Tank Destroying Switchblade Drone Now More Lethal, Multi-Domain
Kris Osborn
Kris Osborn
6d
Updated at Oct 28, 2025, 16:01
The Switchblade drone expands its battlefield reach. Innovations boost lethality, survivability, and add maritime attack capabilities for this renowned tank destroyer.
Warrior talked to AV VP of Loitering Munitions Brian Young About Innovations to the Switchblade designed to make the tank destroying drone more lethal, multi-domain and survivable.
By Kris Osborn, Warrior
(Washington DC) The famous Switchblade drone has been destroying tanks in Ukraine for several years as a guided sensor-munition capable of identifying enemy tanks and armored vehicles ... then destroying them when directed by a human. The drone has become famous for both ISR and functioning itself as an explosive able to descend upon and obliterate enemy targets.
A significant Army Intelligence Report called the “The Operational Environment 2024-2034 Large-Scale Combat Operations.” (US Army Training and Doctrine Command, G2) says that Russia’s entire active duty tank force has been destroyed in its war with Ukraine.
“Ukrainian Armed Forces have used vast quantities of man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS), antitank guided missiles, and FPV UAS—combined with fires—to great effect. As of July 2024, Russia has lost 3,197 main battle tanks—more than its entire active-duty inventory at the outset of conflict—and 6,160 armored fighting vehicles, forcing them to pull increasingly obsolescent systems from storage,” the text of the report from 2024 states.
The Switchblade has been a large part of this effort, and now its maker AV is upgrading the weapon to expand its lethality, survivability and concepts of operation. AV engineers have upgraded the warhead, range and method of attack and adding maritime applications for the weapon.
https://warriormaven.com/news/land/tank-destroying-switchblade-drone-now-more-lethal-multi-domain
