XTEND Reality Inc., a company that makes advanced drone systems for military and law enforcement use, has opened a new facility in Tampa.
The 10,000-square-foot space at the Crossroads Industrial Center in East Tampa will serve as the company’s U.S. headquarters as well as a manufacturing site.
Founded by Israeli businessmen Aviv Shapira, Matteo Shapira and Rubi Liani, the organization already has a presence in Israel, Singapore and Eastern Europe.
XTEND hosted a grand opening ceremony Monday for its new facility (the company began to use the space in May).
Mayor Jane Castor of Tampa; retired Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr., former commander of the United States Central Command; and Maor Elbaz-Starinsky, consul general of Israel in Miami; were among the dignitaries who spoke at the event.
Currently, XTEND offers 10 products that help perform complicated combat missions, such as exploring buildings for explosives. Some of the company’s drones also have the ability to attack.
The company has a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense and is working directly with the U.S. Special Operations Command, which is headquartered at Tampa’s MacDill Air Force Base.
XTEND’s drones can be remotely controlled, allowing human operators to stay out of harm’s way. All of the company’s products share an AI-driven operating system, CEO Aviv Shapira told the Catalyst.
“AI is integrated in all sections all across our software,” he said. “We don’t have the ability to tell a drone to fly to the right, or to the left or go forward. We don’t have that. Everything is based on AI, so we tell a drone to ‘enter the window.’ That’s a task we [can] give a drone.”
Other examples Shapira provided were programming a drone to spy on an area, and count how many vehicles are nearby; or commanding a drone to intercept and strike down an enemy drone.
Shapira believes this task-based AI platform is the future of dangerous missions such as attacking an enemy base or area.
“At the end of the day, using robots and drones instead of traditional missiles or traditional soldiers with guns is the future of combat,” he added. “Software is going to win the next war.”
McKenzie, who from 2019 to 2022 ran CENTCOM, based at MacDill Air Force Base, emphasized this and spoke about the military significance of XTEND’s presence in the Tampa area.
“Our adversaries also move quickly, so we’re going to have to stay a step ahead of them. That means leveraging the capabilities that you see here today, and XTEND is directly going to contribute to that,” he explained.
“Anything that allows you to send a drone, instead of a dog, instead of a man, [or] instead of a woman, is something that’s going to help us and confound our enemies.”
Currently, XTEND Reality has 20 employees in Tampa with the intention of hiring more. The organization hopes to have 100 team members within the next three years.
Two of its products are manufactured at the Tampa facility. However, company leadership hopes to use the site as XTEND’s main production factory in the future.
“The line here just started two months ago, so right now we are creating two products, but the idea is to pass the knowledge and open the line to all of our products,” said Liani, the chief technology officer. “The idea is to create a high volume.”
Within the past 12 months, XTEND has sold roughly 5,000 drones.
XTEND’s founders strategically selected Tampa due to its military importance. They knew they could acquire a customer base in the region. However, it was a full circle moment.
“The first time that we demonstrated a drone flying in the U.S. was here, so for me, it was always like closing the loop,” Liani explained.
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