Mitch Schneider

Let me introduce you to Aviv and Matteo Shapira, brothers who started building toy racing drones in 2018. Real gamer stuff. VR headsets, 150 km/h speeds, the kind of tech that makes teenage boys lose their minds.

Seven years later, their software is integrated into Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, the legendary lab that built the U-2 spy plane, the SR-71 Blackbird, and the F-35 fighter jet.

How did gaming drones become the future of American warfare? The answer reveals something Washington doesn’t want to admit: when it comes to drone warfare, Israel isn’t just ahead of America. America needs Israel to fight its next war.

When Combat Became the Best Teacher

The Shapira brothers sold their first company to Intel. Replay, a 360-degree sports camera system, went for $175 million in 2016. When they launched Xtend, the vision was immersive gaming with FPV racing drones controlled through VR headsets. Entertainment, not warfare.

Then 2019 happened. Hamas started launching incendiary balloons and kites from Gaza. Israel’s Defense Ministry research directorate, MAFAT, saw Xtend’s control system and recognized something the brothers hadn’t: their gaming interface could train anyone to pilot a combat drone in hours, not months.

“We had a system where anyone could fly a racing drone,” Robbie Liani, Xtend’s co-founder and CTO, explained. “MAFAT said: ‘We have soldiers on the fence. Everyone can shoot down balloons.’ We did a demo. Everyone at MAFAT managed to blow up balloons. We got our first defense contract.”

The technology that made gaming intuitive made warfare accessible. Gaza became their proving ground, but not by choice.

China’s Numbers vs. America’s Answer

August 2023. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks unveiled Project Replicator with a straightforward concept: flood future battlefields with thousands of cheap, expendable drones to counter China’s massive military…