AeroVironment Switchblade 400 drone joins US Army LASSO program to replace traditional anti-tank missiles.

The U.S. Army has selected AeroVironment’s Switchblade 400 loitering munition for the LASSO program on May 4, 2026, which signals a major shift away from traditional infantry anti-tank missiles toward portable precision-strike drones designed for fast-moving combat. The decision reflects battlefield lessons from Ukraine, where loitering munitions increasingly outperformed conventional anti-tank weapons by extending engagement range, accelerating target kill timelines, and reducing the logistical burden on frontline infantry units.

Positioned between the lightweight Switchblade 300 and the heavier Switchblade 600, the 18 kg Switchblade 400 gives platoon- and company-level forces a soldier-portable weapon capable of striking armored targets at ranges up to 65 km while remaining connected through ATAK, mesh networking, and distributed sensor-to-shooter architectures. Its anti-armor payload, human-in-the-loop targeting system, and modular open architecture align with the Army’s broader modernization strategy focused on survivability, autonomy support, electronic warfare resilience, and decentralized battlefield operations.

Related topic: AeroVironment to produce 14,400 Switchblades loitering munitions per year in the US

The U.S. need for the loitering munitions stemmed from lessons of the Russia–Ukraine war; current infantry brigade combat teams lacked organic anti‑tank weapons while both sides in Ukraine were exploiting kamikaze drones. (Picture source: AeroVironment)

On May 4, 2026, the U.S. Army selected AeroVironment’s Switchblade 400 loitering munition for the LASSO program through a prototype agreement supporting development, testing, and delivery for Mobile Brigade Combat Teams. The selection expands procurement activity already supported by the August 2024 five-year $990 million IDIQ contract for Switchblade systems and the February 2026 $186 million order for Switchblade 300 Block 20 and Switchblade 600 Block 2 systems. Army planning allocates nearly $110 million for LASSO acquisition in FY2027 and close to $1.2 billion across FY2026-FY2031, showing that loitering munitions are expected to become a permanent component of its maneuver force structure.

The requirement emerged directly from observations in Ukraine, where FPV and loitering systems increasingly replaced traditional anti-armor engagement methods due to compressed engagement timelines, extended precision-fire reach, and reduced munition expenditure against dispersed targets. The Army structured the Low-Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance (LASSO) program around the need for an organic weapon capable of rapidly destroying armored and protected targets at standoff range while remaining portable at the company and platoon level. Existing anti-tank guided missiles, such as the FGM-148 Javelin, provide high lethality but impose a logistical burden due to launcher weight, reload mass, and limited range compared with emerging drone-based engagement concepts.

The Switchblade 400 occupies a middle category between the 3.27 kg Switchblade 300 Block 20 and the 29.5 kg Switchblade 600, combining anti-armor effects with an 18 kg all-up-round weight that allows a single soldier to transport, assemble, and launch the system in under five minutes. Parallel Army procurements involving UVision’s HERO-90 and Textron’s Damocles also indicate that the Pentagon intends to maintain multiple loitering munition suppliers and architectures. AeroVironment introduced the Switchblade 400 during AUSA 2025, positioning the loitering munition between lightweight expendable drones and larger anti-tank missile systems in both weight and mission profile.

The munition combines a 65 km engagement range with 35 minutes endurance, a loiter speed of 113 km/h, and a sprint speed of 145 km/h, enabling infantry formations to conduct standoff anti-armor engagements while remaining outside many direct fire threats. Its 12 kg payload is optimized for anti-armor effects rather than anti-personnel fragmentation, reflecting the Army’s requirement for a lightweight tank-kill capability deployable below battalion level. Its rocket-assisted tube-launch configuration is also compatible with common launch tubes and distributed tactical deployment concepts already fielded across multiple Army and allied formations.

Moreover, AeroVironment integrated a handoff functionality into the Switchblade 400, allowing operators to transfer control between tactical nodes to extend operational reach beyond standard datalink limitations. In terms of response times, a 20 km strike allows roughly 27 minutes of loiter time, while a 35 km engagement reduces loiter duration to approximately 15 minutes. The command-and-control architecture forms a major differentiator because the Switchblade 400 became the first AeroVironment loitering munition developed specifically around the AV_Halo ecosystem.

The system integrates directly with ATAK, Nett Warrior, TA5 controller architecture, Cursor-on-Target protocols, and MANET mesh networking structures, allowing lower-echelon units to execute sensor-to-shooter operations without routing targeting authority through brigade or division-level command nodes. The Switchblade 400's optical sensor can recognize a target at distances up to 5.5 kilometers, and its thermal sensor can recognize and classify a target through its heat signature at distances up to 1.4 kilometers.

Secure mesh-network datalink range extends between 25 km and 40 km, depending on network topology, which directly addresses operational problems observed in Ukraine, where centralized command-and-control chains frequently slowed engagement timelines and increased vulnerability to electronic warfare and ISR detection. The autonomous functions integrated into the Switchblade 400 remain limited to aided target recognition, target tracking, navigation support, and onboard edge-computing assistance rather than autonomous lethal engagement authority, preserving compliance with Pentagon human-in-the-loop targeting requirements.

This distinction matters because electronic warfare conditions in Ukraine demonstrated that manually piloted FPV and loitering systems impose a substantial cognitive burden on operators while degraded communications and GPS interference complicate target identification and terminal guidance. AeroVironment therefore integrated onboard processing capable of assisting with target classification and tracking under degraded electromagnetic conditions while retaining operator authorization during terminal attack phases. The drone also preserves wave-off capability, allowing operators to abort strikes against targets shielded by civilian presence or changing battlefield conditions, a requirement directly linked to Army concerns regarding collateral damage in urban terrain. 

The Switchblade 400 was designed around a Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA) because the Army increasingly treats software adaptability, subsystem replacement, and rapid modernization cycles as operational requirements rather than acquisition preferences. The architecture supports radio replacement, sensor upgrades, compute modernization, payload integration, and communications modifications without redesigning the airframe or command structure, reducing the time required to adapt against evolving electronic warfare systems and armored protection technologies.

AeroVironment also incorporated model-based systems engineering, open-compute architecture, and radio-agnostic interfaces intended to simplify interoperability across multiple tactical communications environments and future Army battlefield-network architectures. The emphasis on modularity reflects lessons from Ukraine, where drone survivability and effectiveness degraded rapidly once adversaries adapted electronic warfare techniques. Industrial expansion linked to the Switchblade family indicates that AeroVironment expects sustained high-volume demand from U.S. and allied procurement programs beyond immediate wartime replenishment cycles.

In October 2025, the company announced plans to increase Switchblade production capacity to 1,200 units per month, equivalent to 14,400 systems annually, through a new FreedomWerx production facility in Salt Lake City expected to begin operations between late 2026 and early 2027. The facility supplements existing infrastructure in Simi Valley, Los Angeles, and Arlington while expanding assembly, testing, and integration throughput for loitering munition systems and associated subsystems. Demand drivers include continuing U.S. Army procurement, anticipated Replicator-related acquisition activity, and expanding foreign military sales involving Lithuania, Romania, Sweden, France, Taiwan, Greece, Australia, and Canada.

Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.