Here’s What We Know About Them

The U.S. is providing 100 Switchblade loitering munitions to Ukraine, the Biden administration revealed Wednesday, in addition to the thousands of Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger anti-aircraft missile already in country or on the way. The Switchblade, sometimes described as a kamikaze drone, has received much less publicity that its two stablemates, but is no less lethal.

Unlike a traditional missile, fired at a target visible at launch, the Switchblade cruises over the battlefield for up to 15 minutes, sending back video for the operator to detect, locate and identify targets up to six miles away. Once confirmed, the operator locks on and Switchblade dives in to destroy the target with a small but powerful fragmentation charge that can take out a group or roomful of individuals or a pickup truck. It can circle around defenses or can dive vertically to defeat targets in trenches or foxholes, making most forms of cover useless.

While it only flies at about 65 mph and is driven by an electric propeller, the makers still refer to Switchblade as a missile — in a sense it could be viewed as a miniature cruise missile. And it should be emphasized that it is tiny: The whole system in its launch tube weighs less than six pounds.

Switchblade has proven highly successful in combat, but has remained one of the U.S. military’s best-kept secrets. While there are plenty of videos online of Reaper drones striking targets with missiles, you will not find anything from a Switchblade. Nor has the Pentagon released accounts of actions in which Switchblades were used.

The Switchblade is produced by Californian company AeroVironment, which makes the U.S. military’s tactical reconnaissance drones. Switchblade’s origins date back to 2004 and a DARPA program called Close Combat Lethal Reconnaissance (CCLR) or Confirmatory Hunter Killer. The original version is similar to the final design, with one major difference: it was be controlled by a fiber-optic cable spooling out behind as it flew. This arrangement is feasible – and is used by Israel’s Spike-NLOS missile – but was dropped in favor of more mature radio guidance. CCLR was aimed at urban combat, with the ability to fly over buildings and around corners to a range of about 10 blocks.

While CCLR itself went nowhere, it led to a 2006 AeroVironment contract with the Air Force for a Miniature Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. This innocuous-sounding device was a small drone that appeared to be for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering apart from one detail: it carried a payload “provided, installed and tested by the Air Force Research Labs Munitions Directorate” – the people who make bombs.

The program disappeared for a while after this. In 2010 I wrote about ‘Project Anubis,’ a small lethal drone under development that fit the same description, but no information was forthcoming beyond bare outlines in budget documents.

However, in a history of the Switchblade released in 2020, AeroVironment revealed that the first version of the loitering munition was indeed being built and used in action at this time, known as ‘Block 1’: “Hundreds of Block 1 systems were built, tested, taken through safety confirmation, and fielded with AFSOC [Air Force Special Operations Command.”

The Switchblade was not publicly unveiled until 2011, when the U..S. Army took an interest and ordered a new ‘Block 10’ version. The weapon was used in Afghanistan against ‘high-value targets’ – a term that usually refers to insurgent leadership.

In fact, the scale of Switchblade deployment was only accidentally revealed in 2015 when the team responsible for the project was honored for “successful delivery of more than 4,000 Switchblade All Up Rounds, 50 Fire Control Units and 50 Training Simulators to Operation Enduring Freedom [in Afghanistan].”

Since then the Switchblade has apparently become a favored weapon of U.S. Special Forces and other infantry units, valued for its ability to carry out precision strikes at long range. It can hit with sniper-like accuracy from six miles away, and unlike a Javelin or other missiles, it does not give away the firer’s location. Remains of some Switchblades were found in Syria in 2015, assumed to have been used by U.S. troops assisting Kurdish forces.

There have been a variety of developments including an air-launched version – test-fired from a Kratos Airwolf combat drone last year – and BlackWing, a version that can be launched and controlled from a submerged submarine and that is in service with the U.S. Navy (though again, details are scant).

In 2020, AeroVironment rebranded the basic version as the Switchblade 300 and introduced the Switchblade 600, a larger, longer-range weapon with a bigger warhead to take out armored vehicles. It is not known which version will be shipped to Ukraine, though the 300 is undoubtedly more readily available.

Meanwhile, Russia has been deploying its own small loitering munitions in Ukraine. The remains of two KUB kamikaze drones have been retrieved, both of which apparently missed their targets. The Russian technology is much less mature, but has previously been used in Syria.

It is interesting that the U.S. will only supply 100 Switchblades at this time; this may be a trial batch to see how effective the weapons is in Ukrainian hands. A Pentagon spokesman said further shipments may be forthcoming. However, it may be that the U.S. is still cautious about sharing one of its most prized assets — previously Switchblade has only been exported to the U.K., although there have reportedly been many requests from other allies.

There may also be concerns over maintaining the secrecy of what is still a highly confidential weapon. Switchblade may be going into action in the Ukraine, but that does not mean it will be going into the spotlight.