The Operating System Of War Is Up For Grabs - #0071, Udi Oster

As conflict dynamics shift across the Middle East, from disrupted shipping lanes to drone warfare, a new question is emerging: who controls the software behind autonomous systems?Military power used to depend on access to advanced weapons systems, often built through international supply chains and dominated by a handful of large contractors. Today, conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, and tensions with China, are highlighting bottlenecks on critical technologies and the instability of disrupted supply chains. One Israeli company may have an answer to this new challenge. Udi Oster is the co-founder of eyesAtop, a startup building AI-native universal controllers for drone fleets. The company has spent the last three years making a case that the strategic asset in modern warfare isn’t any particular drone, but it should be the operating system above them.“Locking in to one vendor with one platform is something that in today’s world is very difficult,” Oster told me. “You want to have the flexibility to get the best technology at the point of time of interest and use it immediately.”Militaries around the world are accumulating drones from dozens of manufacturers, but without a common interface, any shared AI layer, or no easy way to retrain operators when hardware changes. EyesAtop’s platform intends to integrate into any drone, from any vendor, under one controller trained on over 500,000 hours of live IDF operational data.The Spiro Circle is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The geopolitical context of conflicts and wars has expanded this market. Global defensetech VC hit a record $49.1 billion in 2025, nearly double the prior year, driven largely by autonomy and AI. American firms like Anduril have already moved into Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore, selling hardware to nations trying to face off against the Chinese military. eyesAtop is pursuing a different layer of the stack: not competing on the drone itself, but selling the so-called brain that integrates whatever drones those nations already operate or plan to buy.Oster draws a sharp distinction between the American market and everyone else. America is its own category: It accounts for more than half of global defense spending, it has its own procurement logic, and its own concept of operations. EyesAtop already has a U.S. co-founder, a U.S. base, and existing deals with American military commands. For the rest of the world, the company offers a full-kit solution, where it selects the best available platforms globally, integrates them under its universal controller, and delivers a turnkey reconnaissance or strike capability to militaries that lack the R&D infrastructure to build it themselves.“Most of the countries outside of the U.S. lack the infrastructure and the R&D budgets even to get to the same type of level as Israel and the U.S.,” Oster said. “I would look at these countries differently.”The fundraising backstory underscores how fast the landscape has shifted. Three years ago, Oster says, virtually no Israeli VC would touch defense. The stigma was visible and impacted reputational and commercial opportunities. But the world changed after October 7, 2023, and today, funds are competing for allocations in a sector that now ranks among the top three investment themes globally.The longer-term vision Oster sketches is more ambitious than any single product cycle. As robotic systems multiply on the battlefield, army headcount becomes less relevant than software sophistication. Today, wars can be fought by one operator controlling multiple autonomous platforms that were trained in actual combat. “Instead of having a whole company,” he says, “you have two people, but they would operate a company of robotic systems.”He calls it "the ghost squad." For the allies now looking to build drone sovereignty in the middle of an active regional war, it may also be the next software contract they don't know they need. And that balance of power is moving up the stack.[3-minute preview: Optimism in Defensetech and the future of deterrence] Get full access to The Spiro Circle at www.thespirocircle.com/subscribe