AeroVironment will continue providing the U.S. Army with Switchblade loitering munition systems under a $288 million award.
The company said Monday the third delivery order is made on a potential five-year, $990 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract the Army awarded in August 2024 as part of the service branch’s Directed Requirement for Lethal Unmanned Systems.
Switchblade Loitering Munition
The Switchblade 300 Block 20 succeeds the Switchblade 300. The next generation loitering munition is equipped with a high-resolution EO/IR panning camera suite and other enhanced operational features. It is designed to provide operators with situational awareness, information collection, targeting and feature/object recognition in support of their decision making efforts.
The system is a lightweight, miniature and precision-guided lethal missile that can be launched in less than 2 minutes from land, sea, or mobile platforms.
In January, AV also received a $55.3 million delivery order from the Army for the systems.
Brett Hush, senior vice president and general manager of loitering munition systems at AV, welcomed the opportunity for the company to continue equipping the Army with loitering munition systems.
“We continue to deliver for the U.S. Army with our superior supply chain and manufacturing capacity,” he added.