Washington: The US Army has awarded Aerovironment (AV) a contract worth up to $990 million to provide Switchblade loitering munitions for infantry battalions, according to a Pentagon announcement.
The Defence Department announced the contract to supply “an organic, stand-off capability to dismounted infantry formations capable of destroying tanks, light armoured vehicles, hardened targets, defilade and personnel targets.” Funding will be determined with each order and the Pentagon estimates the work will be completed in five years.
Aerovironment said in a statement it expects to begin delivering systems to the Army “in months.” The contract fulfils the service’s directed requirement for loitering munitions for soldiers in infantry battalions, the company said.
Switchblades are tube-launched munitions with small wings that pop out like a switchblade knife when ejected and can be flown like drones. They are designed to hit targets and detonate.
The Army has used the Switchblade for more than a decade, but as the systems have been sent to Ukraine and used with great success by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the service has recognised its broader utility within its own force. The Army’s vice chief of staff, revealed the quantity for the first time during a June 21 House Appropriations defence subcommittee hearing.
The United Kingdom is the only other current Switchblade operator, but France, Lithuania and Australia have all signed on to buy the systems since war broke out in Ukraine.
US Defence officials revealed earlier this year that the Switchblade 600 would be one of the systems selected for the Pentagon’s Replicator program, which is aimed at speeding up the purchase and delivery of drones to the services. The Pentagon wants the services, through Replicator, to field thousands of drones by August 2025 while learning how to run acquisition sprints to get weapons quickly when an urgent demand must be met.
Aerovironment won a previous contract to fulfil the Army’s loitering unmanned systems directed requirement in December and is delivering systems to the Army under the contract.
“AV is proud to have been selected to provide Switchblade for this critical and urgent Army requirement,” Brett Hush, AV’s senior vice president and general manager of loitering munition systems, said in the statement. “This latest contract underscores the unmatched maturity and effectiveness of our system, as well as AV’s strategic positioning to rapidly produce and deliver these cutting-edge solutions to operators in the field.”
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