With the Ukraine War dominating the news these days, many airsofters have been keenly following the developments --- checking the weaponry and gear of combatants or being more focused in the actual study of warfare in the 21st Century which highlights information warfare. Such curiosity and concern will also lead to learning new things in the development of drones as integral tools in the battlefield.

Just this week, many of us have encountered a new type of drone and they are called “Loitering Munitions” which in media, they are also called “Suicide drones” or “Kamikaze drones” as they stay up in the air giving intelligence to their controllers and if a target has been designated, they can then dive to destroy the target. The targets can be artillery, missile launchers, armored vehicles, and transport units.

The loitering drones that the U.S. will be sending as part of its latest military assistance package to Ukraine are the Switchblades from AeroVironment with 100 units to be sent to the country. According to news sources, the Switchblade that will be sent is the Switchblade 600 which is said to be carrying the same warhead as the Javelin anti-tank weapon. It can loiter for 40 minutes in the air and can be sent to take out armored vehicles up to 40km away. There is another and smaller Switchblade 300 that can stay up in the air for 15 minutes and can be sent after smaller targets, including towed artillery or command vehicles up to 10km away.

Both are light drones which can be launched from portable tubes that when launched, they quickly deploy wings like switchblades, and thus the name. They are equipped with cameras so they can transmit video and images back to the controllers who use remote devices that are like controllers for game consoles. As they loiter from an altitude, the controllers can determine which target can be taken out. They have wave-off feature which they can abort an attack run if civilians appear near a target and then re-engage once collateral damage can be avoided.

While they have cruising speeds of 63 mph (Switchblade 300) and 70mph (Switchblade 600), they can dash to 100mph (300) and 115mph (600), especially when they are on doing terminal dives making them hard to target.

Taking out targets on the ground becomes cheaper with the Switchblade rather than relying on air support in the form of attack helicopters or planes which are expensive. Besides that, soldiers on the ground can have something up in the air quickly to support their operations rather than wait for air support, especially when time is of the essence.

How effective will the Switchblades be in Ukraine? In these days in which we see the battlefield through cameras that are now ubiquitous in weapons of war, we’ll find out soon enough.