Senior officials from Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works were in Israel last month, meeting with Israeli defense tech companies as well as senior defense officials in a trip organized by Lockheed Martin Israel.
Skunk Works is Lockheed Martin’s advanced development division, known for pioneering new aerospace and defense technologies, including advanced aircraft, autonomy, and command-and-control systems.
Defense & Tech by The Jerusalem Post understands that the Skunk Works team was in the country looking to identify battlefield-proven technologies from companies to integrate them into their solutions – similar to what they have done with Xtend by integrating the Israeli defense tech’s operating system (XOS) into Skunk Works’ MDCX autonomy platform.
Paul Fogel, chief engineer, and his team met with over a dozen defense tech companies in several special events, including a demo day held in the Gaza border communities.
D&T understands that one special event was held by Lockheed Martin Israel in cooperation with Israel’s Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development, MAFAT. Senior MAFAT officials attended the event held in central Tel Aviv.
Several companies attended the event, which focused on drones, command and control, and autonomy. Among them were Pixelsite, which specializes in visual intelligence and passive optical systems to detect low-signature threats; Regulus, which builds a full-spectrum counter-drone solution; and Particle Labs, a deep tech company that is currently still in stealth mode.
Another event was held by CET Sandbox where about 10 start-ups in the fields of electronic warfare, battlefield dominance, autonomy, and force protection took part. D&T understands some of the companies that took part included Tenna Systems, Ion Flux, Invisig, BEX Robotics, Resight, Sharksense, Asio Technologies, Airwayz, R2 Wireless, and Insignito.
The day concluded with a public event at Start-up Nation Central, sponsored by Shibolet and Asio in Tel Aviv, where more than 100 representatives from Israeli start-ups gathered to meet the Lockheed Martin team. The evening included a panel discussion on the future of the defense landscape, followed by an open Q&A session.
CET Sandbox is a US-Israel defense tech innovation hub connecting Israeli defense tech start-ups to the US defense industrial base, government agencies, and capital markets.
In an earlier interview with D&T, Candis Roussel, Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS) at Lockheed Martin, said that Skunk Works has “always been at the forefront of cutting‑edge technology, and we love tackling new challenges.”
“Skunk Works has been around since the 1950s, driving innovation in aerospace engineering,” Roussel said. “Our mission is to keep pace with the rapidly evolving environment and provide the safety, data, and agility that pilots and warfighters need to operate quickly and effectively – improving both their safety and their success.”
“Ninety‑seven percent of our work is classified, but the remaining three percent gives you a glimpse into the complexity and advanced capabilities our teams are developing,” she added.