--- title: "Skydio sells the Army one-soldier, two-drone targeting after a $52 million order as its police deals shrink" description: "One week, one company: Skydio's ISR Command launched at AUSA to multiply a soldier's targeting reach while St. Paul residents demanded the release of a $300,000 police drone contract the city will not publish." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Deals" published: 2026-10-20T21:23:16.789Z modified: 2026-10-20T21:23:16.789Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/skydio-sells-the-army-one-soldier-two-drone-targeting-after-a-52-million-order-as-its-police-deals-shrink language: en keywords: "Drones, Defense, Procurement, Police, Skydio" --- # Skydio sells the Army one-soldier, two-drone targeting after a $52 million order as its police deals shrink > One week, one company: Skydio's ISR Command launched at AUSA to multiply a soldier's targeting reach while St. Paul residents demanded the release of a $300,000 police drone contract the city will not publish. A 2.14-kilogram drone is now the smallest aircraft claiming to deliver strike-grade target coordinates to F-16s [1][2]. [Skydio](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/skydio) [launched ISR Command on October 13](https://www.suasnews.com/2026/10/skydio-launches-isr-command-the-next-step-in-drone-dominance/) at the Army's AUSA show: software that lets one soldier fly two X10D drones from a single controller, hand off target custody automatically when a battery dies, and push precise grids over Army networks to everything from one-way attack drones to fighter jets [1][2]. CEO Adam Bry calls it breaking the "1:1 pilot:drone ratio" [1]. The same day, residents [rallied outside St. Paul City Hall](https://spokesman-recorder.com/2026/10/19/st-paul-skydio-drone-contract-rally/) demanding the release, and cancellation, of the same company's roughly $300,000 police drone contract, a contract the city still has not published [3]. The Army buy-side and the city shut-out moved on the same day, and that is the story. *Chart: **The Army order is about 27 times Skydio's largest disclosed US police deal** Bars comparing Skydio's disclosed 2026 deal values, with the $52 million Army order far above the Reno drone line and St. Paul's unpublished police contract* *Millions of dollars. The March Army order is a signed buy of more than 2,500 X10Ds; the Reno line is a proposed piece of Axon's eight-year, $21.8M bundle; St. Paul's roughly $300,000 contract is signed but unpublished. Sources: DroneXL, This Is Reno, Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder. [1][4][3]* ## The bottleneck is pilots, and software prices it Army Col. Gregory Merkl, director of Drone Dominance, [said in September that hardware is no longer the gap; trained pilots are](https://dronexl.co/2026/10/14/skydio-isr-command-x10d-strike-targets-f16/) [1]. ISR Command is built for exactly that shortage: objectives arrive over the Army's Team Awareness Kit (TAK) network before the drone is powered on, one operator manages two aircraft, and a second X10D relieves the first on station without losing eyes on the target [2]. The X10D's coordinates ride embedded video metadata out to 3.1 miles, and Skydio claims it feeds the Army's next-generation C2 layer alongside [Anduril](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/anduril)'s Lattice [1][2]. Behind it sits scale: the Army ordered more than 2,500 X10Ds in March, a $52 million-plus order Skydio called the largest single-vendor tactical drone buy in Army history [1]. ![A Skydio X10 in flight as a soldier flies it from a handheld controller](https://storage.googleapis.com/theinference-public/img/ad56732d4a160ea6.jpg) *One soldier, one controller: an X10 over a Combined Resolve 25-2 training area in May 2025. ISR Command extends the same fleet to two aircraft per operator. (U.S. Army 123MPAD by Sgt. 1st Class Richard Hoppe)* ## The domestic floor is giving way Minneapolis already rejected a Skydio first-responder contract. St. Paul's council withdrew a $200,000 federal drone grant on September 9 after public outcry, and protesters at the Oct. 13 rally faulted Skydio's sales to Israel and its 2020 pledge, still on its website, that it "will not put weapons on our drones," even as soldiers dropped live grenades from an X10D in 2025 tests [1][3]. Reno is still buying, but look at the receipt: Skydio drones enter as a $1.9 million line, the smallest visible piece of [an eight-year, $21.8 million Axon bundle negotiated 51% below list](https://thisisreno.com/2026/10/reno-council-axon-agreement/) [4]. *Chart: **Skydio drones are the smallest line in Reno's Axon bundle** Bars ranking the disclosed components of Reno's proposed Axon agreement, with the Skydio drone line smallest* *Millions of dollars, components of Reno's proposed eight-year $21.8M Axon agreement, per the city staff report and Axon quote, October 2026. [4]* ## The exposures are priced in Axon, Anduril and Palantir Investors cannot buy Skydio. The exposures around it are priced: [Axon](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/axon) carries the police attach, as a shrinking line inside an AI-surveillance bundle worth about a third of its value in report-writing software alone [4]; Anduril and [Palantir](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/palantir) hold the network layer Skydio claims to feed [1]; [defense-drone rivals](https://theinference.org/article/aerovironment-announced-five-deals-in-six-days-none-an-order-against-a-216-average-analyst-target) face a consolidating Army franchise. If the Army follows March's order with another award, ISR Command's scarcity pitch is winning the budget; if St. Paul publishes, then cancels, the $300,000 contract, the domestic floor keeps eroding. Either read starts with the documents the two sides have not yet released [3]. ## Takeaway ISR Command lets one soldier fly two X10Ds and push strike-grade grids to F-16s, deepening an Army franchise worth a $52M March order while Skydio's US police pipeline shrinks in public view. ## Sources 1. [DroneXL, Skydio Says ISR Command Can Send X10D Target Grids to F-16s, 14 October 2026](https://dronexl.co/2026/10/14/skydio-isr-command-x10d-strike-targets-f16/) 2. [sUAS News, Skydio Launches ISR Command: The Next Step in Drone Dominance, October 2026](https://www.suasnews.com/2026/10/skydio-launches-isr-command-the-next-step-in-drone-dominance/) 3. [Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder, St. Paul Residents Demand Release of Police Drone Contract With Skydio, 19 October 2026](https://spokesman-recorder.com/2026/10/19/st-paul-skydio-drone-contract-rally/) 4. [This Is Reno, Reno police seek $22M, eight-year Axon deal, 15 October 2026](https://thisisreno.com/2026/10/reno-council-axon-agreement/) --- Skydio sells the Army one-soldier, two-drone targeting after a $52 million order as its police deals shrink — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/skydio-sells-the-army-one-soldier-two-drone-targeting-after-a-52-million-order-as-its-police-deals-shrink