Photo: AeroVironment
There must be nothing scarier for a soldier than to know a drone is not only watching from above, but it’s also capable of following and chasing its target until it makes sure it is destroyed. Yet this is the reality of our time, and we get painful glimpses of that in the videos coming our way from over in Ukraine almost on a daily basis.
The military calls these stalker drones loitering munitions. They are a sort of half-breeds between a cruise missile and regular drones, capable of going after a target no matter the effort it makes to escape, be it in the form of running or hiding.
One of the scariest such loitering munitions is the Switchblade 300. Not only do we know what the thing can do on paper, but we’ve seen it in action in Ukraine over and over, after hundreds of them were delivered to the battlefield by the U.S. as part of military aid packages.
In its standard form, the Switchblade 300 is a formidable weapon. It can cover a distance of up to 6.2 miles (10 km) and can stay in the air for about 15 minutes, stalking its prey until it's ready to strike. It generally travels at speeds of 63 mph (101 kph), but when its operator decides to slam it into its target it can accelerate to 100 mph (160 kph), making the impact even more devastating.
This week though we got word from the drone’s maker, AeroVironment, that a new version of the Switchblade 300 is out. The device is called Block 20, and just like before it needs just a single operator. It launches from a tube in less than two minutes after being unpacked, and the new abilities it brings make it even more badass than before.
First up, we get the ability to control the thing by means of a new tablet-based fire control system, but also a control system integrated directly into the launcher tube. Then, its operators get the ability to use cursor-on-target GPS and real-time video to identify, track and take out targets, even beyond-line-of-sight.
The loitering time of the drone has also increased slightly, and is now at 20 minutes. The increase may not seem all that great, but in battle conditions, those extra five minutes could mean an eternity.
AeroVironment does not say when the Switchblade 300 Block 20 will be deployed for military use, or by whom. Having arrived back in 2012, the drone was for a long time a weapon America alone held. Then, in 2021, it was delivered to an undisclosed foreign and allied nation. Ukraine got the earlier version of the Switchblade last year, with allegedly hundreds of them reaching the front lines.
One of the scariest such loitering munitions is the Switchblade 300. Not only do we know what the thing can do on paper, but we’ve seen it in action in Ukraine over and over, after hundreds of them were delivered to the battlefield by the U.S. as part of military aid packages.
In its standard form, the Switchblade 300 is a formidable weapon. It can cover a distance of up to 6.2 miles (10 km) and can stay in the air for about 15 minutes, stalking its prey until it's ready to strike. It generally travels at speeds of 63 mph (101 kph), but when its operator decides to slam it into its target it can accelerate to 100 mph (160 kph), making the impact even more devastating.
This week though we got word from the drone’s maker, AeroVironment, that a new version of the Switchblade 300 is out. The device is called Block 20, and just like before it needs just a single operator. It launches from a tube in less than two minutes after being unpacked, and the new abilities it brings make it even more badass than before.
First up, we get the ability to control the thing by means of a new tablet-based fire control system, but also a control system integrated directly into the launcher tube. Then, its operators get the ability to use cursor-on-target GPS and real-time video to identify, track and take out targets, even beyond-line-of-sight.
The loitering time of the drone has also increased slightly, and is now at 20 minutes. The increase may not seem all that great, but in battle conditions, those extra five minutes could mean an eternity.
AeroVironment does not say when the Switchblade 300 Block 20 will be deployed for military use, or by whom. Having arrived back in 2012, the drone was for a long time a weapon America alone held. Then, in 2021, it was delivered to an undisclosed foreign and allied nation. Ukraine got the earlier version of the Switchblade last year, with allegedly hundreds of them reaching the front lines.
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