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AeroVironment’s Switchblade 600 bares its teeth at Sea Air Space. The loitering munition has gotten real-world practice during the Ukraine conflict, as a number of the weapons have been sent from the US to Kyiv. (Aaron Mehta/Breaking Defense)

SOF WEEK 2023 — California firm AeroVironment has been producing loitering munitions and other drones for the US military for more than a decade, but the war in Ukraine has become an “inflection point” for the firm, according to CEO Wahid Nawabi.

Through security aid packages, the Pentagon has sent hundreds of the company’s Switchblade suicide drones — both the smaller 300 version and the larger 600 version — to Ukraine, along with AeroVironment’s bigger Puma surveillance UAV. The systems’ reported success on the battlefield has prompted other militaries to take notice.

“We were already a growth company,” Nawabi told Breaking Defense today during SOF Week 2023 in Tampa, Fla., surrounded by models of the company’s wares, adding the company itself hasn’t changed for the most part since the war began. But what has changed, in addition to the company’s financial prospects, is the “perception” about loitering munitions.

Ukraine “woke up a lot of customers to say, ‘You have to have this. This is not an option any more,'” he said. “And so that’s increased [interest].”

Nawabi said the firm received permission from the US government to sell the Switchblade to 20 US allies and partners, and have announced deals with a handful — Ukraine among them. The most recent deal, with France and another unnamed country, was announced late last month. French officials, in particular, have been vocal about the need for their military to adopt loitering munitions.

RELATED: France races for small suicide drones after seeing effectiveness in Ukraine

Getting permission to export was a difficult process, and the firm still has to obtain a license for every individual country, but ultimately Nawabi said the US government felt “comfortable” with the tech going to its geopolitical friends.

The Switchblade 300 received a significant upgrade with the Block 20 version announced in March. Those upgrades include improvements in loitering time, encryption, camera control and modular payloads.

Nawabi couldn’t say if the Block 20 Switchblades are already in use in Ukraine, but said that they would be included in any American aid packages from here on. A company spokesperson previously told Breaking Defense they did not expect the field the Block 20 until the end of the year.

RELATED: ‘Bigger, faster, longer’: As market grows, loitering munitions makers eye next evolution

The firm also took the opportunity of the start of SOF Week to announce today a new vertical take-off and landing kit for its Puma ISR drone, which the company said “expands the operational capabilities of the combat-proven Puma system in complex terrain[.]” The real draw of the Puma, Nawabi said, is how it integrates with the Switchblade: use the Puma to spot targets, the Switchblade to strike them, and then the Puma to do damage assessments.

From here, Nawabi said he believes the company is in a “phenomenal” position, but he’s eager to expand into a truly “all domain” firm. The company does have land and maritime robotics, but not in the way they do in the air. They’ve even got space domain covered, he said. After all, AerovVironment helped design the helicopter that made history by flying on Mars.