Six companies in the Israeli Defence-AI Deployment Index build autonomous systems that move on land or in water rather than through the air. Two are graded L3, one L2, one L1 and two L0. That split — a third of the category documented as operationally used, a third with a thin public record — is why Israeli unmanned ground vehicles are simultaneously the most reported and the least documented segment of Israeli defence autonomy.
Ground and maritime autonomy differs from air autonomy in one respect that shapes the evidence. The platform is often built by a prime or converted from an existing vehicle, and the Israeli company supplies the software layer. That makes the software harder to name in a report. The published grading rules apply the same test regardless.
L3 · Operational: Israeli unmanned ground vehicles with reported use
Roboteam (2009, Tel Aviv, with US headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland) builds small and medium unmanned ground vehicles and the control software that runs them. Breaking Defense reported in August 2025 on the company's chief executive describing changes in unmanned combat and the company's role in supplying Israeli forces, including a containerised system that deploys a mixed fleet of ground robots and a drone. The report is by an identifiable defence outlet and describes use rather than intent. The full sourcing appears in the Roboteam public record.
TSG IT Advanced Systems (1969, Or Yehuda) supplies command-and-control and mission-intelligence software for robotic platforms rather than the platforms themselves. The Jerusalem Post reported on the IDF's push to field ground robots and on TSG's role in prioritising threats for them. Calcalist's Ctech separately reported the company expanding into counter-drone systems through acquisitions, including a stake in Robotican. The reasoning is set out in the TSG IT Advanced Systems entry.
L2 · Contract: one with announced procurement
Shifters AI (2023) was covered by Calcalist's Ctech in connection with autonomous ground logistics. The published material establishes a procurement relationship and nothing about the system performing an operational task. For a company founded in 2023, an L2 grade after two years is a fast public record by the standards of this index; it is still not an operational one.
One L2 entry in a six-company category is unusual. Most categories in the index are dominated by the contract band. Ground and maritime autonomy is instead barbelled: either the company is reported in use, or almost nothing is published about a defence customer at all.
L1 · Trial: one at research stage
Skana Robotics (2024, Tel Aviv) works on communication between fleets of underwater robots, a problem set where radio does not propagate and coordination has to be solved acoustically or optically. TechCrunch covered the company in December 2025. The coverage describes the technical problem and the company's approach; it does not describe a navy, a trial programme or an order. The index records the stage the public record has reached, which is L1.
L0 · Claimed: two thin records
Bluewhite (2017, Tel Aviv) builds autonomy kits that convert existing vehicles into driverless machines, with an established business in agriculture. Calcalist's Ctech has covered the company. No independent public source names a military buyer or a military user of the technology. The company is substantial; the defence record is thin, and those are different statements.
Skyforce appears in Jerusalem Post coverage in a defence-technology context. What is published describes the offering rather than a named customer, order or deployment.
Neither grade says the technology does not work. Each says that a reader cannot currently open a source that corroborates a defence application, and each names precisely what would.
What the distribution shows
Ground robotics is the area of Israeli defence autonomy that has attracted the most general reporting and the least contract disclosure. Breaking Defense and The Jerusalem Post have both published at length on Israeli forces fielding ground robots. What those reports rarely do is name which company supplied which subsystem, because the visible object is a converted bulldozer or a tracked platform and the Israeli AI is inside it.
That produces the barbell. Two companies — Roboteam and TSG — are named often enough in reporting to reach L3. The other four are either too new, too diversified or too deep in the supply chain to appear by name. It is the clearest example in the index of an evidence gap driven by supply-chain position rather than by secrecy, and it sits alongside the broader pattern described in the deployment evidence gap.
The maritime side is thinner still. One company, Skana, at L1. The index found no Israeli maritime autonomy company with a publicly announced naval order under its inclusion test, which is a finding about where startups have not yet gone rather than a claim about Israeli naval capability.
There is also an adjacency worth naming. Teleoperation — a human operating a ground vehicle remotely — is graded in the index under command and control, and is covered in Israeli military C2 and decision-support AI. Several ground-robotics deployments involve both a teleoperation layer and an autonomy layer from different suppliers.
What would change it
Shifters AI would move to L3 on any published report describing its system carrying out an operational logistics task for a named force. Skana would move to L2 on a first announced order or a named navy trial programme, and the announcement would not need to identify the customer.
Bluewhite and Skyforce would each move from L0 to L2 on a single dated announcement of a defence order with a stated scope. For Bluewhite specifically, a defence ministry statement or a report naming a military user of the autonomy kit would move it immediately. The mechanics are the same for every company in the index and are set out in what moves a grade from L0 to L3.
Limits of this reading
Supply-chain position is the dominant distortion in this category. A company whose software runs inside a prime's platform will be under-graded relative to one that sells a whole vehicle, because reporting names the vehicle. The index cannot correct for that from public sources and does not try.
It holds no performance data of any kind, and it is not a capability assessment. It reads English-language sources only. A company graded L0 here may supply a subsystem to a fielded platform under an agreement neither party has published. The full index and inclusion test set out the boundary conditions.
Frequently asked questions
Which Israeli ground robotics companies have documented operational use?
Roboteam and TSG IT Advanced Systems are the two entries graded L3. Breaking Defense reported in August 2025 on Roboteam's systems and its chief executive's account of unmanned combat, and The Jerusalem Post reported on TSG's role in the IDF's ground robotics programme.
Why are there so few Israeli maritime autonomy companies in the index?
One qualifying company, Skana Robotics, appears at L1. The index found no Israeli maritime autonomy startup with a publicly announced naval order under its inclusion test. That is a finding about where startups have gone, not a statement about Israeli naval capability.
Does supplying software inside another company's vehicle affect the grade?
It affects what gets published, which affects the grade. Reporting names the visible platform rather than the software running on it, so subsystem suppliers are systematically harder to grade upward. The index records this as a limit of public sourcing.
Sources
- idf.ai, The Israeli Defense-AI Deployment Index v1.0, 24 August 2026
- Breaking Defense, Israeli robotic defense firm sees 'big change' in unmanned combat, August 2025
- The Jerusalem Post, Inside the IDF push to deploy smarter, faster robots across the frontlines
- Calcalist Ctech, Israeli defense firm TSG expands into anti-drone systems with acquisitions
- Calcalist Ctech, Shifters AI coverage
- TechCrunch, Skana Robotics helps fleets of underwater robots communicate with each other, 17 December 2025
- Calcalist Ctech, Bluewhite coverage
- The Jerusalem Post, Skyforce coverage
Independent publication of idf.ai. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Israel Defense Forces, the Israeli Ministry of Defense, or any government body. Compiled entirely from publicly published sources. No classified, restricted or non-public information. Listed companies may dispute any entry: send the published source that contradicts it and the entry will be amended or removed.