Ukraine Switchblade Drone - Last week, the White House announced that 100 strategic unmanned systems would be moved to Ukraine. Here's how these flying weapons work.
In September 2021, the US Marines launched a Switchblade 300 drone during training in California. US Marine Corps / Alexis Moradian
Ukraine Switchblade Drone
On Wednesday, March 16, President Joe Biden announced that the United States would send $800 million worth of military aid to Ukraine to help the country fight a defensive war against Russia's invading forces. Anti-tank, anti-aircraft and anti-personnel weapons included in the support package include a line entry for “100 tactical unmanned aerial systems”. Later that day, the systems were confirmed to be Switchblade drones, a type of piloted missile that could be a scout.
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The US aid package includes 20 million rounds of ammunition, grenades and mortar rounds and 25,000 sets of body armor with matching helmets.
Switchblade is a flying camera robot with explosives. These all-electric machines are weapons that help detect or attack nearby enemies, not far away.
The Switchblades come in two sizes: the Switchblade 300 and the Switchblade 600. Both can be carried by one person, but the weight difference is significant – a 300 weighs just 5.5 pounds and fits in a backpack. A 600-pound, 33-pound missile is too heavy for the components required to carry it.
US switchblades 'kamikaze drones' #AFPgraphics Factfile Or "kamikaze drones," US sent to Ukraine pic.twitter.com/fzAov9ncrQ — AFP News Agency (@AFP) March 18, 2022
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The Switchblade 300 can engage targets just 6 miles away and can fly for up to 15 minutes. 600, 25 miles or 40 minutes of flight time. The switchblade contains cameras, and video from these sensors, as well as GPS information and image processing, is used to guide the switchblade. The Switchblade is designed to receive target information from other drones, allowing it to track and locate selected targets. This makes it a versatile weapon that can be directed against a target using targeting information provided by other drones.
Unlike other drones used only for surveillance, the Switchblade 300 carries a small explosive payload, the kind used to hit people or unsecured weapons such as a mortar launcher or exposed machine gun emplacement. For the larger Switchblade 600, the payload is an "anti-armor warhead" that can be used against vehicles.
If the humans piloting the switchblade find it no longer serves a purpose, it can be disabled and then recovered. The brochure for the Switchblade 600 offers a rechargeable battery.
The company that makes the Switchblade, Aero Environment, describes it as a "tactical missile system," a reference to the machine's unique dual role. It is a flying scout and an armored weapon. Officially this category is called "Loitering Ammunition".
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While these may seem like very modern creations, there is historical context: the 1918 Kettering Bug, an unmanned biplane considered a precursor to drones and cruise missiles, flew briefly before an internal signal released its wings, which crashed with an explosive payload. . field
Modern ballistic munitions typically fly for a fixed period of time, using sensors to locate targets such as anti-air missile sites and radar stations. Even with the Switchblade 600's full endurance, the drone only flies for about 40 minutes, and the Switchblade 300's short duration isn't enough to qualify it as a latetor.
When the missiles were first proposed and tested, they were commonly called "kamikaze drones" or "suicide missiles".
In its coverage a decade ago, prototype Switchblades were referred to as "flying killer robots" and "kamikaze suicide drones." All of those names capture the essence of the category: once one of these weapons detonates, it cannot be reused or recovered.
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Like many drones, the Switchblade is guided by waypoint navigation, in which a human plots a route on a map, and once launched the robot flies of its own accord.
Unlike radio-controlled devices, the operator does not fly the aircraft, the operator says what he wants to see and what he wants the camera to aim for, and the onboard computer guides and maintains the aircraft on target. Steve Gitlin, AeroVironment's chief marketing officer, told The War Zone in 2020. “We have a similar capability in our strategic unmanned aerial systems. You can lock onto a target and the aircraft is essentially autonomous on that target.
Other software on the Switchblade, Feature and Object Recognition, aids its ability to detect and track a target. This does not make it an autonomous weapon by strict definition, but it is a weapon with autonomous properties that can change the way people use it.
Focusing on whether this fits the precise definition of an autonomous weapon is more important than understanding how switchblades use the autonomous features they possess. "So it's wise to put aside definitional debates and instead focus on the novel (as well as familiar) challenges and risks of autonomous weapons systems," drones scholar and autonomy expert Arthur Holland Mitchell tweeted recently. War machines. "For example: Do operators have sufficient situational awareness to make decisions on energy use? Do weapons provide sufficient control surfaces for human operators to take precautions in an attack?"
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In combat, the short flight time between launch and impact of the Switchblades, particularly the Switchblade 300, meant that the weapon's firer was confident of the missile's own target. The system hits what needs to be hit.
What differentiates the Switchblade compared to other missiles is that a human operator has the option to stop the attack if something changes, such as moving into a civilian area or exposing cameras to what it thinks is a tank. A school bus instead. This is different from something like a high-flying Reaper drone that cannot deflect missiles.
The ability to use such control to un-fire a missile already in the air is one of the great promises of similar control systems for weapons. For that promise to be fulfilled, a man armed in combat must be able and willing to watch the missile's own video feed until it ends.
Kelsey D. is a military technology journalist who has contributed to Popular Science since 2013. Atherton. He covers unmanned robotics and other drones, communications systems, nuclear initiatives, and technologies for planning, conducting, and mitigating war. Ukraine gets. switchblade. This is the first wave of ammunition for Kyiv. Two experts at the Foundation for Defense of Democracy argued that war is the best weapon for Ukraine and called on its supporters to open their arsenals.
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A U.S. Marine launches a Switchblade drone during a training exercise on July 7, 2021 at Camp Lejeune, N.C. (U.S. Marine Corps/Sarah Pischer)
Weapons of war — especially small drones that can track and attack a target — have been around for years, but the technology has emerged as a key weapon in the 2021 conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In urban warfare in Ukraine, this system may be more valuable. In a new OP-ed, two Foundation for Defense of Democracies experts explain why they are a great tool for Ukraine's defense and what systems could be sent to Kyiv.
On March 16, the US Hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made an impassioned plea to Congress for help, President Joe Biden announced that he would provide Ukraine with 100 switchblade laser weapons (commonly referred to as the "Ukraine") and $800 million in additional security aid. "Suicide Drones." Although members of Congress are pushing for the transfer of Polish MiG-29s to Ukraine, the White House would be wise to prioritize weapons systems that can quickly increase Ukraine's combat capabilities while reducing the risk of a Russian attack.
The problem, though, is that Ukraine will use up those 100 switchblades in mere days, and the switchblade variant Washington is sending has little use against Russian armor. Accordingly, Washington should immediately work with NATO allies to provide Ukraine with more exports and larger quantities of munitions, or LMs.
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LMs are a combination of missiles and aerial surveillance drones. They combine the ability to execute tactics, conduct surveillance, and engage targets into a single platform to reduce the time between target detection and engagement. This was crucial for the Ukrainian defenders, who faced more close-quarters urban combat in the coming days.
LMs vary in size and capacity. Timescales for potential targets range from minutes to hours, but their munitions range from targeting soldiers, equipment (armored and unarmored), or military infrastructure. systems carry
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