The new position of the outgoing head of the Mossad, Dedi Barnea

Barnea brings with him about three decades of experience in the fields of national security, intelligence, operations and senior management. Between the years 2021 and 2026 he served as the head of the Mossad, and led the organization during most of the stages of the war. His tenure included the multi-arena war and the escalating conflict with Iran and Hezbollah, managing international negotiation efforts, as well as leading intelligence and operational activities in various arenas.

Barnea placed advanced technologies at the core of the organization’s strategic and operational capabilities. This process included a combination of artificial intelligence, cyber capabilities, advanced communication systems, intelligence systems and dedicated operational technologies, designed to give decision-makers and operational forces an advantage in complex, time-sensitive and threat-saturated environments.

Before joining the Mossad, Barnea served in the Military Intelligence Patrol. He later completed a bachelor’s degree in business administration at the New York Institute of Technology and an MBA in finance from Pace University. Barnea started his career in the private sector in the field of mergers and acquisitions at a leading investment bank in Israel. In 1995 he left the private sector and joined the public service. During an intelligence career that lasted about three decades, he held a long series of senior field, command and management positions.

will focus on the Middle East, Europe and Asia

As Global President of Ondes Defense, Barnea will support Ondes’ international strategy and its relationships with defense customers, technology companies and strategic partners. His responsibilities will include strategic and business development and technological connection focusing on the four segments in which the company is focused, air defense, intelligence collection and systems, precision attack and unmanned ground tools with the aim of providing the company’s customers with coordinated and integrated multidimensional defense systems through software and artificial intelligence. Its activities will focus, among other things, on the Middle East, Europe and Asia, regions where governments are increasing their investments in autonomous defense systems, anti-drone systems, intelligence, observation and reconnaissance, resilient communications, precision attack systems and robotics.

Barnea will also play a central role in Ondes’ technology and acquisitions strategy. He will help the company evaluate developing operational requirements, identify capability gaps, examine investments and purchases of new technologies and set priorities for development and integration between the companies and systems in the group.

Barnea’s joining occurs at a time when Ondes continues to carry out a strategic growth plan focused on the acquisition, development and integration of differentiated and complementary technologies in the security and defense markets in the four segments in which it operates. Ondes has expanded its capabilities in the areas of air defense and anti-drone systems, aerial intelligence, autonomous and precise attack systems, unmanned ground systems, durable communications, operational software based on artificial intelligence, border protection, mine clearance and advanced defense engineering and production capabilities. The company’s strategy is to connect these capabilities through joint technological development, engineering and production capabilities, customer relationships and operational experience, and turn them into an integrated security platform.

The company builds a system-of-systems architecture designed to connect air defense, air intelligence, ground robotics, roving weapon systems, sensors, communication systems and artificial intelligence-based command software. The architecture is designed to support the full operational cycle – from identifying and understanding the threat, through mission planning, resource optimization and decision-making, to the autonomous and coordinated operation of the appropriate systems.