US Air Forces Central Command awarded Skydio a contract exceeding $9 million for Dock autonomous docking stations and X10 drones to provide base security across multiple US airbases in the Middle East, bases that have absorbed Iranian drone strikes since February . The Air Force characterised the contract as the first overseas deployment of drone-in-a-box infrastructure.
Drone-in-a-box systems automate perimeter security that previously required human patrols. A Dock station deploys, executes a mission, and returns to recharge without operator intervention. At Middle East airbases facing sustained Iranian drone strikes, this is a direct operational response to the threat environment rather than a peacetime infrastructure programme.
The overseas precedent is more consequential than the contract value. USAFCENT controls all US Air Force operations in the Middle East, and its adoption of the Skydio template establishes a reference architecture for base security worldwide. Future requirements across the Indo-Pacific and Europe will now be scoped against this model. For Skydio, it positions the company as the default replacement for DJI in the most sensitive military applications, arriving after DJI's regulatory exclusion created a protected market for US-manufactured alternatives.
All Skydio systems are manufactured in Hayward, California, a supply chain detail that satisfies both the FCC Covered List requirements and the federal procurement rules that exclude foreign-manufactured drones from government contracts.
