From Combat Zone to Command Center: Israeli-American Entrepreneur Bentzion Levinson Aims to Revolutionize Drone Warfare

Edited by: Fern Sidman

For Israeli-American entrepreneur Bentzion Levinson, the battlefield is more than just a distant memory—it is a mission statement. After serving on extended reserve duty during Israel’s 17-month military campaign against the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip, Levinson returned to his civilian role with renewed urgency and a crystal-clear objective: to outpace and outsmart enemy drones through innovation.

As reported by The Times of Israel on March 30^th, Levinson is one of a growing number of Israeli entrepreneurs whose experience in combat has become the catalyst for technological breakthroughs aimed at reshaping how Israel, and the world, defends itself in the age of drone warfare.

After serving more than two months on Israel’s northern border during the IDF’s 17-month military campaign against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Levinson returned with a clear vision: build drones that are not only smarter and more durable, but also agile enough to outmatch the low-cost, high-impact UAVs increasingly favored by Israel’s enemies.

“On October 7, 2023, Hamas used cheap Chinese drones bought on Alibaba to disable our cameras and monitoring systems,” Levinson told The Times of Israel. That moment, now etched into Israeli defense history, marked a turning point for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and for Levinson himself.

Deployed to the northern border, where he served for over two months, Levinson witnessed firsthand how Iran-backed Hezbollah utilized drones to target and kill Israeli soldiers. “Drones were a real threat—not just surveillance tools, but offensive weapons used to deadly effect,” he said.

Born in New York and raised in Israel after immigrating at age 10, Levinson’s life has always straddled the worlds of tech and security. A graduate of the Israeli education system and a former IDF combat commander, Levinson’s first taste of military-tech fusion came during a 2018 national hackathon, aimed at addressing the devastating effects of incendiary balloons and drones launched from Gaza.

Initially, the project developed thermal-equipped drones to spot fires caused by airborne incendiary devices. But as he told The Times of Israel, response time wasn’t fast enough. That shortfall led to the creation of a larger drone prototype capable of extinguishing fires, delivering both detection and action.

That experience was the springboard for what would become Heven, Levinson’s drone-tech startup aimed at delivering powerful, compact, and cost-effective drone solutions for the world’s most pressing security and humanitarian challenges.

Founded in 2019, Heven is headquartered in Miami and operates a research and development hub at the Mevo Carmel Science and Industry Park near Yokne’am in northern Israel. As The Times of Israel reported, the company’s mission is to democratize drone capabilities—bringing down costs, increasing autonomy, and expanding utility far beyond traditional military applications.

“Drones are becoming a strategic asset,” Levinson told The Times of Israel.  “With the Russia-Ukraine war and following the October 7 onslaught, most countries understand that drones are the X-factor reshaping today’s modern warfare and are trying to get the best technology, but also to build their own capabilities of being able to produce them.”

Heven’s drones are designed for multiple markets, including military and homeland security, firefighting and emergency response, search-and-rescue operations, aid delivery in disaster zones and industrial and civilian applications.

Unlike Israel’s large military UAVs that can cost millions to build and maintain, Heven’s drones aim to be compact, modular, and autonomous, bringing powerful capabilities to smaller units and field operatives at a fraction of the cost.

Levinson’s time on the frontlines gave him not just motivation, but clarity. The war revealed glaring gaps in defensive technologies when confronted with low-cost enemy drones—an asymmetric warfare tool that has become increasingly lethal.

He is not alone. As The Times of Israel report highlighted, a wave of tech-minded veterans has returned from reserve duty with battlefield insights that are now fueling Israel’s innovation ecosystem, particularly in defense tech.

“I came back to work at the drone startup I founded a couple of years ago with the urgency and need to take action and provide the best tech for the most complex missions,” Levinson told The Times of Israel. “Drones are reshaping modern global warfare and can get Israeli soldiers out of harm’s way.”

Levinson’s vision is firmly rooted in national defense, but its implications stretch globally. From the trenches of Ukraine to urban conflict zones and natural disaster areas, drones are no longer luxury tools—they are necessities. And with the rise of inexpensive, commercially available drone technologies being exploited by terror organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, the need for rapid innovation and scalable countermeasures is more critical than ever.

“Drones are becoming a strategic asset,” Levinson emphasized in the Times of Israel report. “With the Russia-Ukraine war and following the October 7 onslaught, most countries understand that drones are the X-factor reshaping today’s modern warfare and are trying to get the best technology, but also to build their own capabilities of being able to produce them.”

Heven’s strategy revolves around two core military challenges: how much a drone can carry and how long it can stay airborne.

Addressing these limitations, the startup pivoted in 2019 to develop heavy-lifting drones with robust endurance. The result? A drone capable of carrying up to 70 pounds (35 kilograms)—a significant upgrade over standard consumer or tactical drones.

As The Times of Israel report explained, most drones today rely on electric batteries, restricting flight time to about 40 minutes to an hour. Levinson and his team broke that barrier by developing drones powered by hydrogen fuel cells, achieving up to five times the flight time of battery-powered systems.

“The drones we develop can be used for heavy lifting logistics of sensors, robotic and intelligence-gathering functions, as well as for extreme missions and air launch missions, including launching missiles off drones,” Levinson told The Times of Israel.

This innovation places Heven squarely in the vanguard of a new generation of drone technology—where multi-functionality, long-range endurance, and precision payload deployment are not luxuries but necessities.

The strategic implications of Heven’s technology are significant. In theaters such as Gaza, Ukraine, and beyond, drone warfare has proven to be not only transformative but deeply asymmetric. According to the information provided in The Times of Israel report, groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, which are both backed by Iran and designated as terrorist organizations by the United States and European Union, have used low-cost commercial drones to disrupt sophisticated military systems and inflict casualties at scale.

Levinson’s work stands as a direct answer to this threat: developing advanced tools that are affordable, scalable, and tactically superior, so Israeli and allied forces can respond decisively and safely.

As Levinson told The Times of Israel, “Fast forward to October 7: Customers’ minds opened up as there was a need and an urgency, and when you have these two things, especially in a government area, that totally opens the market.”

Levinson added that modern battalion commanders now see drones not only as tools for reconnaissance but as lethal extensions of their units—capable of detecting and eliminating threats with speed and precision.

At the core of Heven’s innovation is its hydrogen-powered drone fleet, designed to solve two of the biggest pain points in military drone use: flight duration and payload capacity.

According to The Times of Israel, Heven’s latest line of drones includes three models, each capable of flying between 100 minutes to over 10 hours, while carrying payloads between 10 and 22 pounds. These drones also feature GPS-independent navigation, crucial for contested environments where GPS signals are jammed or spoofed by enemy forces.

One of the company’s flagship products, the H100 heavy-lift drone, can carry up to 30 kilograms (about 66 pounds) and fly for 22 to 55 minutes, depending on conditions and payload configuration.

While many startups scramble to adapt to war-driven demands, Heven had a critical head start. As The Times of Israel reported, Heven already had a production facility in northern Israel capable of building 100 drones per month when the war broke out. The company, which employs about 50 people, leveraged this capacity to become the IDF’s sole-source supplier for hydrogen-powered drones.

“If today you had to produce 1,000 drones a week, there is no production facility in Israel that can support that,” Levinson explained while speaking with The Times of Israel. “A lot of companies have been working on defense stuff since October 7, but we had a facility… which helped us become a supplier for the Israeli army.”

Breaking into Israel’s notoriously insular defense procurement system is no small feat. What helped Heven penetrate that wall was not just its tech, but the strategic leadership of its Israel office president, Yossi Weiss—former CEO of Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI).

In response to surging global demand—and an international push to move away from Chinese-made drones—Heven recently announced a joint venture with U.S.-based defense startup Mach Industries, according to The Times of Israel report.  The deal is backed by Sequoia Capital, one of the world’s most prominent venture firms, and aims to build a U.S.-based drone production pipeline.

Mach Industries will allocate space in its flagship Forge Huntington facility in California to manufacture Heven’s hydrogen-powered drones, with plans to ramp up to 1,000 drones per month.

“We launched this joint venture together to build facilities that can produce and support drones at significant scale,” Levinson told The Times of Israel.

The goal is clear: create a Western-centric, scalable, and secure defense supply chain that can serve both Israeli and American military needs while reducing dependency on China for drone components, materials, and manufacturing.

Heven’s vision aligns with the strategic needs of both the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and the U.S. military. With the IDF aiming to equip every battalion with autonomous drone capabilities by the end of 2025, the need for thousands of drones, then tens of thousands, is becoming a logistical and industrial priority.

“The goal of the IDF is that at the end of 2025, every single battalion will have these capabilities, which means hundreds of tactical drones being deployed into the field,” Levinson