04/09/2024
Switchblade Loitering Munitions Get Major Funding from Pentagon
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The U.S. Army has contracted Aerovironment for up to $990 million to supply Switchblade loitering munitions to its infantry battalions, as per a Pentagon announcement. The Defense Department has awarded a contract to provide dismounted infantry formations with an organic, stand-off capability to destroy tanks, light armored vehicles, hardened targets, defilade, and personnel targets. This contract fulfills the service's need for loitering munitions for infantry battalion soldiers. Switchblades are tube-launched munitions with small wings that unfold like a switchblade knife upon ejection and can operate like drones. They are designed to target and detonate upon impact.
The Army has employed Switchblades for over a decade. Their successful use by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Ukraine has highlighted their broader utility within the Army's own forces. Despite the higher cost, military drones are likely to see increased use due to the growing prevalence of anti-drone electronic warfare (EW). I predict that military drones will adopt an anti-EW role, paving the way for swarms of cheaper commercial drones to perform their tasks. The stand-off range and auto-targeting features are particularly valuable when waiting for hours for a target to appear, as it's challenging for operators to maintain focus for extended periods. The Switchblade 300 has a very small warhead, comparable to a 40mm gr***de, with approximately 30 grams of explosives. In comparison, a typical frag gr***de contains 150-200 grams of filler. The entire Switchblade 300 weighs 2.5 kilograms. The anti-tank Switchblade 600, on the other hand, is equipped with the 8500-gram tandem warhead from a Javelin missile, resulting in a total weight of 25 kilograms, ten times that of the Switchblade 300. A Switchblade-type munition can be launched, directed to a specific coordinate, and then target a pre-programmed visual pattern of the intended equipment. In the presence of jamming, it's more advantageous to eliminate the source of the jamming signal. Jamming devices effectively broadcast their location, making them vulnerable to anti-radiation munitions. Either they continue to broadcast and face destruction or they cease operation, rendering them ineffective.
Based on my analysis, when operating in a dense electronic warfare environment, some drones/loitering munitions relies on its time-of-flight (TOF) sensor to maintain ground contact and other inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors. To compensate for variations in ground height, the Switchblade adjusts its dive altitude by "jumping" to the calculated height for effective target engagement. I observe this behavior when the TOF sensor passes over the building on the left and again when flying over the truck.
