U.S. Switchblade Failed Miserably In Ukraine

Illustrative image. (Photo by Sgt. Gregory T. Summers, U.S. Army).

AeroVironment Switchblade 300 loitering munitions supplied by the United States failed miserably in Ukraine, a report published by The Economist on October 23 revealed.

The Switchblade 300 was designed to target personnel and unarmored vehicles. It has a range of ten kilometers and an endurance of ten minutes.

AeroVironment developed a larger loitering munition, the Switchblade 600, 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.

In an initial response to the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the U.S. supplied hundreds of these loitering munitions to Ukraine.

The Switchblade 300 was very much among the very first Western weapons supplied to Ukraine to be promoted as a “game changer” at the time.

Ukraine’s high hopes were quickly shattered, however, according to The Economist, which said that the loitering munitions, which cost upwards of $80,000 a unit, struggled against Russian electronic warfare and caused minimal damage when they hit their targets.

“When we tested them, they glitched under jamming conditions,” Valery Borovyk, a Ukrainian military drone developer, was quoted by the British journal as saying. “When one hit the rear window of a minibus, the front windows didn’t even shatter.”

The report is not surprising at all. The Switchblade 300 failure in Ukraine followed what can be only described as subpar performance in Syria.

U.S. special forces used Switchblade 300 loitering munitions extensively in Syria, not only against ISIS but also against regime force.

The Syrians troops hunted down the loitering munitions with shot guns and locally-made electronic warfare systems. They were even able to capture many of them in excellent condition using just fine nets. Some of the captured munitions were even handed over to Russia and Iran at the time.

Interestingly, The Economist mentioned that the Switchblade 300 was used in Afghanistan and Iraq, describing it as an “essential kit” for U.S. special forces there, but didn’t mention anything about its operational history in Syria.

Of course, the Switchblade 300 is not the only Western loitering munition that performed poorly in Ukraine after being promoted as a “game changer”. A report by Contrary Research from May highlights similar problems with HF-1, which is made in Germany by Helsing.

The HF-1 is supposed to be a cutting-edge loitering munition, with a range of up to 40-50 kilometers and an optical targeting system aided by artificial intelligence. However, a Ukrainian military blogger described the loitering munition in the Contrary Research report as both primitive and overpriced. A single unit could cost close to $17,000.

The failures of these systems highlight a bigger problem within the Western military-industrial complex, which seems incapable of developing and producing cost-effective solutions for modern drone warfare.

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