US May Supply Ukrainian Forces With Miniature Kamikaze Drones
The Biden administration is considering providing Ukraine with US-made AeroVironment Switchblade miniature-sized loitering munitions, two congressional officials briefed on the matter told NBC News on March16. | The officials told the outlet that the White House is currently considering supplying Ukraine with Switchblades, as part of a new package of military aid. However, they noted that no decisions on the matter have been made, yet. There are two available variants of the loitering munition, the Switchblade 300 and the 600. The 300 was designed to target personnel and unarmored vehicles. It has a range of 10 kilometers and an endurance of 10 minutes. The larger 600 was designed to destroy armored vehicles, like battle tanks. This version has a range of 80 kilometers and an endurance of up to 20 minutes. Both the Switchblade 300 and 600 are equipped with optical guidance systems. The miniature kamikaze drones can be programmed to automatically strike targets, and can loiter around their targets until the time is right to strike.