Ukraine is about to receive more of these game-changing kamikaze drones

Ukraine will soon receive a new batch of tank-killing kamikaze drones that will boost the country’s ability to hit Russian targets and assist Kyiv with its ongoing counter-offensive. Here’s what we know about Kyiv’s incoming shipment of Switchblade 600 drones. 

The Switchblade series of miniature loitering munitions from the U.S. defense contractor AeroVironment have been one of the most effective weapons in Ukraine’s drone arsenal and their use on the battlefields has provided Kyiv with unique battlefield opportunities. 

Pictured: Switchblade 600 / Photo Credit: Instagram @aerovironmentinc

Switchblades allow their operators to search for their targets while controlling who and what they want to hit until the end of their combat mission according to AeroVironment Vice President of Global Business Development and Market Charlie Dean. 

“All the way to the end… the operator can be making decisions," Dean told Newsweek. “The operator can choose to fly away from the immediate target that perhaps they were after initially, because they found the target of higher value.”

Pictured: Switchblade 600 / Photo Credit: Instagram @aerovironmentinc

AeroVironment’s loitering munitions drones come in two models. The Switchblade 300, which is a smaller model weighing just 4 pounds, and the Switchblade 600, which is the larger version of the company’s models weigh in at a massive 120 pounds. 

Photo Credit: Wiki Commons: By U.S. Army AMRDEC Public Affairs - https://madsciblog.tradoc.army.mil/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Switchblade.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=116159041

The Switchblade 600 was designed to carry a larger payload than the Switchblade 300 and was developed to destroy tougher targets using the same type of tandem-shaped charge that is employed in the FGM-148 Javelin according to Popular Mechanics.

This means that the Switchblade 600 can be used to target and destroy military armor like tanks, artillery, and air defense systems. Unfortunately, Ukraine has far more of the Switchblade 300 models than it does of the larger tank-busting 600 drones. 

"The 300s continue to outnumber the 600s presently, but that will soon change,” Charlie Dean told Newsweek, which reported that new shipments of the larger Switchblades will soon be arriving in Ukraine, though official numbers aren’t known. 

Pictured: Switchblade 300 / Photo Credit: Instagram @aerovironmentinc

Newsweek approached the Pentagon for comment but no additional details were given. However, Jeff Jurgensen noted the Department of Defense would "support Ukraine with the means to defend itself in the near term and deter against further aggression."

In October 2022, Charlie Dean told Defense News that Kyiv had “considerable interest” in acquiring AeroVironment’s Switchblade 600 model and explained that the first batch of ten was set to arrive in the country very soon. 

Pictured: Switchblade 600 / Photo Credit: Instagram @aerovironmentinc

Dean also explained that AeroVironment had the ability to manufacture more than 2000 of the 600 models annually and that the company had plans to triple its production capabilities to 6000 units annually within the following months. 

How many of these models were sent to Kyiv is still a mystery but Defense News noted that the Pentagon awarded AeroVironment with a $2.2 million dollar contract to provide Ukraine with the deadly drones in September 2022. 

On February 24th, the United States announced a new $2 billion dollar security package for Ukraine that included AeroVironment’s Switchblade 600 among several other drones and loitering munitions according to The Drive’s Joseph Trevithick.

Pictured: Switchblade 600 / Photo Credit: Instagram @aerovironmentinc

“The Switchblade 600 offers even very small units a useful aerial surveillance capability during the day and at night that also comes with the ability to conduct immediate precision strikes on any threats that might be uncovered,” Trevithick wrote at the time. 

The advantages the Switchblade 600 offers on the battlefield are important according to Charlie Dean because it gives Ukrainian forces the ability to offset the power of Putin’s military might on the battlefield. "It's very unique compared to artillery,” Dean said. 

Pictured: Switchblade 600 / Photo Credit: Instagram @aerovironmentinc

"The Ukrainians don't have the artillery firepower of the Russians, they don't have the the expendable human capital of the Russians," Dean explained to Newsweek. "The unmanned systems… play a huge role in really offsetting the balance of firepower."