Skydio Unveils New Drones For Indoor And Long-Range Ops
Photo credit: Skydio Website
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Skydio, the American company famous for its incredible AI-powered autonomous drones, is expanding its lineup in a big way. International Fire and Safety Journal just wrote about how they, building on the success of its popular X10 platform, the company has just announced two new drones designed for the specific, demanding needs of first responders: the R10 for indoor operations and the F10 for long-range, fixed-wing flight.
This isn’t just about two new drones; it’s about creating a complete, integrated ecosystem. Skydio is giving police, fire, and rescue teams a specialized tool for every possible scenario, from clearing a smoke-filled building to chasing a suspect down a rural highway.
The R10: A Master of Confined Spaces
The Skydio R10 is a game-changer for indoor tactical operations. It’s a compact, 1.7-pound quadcopter, just 10×10 inches, with built-in blade guards, designed to safely navigate the chaotic and dangerous environments that first responders face. Think of a smoke-filled warehouse, an unstable collapsed building, or the scene of a domestic incident.
Photo credit: Skydio Website
The R10 is packed with features designed for these scenarios. It has onboard lighting to see in the dark, a two-way audio system that allows officers to communicate with a victim or a suspect, and Skydio’s new NightSense obstacle avoidance for flying in zero-light conditions.
Its goal is to be the first one through the door, giving officers a critical “eye inside” to assess a situation before putting themselves in harm’s way. The R10 is slated for early access this autumn.
The F10: The Long-Range Sprinter
While the R10 handles the close-quarters work, the F10 is built for speed and endurance. It’s a fixed-wing drone that can hit speeds of over 80 mph and stay in the air for more than 90 minutes.
Photo credit: Skydio Website
This makes it the perfect tool for large-scale, Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) missions. It’s designed for things like monitoring the spread of a wildfire, managing a long vehicle pursuit, or providing surveillance over a vast rural area during a search and rescue operation.
The F10, which is scheduled for release in the first half of 2026, is designed to launch from the same automated docks as the X10, creating a seamless, rooftop-ready network for any agency that needs to cover a large jurisdiction.
A Single, Unified Ecosystem
The real genius of Skydio’s strategy is that the R10 and F10 are not standalone products. They are extensions of the X10 platform, sharing the same software, controllers, and workflows. This means that a police department can have a fleet of different drones for different jobs, but their pilots only need to learn one system.
Photo credit: Skydio Website
This dramatically cuts down on training time and costs, a huge factor for budget-strapped public safety agencies. It also allows for seamless data integration, with footage from all three drones feeding into the same evidence management and dispatch systems.
DroneXL’s Take
For years, the drone industry has been in a race to build the one perfect, do-it-all drone. Skydio is playing a different, and I think much smarter, game. They’ve realized that the future isn’t about one drone that’s “good enough” at everything; it’s about a family of specialized drones that are perfect for their specific mission, but all work together seamlessly, just like DJI did when they release the Matrice M400 with different payloads.
“Real talk,” the idea of a patrol officer who isn’t a drone expert being able to easily fly the R10 into a dark, dangerous building is a monumental leap for officer safety. That’s the power of Skydio’s autonomy. It takes the stress of flying out of the equation and lets the officer focus on the mission.
The F10, on the other hand, addresses the huge challenge of covering vast rural areas. As someone who flies in the wide-open spaces of the Andes, I can tell you that the speed and endurance of a fixed-wing drone are an absolute game-changer for any large-scale operation.
This is a mature, thoughtful, and incredibly powerful strategy from Skydio. They are not just selling drones; they are selling a complete, end-to-end solution for public safety. It’s a brilliant move, and it’s one that will undoubtedly save lives.
Photo credit: Skydio Website