Aerovironment wins nearly $1B to supply Switchblade munitions to Army

The U.S. Military has awarded Aerovironment a contract value as much as $990 million to supply Switchblade loitering munitions for infantry battalions, in response to a Pentagon announcement posted Tuesday night.

The Protection Division introduced the contract to produce “an natural, stand-off functionality to dismounted infantry formations able to destroying tanks, gentle armored autos, hardened targets, defilade and personnel targets.”

Funding might be decided with every order and the Pentagon estimates the work might be accomplished in 5 years.

Aerovironment stated in a press release Wednesday it expects to start delivering programs to the Military “in months.”

The contract fulfills the service’s directed requirement for loitering munitions for troopers in infantry battalions, the corporate stated.

Switchblades are tube-launched munitions with small wings that come out like a switchblade knife when ejected and might be flown like drones. They’re designed to hit targets and detonate.

The Military has used the Switchblade for greater than a decade, however because the programs have been despatched to Ukraine and used with nice success by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the service has acknowledged its broader utility inside its personal power.

The UK is the one different present Switchblade operator, however France, Lithuania and Australia have all signed on to purchase the programs since battle broke out in Ukraine.

U.S. Protection officers revealed earlier this 12 months that the Switchblade 600 could be one of many programs chosen for the Pentagon’s Replicator program, which is aimed toward dashing up the acquisition and supply of drones to the providers.

The Pentagon desires the providers, by Replicator, to subject hundreds of drones by August 2025 whereas studying tips on how to run acquisition sprints to get weapons rapidly when an pressing demand should be met.

Aerovironment received a earlier contract to satisfy the Military’s loitering unmanned programs directed requirement in December and is delivering programs to the Military beneath the contract.

“AV is proud to have been chosen to supply Switchblade for this important and pressing Military requirement,” Brett Hush, AV’s senior vice chairman and normal supervisor of loitering munition programs, stated within the assertion. “This newest contract underscores the unrivaled maturity and effectiveness of our system, in addition to AV’s strategic positioning to quickly produce and ship these cutting-edge options to operators within the subject.”