A Major Investment in Loitering Munitions
The U.S. Army has placed a $186 million order for Switchblade kamikaze drones, marking one of the largest single procurement contracts for loitering munitions in the service's history. Autonomous systems manufacturer AeroVironment announced on Wednesday that it will supply two variants of its Switchblade family to the Army: the smaller Switchblade 300 for anti-personnel missions and the larger Switchblade 600 designed to destroy armored vehicles and tanks.
The contract reflects the Army's deepening commitment to a category of weapons that barely existed a decade ago but has since been validated on battlefields around the world. Loitering munitions — sometimes called kamikaze or suicide drones — combine the surveillance capabilities of a reconnaissance drone with the destructive power of a guided missile, creating a weapon that can patrol an area for extended periods before striking a target with precision.
Two Weapons, Two Missions
The Switchblade 300 is a tube-launched, backpack-portable system designed for use by small infantry units. Weighing just over five pounds, it can be deployed by a single soldier in minutes, loitering over a target area for up to 15 minutes before striking with a directional fragmentation warhead. Its small size and quiet electric motor make it difficult to detect, giving ground forces an organic precision strike capability that previously required calling in artillery or air support.
The Switchblade 600 is a significantly larger and more capable system designed to defeat armored targets. Equipped with an anti-armor warhead derived from the Javelin missile system, it can destroy main battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, and hardened positions. With a loiter time exceeding 40 minutes and a range of more than 40 kilometers, the Switchblade 600 provides infantry and special operations units with a stand-off anti-tank capability that can be deployed from concealed positions far behind the front lines.
