal Mor (CEO) and Avshalom Erlich (CTO), both ex-Rafael
HQ: Kibbutz Yagur, Israel
Product: SMASH AI-powered fire-control systems — turn standard infantry rifles into precision counter-drone weapons
Status: Public on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (ticker SMSH) since March 2026 — raised NIS 200M at NIS 900M valuation
Customers: IDF (36% of revenue), US Army, US Navy, US Marines, US JIATF-401, UK MoD, German military, plus 25 countries
Revenue: $20.8M in first nine months of 2025 (up 241% YoY); ~$36.5M projected full year
Anduril angle: Filed its IPO prospectus the same week Luckey landed — listed weeks later

Why it's different: The first Israeli defense-tech startup of this generation to go public. SMASH is already integrated across NATO. Smart Shooter no longer needs Anduril. Anduril needs Smart Shooter.

The Unicorn

Kela

Founded: July 2024 — direct response to October 7
HQ: Tel Aviv
Founders: Hamutal Meridor (President, Unit 8200, ex-Palantir Israel), Alon Dror (CEO, Talpiot, ex-MAFAT, Israel Defense Prize), Jason Manne (Unit 81, Air Force), Omer Bar-Ilan (ex-Rafael algorithms lead)
Product: Open-architecture military operating system — connects sensors, drones, radars, and commercial AI into one unified command interface
Funding: Approximately $300M raised across Seed, Series A, B — currently closing $200M at $1.2B valuation (unicorn)
Backers: Sequoia Capital, Lux Capital, In-Q-Tel (CIA), Stripes, D1 Capital, Bill Ackman, Eric Schmidt
Customers: IDF (primary); 2025 contract volume $50M+; expanding to US and European militaries
Anduril angle: Direct competitor and likely partner. Kela's founders explicitly modeled the company on Anduril. Same backer overlap — Lux Capital sits on both cap tables

Why it's different: The only Israeli company in this group with a path to becoming an Anduril-sized prime in its own right. Founded by the daughter of Dan Meridor (former Israeli Minister of Justice). Backed entirely by US capital — no Israeli VCs on the cap table. That is a strategic statement.

The Hardware Suppliers Anduril Already Wants

ASIO Technologies

Founded: 2010s; CEO and founder Tomer Malchi
HQ: Kfar Saba, fewer than 50 employees
Product: NOCTA — autonomous optical navigation for GPS-denied environments; OLAR (Orion) — handheld digital mapping device used by IDF ground forces
Customers: IDF (decade of deployment, in active use during Operation Roaring Lion against Iran); recent multi-million-dollar contract with a US prime defense contractor for several hundred NOCTA units
Combat record: 10,000+ operational hours on real missions
Anduril angle: Already signed. ASIO will supply components for Anduril's unmanned aerial systems. ASIO co-organized the entire visit with DDR&D — meaning ASIO is effectively Anduril's Israeli quartermaster

Why it's different: The bridge company. ASIO is the one Anduril already trusts enough to give it the keys to the rest of the ecosystem. GPS-jamming is the defining tactical problem of modern war. ASIO solves it.

LiteVision

Founded: Recent; two former Rafael employees; CEO Tamar Harary
HQ: Israel
Product: Lightweight electro-optic camera payloads for small drones — same category as Israel's Next Vision, but built for the small-drone end of the market
Funding: Approximately $8M seed
Backers: 8VC (Joe Lonsdale — the Palantir co-founder and Anduril backer), Kinetica VC, Q-Fund, 10D
Anduril angle: Anduril has signaled investment interest. 8VC already owns shares in both Anduril and LiteVision — so the bridge is structural, not hypothetical

Why it's different: The cap-table-engineered match. When 8VC's portfolio company in the US wants Israeli cameras, 8VC's portfolio company in Israel sells them. This is what the next decade of US-Israel defense procurement looks like in miniature.

The Counter-UAS Layer

Regulus Cyber

Founded: 2016 by Yonatan Zur (CEO) and Yoav Zangvil (CTO)
HQ: Haifa, 11-50 employees
Product: Ring — software-based counter-drone system using GNSS spoofing (manipulating GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, BeiDou signals to push drones away or land them, without jamming). Pyramid GNSS — GPS protection software for vehicles and infrastructure
Funding: Approximately $10.8M raised across three rounds
Backers: Sierra Ventures, Canaan Partners Israel, F2 Capital, SPDG Ventures, btov Partners, Technion
Partners: Rafael, IAI (ELTA), Elbit (Elisra), Leonardo DRS, US DoD IWTSD, Hensoldt of Germany
Combat record: Hundreds of systems deployed — combat-proven in active conflict
Anduril angle: Counter-UAS is one of Anduril's primary product categories (Anvil, Roadrunner). Regulus is either a partner — or an acquisition target

Why it's different: The smallest funding round in this group, with arguably the deepest combat record. Regulus did not need American venture capital to build a system that NATO militaries are buying.

The Manufacturing Layer

Magnus Metal

Founded: 2017/2018 by Boaz Vinogradov (CEO), Gil Lavi (CTO), Moshe Frenkel (CSO), Itay Roded
HQ: Kibbutz Revadim, ~78 employees
Product: Digital Casting — a hybrid 3D-printing-plus-casting process for high-volume production of large, complex, load-bearing metal parts. 40-60% less raw material, 6-18 weeks faster lead time, 10-20% higher strength than traditional casting
Funding: $85M+ across rounds; $74M Series B in 2024 led by Entrée Capital and Target Global
Backers: Caterpillar Ventures, Entrée Capital, Target Global, Awz Ventures, Lumir Ventures, Discount Capital, Cresson Management, others
Recognition: First place in the US Army XTech international competition
Anduril angle: Anduril is building a $1 billion manufacturing facility in Pickaway County, Ohio. Anduril's bottleneck is hardware throughput. Magnus Metal is a throughput technology

Why it's different: The only one of the ten that isn't a sensor, drone, or weapon. Magnus is the manufacturing layer beneath everything else. Drones need cast metal parts. Missiles need cast metal parts. Tanks, vehicles, weapons systems — all of it. Magnus is the picks-and-shovels play.

The Domain Specialists

Skana Robotics

Founded: 2023 by Idan Levy (CEO) and Idan Hazan — naval special-operations veterans and robotics engineers
HQ: Tel Aviv / Haifa
Product: Three autonomous maritime vessels — Bull Shark (surface USV, 150kg payload, ISR + interdiction), Stingray (underwater AUV, anti-submarine warfare), Alligator (amphibious, 1,500kg payload, 300nm range, launches other autonomous systems)
Funding: Approximately $4.3M pre-seed; Seed round planned for 2026
Approach: Software-defined naval architecture (SeaSphere engine, Vera ROS2 mission execution layer); designed for mass production and NATO interoperability
Anduril angle: Anduril builds undersea autonomous systems (Dive-LD). Skana is the Israeli equivalent. US Navy is building a hybrid fleet of crewed and autonomous vessels. Skana wants in

Why it's different: The maritime play. Every other Anduril 10 company is air, ground, or software. Skana is the sea — and the Red Sea, Black Sea, and Mediterranean are now the most contested waters in the Western alliance.

AriEV (AIR)

Founded: 2018; CEO Rani Plaut
HQ: Pardes Hanna-Karkur, ~60 employees
Product: AIR ONE — two-seat electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Eight fixed motors, hover-to-cruise transition, 1,100kg max capacity. 200kg of supplies into contested zones
Facility: 32,000-square-foot production site opened July 2025 — capable of producing six aircraft simultaneously
Customers: Israeli Air Force and IDF ground forces (used operationally — described as an "aerial Humvee"); exploring US Air Force Agility Prime program
Anduril angle: Anduril builds autonomous aerial systems. AIR builds piloted-or-autonomous aerial systems. The category line between them gets thinner every quarter

Why it's different: Dual-use. Most defense startups are 100% military. AIR sells the same eVTOL to militaries and consumers. That is a different commercial profile — and a different geopolitical export profile.

eyesAtop

Founded: 2015
HQ: Rehovot
Founders: CEO Udi Oster, President Daniel Almog
Product: Hardware-agnostic multi-drone command-and-control platform — lets a single operator coordinate drones from multiple vendors simultaneously. Edge AI embedded directly in drones for GPS-denied autonomy
Combat record: 500,000+ hours in real combat conditions
Funding: Undisclosed
Customers: IDF — handheld screens used by frontline soldiers to fly any drone the IDF adopts "on Day 1, like a Jedi" (Daniel Almog to NPR)
Anduril angle: Anduril's Lattice is a battle-management OS. eyesAtop is a drone-specific operator OS. Either competitive or complementary depending on how Anduril decides to layer its software stack

Why it's different: The thinnest English-language footprint of any of the ten — and the deepest combat record per dollar of capital raised. eyesAtop has shipped more drone hours than most of this list combined.

The Stealth Mover

Oz

Founded: Stealth — emerged in 2024; founding team not publicly disclosed
HQ: Israel
Product: Friendly-fire prevention systems — a category created by the early days of the Gaza war, when nearly one-fifth of Israeli casualties were attributed to friendly fire
Funding: First round closed pre-Anduril visit; details not public
Reported activity: Defense-tech analyst Hidden Gems Research has reported (on X) that US-listed defense group Ondas (NASDAQ: ONDS) is in talks to acquire Oz at a valuation "in the hundreds of millions" — not independently confirmed
Anduril angle: The most opaque of the ten. Stealth-stage companies rarely pitch foreign billionaires. Oz pitched Luckey because the IDF wanted him to see it

Why it's different: The problem Oz solves is one nobody wanted to admit existed. Friendly-fire prevention is a Gaza-war category. Every Western army with an active combat deployment now needs one. Oz built it first.

What The Anduril 10 Actually Is

Read in one sitting, the list is more than ten companies. It is a portrait of what the Israeli defense-tech sector has become since October 7.

Two-thirds of these founders are alumni of Rafael, Palantir Israel, Unit 8200, Unit 81, Talpiot, or MAFAT. Almost all are reservists. Half were built in direct response to wartime gaps the IDF discovered in real combat. The ones that took American capital took it from Sequoia, Lux, 8VC, In-Q-Tel, Founders Fund, Stripes, D1, Bill Ackman, and Eric Schmidt — not from generalist Israeli VCs.

That is the new ground truth. The Israeli defense-tech ecosystem now operates on US capital, Israeli engineering, battle-proven product cycles, and a procurement bench that goes directly to the Pentagon, NATO, and — in Luckey's case — the next-generation American defense prime.

Anduril didn't pick ten random companies.

Anduril picked the bench.

Related — The Luckey Franchise

• Anduril Bets On Israel — Why the $61 billion defense unicorn is setting up local operations.
• Palmer Luckey: The Radical Zionist — The conviction backstory: Oculus, the Facebook firing, Anduril, and the doctrine.

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Ronn Torossian is the founder and chairman of 5W AI Communications, the AI Communications Firm. He is the publisher of Everything-PR and the author of two best-selling editions of For Immediate Release.