The CET Brief

David Yahid
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The CET Brief: Combat-Proven Defense Intelligence Bridging the gap between the Israeli front line and the U.S. Defense Industrial Base (DIB). Every episode of The CET Brief features a technical intake with founders of the world’s most resilient defense technologies. We bypass the marketing noise to focus on the "Signal": high-TRL capabilities, battle-tested performance in contested environments, and U.S. sovereign readiness. Hosted by the CET Sandbox, this series provides U.S. DIB with direct access to the operational pedigree and technical moats

  1. 3d ago

    The Economics of Interception: Aaron Prat on Tehiru Aerial Systems and the Future of Counter-UAS Defense

    Detection of small drones has improved rapidly, but the gap between identifying a threat and defeating it affordably remains wide open; spending a hundred thousand dollars to stop a thousand-dollar drone is a losing equation at scale. David Yahid speaks with Aaron Prat, CEO of Tehiru Aerial Systems, who came out of IDF Unit 8200 and pivoted the company into counter-UAS after October 7 following direct conversations with Ukrainian and Israeli defense stakeholders. Tehiru builds an end-to-end detection-to-interception platform targeting Group 1 through 3 threats with interceptors priced below five thousand dollars. The system integrates with third-party detection stacks, launches within roughly 500 milliseconds of receiving target data, and spans three maturity stages from explosive-based interception at TRL 9 to autonomous multi-launcher defense at TRL 5. Dozens of systems are being installed on Israel's northern border, and Tehiru has demonstrated to the U.S. Navy and Army while working with two major American primes. The company manufactures primarily in the United States with NDAA-aligned components and keeps key software, navigation, and compute capabilities in-house. For Prat, counter-UAS defense that cannot scale economically cannot defend anything at all.

  2. Oct 1

    The Invisible Enemy: Dr. Jonathan Abir on GuaRdF and the Future of Passive RF Intelligence

    Every person, vehicle, and vessel emits radio signals, but most security operations treat the electromagnetic environment as invisible noise rather than a source of intelligence. David Yahid speaks with Dr. Jonathan Abir, CEO and Co-Founder of GuaRdF, who built the company from operational gaps his team identified in signal intelligence and frontline decision-making during Israeli military service. GuaRdF's passive RF platform detects, classifies, and geolocates emitters without transmitting, identifying specific device types down to vehicle models and IoT hardware. The system fuses RF detections with video surveillance to cue cameras on persons or vehicles of interest, and a notable police use case correlates RF signatures with footage to detect license plate swaps in real time. GuaRdF has paying customers across five continents, serving defense organizations, intelligence agencies, and law enforcement. The platform requires no transmission license, deploys plug-and-play in dense environments with hundreds of thousands of daily passersby, and supports flexible commercial structures from SaaS to capex. For Abir, the spectrum is not background noise; it is the first sensor in the stack.

  3. Sep 24

    Seeing Through Armor: Ido Rozenberg on Axon Vision and the Future of Embedded Military AI

    Armored vehicles protect their crews by sealing them inside, but that same protection strips away awareness of threats outside, above, and at close range. David Yahid speaks with Ido Rozenberg, President and CTO of Axon Vision, who founded the company nine years ago with teammates from elite IDF technical units, long before edge AI in defense became a category. Axon Vision embeds AI into military platforms, from passive perception layers for armored vehicle awareness to counter-drone active protection with Force Field, remote weapon station automation, and terminal munition guidance through Edge Guide. The company operates across Israel, Europe, the Gulf, and the U.S., with programs of record and growing deployment traction. Rozenberg relocated to the United States to navigate procurement, compliance, and customer relationships firsthand, working through the Americanization that U.S. defense customers expect beyond paperwork. Nine years of recorded military sensor data and the engineering of integrating AI into legacy hardware, not the latest model, form the real moat.

  4. Sep 17

    Tracking Without a Camera: Mark Goldfarb on Sixdof Space and the Future of Optical Autonomy

    Autonomous drones need to land on moving vehicles, refuel in midair, and coordinate across platforms, but camera-based tracking demands heavy compute and fails at the speeds contested operations require. David Yahid speaks with Mark Goldfarb, CEO and co-founder of Sixdof Space, whose core sensor originated in AR/VR head tracking before pivoting to defense after an encounter with ELTA at CES. The system compresses light into a one-dimensional signal, delivering six-degrees-of-freedom positioning at 400 updates per second using coded infrared beacons rather than image processing. Each beacon carries a unique ID, enabling drones to identify the correct landing station or pass short messages without RF communication. Sixdof Space has roughly 300 systems deployed, including work with Lockheed Martin on next-generation midair refueling for the U.S. Air Force and General Dynamics with weapon training and simulation exercises. The company sells through its U.S. entity and has addressed cybersecurity and component-origin compliance, with flexibility to localize assembly as contracts require. For Goldfarb, the path to real-time autonomy runs through light, not compute.

  5. Sep 17

    The Recovery Problem: Amitai Peleg on Sealartec and the Future of Autonomous Naval Sustainment

    The missing piece in autonomous marine defense is not the boat - it's the ability to get it back, refuel it, and keep it operating. Amitai Peleg, Co-Founder and CEO of Sealartec, reveals how his team is solving the logistics bottleneck that has kept unmanned surface vessels from scaling, and why that breakthrough could change naval operations worldwide. David Yahid of CET Sandbox sits down with Amitai to unpack the hard truth behind marine robotics: launching a drone boat is easy, but recovering it in rough seas is the real barrier to mass deployment. Amitai explains how Sealartec turned that overlooked problem into a patented system for autonomous launch, recovery, docking, and refueling - technology that is already being demonstrated with major defense players. You'll discover: Why autonomous boats still need a "landing" solution before they can become truly usefulHow a Navy experience and a mechanical engineering background sparked the companyThe garage-built prototype that led to a working sea trial in harsh conditionsHow Sealartec moved from first funding to live demonstrations with the US Navy and US Coast GuardWhy autonomous refueling may unlock far larger scale than launch and recovery aloneAmitai shares how Sealartec's systems are now being tested and deployed with organizations including BAE Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, the US Navy, the US Coast Guard, and other global maritime partners. He also explains why the company is shifting toward the US market, building local production strategies, and preparing for a future where autonomous vessels can operate longer, farther, and at greater scale. This episode is essential listening if you're interested in defense technology, autonomous systems, marine robotics, or the infrastructure that makes unmanned fleets actually viable. If you've ever wondered what it takes to turn a launch-and-recovery bottleneck into the backbone of the autonomous navy, this conversation lays it out.

  6. Sep 3

    Owning the Spectrum: Meir Friedland on Sensorz and the Future of RF Threat Detection

    Spectrum dominance is becoming a battlefield necessity, and Sensorz is building the stack that helps militaries detect, classify, and react to RF threats in subseconds. Meir Friedland explains why the old way of handling signals intelligence is breaking under the pressure of drones, GPS spoofing, software-defined radios, and an exploding number of waveforms. I sat down with Meir Friedland, Co-Founder and CEO of Sensorz, to unpack how a company can turn deep communications intelligence expertise into an end-to-end defense platform. Meir shares how Sensorz went from identifying a gap in the commercial spectrum space to delivering turnkey solutions for tactical units, border security, force protection, and strategic defense customers. You'll discover: What "spectrum dominance" actually means in practice - from detection to rapid reactionWhy modern battlefields are creating an invisible wireless war that most systems were never designed to handleHow Sensorz combines algorithms, C2 software, and its own receivers and SDRs into one vertically integrated offeringWhy accessibility matters as much as raw technology, and how the team is making complex RF data usable for non-expertsHow the company builds models and signal libraries while keeping customer data sovereign through its RF Studio pipelineMeir also breaks down the three customer archetypes Sensorz serves - highly tactical teams that need speed and simplicity, large-scale deployers securing borders and armored vehicles, and strategic operators facing unknown signals where every day saved can change the outcome of a mission. He explains how feedback from the field, especially in Israel, is accelerating product development and revealing use cases they did not expect. This episode is a sharp look at what it takes to build defense technology for a spectrum that is growing more crowded, more dynamic, and more contested by the day. Essential listening if you care about electronic warfare, SIGINT, defense innovation, or how real-world field requirements shape breakthrough products.

  7. Aug 27

    Swarm Defense at Scale: Ido Bar-On on Skapion and the Future of Counter-Swarm Interception

    Drone swarms are changing the math of modern air defense. A single interceptor going up against a single drone was always an economically strained equation — but when the threat is dozens or hundreds of coordinated drones arriving at once, traditional systems start to break down entirely. In this episode, David Yahid speaks with Ido Bar-On, Co-founder and CEO of Skapion, about building a purpose-built counter-swarm system for that reality. Ido walks through why swarm warfare represents a distinct threat category rather than a scaled-up version of single-drone defense, and why he believes hard kill interception — not jamming or soft kill alone — is essential for large, long-range threats like Shahed-class UAVs. The conversation centers on a theme that runs through the whole discussion: defense technology has to be designed for scale and producibility from day one, not retrofitted onto an impressive demo. In this episode: Why simultaneous mass drone attacks demand a fundamentally different defense architecture than single-engagement systemsThe case for hard kill interception over soft kill for large, high-payload threatsDesigning a mobile, standalone system that can sense, decide, and intercept without relying on external connectivityDeployability across platforms like trailers, vessels, and helicopters, and what that flexibility means operationallyRethinking the cost curve of asymmetric warfare through low-cost interceptorsWhat it takes to move counter-swarm technology from demo to fielded, producible systemSkapion is building for a battlefield where the threat no longer arrives one at a time — and where the winning system will be the one built for scale from the start.

  8. Aug 20

    On the Trigger, Not the Joystick: Elad Amar on PYRRHUS and the Future of Warfighter Tech

    In Gaza, Elad Amar watched soldiers drop their rifles mid-contact to pick up a joystick, just to get eyes in the sky. That single tradeoff, weapon readiness for situational awareness, became the problem he built a company to solve. In this episode of The CET Brief, David Yahid talks with Elad Amar, CEO and founder of PYRRHUS Aeronautics, about LADRS, a weapon-mounted remote system that lets soldiers control drones without ever leaving their weapon. Elad, an IDF reserve captain and infantry officer with deployments in Gaza and Lebanon, explains how firsthand combat experience shaped the product, why the device mounts on a rifle like a PEQ-15 to let soldiers aim, laser-designate a target, and task a drone in one motion, and why PYRRHUS built the system to be both hardware-agnostic and drone-agnostic so units can adopt it without replacing their existing fleets. Joined by co-founder and CTO Dr. Leandro Gryngarten, a Georgia Tech-trained aerospace engineer, and guided by advisors including General Eric Wesley and John Spencer, Elad frames PYRRHUS's approach as "physical AI" for the battlefield: pushing sensors, compute, and data access down to the individual warfighter instead of leaving it back at headquarters. In this episode: PYRRHUS's first product: a weapon-mounted remote system that lets soldiers control drones directly from the rifleElad's path from IDF reserve captain and infantry officer, with deployments in Gaza and Lebanon, to founderCo-founder Dr. Leandro Gryngarten's role leading hardware and systems engineering, with a PhD in aerospace engineering from Georgia TechHow advisors General Eric Wesley and John Spencer shape the team's thinking on scalability and U.S. Army integrationThe "aha moment" in Gaza that exposed the cost of switching from rifle to joystick under contactHow the system mounts on the rifle, PEQ-15 style, so soldiers can aim, laser-designate, and task a drone without letting go of their weaponThe mission behind the design: staying "on the trigger and not on the joystick"Elad's "physical AI" framing, bringing sensors, compute, and data closer to the warfighter instead of headquartersThe addition of a stronger integrated laser, driven directly by soldier feedbackWhy PYRRHUS is building a modular platform designed for future capabilitiesWhy the system is drone-agnostic, letting units keep their current fleet while adding rifle-based controlAs Elad puts it, staying on the trigger and off the joystick isn't just a design principle. It's the difference between reacting to a threat and losing the initiative entirely.

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About

The CET Brief: Combat-Proven Defense Intelligence Bridging the gap between the Israeli front line and the U.S. Defense Industrial Base (DIB). Every episode of The CET Brief features a technical intake with founders of the world’s most resilient defense technologies. We bypass the marketing noise to focus on the "Signal": high-TRL capabilities, battle-tested performance in contested environments, and U.S. sovereign readiness. Hosted by the CET Sandbox, this series provides U.S. DIB with direct access to the operational pedigree and technical moats

Information

  • Creator
    David Yahid
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    27
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © David Yahid
  • Show Website
    The CET Brief