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Armada and Skydio Partner to Deliver Real-Time Drone Intelligence for National Security Missions

Taylor Robinette, Director of Growth

Armada and Skydio today announced a strategic partnership to equip federal, state, and local agencies with the ability to capture and process drone intelligence in real time—even in disconnected, contested, or emergency environments. By combining Skydio’s autonomous drone technology with Armada Edge Platform (AEP) and the company’s rugged modular data centers, Galleons, the partnership delivers instant, sovereign insight to missions where lives and critical infrastructure are at stake.

Skydio’s aerial robots are trusted across defense and public safety operations for their advanced autonomy and secure U.S.-based manufacturing. Armada’s Galleons deliver hyperscale-class compute in a rapidly deployable form factor, enabling authorities to process high-resolution drone footage at the point of collection. This architecture eliminates reliance on cloud data centers, ensuring situational awareness when networks are compromised or unavailable.

“Critical government, defense, and national resiliency missions demand instant insight and complete control of mission data,” said Dan Wright, Co-Founder & CEO of Armada. “By pairing Skydio’s autonomous flight capabilities with Armada’s deployable compute and Marketplace, we enable agencies to process and act on drone intelligence in real time—no matter how contested the environment.”

Adam Bry, Co-Founder & CEO of Skydio, said, “Autonomous flying robots are transforming how our most critical industries serve our civilization by putting sensors in the most important places to get better information and drive better outcomes. Working with Armada gives our customers the ability to run advanced analytics at the edge, ensuring they have the intelligence they need even when connectivity is limited, or adversaries attempt to disrupt operations.”

Joint Use Cases

  • Incident Response and Force Protection – When every second counts, Skydio drones provide instant overwatch for customers while Armada Galleons process live video and sensor data in the field. Operators gain real-time situational awareness for physical security, disaster response, or tactical operations in any environment.
  • Autonomous Patrol and Anomaly Detection – Skydio drones are used to conduct 24/7 patrols across installations, areas of operation, and infrastructure, automatically detecting intrusions, infrastructure issues, or environmental anomalies. Armada’s OpsAI software filters false alarms and surfaces credible threats in real-time. These same capabilities enable early detection of wildfire indicators—such as unusual heat, smoke, or vegetation changes—helping agencies act before ignition occurs.
  • Critical Infrastructure Inspection and Resilience – Defense and federal agencies leverage Skydio drones to inspect high-value assets—such as energy grids, transport vehicles, and munitions storage—without interrupting operations. Armada’s rugged, sovereign edge nodes process high-resolution imagery locally to identify structural anomalies, physical vulnerabilities, or post-incident damage in real time.
  • Precision Mapping and Tactical Reconnaissance – In disconnected or contested environments, Skydio and Armada deliver near-instant 2D and 3D mapping to support route planning, site reconnaissance, and mission rehearsal. High-fidelity models generated entirely at the edge enhance battlefield awareness, engineering assessments, and operational planning while maintaining full control of sensitive data.

The joint solution is already supporting critical missions, including deployment with the Alaska Department of Transportation for rapid damage assessment and infrastructure monitoring in extreme conditions.

A key enabler of the partnership is the Armada Marketplace, AEP’s open ecosystem for edge applications that lets agencies deploy analytics from partners like Skydio, ESRI, and others directly onto Galleons in the field. This gives operators a single, secure platform to run advanced video analysis, geospatial intelligence, and AI-powered decision tools without need to send data back to the cloud.

Key Capabilities

  • Real-Time Edge Processing – Analyzes Skydio drone video and sensor data instantly on Armada Galleons.
  • Secure Connectivity – Integrates private 5G for secure command-and-control (C2) and high-bandwidth streaming, enabling reliable BVLOS operations while leveraging Starlink or Starshield for secure telemetry and data transfer.
  • Marketplace Integration – Rapidly deploys analytic and AI applications from partners through the Armada Marketplace.
  • Rugged, Modular Compute – Industrial-grade, self-contained Galleons designed for contested, remote, and extreme environments.
  • Data Sovereignty and Security – Complete control of mission data across defense, public safety, and critical infrastructure.