Who Gets Turned Into the Test Bed
An opinion piece in The Jerusalem Post argued that physical AI is rewriting the rules of war, and that somewhere over Gaza right now, a drone is making a decision. The article described that moment as the clearest signal that warfare has entered a new era, with intelligence embedded in machines that move, perceive and act in the real world. In the piece’s telling, the output is motion, force and presence, and that makes physical AI a national security issue, not just a technology story.
The article said Israel already has proof of concept, and it did not hide where that proof came from: the IDF has been one of the world’s most demanding operational test environments for autonomous systems for years. It said Elbit’s Hermes drones have flown in contested airspace for over a decade, Rafael’s autonomous weapon stations guard Israel’s borders, and Iron Dome’s targeting logic, operating under real engagement timelines with zero margin for error, is an early form of physical AI that has already saved Israeli lives. The piece said these systems have been used, tested under fire and iterated in real conditions.
The Pipeline Feeding the Machine
The article said that history has created a generation of Israeli engineers who have built systems that had to work when it mattered. It said Unit 8200 and the broader intelligence community have produced AI and sensing talent that understands operational constraints most engineers in the world have never encountered. When those people leave the military and start companies, the article said, they carry that experience with them. It called that pipeline one of Israel’s most underappreciated strategic assets.
The piece also said the war in Ukraine has been a live proving ground for physical AI at scale. It cited Ukraine’s use of FPV drones coordinated by AI-assisted targeting and said autonomous systems can be battlefield-decisive even when deployed asymmetrically by a smaller, outgunned force. It said Russia adapted and that Iran-supplied Shahed drones pushed autonomous loitering munitions into mainstream military doctrine overnight. The question being asked in Tel Aviv, Washington and Beijing, the article said, is not whether autonomous systems matter, but how fast they can be fielded, how many and how reliably.
What the Top Brass Wants Next
Israel’s October 7 experience added another layer, according to the piece, driving an urgent rethinking of border sensing, autonomous alert systems and the human-machine teaming required to respond faster than any purely manual system allows. The article framed that as part of a broader race in which the countries that solve reliable autonomous systems first will have a military advantage that traditional defense spending cannot easily offset.
The United States, the article said, is moving with unusual urgency. It cited the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative, which it said is explicit about thousands of autonomous platforms, attritable and expendable, deployed at scale. It said companies like Anduril and Shield AI are building the integrating software that makes autonomous systems operationally viable, and that DARPA has been laying the scientific foundation for autonomous ground vehicles and collaborative combat aircraft for years. The money following these companies, the piece said, reflects a consensus that physical AI is where the next decade of military advantage gets decided.
The article said the U.S. trajectory matters for two reasons: interoperability, because Israeli systems need to work alongside American platforms in any serious conflict scenario, and competition, because American companies are moving fast into markets where Israeli firms have historically had an edge. It said the hardware exists and the talent exists, but the software stack that makes physical AI scalable and reliable is still underdeveloped, including autonomy software that functions in GPS-denied environments, simulation platforms for testing before deployment and sensor fusion systems that work in degraded conditions.
The piece said the next layer of Israeli defense-tech companies needs to emerge there, with smarter drones and systems that can operate in communications blackouts, make sound decisions at the edge and be validated to the standards that both the IDF and NATO partners will require. It ended by saying the window to build that position is open and will not stay open indefinitely. The writer was identified as a founding partner at Aurelius Capital, a defense-led dual-use technology fund investing in Israeli founders across cybersecurity, autonomous systems, drones and communications.