Army awards deal to AV for new Switchblade 400 kamikaze drone to support LASSO program

The Army has awarded AeroVironment a prototype agreement for the drone maker’s latest Switchblade variant, the company announced Monday.

The award is related to the service’s Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance (LASSO) program, which aims to boost the loitering munition capabilities of mobile brigade combat teams.

Kamikaze drone technology has been a major factor on the battlefield and a leading case of casualties in the Ukraine-Russia war, and Pentagon officials are moving to boost the U.S. military’s arsenal for these types of weapons.

The U.S. Army’s mobile brigade combat teams “lack adequate proportional organic capabilities at echelon to apply immediate, point, long range, and direct fire effects to destroy tanks, light armored vehicles, hardened targets, defilade, and personnel targets, while producing minimal collateral damage in complex terrain in all environmental conditions,” officials wrote in fiscal 2027 budget documents.

The LASSO program is meant to help address that shortfall.  

The system provides a day/night capable, lightweight, unmanned aerial anti-tank ordnance, man-portable weapon that consists of an all-up round and fire control system, according to budget documents.

The kamikaze drone will have a flight endurance that “enables the Soldier to make multiple orbits within the [infantry brigade combat team] typically assigned battlespace, to acquire and attack targets within and beyond current crew served and small arms fire,” officials wrote.

“The range/endurance enables the unit to utilize reach back capability and maximize standoff. Unlike existing direct and indirect fire weapon systems, LASSO’s discreet payload and unique capability delivers Soldiers the ability to abort against targets in a dynamic situation (e.g., use of human shields) or prosecute targets that would have been deemed non-viable in past due to the higher collateral damage associated with alternative munitions,” they added.

The Army has been keen on AV’s drones. In August 2024, it awarded the company a nearly $1 billion contract for Switchblade 600 and Switchblade 300 variants to support a lethal unmanned systems directed requirement. In February 2026, the firm announced a $186 million delivery order for Block 2 variants of those drones.

The SB 600 was chosen for the first increment of LASSO, but the Army has been looking to add more platforms to the program.

“The LASSO base capability will be optimized to defeat tanks rapidly and precisely for MBCTs. Follow on increments will support future capabilities for company and below echelons. Future increments will focus on additional range increases, enhanced lethality, and advanced payload options (personnel, hard sites, etc.),” according to the budget documents.

AV unveiled the SB 400 last fall. The drone can destroy moving tanks and armored vehicles at distances up to 65 kilometers, or about 40 kilometers miles, according to the company.

“Its advanced EO/IR sensors, aided target recognition, and advanced edge computing enable Switchblade 400 to autonomously detect and classify targets day or night, optimizing its 35-minute endurance. Deployable by a single soldier in less than five minutes, it can be readily integrated with modern tactical networks such as ATAK and Nett Warrior for intuitive control,” per an AV product description.

The all-up round, which was designed to fit common launch tubes, weighs 39 pounds. The weapon system has a loitering speed up to 70 miles per hour and “sprint” speed up to 90 miles per hour.

According to AV, the new drone was the first purpose-built loitering munition to operate with the company’s HALO command-and-control technology.

The capability will enable a “sensor-to-shooter concept of operations that allows a single soldier to detect, identify, and engage targets through a unified, networked architecture,” the company wrote in a press release.

The Army is requesting approximately $110 million for LASSO procurement in fiscal 2027. The service plans to spend nearly $1.2 billion on the initiative in the FY26-FY31 time frame, according to budget documents.

AV declined to disclose the dollar value of its new agreement with the Army. The deal will support the “rapid” development, delivery and testing of the SB 400, the company noted in a press release.

“Switchblade 400 is the product of continuous feedback from the field and the soldiers who rely on our systems in real-world operations,” Brian Young, AV’s senior vice president of loitering munitions, said in a statement. “We are constantly leaning forward, integrating new capabilities, enhancing performance, and reducing the burden on the warfighter. That soldier-driven approach is central to how we develop, test, and deliver capability for the Army.”

Earlier this year, Textron Systems announced it had been awarded a prototype agreement to provide the company’s Damocles platform for the LASSO program. The announcement did not disclose the value of that deal.