Army starts producing drone case designed by paratroopers from 82nd Airborne

Spc. Alexander Soto, a paratrooper assigned to the 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, presents the modular drone case at the Airborne Innovation Lab, Fort Bragg, N.C., Feb. 9, 2026. (Austin Robertson/U.S. Army)

A simple solution designed by soldiers to protect their small drones during parachute drops into field training exercises is soon headed to more troops, the Army said this month.

A small modular drone case designed by 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers Spc. Alexander Soto and Sgt. Talen Valerio will go into limited production, just months after the soldiers presented their case to Army leaders at the XVIII Airborne Corps’ innovation competition, Dragon’s Lair. The case — built to protect the small drones infantry and reconnaissance soldiers have adopted as critical to battlefield lethality in recent years — earned the Fort Bragg, N.C.-based paratroopers second place in the 11th iteration of the “Shark Tank”-style competition in June.

The little case solves multiple problems paratroopers tasked with drone responsibilities face going into combat or a training environment, Soto said. It protects the gear, it allows the drones to be packed in a way they can quickly be employed once they land, and it gives soldiers a way to carry the drones while freeing up space inside their bags for other essentials.

The Army decision to produce the cases shows the service is taking seriously the innovative ideas of its soldiers, and the service is looking to rapidly field good ideas, said a spokesperson for the XVIII Airborne Corps.

Spc. Alexander Soto, a paratrooper assigned to the 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, presents the modular drone case at the Airborne Innovation Lab, Fort Bragg, N.C., Feb. 9, 2026. (Austin Robertson/U.S. Army)

“We needed to be able to carry drones in our rucksacks for airborne operations,” Soto said in a news release. “The idea of a smaller rigid case that allowed us to pack it also made it possible to get them in the air as soon as we hit the drop zone.”

Soto and Valerio first considered the idea during a major field training exercise that saw them jump into Fort Polk’s Joint Readiness Training Center in March 2024. They had to decide how to pack their small drones — Army RQ-28 short-range reconnaissance quadcopters — for the exercise. They could have the drones airdropped into the field after their airborne operation or pack them in their own rucksacks in the bulky, plastic hard cases they come in, Soto told the Dragon’s Lair judges in June.

Ultimately, they decided that the little drones were too critical to their mission to wait for an airdrop. They would have to pack them up in their bags for the jump.

“The cost was our ammunition, food and water,” Soto said.

After the exercise, they began working on developing the case. They teamed with Staff Sgt. Larry Dockins, who helps run the 82nd’s Airborne Innovation Lab, and in just months they built a lightweight, rigid modular drone case that could house small drones such as the RQ-28s or 3D-printed first-person-view drones and be connected to the side of a standard Army pack.

A small modular drone case designed by 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers Spc. Alexander Soto and Sgt. Talen Valerio will go into limited production, just months after the soldiers presented their case to Army leaders at the XVIII Airborne Corps’ innovation competition, Dragon’s Lair. (Austin Robertson/U.S. Army)

The case is built from oak wood wrapped in a durable, waterproof thermoplastic called Kydex, Dockins said. It can use foam or 3D-printed thermoplastic inserts to tailor the case to specific drones.

Protecting small, fragile reconnaissance and lethal drones in the field has proven to be a major issue for the Army as its formations across the globe adopt the technology. Last month, at the service’s first Best Drone Warrior Competition, Army leaders said they saw a number of drone operators struggle with broken parts during the competition.

While Soto and Valerio’s case was designed specifically to survive airborne drops, if proven effective it could be a solution for drone operators Army-wide to adopt to protect their cargo in the field and in combat, according to the XVIII Airborne Corps.

For now, the Corps has ordered 130 units produced, a Corps spokesperson said Monday. The case currently costs about $150 to produce, but Soto said that price could fall if larger production orders are purchased.

Though the 82nd paratroopers designed the case, they will not be financially compensated for that work or own the intellectual property rights to the design, because it was “developed in an Army lab, using Army resources and time,” the XVIII Airborne spokesperson said.

“This is standard practice, as the government generally retains the rights to patents and inventions created by military personnel or civilian employees when developed within their official duties,” the spokesperson said.

Dockins said the soldiers are just pleased to be doing something that will help other troops in the field.

“Any solution that makes a warfighter more lethal is a winning solution for us,” Dockins said. “Ultimately, ounces make pounds, seconds make minutes. Creating a device that cuts weight could mean winning or losing on the battlefield.”