Why is the US government buying thousands of Skydio drones?

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Why is the US government buying thousands of Skydio drones?

Skydio is America’s largest drone maker, founded in 2014 by three MIT engineers and now built almost entirely around defence, policing and infrastructure work.

America’s biggest drone maker just landed the largest tactical drone order in US Army history.

This is Skydio. Three MIT engineers started it in California in 2014, making consumer drones that could chase you through a forest without hitting a tree.

In 2023 it quit that market completely and went all in on defence, police and infrastructure.

The reason is autonomy. Skydio drones navigate using onboard cameras and AI instead of satellites, so they can still fly and map terrain when GPS is jammed. On a modern battlefield, that is the whole game.

The Pentagon noticed early. In 2022 the Army picked Skydio as sole platform for its Short Range Reconnaissance programme, worth up to 99.8 million dollars.

Then in March 2026, the Army ordered more than 2,500 X10D drones for over 52 million dollars. That is the biggest single-vendor tactical drone order the Army has ever placed, and it went from bid to award in under 72 hours.

The State Department signed a 74 million dollar contract in 2025. Add the Air Force and 29 allied nations. Skydio says it has shipped over 60,000 drones.

Behind all of it sits one word. China. Washington wants Chinese drones out of American agencies, and Skydio is the American answer. Beijing sanctioned it in October 2024.

In April 2026 Skydio committed 3.5 billion dollars over five years to expand US manufacturing, including a plant five times its current size.

A selfie-drone company has quietly become a piece of American defence infrastructure.

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