The CET Brief

Friendly fire remains one of the most persistent and devastating failures on the modern battlefield — and it's getting worse as drones, urban warfare, and multi-domain operations add layers of complexity to the identification problem. In this episode, Meir Rapaport, CEO of Intact, shares the deeply personal story behind the company's founding — friends lost to fratricide — and how that motivation drove a decade-long development journey from GPS-based detection through infrared and into their current mid-wave identification system. We cover how Intact's technology detects, identifies, and prevents friendly fire across ground forces, air assets, and drones using directional transmission that remains undetectable to adversaries, the electromagnetic physics that make it work in contested environments, and how the system integrates across helmets, weapons, UAVs, and command centers. Meir also walks us through current IDF field testing, the company's US market strategy including DARPA engagement and "Made in America" manufacturing plans, and why US-Israel operational coordination makes this capability more critical than ever.

Most military drones still rely on a human operator for every critical decision. Wonder Robotics is building the technology to change that. In this episode, Or Epstein, co-founder of Wonder Robotics, walks us through how his team developed an AI-powered pod that retrofits existing drones with full autonomy — including guidance, targeting, and navigation in GPS-denied environments — using off-the-shelf hardware and sophisticated software. We cover the founding story rooted in military and engineering experience, how hundreds of pods have been deployed and stress-tested across multiple platforms and theaters, and why their approach of bolt-on autonomy rather than building new airframes gives them a speed and cost advantage. Or also shares the company's strategy for entering the US defense market, upcoming demonstration plans, and what rapid iteration looks like when your end users are warfighters operating in real time.

GPS signals are inherently weak — and adversaries know it. From contested battlefields in the Middle East and Ukraine to civilian airspace over Europe, jamming and spoofing have become standard tools of disruption. In this episode, Omer Sharar, CEO of infiniDome, walks us through how his team built a modular anti-jamming system that protects platforms without replacing existing hardware — sitting between the antenna and receiver to filter interference in real time. We cover how infiniDome evolved from autonomous vehicle navigation into a battle-proven defense provider, why their approach changes the cost and integration equation for GPS protection, and how lessons from active conflict are shaping the next generation of GNSS resilience across military and commercial markets.

ASIO has quietly become one of Israel's most operationally proven defense startups — with over 10,000 combat flight hours on its optical navigation systems and products deployed across multiple armed forces. In this conversation, co-founder and CEO Tomer Malchi walks us through how ASIO got started, the culture that drives a sub-50-person team to compete with defense giants, and the technology behind their GPS-independent navigation solutions for tactical drones and ground forces. From NOCTA's jam-proof UAV positioning to the ORION mobile terminal used by IDF commanders in the field, Tomer breaks down what ASIO builds, why it matters, and where the company is headed.