DOD, Israel Pick Skylord Xtender Small UAS for Remote Operations Support

The Department of Defense and Israel’s defense ministry have jointly selected drone developer Xtend to provide a small unmanned aircraft system for use in remotely controlled operations. The company notes that its Skylord Xtender sUAS is designed to allow human operators to remotely support missions from distances far from risky environments. The drone uses a human-centric machine interface technology to collect data, perform reconnaissance, safely escape dangerous places and function in both indoor and outdoor operations.

“Whether it’s a soldier scanning a building for enemy fighters, locating snipers, or providing [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] on a suspected enemy stronghold, our goal in developing this technology was to minimize the danger to human life,” said Matteo Shapira, co-founder of XTEND. Since 2020, Xtend has provided prototypes of the Skylord Xtender platform to DOD’s tactical units for operational testing and evaluation.

Thanks to CDR David Place (USN/Ret), davidplace47[at]gmail[dot]com, and Robin E. Alexander, President ATC, alexander technical[at]gmail[dot]com, for their assistance with this report, the background for which appeared in their  # 21 - 14 - 26 MAY 2021 edition of the UNMANNED SYSTEMS NEWS (USN).

David distributes the USN, a free, comprehensive newsletter in PDF format every week or two, as well as serial news flashes, from which this NREF news update was sourced. To be included in his distribution, simply send David a subscribe request to davidplace47[at]gmail[dot]com