Switchblade 400 is here. It slashes weight to 39 pounds, keeps the Javelin warhead, range, gimbaled optic and loiter time.Sub 40 pounds is Javelin replacement territory and they're selling it for the US army's LASSO contract. The 60lb S600 was fine for a vehicle but simply not viable for a normal infantry platoon on foot.
>>64393667Holy fuck the entire MIC is dropping new shit like they're one upping each other. This is what, the 5th drop today?
>>64393667>Switchblade 400 is a rocket-launched, medium range, man-portable loitering munition engineered for decisive battlefield overmatch. Designed to defeat tanks and heavy armor, it delivers lethal standoff effects with pinpoint precision in contested environments. With 35 minutes of endurance, Switchblade 400 enables rapid target acquisition and high-confidence strikes against both fixed and moving threats.>Weighing under 40 lb, this all-Up-Round (AUR) can be carried and deployed by a single soldier in under five minutes, ensuring mobility and responsiveness at the tactical edge. Equipped with Aided Target Recognition and advanced edge computing, Switchblade 400 autonomously detects and classifies targets day or night, accelerating the kill chain. The system seamlessly integrates with ATAK via the Common Controller Grip TA5 and is Nett Warrior compliantMy take: this is the kind of Western conventional/peer-war drone everyone actually expected/wanted.
>>6439368035 minutes seems kind of short for 40 lb, is the warhead that heavy?
>>64393691It's the same Javelin warhead from the S600. About 7 pounds IIRC.
>>64393680The 300 was clearly a GWOT product that wouldn't be useful outside of the particulars of that style of COIN. Giving this an actual warhead is making it useful while being lighter than the 600.
Aerovironment also had three other releases: an upgrade to the VAPOR electric helicopter drone to compete with Anduril's Ghost-X, making the Block 20 EFP warhead for S300 public (but if you know you already knew), and a Block 20 upgrade for the Switchblade 600 which adds anti-jam GPS, a AI processor for terrain following & ATR, and more loiter time to extend the range past 100km.
There are videos out there showing the S400 launch. It adds a JATO style rocket booster, which I think is how they managed to cut the system weight - less pressure in the pyro launch tube so it can be lighter.
>>64393708Yes, it's been integrated into ATAK, Kinesis, Nett Warrior, and other BMS's too.
>>64393679AUSA 2025 started today
So how will it do against Russians? It will be tested in Ukraine right?
>>64393862>cinematic: https://www.avinc.com/lms/switchblade-400IDK, the S600 is popular in Ukraine as a anti-EW/AA-truck weapon.
>>64393708I think there's still room for a 300 sized offering, but with aggressive cost reduction measures and a proper omnidirectional blast-frag warhead
>>64394240A directional frag does the same damage to targets in the open with 80% less weight. Obviously an omni warhead has better general-purpose use (like for hitting inside a room) but its in conflict with a lightweight long range design.
>>64393680I remember the Ukrainians said they liked the 600, but there were very few of them.It's a nice improvement but I hope they can shit em out fast.https://www.defensenews.com/air/2025/10/13/aerovironment-eyes-new-factory-drone-launches-for-switchblade/>In late 2026 or early 2027, Young said, AeroVironment plans to open a new production facility in Salt Lake City. That facility will one day produce even more than AeroVironment’s primary production facility in Los Angeles does, he said, and allow the company to boost its monthly Switchblade production from around 500 to several thousand.Big if true.
>>64393667>another westoid wunderwaffen that has a price in the 6 digit range and will be produced in framceuticall quantities in the next 50 yearsFpvs cost from 200 to 6000$ have ranges from 2-50km and are being produced in the millions.This is just another grift to rip off the retarded mutt taxpayer.
>>64394265Sure, but the current low-collateral directional warhead is completely unsuited for a conventional war, given that it was designed to kill hadjis hiding out near civilians. Range will suffer, but in its current state the thing is just not a very useful tool for anything other than its original purpose.
>>64393667I remember posting in a thread about this.
>>64393708Switchblade 300 is an incredible capability. It's by far the best way of defeating enemy mortar and MG team's without calling for inorganic fire support. Like an ultralight mortar that's also a recon drone.>>64394240>>64394265Switchblade 300 Block 20 has an EFP multipurpose warhead and other upgrades, likely implementing lessons learned in Ukraine. They also announced an upgraded Switchblade 600 with the SB400 release.
>>64394353A recent Ukrainian source claimed that for an expenditure of approximately 36 million dollars worth of Switchblades they've destroyed Russian equipment equal to an estimated 2.7 billion
>>64394353>Blah blah blah more thirdie copeIn poker terms a $100k platform that has a 90% chance of destroying a target is +EV to that of a $6000 platform that has a 80% chance.
>>64394353>NASA spent a billion dollars making single pen while Russia used a 1 cent pencil
>>64393667What's the per unit procurement cost for the bugger?
>>64394870Ukrainians have been using Switchblades to hunt Russian jamming equipment so they can then operate FPV drones to the area. It's not a matter of the market value of the loitering munition compared to the market value of the EW set, it's a matter of destroying a tactically important target with a tool they have available that's capable of it.
>>64394905Russia doesn't use pencils in space, they'd end up with graphite floating around and causing electrical fires. They use normal ball point pens.
>>64394992They just bought pens from the US
>>64394992>They use normal ball point pens.You realize ink in a normal pen relies on gravity right?
>>64394998No, they just use normal bic pens. You don't actually need a Fisher© Space Pen™ to write in space, normal pens work.https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Cervantes_Mission/Pedro_Duque_s_diary_from_space
>>64394998Both the US and USSR bought space pens from the same private company that spent just $10m adjusted dollars to develop the thing independently.Before that they both used pencils.
>>64395022No, they factually bought space pens from the US https://web.archive.org/web/20141030080048/http://www.thewritersedge.com/story.cfm
>>64395022Normal pens work now because it's not 1965 anymore.Those old shitty ones would spit even on earth.
>>64395042They may have bought some, but there's literally a first hand account right there from a European astronaut saying that his Russian instructor just uses a normal ball point in space, and he confirmed it by bringing his own normal ball point into space and writing that diary entry with it.>>64395056In 1965, ballpoint pens were made in the first world and actually fucking worked. Things are going to get even worse soon as China starts making their own ballpoint tips.
>>64395082There is a 40 year gap between the things we're talking about you fucking moron.
>>64395087See my second point. Besides, what are the odds that any of the Space Pens ever actually made it into cosmonauts' hands?
>>64395082https://www.nasa.gov/technology/tech-transfer-spinoffs/space-pens-pencils-and-how-nasa-takes-notes-in-space/>“The original ballpoints were terrible,” said Cary Fisher, Paul’s son, and current president of the company, which is now located in Boulder City, Nevada. He notes that the early ballpoints tended to leak, skip, and dry up.Why would NASA (and Russia) immediately buy his product if they could just stop by the mall and pick up some BICs?Were they stupid?
>>64395094>See my second point. That's you pulling shit out of your ass>Besides, what are the odds that any of the Space Pens ever actually made it into cosmonauts' hands?That's you pulling shit out of your ass
>>64395094https://archive.is/86lL>The Soviet Union also purchased 100 of the Fisher pens, and 1,000 ink cartridges, in February 1969, for use on its Soyuz space flights. Previously, its cosmonauts had been using grease pencils to write in orbit.>Both American astronauts and Soviet/Russian cosmonauts have continued to use these pens. What do you have against Fisher?
>>64395110He thought something sounded reasonable in his head and now he'll die on the hill that his headcanon is fact
>>64395097>>64395099>>64395110https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Cervantes_Mission/Pedro_Duque_s_diary_from_space
>>64395122>>64395087
>>64394986>>64393894I've always wondered how the fancy drones defeat jamming. If the jammers blast noise on all frequencies how would the drone defeat the noise? Is it a multi antenna solution like on 'jamming proof ' gps receivers?
