Case study · Defense & unmanned systems
4.2 million impressions from one week in the desert.
In January 2021, XTEND was an Israeli drone startup with real technology, real U.S. Department of Defense contracts, and almost no presence in the American defense press. Six months later its systems had been written up by the U.S. Army, Defense News, Breaking Defense, Janes and Inside Unmanned Systems. This is what a six-month launch campaign looks like when the news is real and somebody knows what to do with it.
Book a 20-minute briefingThe brief / Defense · Counter-UAS
The contracts were real. The coverage was not.
XTEND had done the hard part. The company was already delivering counter-drone systems to U.S. Special Operations users and had been selected, alongside Israel's Ministry of Defense, for a joint U.S. Department of Defense sUAS program. What it did not have was a single relationship with an American defense editor.
That is a specific problem, and it is not solved by volume. Defense trade press is a closed room. Breaking Defense, Janes, Defense News and National Defense are read by the exact program managers, contracting officers and integrators who decide whether a foreign startup gets a second look — and they are not reachable through a wire service alone. An Israeli company announcing an American defense contract from Tel Aviv reads as a foreign press release. The same news, briefed to the right reporter with the right context, reads as a program story.
Maize was retained in January 2021 on a defined six-month engagement covering messaging, content, social and public relations, with one job underneath all of it: get XTEND into the American defense conversation before the next contract cycle.
The playbook / Three moves
Build the room before you need it.
There was a known date on the calendar — a U.S. government counter-drone demonstration at Yuma Proving Ground in April, with XTEND as one of three vendors invited. Everything in the first ten weeks was built backwards from it.
01 — BUILD THE ROOM
The list, by hand
A 53-contact defense and unmanned-systems media list built from scratch — named editors at Breaking Defense, Janes, Defense News, National Defense, Inside Unmanned Systems, Defense Update and thirty-odd others, plus DoD and service public affairs. Not a rented list. A room we could walk into.
02 — FIX THE LANGUAGE
Messaging that survives an editor
A messaging matrix, three product white papers rewritten for an American reader, and a working vocabulary that held up under questioning. Translating an Israeli engineering story into U.S. defense-acquisition language is most of the work and none of the credit.
03 — PUT THE EXECUTIVE IN THE ROOM
Briefed, not winged
Written talking points and background for every interview and every meeting — including the two-page briefing document XTEND's VP of business development carried into his meeting with U.S. Senator Gary Peters at the demonstration itself.
Proof / One demonstration
Yuma Proving Ground: eight weeks of coverage from five days of flying.
In April 2021 the Pentagon ran its first counter-small-UAS technology demonstration. Three industry teams were evaluated — Boeing-owned Aurora Flight Sciences, Elta North America and XTEND. XTEND's SKYLORD GRIFFON recorded the highest interception rate of the three systems tested. That is a good week. Turning it into eight weeks of trade coverage is a different exercise.
February — March 2021
Media list, messaging matrix and white papers delivered. Pitch calendar mapped against the editorial calendars of thirteen defense publications so every future announcement had a landing place before it existed.
5 April 2021
Release one goes out — XTEND Delivers Counter-Drone Systems to Department of Defense Office — written by Maize, approved by XTEND, and pushed direct to 46 named editors from a Washington, D.C. dateline. Not a wire drop.
5 — 9 April 2021
The demonstration itself. Maize briefs the U.S. Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office communications team on site, places XTEND's spokesperson and his quotes into the Army's own coverage, and supplies the Senator Peters briefing document.
14 April 2021
Army.mil publishes with XTEND quoted by name. The U.S. Army writes the story, and XTEND's VP of business development is in it: "After three days using this system everyone is mission capable." Two Army.mil articles run in the same week.
16 April 2021
Defense News and Breaking Defense both run it. Jen Judson's Defense News piece names all three systems; Breaking Defense describes SKYLORD GRIFFON's human-centric navigation. Neither was a press release placement — both were briefed.
20 — 23 April 2021
Four interviews brokered and staffed inside a week: Janes, Defense Update, Inside Unmanned Systems and the Defense News counter-UAS eBook, where XTEND's spokesperson spent 45 minutes with the reporter.
18 May 2021
Release two crosses the wire — the joint U.S. DoD / Israel Ministry of Defense SKYLORD XTENDER contract, distributed on PR Newswire and picked up by Airforce Technology, ExecutiveBiz, Israel Hayom and Security Today among others.
25 May 2021
Janes files. Xtend nears deliveries of Skylord Xtender sUAS under Pentagon contract — the placement that matters most to a defense buyer, and the one that cannot be bought.
One demonstration. Two releases. Twenty-seven placements.
The coverage / Placed, not paid
Where it landed.
The full record from April and May 2021, grouped by how each placement was produced. No sponsored posts, no advertorial, nothing bought. Live links are given where the article still resolves today.
Army.mil
Pentagon completes its first counter drone technology demonstration — with XTEND quoted
Defense News
Pentagon orders small Israeli drones for indoor special operations
Breaking Defense
Janes
Xtend nears deliveries of Skylord Xtender sUAS under Pentagon contract
Inside Unmanned Systems
Every Soldier a Drone Fighter! — standalone feature by Dawn M.K. Zoldi
Defense Blog
U.S. Army tests counter-drone interceptors at Yuma Proving Ground
Air Recognition
Pentagon completes its first counter drone technology demonstration
Israel Hayom
Lords of the sky: US Department of Defense partners with Israeli startup XTEND
ExecutiveBiz
DOD, Israel Pick Xtend-Built Small UAS for Remote Operations Support
Israel Defense
Israeli finalists in the U.S. counter-drone demonstration (Hebrew)
Arizona Daily Press
The U.S. Army is testing interceptors at the Yuma Proving Ground
SecurityInfoWatch
XTEND delivers counter-drone systems to Department of Defense office
Security Today
XTEND Given Contract for New, Small Unmanned Aircraft System
Unmanned Airspace
XTEND announces delivery of SKYLORD GRIFFON C-UAS units to US Army Special Operations Command
Unmanned Airspace
US and Israeli defence department partnership selects VR sUAS platform Skylord Xtender
Airforce Technology
US DoD contracts Israeli firm XTEND for hyper-enabled sUAS system
sUAS News
Pentagon completes its first counter-drone technology demonstration
Frag Out! Magazine
Department of Defense has contracted with XTEND for a new small Unmanned Aircraft System
GIS Software & News
In partnership with Israel's Ministry of Defense… XTEND contracted for a new sUAS
WFMZ
In partnership with Israel's Ministry of Defense… XTEND contracted for a new sUAS
Aviation.io
XTEND announces delivery of SKYLORD GRIFFON C-UAS units (syndicated)
Patriot
U.S. Army tests counter-drone interceptors at Yuma Proving Ground
The record / January — June 2021
What six months produced.
- Two press releases written, approved and distributed — the April counter-drone delivery announcement and the May joint U.S. DoD / Israel Ministry of Defense contract, the second carried on PR Newswire at the CEO's request after the first proved the direct list worked.
- A 53-contact defense media list built from nothing, and a 46-recipient distribution list that produced editorial pickup — not just syndication — on both announcements.
- Four executive interviews brokered and staffed with Janes, Defense News, Defense Update and Inside Unmanned Systems, the last of which became a standalone feature written by a retired U.S. Air Force colonel.
- Placed inside the U.S. Army's own reporting. Maize briefed the Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office communications team and got XTEND's spokesperson quoted in an Army.mil article — the single highest-reach placement of the engagement, and one no agency can buy.
- A U.S. Senator briefing document. Two pages of background and talking points for XTEND's meeting with Senator Gary Peters at the demonstration, delivered overnight.
- Three product white papers rewritten for the U.S. market, a full messaging matrix, a demonstration case study, and a blog and social program across LinkedIn, Facebook and X.
- A live client dashboard — critical path, content calendar, coverage tracker, social calendar and awards pipeline — that XTEND's executives read directly rather than waiting for a monthly deck.
In their own words
"After three days using this system everyone is mission capable. The system is man portable, lightweight and inexpensive."
Ido Bar-On — VP Business Development & Sales, XTENDQuoted in Pentagon completes its first counter drone technology demonstration, Army.mil, 14 April 2021, by Nancy Jones-Bonbrest, U.S. Army Rapid Capabilities and Critical Technologies Office. Maize briefed the article and placed the spokesperson.
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