AUSA 2025 — Defense firm AV today unveiled new versions of its man-portable Switchblade loitering munition family, as well as an update to an existing vertical takeoff-and-landing platform, to kick off the annual AUSA conference in Washington.
AV says it has created a new Switchblade platform, dubbed the Switchblade 400, that is a “medium-range” anti-armor loitering munition weighing less than 40 pounds. The firm has also updated its existing Switchblade 300, used for attacks on light armor and personnel, as well as its Switchblade 600 that can hit larger, more heavily armored targets.
“Warfighters require scalable, reliable, and interoperable effects that can be tailored to the threat and the environment,” Trace Stevenson, AV’s president of autonomous systems, said in a company release. “These three new Switchblade variants deliver that flexibility and scalability. Each design builds on proven fielded capability while adding important new capabilities that reduce risk and expand mission sets.”
AV, previously known as AeroVironment, has modified its Switchblade 600 with a new Block 2 version, according to the release, which provides 20 percent longer endurance and over 100 kilometers of handoff and relay range. The existing Switchblade 600 has an endurance of over 40 minutes, the company’s website says, meaning the Block 2 improvement adds at least eight more minutes of loiter time.
The release adds that the existing Switchblade 300 Block 20 was also updated by the company with a modular payload bay to integrate an explosively formed penetrator warhead, a shaped charge that can pierce through armor. AV’s Switchblade 300 webpage says the platform can fly for over 20 min with a range of roughly 30 kilometers.
Demand for lower-cost precision munitions has soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other conflicts around the globe, where cheap, unmanned systems have come to define much of modern artillery. AV’s Switchblade in particular has been ordered for use in Ukraine, though it has reportedly faced troubles operating in a contested electronic warfare environment. (The company has said it’s updated its platforms to contend with the problem.)
Building off its existing VAPOR platform, AV also revealed a new variant, the VAPOR Compact Long Endurance (CLE). The drone is a smaller unmanned system in the Group 2 size category, which a separate company press release says can operate longer and fully autonomously to perform surveillance, electronic warfare, precision strike and resupply missions.
“We built the VAPOR CLE around what warfighters told us they needed most — more time over target, greater lift for mission-critical payloads, and a system rugged enough to survive the toughest environments,” Jason Wright, AV’s senior product line manager, said in the company’s release. “Those upgrades mean troops can carry less gear, set up faster, and count on a single platform to perform multiple roles in the field.”
According to AV’s release, the drone’s “packout case” measures seven cubic feet and weighs 35 pounds and can be deployed without tools. It comes with a two-hour flight time and is modular so that third-party systems can be more easily swapped in.
“Every detail of the VAPOR CLE reflects an upgrade driven by real-world mission needs,” Jason Hendrix, AV’s vice president of small uncrewed systems, said in the release. “By doubling endurance, increasing lift, and adding onboard autonomy, we’ve transformed the system into a combat-ready tool that gives warfighters more capability in a smaller, more adaptable package.”
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