AeroVironment secures third US Army contract for Switchblade

AeroVironment has been awarded a $288 million delivery order for its Switchblade loitering munitions, marking the company’s third such order under the US Army’s Directed Requirement for Lethal Unmanned Systems in the past 12 months, according to a 3rd February press release.

This award brings the total value of the delivery orders so far up to $471.3 million, the ceiling price on the five-year contract, which was awarded in August 2024, is $990 million. The second delivery order, valued at $55.3 million was awarded in January this year. 

AeroVironment had a busy 2024, receiving additional large orders from the US DoD for its own forces as well as for allies. An October contract valued at $54.9 million brought a pre-existing contract ceiling up to $743 million to deliver Switchblade munitions to Lithuania, Romania, and Sweden. This contract will be delivered by 2026 and leverages 2023 and 2024 Army funds along with Foreign Military Sales.

The Department of State also approved the sale of Switchblade 300s to Taiwan in July with an estimated value of $60 million. And, in April 2024, the Block 20 Switchblade 300 was selected by the USMC for its Organic Precision Fires-Light (OPF-L) program of record, with an initial contract value of $8.9 million and a ceiling of $249 million. 

In May, the larger Switchblade 600 was selected under the US DoD’s Replicator Initiative, which aims to deploy thousands of autonomous systems within the 18 – 24 months following the announcement. 

The Lethal Unmanned Systems contract was awarded to AeroVironment as a sole source contract which led to a protest being filed in September 2024 by Mistral Inc, leading to a temporary stop in the work. The US Army had used temporary acquisition authorities granted in 2023, that exempted it from the need to conduct full competitions when procuring systems to replenish strategic stocks of munitions donated to Ukraine, or when providing materials to allies like Taiwan and Israel, according to Inside Defense.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied the protest in December, ruling that the US Army had not exceeded the granted authorities, with the stop work order having been lifted later in September. 

Tech profile: Switchblade

This video from AeroVironment shows one potential use case for the Switchblade 300. Credit: AeroVironment.

The Switchblade 300 was developed for use in Afghanistan where US troops were often engaged by Taliban fighters beyond the range of their typical infantry weapons. The use of air strikes and other forms of fire support was discouraged to minimise collateral damage and so a long-range munition was needed that could precisely engage small and fleeting targets. 

It is a small, tube-launched, fixed-wing munition weighing only 1.68 kg, with the complete round and launch system totalling 3.6 kg. While the initial version carried a relatively small warhead, comparable to a grenade, its forward-firing design aimed to limit collateral damage. It is unknown if subsequent versions have modified this warhead, but the munition’s performance has increased dramatically. The current Block 20 boasts a range of up to 30 km using signal repeaters and a flight duration exceeding 20 minutes, a considerable leap from the Block 10’s 10 km range and 15-minute flight time.

Because the Switchblade’s wings fold for tube launching, it requires continuous forward flight to avoid stalling. While it can loiter by circling a target area, it lacks the ability to hover stationary over a single point.

Calibre comment

Organic precision strike, as offered by systems like the Switchblade has been a growing requirement for some time with the war in Ukraine amplifying and increasing that demand rapidly as the value of the systems has been demonstrated live. Many of the US’s adversaries are developing and deploying their own systems, like the KUB-SM swarming loitering munition that is to be presented at IDEX 2025. The US DoD’s large orders for the Switchblade and other systems provide some degree of certainty for companies like AeroVironment, allowing them to expand production and invest in further R&D. This type of order is key to guaranteeing and rebuilding defence capabilities. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on 8th February 2025.