Skydio Launches ISR Command: The Next Step in Drone Dominance

A forward-deployed military unit receives a new objective over its operational network: identify if personnel inside a vehicle parked outside a compound near town are hostile. Before an aircraft is even powered on, the operator sees the marker on the Skydio Controller, reviews the terrain, and prepares the mission. With one swipe, and without GPS, an X10D launches and autonomously flies towards its planned recon point. Once on station, the operator instructs the system to automatically track and follow the vehicle. Skydio will maintain lock while also updating the target’s position on the network. If the first aircraft reaches its endurance limit, the pilot instructs a second aircraft to move to the same objective leveraging the same controller. Custody over the target transfers, the first aircraft returns, and the mission continues without the team ever losing sight of it or putting the controller down. If effects are required, target location and other information seamlessly and securely flow over the network to assets that can deliver a strike.

That mission runs on Skydio ISR Command.

Today, tactical ISR takes too many people switching back and forth between too many devices. Operators fly from one screen and report from another, while managing batteries, links, and mission context by hand. Skydio ISR Command changes that math. It orchestrates fleets of X10Ds to deliver collaborative, scalable, and persistent coverage of contested environments. For national security organizations, it brings the aircraft, Skydio Autonomy, the controller, tactical networks, and mission software systems together around the objective. ISR Command autonomously delivers persistent situational awareness shared across the Army’s Next Generation C2 Systems (NGC2) for easy-to-deploy small Skydio Group 1 UAS at the tactical edge.

Scalable: More ISR, fewer people

The demand for tactical ISR is growing faster than the force can recruit and train specialized talent. Simply adding more aircraft without changing the operating model risks creating more workload, more detached feeds, and more equipment for operators to manage.

ISR Command is built around a different model: shift more of the execution burden onto the system. Through on-the-ground feedback from those on the front line, innovations in Skydio Autonomy, like multi-band radio and dynamic channel switching, bring resiliency and survivability to the X10D in contested environments.

Skydio Autonomy handles flight, subject tracking, standoff distance, and obstacle avoidance. That frees the operator for the questions that need human judgment: where to look, what changed, and who needs to know. X10D navigates autonomously without GNSS, using onboard cameras that map terrain in real time while in flight. Skydio Autonomy enables minimal training for operators to fly complex ISR missions. Furthermore, one operator can fly two aircraft, so a unit can add persistent ISR coverage without adding more aircraft operators.

That is how a unit adds ISR coverage without adding additional specialist teams, devices, or workload. The result is critical situational awareness at the point of need, a faster path from observation to action, and more people able to stay focused on the mission.

Collaborative: What one operator sees, the force can use

Designed with a Modular Open Systems Approach, ISR Command is TAK-native and runs on the Skydio Controller, so what the aircraft sees reaches the force in real time.

With it, operators can:

• Select a subject in the camera view, track it automatically, share and update its live position through TAK and NGC2.
• Exchange markers and chat with other TAK users from the flight interface.
• Send live video, aircraft and target locations, telemetry, and battle damage assessment to command posts, adjacent units, and effects teams.

ISR Command also enables X10D, at 2.14kg (4.72lbs), to be the smallest UAS on the market capable of delivering precise target location to everything from attritable One-Way Attack (“OWA”) strike drones to F-16s and beyond. Specifically, ISR Command supports:

• STANAG 4609 (MISB ST 0601): Delivering metadata, including location, embedded in a real-time video stream for static targets
• STANAG 0903 (MISB ST 0903): Metadata, including location, embedded in video stream for moving targets

When a target is confirmed, the operator passes the grid, the camera stays on the target afterward for battle damage assessment. Every element within ISR Command works from the same validated target picture.

Persistent: Unbroken hold on the target

ISR Command delivers a map-first workflow, so operators can make progress on the mission before takeoff. Operators can receive objectives and markers over TAK, review terrain and friendly positions, and assign a role to each aircraft without spending battery.

On-station aircraft relief lowers the cognitive load required to keep X10D sensors on the target at all times. ISR Command anticipates when one X10D needs to return for a battery, instructs the pilot to ready a second, autonomously flies it to the objective, and takes over observation as the mission continues. The operator manages both aircraft from one controller and keeps the full tactical picture while the system executes the handoff.

One controller. Two aircraft. Continuous eyes on the objective.

One ISR system for contested environments across battlefields, borders, and critical sites

Skydio has spent years delivering autonomous aircraft that can operate in demanding environments. ISR Command brings all the necessary ISR capabilities together on a GCS that integrates with tactical networks, mission software, and the workflows required to produce a complete tactical ISR experience.

For operators, it means running the mission instead of operating the equipment.

• For small unit and tactical leaders, it means maintaining eyes on the objective with ISR they launch and control.
• For ground force commanders, it means sustained mission execution from small, organic Group 1 systems with shared situational awareness connected to the broader force.
• For acquisition leaders, it means an open system with one provider accountable for making the complete controller-to-aircraft stack work.

ISR Command is a major step forward in our mission to put persistent, collaborative ISR in the hands of every small unit. It powers Skydio’s complete tactical ISR system: delivering intelligence to help units stay ahead of the fight, integrated at the edge, open across the force, and built around the mission. ISR only matters when it reaches the people who can act, and we can’t wait to see how units use it to give every unit eyes on the objective and the intelligence to act on it.

ISR Command is available now.