US defence start-up AeroVironment won a five-year long contract, valued at nearly $1bn, to supply Switchblade loitering munitions to the US Army.
The Army can expect delivery of the systems to begin in the coming months, whereupon the Army’s Lethal Unmanned Systems (LUS) Directed Requirement will equip infantry battalions with the loitering munitions.
AeroVironment designed Switchblade to engage stationary and moving targets in hostile environments, while reducing collateral damage. It offers soldier precision flight control, lethality against fortified targets such as armoured vehicles and tanks, and the ability to track and engage moving non-line-of-sight targets.
The US government has also awarded a contract to the supplier for the LUS Directed Requirement in December 2023 and is currently delivering systems under that contract.
Previously, the US government agreed to provide Switchblade munitions to Ukraine as part of a security assistance package amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022. The war-torn nation received more than 700 systems.
The missile is two feet long and weighs approximately two-and-a-half kilogrammes, and it is equipped with foldable tandem wings. Its advanced explosive warhead allows it to attack soft targets. The loitering munition has very small visual, thermal and acoustic signatures.
Troops can operate Switchblade from a small, lightweight, portable, and combat-proven ground control system. The real-time video data captured by the air vehicle’s payload cameras is downlinked to the control system for processing.
Operators can capture screen images and store data to assess and track the targets. The ground station also allows retransmission of video and metadata to an operations network in real-time.
“Starting with the LUS Directed Requirement, we are well positioned to meet the Army’s emerging needs, leveraging our robust production capability and supply chain capacity to ensure rapid fielding and enhanced combat overmatch for our soldiers,” said Brett Hush, the company’s senior vice president and general manager of Loitering Munition Systems.
This outlook fits with the Army’s efforts to reshape its mechanised force structure. Just as the service wants to avoid ‘trading blood for first contact’ with the induction of new mechanical systems – the XM30 infantry fighting vehicle among others – the Army will also kit out its units with drones for the same purposes.
