# Skydio American drone manufacturer specializing in autonomous flight. Over 50% of business is military customers, making it a key domestic alternative to Chinese drone makers like DJI. ## Defense & Government Use - Deployed across all U.S. military branches. - 22,000+ units reported to the DOD. - Used by allied militaries: UK, Israel, India, Canada, Ukraine. - **ICE** uses Skydio drones for surveillance including protest monitoring and roving no-fly zones (February 2026). - **DEA** purchasing Skydio R10 indoor drones — first American-made drone purpose-built for indoor public safety operations (March 2026). ## Products - **X10D** — Advanced autonomous defense drone with EW resilience, GPS/comms jamming survivability. - **R10** — Indoor-optimized drone for public safety. - Expanded manufacturing capacity 10x to meet military demand. ## Domestic Surveillance Concern Skydio's ICE contracts raise civil liberties questions — the same autonomous drone technology built for battlefield reconnaissance is being deployed for domestic surveillance, including monitoring protests. This is a key tension in the defense tech space. ## See Also - [[Shield AI]] - [[Anduril]] - [[Airship AI]] — Complementary border surveillance (video/sensor analytics vs. drone ISR) - [[Autonomous Weapons Debate]]