The US Army has allocated $ 20 million to the development of Skydio X2D, i.e. foldable AI drones

The American army, as part of the SSR (Short Range Reconnaissance) program, which is to provide soldiers with a quick way to carry out reconnaissance in the immediate vicinity, chose the Skydio work as the best. Thus, this Californian company won a yearly contract for $ 20 million and now has to deliver its X2D drones to soldiers.

Foldable drones with artificial intelligence for every soldier. Skydio won the SSR program and will now supply its drones to the US Army

More than 30 suppliers presented their proposals to the army, of which five finalists were qualified for rigorous testing in which the best offer was selected. In addition to presenting the capabilities of X2D drones, the Skydio company probably played an important bargaining chip these days, which concerns the fact that its drones are “designed, assembled and operated” in the USA. The purpose of the SSR program was to free itself from foreign technologies.

In practice, the Skydio X2D drone is equipped with dual color optical thermal sensors capable of capturing 4K videos. It also has a GPS-based night flight system, which gives it a 24/7 use potential, but not longer than 35 minutes. Against the background, it allows one-time charging.

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In practice, the X2D can reach speeds of up to 40 km / h, and thanks to the functions of artificial intelligence, it is able to effectively avoid obstacles and detect objects. It is also light (1.3 kg) on ​​its own and can be folded from the traditional quadcopter configuration to a cube that takes up only half the space in a backpack. Supposedly, a complex drone can be prepared for take-off in less than 75 seconds and fly with it for reconnaissance, using the controller with a range of 6 km and a 720p screen to view the drone’s vision in real time.