It would seem that if an Israeli defense company is looking to be sold, its best option these days is US company Ondas (Nasdaq: ONDS). Just this week, another acquisition by Ondas in Israel was reported. The company will pay $200 million for Rosh Ha’ayin-based Omnisys, a developer of AI-powered Battle Resource Optimization (BRO) software for multi-domain defense planning and real-time decision-making. To judge from the record, it’s likely that this will not be Ondas’s last acquisition in Israel. The company has been on a buying campaign in accordance with its strategy of non-organic expansion in the defense industry, particularly in the hot area of drones, and of offering complementary products. Most of the acquisitions, a double-digit number, have been in Israel.
According to the financials it released last week, at the end of the first quarter of this year Ondas had over $1 billion cash, after raising capital several times, so it has the wherewithal to finance further acquisitions. In addition, several of Ondas’s senior executives are from Israel and have connections in the local defense industry and a deep knowledge of it.
Ondas is headed by chairman and CEO Erick Brock. It is active in autonomous drones, defense robotics, and communications solutions. Its first acquisition in Israel was fairly small. In 2022, it paid $15 million for local drone technology company Airobotics, after the latter’s share price on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange collapsed following its IPO in 2021.
In the wake of that acquisition, Ondas became dual-listed, and for a while was traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, until its management decided to delist it two years ago. In 2024, after the stock was delisted in Tel Aviv and remained listed on Nasdaq only, Ondas had a market cap of just $50 million. Today, the market cap is $4.8 billion, following a rise in its share price of over 1,000% in a little over two years.
Ondas is also a very liquid stock, with an average daily trading volume of 75 million shares. Since reaching a peak earlier this year, however, the stock has weakened, and is down 30% since January, even after a sharp rise following the release of the company’s financials last week. Ondas recently announced a strategic partnership with Palantir (Nasdaq: PLTR), the AI giant in the defense market.
Rich military experience
The series of companies acquired by Ondas in Israel is from a fairly varied range of activities in the defense sphere. It has bought companies that produce drone interception systems, a heavy engineering company, sensor systems companies, and a company that offers advanced mine detection and clearance capabilities.
The largest acquisitions in Israel have been of Sentrycs last year, Bird Aerosystems earlier this year, and Omnisys last week, deals amounting to between $133 million and $225 million each. In addition, Ondas bought a US company, Mistral, for $175 million, of which the shareholders were from Israel.
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Another recent acquisition was that of heavy engineering equipment company INDO Earth Moving. One of the gainers from that deal was reportedly Oshri Lugasi, co-CEO of Ondas in Israel (Ondas Autonomous Systems), but according to Ondas it was not an insider deal.
Lugasi (54) was formerly chief of engineering in the IDF, with the rank of brigadier general. He later served as VP of marketing in Israel at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and joined Ondas in 2025. Ondas stated that in his role at Rafael, Lugasi “led the negotiation and execution of government-to-government (G2G) defense contracts exceeding $20 billion,” and that in the IDF he commanded thousands of people and led critical missions, including during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
Another Israeli senior executive at Ondas is Meir Kleiner, who founded and ran Airobotics, Ondas’s first acquisition in Israel. Brigadier General (Res.) Yaniv Rotem serves on the advisory board of Ondas Autonomous Systems. Rotem was head of the Directorate of Research and Development (Mafat) at the Ministry of Defense, and according to Ondas he oversaw “advanced programs in missile systems, airborne laser defense, multi-domain command-and-control and many other systems.” In 2025, Ondas appointed Mark Green as head of Global Corporate Development and Mergers & Acquisitions. Green previously held senior positions in investment banking in the US and Israel.
Ondas’s acquisitions led to it recording revenue of $50.1 million in the first quarter of this year, up from $4.2 million in the corresponding quarter. Its operating loss grew however from $10.3 million to $42.7 million, but a non-cash gain of $389.5 million on the valuation of warrants issued in connection with the October 2025 equity raise and January 2026 equity raise meant that the company posted a net profit of $361 million, which compares with a loss of $14 million in the corresponding quarter.
Ondas had an orders backlog of $457 million at the end of the first quarter, and expects revenue for 2026 as a whole of over $390 million, which compares with $51 million in 2025. In his comments on the results, Brock said that “our counter-drone platforms, led by Sentrycs and Iron Drone, are seeing strong global demand as customers respond to evolving security threats and heightened global tensions.” He also mentioned contracts worth a total of $220 million for 4M Defense and INDO Earth.
After the recent decline from its peak, could Ondas be an interesting investment? According to “The Wall Street Journal”, nine analysts cover the stock, and all of them rate it “Buy.” Their price targets range between $16 and $25, representing a generous average premium of 107% on the current price on Nasdaq.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on May 20, 2026.
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