OPINION:
Soon after Oct. 7, 2023, my company co-founder received a call from the Israel Defense Forces Special Forces: They urgently needed a solution to maintain communications with unmanned systems in denied environments. We immediately got to work.
Leveraging our own experience from the field, we rapidly prototyped and deployed a reliable and commercial-off-the-shelf-based resilient communications system.
Washington is finally recognizing what Israel learned the hard way: Speed and real battlefield insights win wars. Both the House and Senate versions of the National Defense Authorization Act mark a historic shift toward a “commercial-first” defense strategy, one that truly carves out a path for rapid innovation. The House version, passed last week, proposes cutting back on contracting red tape and outdated specs. The Senate goes even further, directing the Defense Department to look to the commercial market before designing bespoke systems and to create clearer pathways for prototypes to move into production.
As defense acquisition finally pivots toward speed and real-world impact, one thing is clear: Veteran-led defense companies must move to the center of the Defense Department’s agenda. Recent combat veterans carry the operational understanding and mission-first mindset that strategy documents can’t capture. Their lived experience is precisely what effective innovation requires.
They understand not just in theory, but in practice, what the battlefield demands. They are fast because they have known life-or-death situations. They are practical because they know ideas don’t defeat an enemy.
Recent threats to Israel erased the line between technologists and warfighters. Reservists adapted commercial tools and solved problems with the urgency only experience can produce. When they returned home, many carried that mission forward, joining defense tech to build what they wished they had had in the field.
We have already seen this at Kela. Our first system launched in border protection. Soon afterward, when the IDF urgently needed to secure high-value assets under tight timelines, it called us. Why? Because our team combines elite engineering talent with battle-hardened warfighters who have stood on the front lines themselves. We don’t just understand our users; we are our users.
The world cannot afford an Oct. 6, 2023, or Sept. 10, 2001, mindset. When confronted with a conflict, you go to war with the army you have, not the one you wish you had. The only way to change that is to draw on those with real battlefield experience to identify mission gaps and rapid solutions.
This innovation also exists in the U.S. The founders of Shield AI and Saronic are U.S. Navy SEALs, pioneering artificial-intelligence-piloted aircraft and maritime autonomy. Former U.S. Marines established Reveal Technology and are building real-time 3D mapping tools that operate in denied environments.
This new generation of defense-led startups and companies brings an irreplaceable perspective. They know how to maximize the value of existing systems, how to spot the right commercial tools to adapt and how to deliver capabilities in days, not years.
These solutions are emerging not from government research-and-development road maps but from the insights of transitioning veterans who understand the needs of their fellow warfighters. They understand that practicality and reliability are superior to the supposedly “perfect” systems that tend to arrive at the front line long after the war has ended.
What’s happening right now in Congress isn’t just smart policy; it’s how America and its allies will win the next fight. Congress has taken important steps, but by putting veterans in the driver’s seat, to quote Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, we will “build on the tenets of restoring the warrior ethos.”
• Hamutal Meridor is CEO and co-founder of Kela Systems, an Israeli defense tech startup.
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