eyesAtop is graded L3 · Operational in the Israeli Defence-AI Deployment Index. The strongest public source is Calcalist's CTech, which reported that the company had been selected, jointly with Kela, to provide the autonomous command-and-control platform for the IDF's future attack-drone fleet, and that its technology was already in use by infantry units. Two named Israeli outlets independently describe the platform in service, which is what the top grade requires.
What the company builds
The problem the company addresses is administrative before it is technical. A military that buys drones from several manufacturers ends up with several ground stations, several controllers and several operators, each dedicated to one aircraft. That does not scale.
The company's product is a control layer that sits above the individual drone. Reporting describes a single hardware controller and software interface from which one operator can fly and manage several different aircraft types at once, regardless of who made them. Ynet reported that the platform lets a single operator coordinate multiple drones across vendors, missions and contested environments. The Times of Israel reported that the controller had been integrated with more than 20 different drone platforms.
The stated purpose of the autonomy is time compression — shortening the sequence from spotting something to acting on it, which defence writing calls the sensor-to-shooter loop. Published descriptions consistently place a human operator at the controller. This index takes no view on where the decision authority sits inside the software, because no reviewed source describes it in enough detail to say.
What the public record shows
- Calcalist (CTech) reported that the company and Kela had been selected to provide the autonomous control and management platform for the IDF's next-generation attack-drone fleet, describing this as effectively a national platform for that fleet.
- Calcalist (CTech), in later coverage, reported a change in the same attack-drone tender as the US-listed firm Ondas entered the picture alongside the two Israeli companies, a useful reminder that a reported selection is not always a settled outcome.
- The Times of Israel reported that the hardware-agnostic control platform was in the hands of the IDF, and that the universal controller had been integrated with more than 20 drone types.
- Ynet reported the company's unified drone platform and its multi-vendor, single-operator design.
- Forbes Israel covered the wider contest between Israeli companies to supply the control software layer for military drone fleets, placing the company within that competition.
The company was founded in 2015. Its location is not publicly stated in the sources reviewed here, and the index records it as such rather than guessing. Figures widely repeated in coverage — more than 500,000 operational flight hours in combat conditions, and use by IDF infantry brigades at scale — originate with the company and are reported as company statements. They are not independently verified in any source reviewed here.
How the grade was assigned
L3 requires a named public source reporting that a military has used the system in actual operations. Both Calcalist and The Times of Israel describe the platform as already in the hands of IDF units rather than under evaluation, and Calcalist separately reports a selection for a future fleet-wide role.
The selection itself would ordinarily support L2 rather than L3, since a tender award is a procurement event. It is the reported existing use by infantry units, published by named outlets, that carries the grade. The distinction matters and the grading rules turn on it.
The later CTech report on the tender shifting is retained deliberately. An index that cites a selection announcement and then ignores subsequent reporting that complicates it is not doing its job.
What is not established
No published source establishes the terms of the contract: value, duration, quantities, or whether the reported selection has been converted into a signed agreement. Reporting on the tender's status has changed at least once.
Performance is entirely unestablished. There is no published data on latency, on how many aircraft one operator can genuinely manage under contested electromagnetic conditions, or on how the autonomy behaves when a link degrades. The half-million flight-hours figure describes exposure, not accuracy or reliability, and it is a company figure.
The index does not connect this or any product to a named strike, operation or casualty event. Reporting describing operational use in combat conditions is recorded as such and taken no further. Founder backgrounds are likewise not used here to infer unit affiliation, in line with the index's standing rule.
Where this sits among Israeli autonomous air systems
Autonomous air systems is one of the larger categories in the index, and it is internally varied: it contains aircraft makers, munition makers and, in this case, a control-layer supplier that makes no aircraft at all. The full autonomous air systems category sets out the grade distribution.
The closest comparison is XTEND, which also sells operator-guided control of drones but pairs it with its own aircraft. A contrast at the opposite end of the category is UVision Air, whose loitering munitions are the payload such control layers exist to task. Buyers reading across these entries should note that the categories in the index reflect primary product focus and not exclusive scope.
Frequently asked questions
Does the IDF use eyesAtop's drone control platform?
Calcalist's CTech and The Times of Israel both reported that the platform is in use by IDF units, and Calcalist reported that the company was selected with Kela to supply the control platform for the military's future attack-drone fleet. Later CTech coverage reported that tender changing.
What is a universal drone controller?
It is a single controller and software interface from which one operator can fly and manage several different types of drone from different manufacturers, instead of needing a separate operator and ground station for each aircraft. Reporting describes integration with more than 20 platform types.
Is the 500,000 operational flight hours figure verified?
No. That figure originates with the company and appears in coverage as a company statement. No source reviewed for this entry independently verifies it, and it describes hours flown rather than any measure of accuracy or reliability.
Sources
- Calcalist CTech, on the selection of Kela and eyesAtop for the IDF's autonomous attack drones
- Calcalist CTech, on Israel's attack-drone tender and the entry of Ondas
- The Times of Israel, on unified drone controls in the hands of the IDF
- Ynet, Israeli startup eyesAtop builds unified drone platform for modern warfare
- Forbes Israel, The operating system of war is up for grabs
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.