The U.S. Army has awarded Skyeton Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Ukraine’s Skyeton, a $10.64 million contract to deliver its combat-proven Raybird reconnaissance drones and to stand up a new production line in Fayetteville, North Carolina, according to a September 18 award notice reported this week.
Combat-Proven Under Fire
The Raybird is a fixed-wing tactical UAS weighing under 50 pounds with a 10–14 foot wingspan. Skyeton says it can stay aloft for more than 24 hours and cover roughly 1,500 miles (2,500 km) per sortie. A three-drone system with ground station retails at roughly $1 million.
Ukraine has flown the platform since 2018 and Skyeton claims more than 350,000 combat hours logged across ISR, targeting and SIGINT missions — the kind of frontline usage the Pentagon has increasingly said it wants baked into its own procurement stack.
North Carolina Line, Kyiv Roots
Skyeton is opening a $3.1 million, 28,500 square-foot facility in Fayetteville, North Carolina, to serve as its U.S. manufacturing hub. The company’s Kyiv office was destroyed in a Russian strike in May 2026, and executives have said the North Carolina line is intended to insulate deliveries to Western customers from wartime disruption.
Small Deal, Big Signal
The $10.64 million contract is a modest program-of-record size but marks the first time the Army has bought a Ukrainian-designed tactical UAS at scale, and comes alongside larger Skydio X10D and AeroVironment orders. It also strengthens the “combat-tested-first” procurement thesis that has been driving the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative.
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Reporting based on coverage from Stars and Stripes, Army Recognition and Kyiv Post.