Dronemaker Skydio hiring team in Ukraine amid strategy shift

U.S. dronemaker Skydio said it has started hiring employees in Ukraine, a first step in an effort to expand its business there.

CEO Adam Bry described the work in an interview with Defense News Wednesday, hours before he testified before Congress.

“I’ve never met drone users as sophisticated as the folks in Ukraine,” Bry said. “We want a team there.”

For now, the hires are in the single digits, with employees focused on engineering and customer support. Bry said he could see Skydio manufacturing drones in the country later on, but thinks building smaller components — like the equipment that helps prevent jamming — is more realistic at first.

The war in Ukraine is the first to feature widespread use of small, commercial style drones. In the last two years, it’s become a sandbox for companies around the world trying to test their equipment. U.S. firms including AeroVironment to Shield AI have sent their products to help defend Ukraine and see how they perform in intense electronic warfare environments.

That said, most of the drones used in Ukraine so far have been made in China, the world’s dominant manufacturer in the sector.

Bry went as far to say that Ukraine’s needs are driving Skydio’s product development, even when that doesn’t overlap with the U.S. government.

His company’s main defense contract is with the Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance program, which Skydio won in 2021. Defense firms are now competing for that contract’s second iteration , to be selected in 2025 , and Skydio is putting forward its new X10D drone to do so.

Ukraine is also interested in that drone. Its Ministry of Interior has formally requested “thousands” of them — though Bry wouldn’t specify how many — atop the thousand or so drones Skydio has already sent Kyiv since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.

The requirements laid out by the Army are similar to what Ukraine needs, Bry said, but they’re not one for one.

“This has been a shift in strategy for us,” he said. “Where there’s discrepancy, we’re prioritizing what we’re seeing in Ukraine.”

The main difference between the two sets of requirements is in resiliency. Ukraine’s biggest need is for drones that can counter intense Russian jamming. That is not what the short-range reconnaissance program has focused on to this point, Bry said.

Still his argument is that Ukraine is the “proving ground” for small drones. If they can survive there, that should be a good sales pitch for the U.S. military as well. But that’s not guaranteed, Bry acknowledged.

“It’s a risk from a business standpoint,” he said. “But I think it’s a risk worth taking.”

Noah Robertson is the Pentagon reporter at Defense News. He previously covered national security for the Christian Science Monitor. He holds a bachelor’s degree in English and government from the College of William & Mary in his hometown of Williamsburg, Virginia.

美国无人机制造商 Skydio 表示，已开始在乌克兰招聘员工，这是其在乌克兰拓展业务的第一步。

首席执行官亚当·布莱周三在接受《防务新闻》采访时介绍了这项工作，几个小时后，他出席了国会听证会。

布莱说：“我从未见过像乌克兰人那样技术娴熟的无人机用户。我们希望在那里组建一支团队。”

目前，公司招聘的员工人数只有个位数，主要集中在工程和客户支持方面。布莱表示，他认为Skydio未来可能会在美国本土生产无人机，但他认为，初期生产一些小型零部件——例如防止干扰的设备——更为现实。

乌克兰战争是小型商用无人机首次被广泛应用的战争。过去两年，乌克兰已成为世界各地公司测试其设备的试验场。包括AeroVironment和Shield AI在内的美国公司已将产品送往乌克兰协助防御，并检验其在高强度电子战环境下的性能。

尽管如此，迄今为止乌克兰使用的无人机大多产自中国，中国是该领域的全球主导制造商。

布莱甚至表示，乌克兰的需求正在推动 Skydio 的产品开发，即使这与美国政府的需求没有重叠之处。

该公司的主要国防合同是陆军的短程侦察项目，Skydio 于 2021 年赢得了该项目。国防公司目前正在竞标该项目的第二轮合同，将于 2025 年选出最终人选，Skydio 正在推出其新型 X10D 无人机参与竞标。

乌克兰也对这种无人机感兴趣。其内政部已正式请求提供“数千架”这种无人机——尽管布莱没有具体说明数量——此前，自2022年全面入侵开始以来，Skydio已经向基辅运送了大约一千架无人机。

布莱表示，陆军提出的要求与乌克兰的需求类似，但并非完全一致。

他说：“这对我们来说是一项战略转变。如果出现分歧，我们会优先考虑我们在乌克兰看到的情况。”

两套需求的主要区别在于韧性。布莱表示，乌克兰最迫切需要的是能够对抗俄罗斯高强度干扰的无人机。而这并非短程侦察项目迄今为止的重点。

他仍然认为乌克兰是小型无人机的“试验场”。如果这些无人机能在那里生存下来，这对美国军方来说也是一个很好的推销卖点。但布莱承认，这并不能保证。

“从商业角度来看，这确实存在风险，”他说。“但我认为这是值得承担的风险。”

诺亚·罗伯逊是《防务新闻》的五角大楼记者。他此前曾为《基督教科学箴言报》报道国家安全新闻。他拥有弗吉尼亚州威廉斯堡威廉与玛丽学院的英语和政治学学士学位。