The Department of Defense’ Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations/Low-Intensity Conflict (ASD SO/LIC), Irregular Warfare Technical Support Directorate (IWTSD), in partnership with Israel’s Ministry of Defense, Directorate of Defense Research & Development (Ma’fat), has contracted with revolutionary telepresence platform, XTEND, for a new hyper-enabled small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) product, called “SKYLORD XTENDER”, beginning in 2020. The initiative will deliver multiple, tactical sUAS platform prototypes to – U.S. Department of Defense tactical units for Operational Testing and Evaluation (OT&E).

With operations in Israel and the United States, XTEND is a provider of tactical drones for defense, national security, public safety, and industrial inspection markets. Founded by brothers Aviv and Matteo Shapira, Adir Tubi and Rubi Liani, XTEND utilizes a state-of-the-art, drone-based extended- reality technology, to combine virtual elements with real-life environments.

SKYLORD XTENDER provided a unique, human-centric ‘machine interface technology’ that enables operators and first responders to remotely intervene in dangerous situations, from a safe distance, via drone by virtually ‘sitting inside’ the small sUAS. This “future-is-now” technology reduces the need for humans to physically interact with a dangerous environment, while still extending themselves into the action.

“Hyper enabled drones are the future of engagement for dangerous situation worldwide. The IDF has recognized XTEND’s family of products called SKYLORD as one of the most effective technologies for urban warfare missions, specifically indoor and close-quarters combat,” said XTEND Co-founder and CEO Aviv Shapira. “The SKYLORD XTENDER is one of our most advanced drone platforms and harnessing it under this initiative will help the U.S. DoD save lives and ensure mission success in any combat scenario.”

The SKYLORD XTENDER platform allows any operator with little or no flight experience to perform specific remote tasks in complex environments. This feature eliminates and prevents unnecessary dangers to humans. Other capabilities include approaching a target site from any location, performing recon and data collection tasks with extreme accuracy, and seamlessly exit the danger zones, agnostic of any indoor-outdoor transition limitations.

“The SKYLORD XTENDER platform is so intuitive that it requires less than 1 hour of training to operate. Whether it’s a soldier scanning a building for enemy fighters, locating snipers, or providing ISR on a suspected enemy stronghold, our goal in developing this technology was to minimize the danger to human life,” said XTEND co-founder Matteo Shapira. “No matter the operator or situation, when you use our extended VR technology, you can rest assured that even the most dangerous missions are as safe as possible.”

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