D‑Fend Solutions occupies a niche that barely existed a decade ago and now defines one of the most urgent challenges in modern security: how to stop drones without causing even more chaos.
Founded in 2017 in the garage of CEO and Chairman Zohar Halachmi, along with CTO and Vice President Assaf Monsa, and Chief Product Officer and President Yaniv Benbenisti, the software-driven company has built its reputation on the simple but demanding premise of neutralizing rogue drones cleanly, quietly, and without jamming half the city or blowing anything out of the sky.
D‑Fend Solutions’ answer is a cyber‑centric system called EnforceAir, a platform that detects, identifies, and takes control of unauthorized drones by manipulating their radio‑frequency links rather than interfering with them or destroying them outright. The idea is to make the threat disappear with minimal disruption.
Safe C-UAS technology
The company’s technology is designed for environments where traditional counter‑drone methods are either unsafe or unacceptable. Airports, crowded urban centers, government buildings, and critical infrastructure sites cannot afford the collateral damage or operational shutdowns that come with jamming or kinetic interception.
EnforceAir’s approach of forcing a drone to land safely or return to its operator, has made D‑Fend Solutions a critical vendor for organizations in need of precision and predictability.
According to the company, the system is field‑proven, AI‑enhanced, and deployed by approximately 30 countries, including the Five Eyes alliance (US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), G7, and major NATO member states. It has also been deployed by major international airports around the world and by top-tier US government agencies, such as the US military, federal law enforcement, and homeland security agencies.
“Drones weren’t always considered a problem,” Halachmi told Defense & Tech by The Jerusalem Post.
“Small drones, like the DJIs, started causing issues in 2014 and back then C-UAS technology was kinetic. They were great capabilities but the threat changed and so did the need for new technology to detect and understand the threat.”
And the threat isn’t just from military drones and hostile actors but also from young kids who fly a drone without understanding the level of damage that a small platform can do.
“Commercialized drones or the DIY ones are causing 90% of the incidents… Small drones can be very problematic,” he said. “This is a sensitive, surgical system.”
With verticals across various markets, the system can defend and protect military bases, critical infrastructure such as nuclear sites, airports, and large sporting events, and it can even provide VIP protection. The company has various versions, from static to ruggedized mobile tactic systems to covert civilian or maritime versions. There are also light-weight backpack versions for soldiers to wear that can be assembled by one person in under 20 minutes.
From soft to hard kill solutions
Like Israel’s layered air defenses, there are several c-UAS technologies from soft kill systems that utilize electronic warfare (EW), hard kill solutions, and energy solutions, notably laser or microwave technology.
What sets the company apart is its insistence on non‑kinetic, RF‑based control rather than brute‑force disruption. D‑Fend’s technology is built to detect, track, and ultimately take control of drones that pose a threat; giving operators a controlled, forensic friendly way to handle incidents.
In urban environments, the system can detect drones within two kilometers and has a one kilometer mitigation radius. Meanwhile, in desert or maritime environments, it's at least double that.
The ability to autonomously detect and take over drones using radio‑frequency analysis enables safe landings without interfering with surrounding communications. It also has post-mitigation options. If for example, a drone has an explosive payload attached, then the system can stop the drone and have it hover so that troops can clear the area.
“We can get take-off or control locations that allow us to identify and take down the drone and even the operator. We can even provide serial number, speed, and direction,” a D-Fend employee told D&T during a demonstration of the system. “All you need to do is press ‘takeover’ and the original operator is useless. Most of the time, security forces are more interested in the pilot.”
A decade after its founding, D‑Fend Solutions has some 200 employees around the world and has become one of Israel’s notable defense‑tech exports, operating in a sector that blends cybersecurity, electronic warfare, and aviation safety.
With drones becoming cheap, ubiquitous, and increasingly weaponized, the world needs ways to counter them that don’t create new hazards.