The Israeli start-up Tondo Smart completed a successful pilot in Los Angeles, California,  of its automated drone identification system, which helps coordinate low-flying vehicles in heavy-traffic areas.

The company, founded by Unit 8200 graduate Guy Saadi and Micha Ben-Ezra, who has over 30 years of experience in the electricity market, created a system capable of detecting and organizing low-altitude airspaces, applying principles from Israel’s defense array sector into a commercially valuable product.

“From an Israeli perspective, the technology reflects a clear dual-use case, with relevance not only for managing civilian drone traffic but also for identifying unauthorized aerial activity such as smuggling or illicit surveillance,” the company said in a statement.

The pilot, carried out by SphereLink, the US subsidiary of Tondo Smart, demonstrated the company’s capacity to provide management and protection of critical infrastructure and public spaces at scale.

“This successful pilot demonstrated that existing city infrastructure can become a real-time operational layer for managing urban airspace,” Gilad Babchuk, CEO of SphereLink said.

In this case, SphereLink used a site operated by the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting to identify, monitor, and manage authorized drone activity in low-altitude urban airspace.

“For us, Los Angeles was an important proof point, not only because of the city’s scale and complexity, but because it showed how Infrastructure Intelligence can support both smart city needs and security applications in one of the most important urban environments in the United States,” he added.

Tondo Smart’s systems use existing infrastructure as the basis for their sensors, while an AI-assisted platform helps detect threats and coordinate the authorized drones operating in each area.

The importance of deploying the pilot in LA, the company explained, was centered on both the fact that it is the second-largest city in the US and the upcoming events scheduled for the next three years.

With the city hosting World Cup matches this year, a Super Bowl in 2027, and the Olympics in 2028, it’s expected that drone activity will increase exponentially, both through authorized and unauthorized means.

Even if the company didn’t disclose the financial potential of the pilot, it said that the success in LA could “carry meaningful commercial implications if it develops into broader municipal activity.”