XTEND secures U.S. Department of War contract for autonomous attack drones

AI-powered tactical autonomous robotic systems provider XTEND announced on Veterans Day 2025 that it has been awarded a multi-million-dollar fixed price contract from the U.S. Department of War to rapidly develop and deliver Affordable Close Quarter Modular Effects FPV Drone Kits (ACQME-DK).

The announcement came from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War (OASW) for Special Operations / Low-Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC) Capability Development & Innovation (CD&I) Directorate. XTEND said the contract award is a testament to the company’s leadership in the OWA market and a clear customer preference for a high-voltage Electronic Safe and Arm Device (ESAD).

Swarm-based autonomy for drones

XTEND said the next-generation ACQME-DK lethal sUAS kits will be purpose-built and provided to the Department of War's small tactical team operators to help increase their precision strike lethality and survivability when conducting assigned irregular warfare operations in complex urban terrain and rural confined spaces.

XTEND will deliver training, spares, maintenance and production from its Tampa, Fla. headquarters. The company secured a $70M Series B round in July 2025 to scale its autonomous technologies.

“This is the first operational system in the world that allows one operator to command and deploy swarms of AI enabled tactical drones remotely, with resilient Fiber Optic-plus-RF dual-comms precision and zero-latency control,” said Aviv Shapira, co-founder & CEO of XTEND. “After years of real combat deployments across five war zones, this is not a concept - it is a battle-proven system, lessons learned and applied, that gives war fighters reach and unparalleled tactical overmatch.”

The company said that swarm-based autonomy is rapidly reshaping modern warfighting doctrine, shifting from single-platform control to distributed, collaborative robotic systems performing complex missions at the tactical edge. XTEND said that remote-operated swarms deliver precision, lethality and survivability effects deep inside contested battlespaces without risking personnel or relying on fragile beyond-line-of-sight links.

XTEND said its focus on one-way attack loitering munitions that deliver lethality at low cost‑per‑kill aligns with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s directives.

“Our XOS unifies sensors, radars, payloads and third-party features and apps into a single AI-driven mission backbone,” said Rubi Liani, co-founder & CTO of XTEND. “This program extends that advantage deeper into complex terrain, scaling both precision and survivability through fully coordinated swarm behavior.”