AeroVironment said the Army issued a $51 million delivery order for additional Switchblade 600 Block 2 loitering munitions, while a linked LinkedIn post characterized the award as evidence of continued emphasis on long-range precision strike.1 3
By PAI
Sept. 2, 2026
ARLINGTON, Va. — AeroVironment said Aug. 26 that it received a $51 million U.S. Army delivery order for additional Switchblade 600 Block 2 loitering munition systems, with Switchblade 600 Block 1 systems also included for a Foreign Military Sale to an unnamed U.S. ally.3
The order is a delivery order under the Army’s five-year Lethal Unmanned Systems, or LUS, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, which AeroVironment says has a $990 million ceiling and was awarded in August 2024.3 The company did not disclose the number of systems in the new order, the delivery schedule, work locations, funding source, contract number or the foreign customer.3
The award was the subject of a Sept. 1 LinkedIn post by Loitering Munitions Hub, which said the Army had awarded AeroVironment a $51 million order for additional Switchblade 600 systems and linked to the publisher’s article on the announcement.1 2 The post described the award as reflecting continued priority for long-range precision strike and a growing role for loitering munitions; the post did not cite an Army strategy document, budget decision or official assessment for those broader conclusions.1
What the order covers
A loitering munition is an uncrewed weapon that can be launched, remain airborne while an operator searches or observes, and strike a target with its onboard warhead. AeroVironment describes the Switchblade 600 as a tube-launched system for use from dismounted positions, ground vehicles and surface platforms, with a warhead intended for armored targets.6
The Aug. 26 announcement identifies the Army portion as Switchblade 600 Block 2. It separately says the order includes Block 1 systems for a Foreign Military Sale, or FMS, to a “key United States ally.”3 That distinction is material: the announcement does not say that every system in the $51 million order is for the Army or that all are the Block 2 configuration.3
Under the FMS program, the United States government enters a government-to-government Letter of Offer and Acceptance with an eligible foreign government or international organization. The State Department approves programs case by case, and the Defense Department executes them through its acquisition system, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.8 AeroVironment did not name the government receiving the Block 1 systems or state the value or quantity associated with that portion of the order.3
The company says Block 2 has a 100-kilometer-plus range with a forward-pass relay, more than 50 minutes of flight time, electro-optical and infrared sensors, a Silvus mobile ad hoc network radio and automatic target-recognition functions. It also says the system can carry a secondary payload and is designed to IP67 environmental-protection standards.6 Those specifications and performance descriptions are manufacturer statements; the announcement does not report independent operational testing of the systems covered by the new order.3 6
The basic Switchblade 600 product page lists a different set of figures for the preceding configuration: a baseline range of more than 40 kilometers, 40 minutes of endurance, a 33-pound munition weight and a 65-pound all-up round. The company describes the Block 2 round as 36 pounds and the all-up round as 68 pounds, underscoring that the Aug. 26 order combines configurations with different stated characteristics.6
A ceiling, not $990 million in orders
AeroVironment’s description of the $990 million LUS agreement should not be read as a $990 million purchase already made. Under federal acquisition rules, an indefinite-quantity contract establishes an indefinite quantity of supplies or services within stated limits during a fixed period, and the government places orders for its individual requirements.7
The rules require the contract to state minimum and maximum quantities, while allowing orders to be issued as needs arise. A stated maximum can be expressed in units or dollars.7 In this case, AeroVironment has described the $990 million figure as a contract ceiling. The company’s individual delivery-order announcements, rather than the ceiling itself, identify specific order values.3 4
The company announced in February 2025 that it had received a $288 million third delivery order for Switchblade systems under the LUS directed requirement. It said then that the five-year contract was held with Army Contracting Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland, and had a $990 million ceiling.4 The February announcement did not establish that the ceiling amount had been obligated or that all products would be delivered.4
AeroVironment later announced a $186 million delivery order on Feb. 26, 2026, for Switchblade 600 Block 2 and Switchblade 300 Block 20 systems. The company called that order the Army’s first procurement of its next-generation Switchblade product line and said it was the first Army Switchblade order containing an explosively formed penetrator payload for the smaller Switchblade 300 Block 20.5
The $51 million announcement describes the Aug. 26 order as a follow-on procurement to the initial order for the next-generation product line.3 The public company releases reviewed for this report do not provide a complete list of all orders, quantities or delivery completions under the LUS vehicle. As a result, they do not support a calculation of the amount ordered or delivered under the full $990 million ceiling.3 4 5
Fielding and training context
AeroVironment said Switchblade 600 had been fielded across more than 20 brigade combat teams since 2025 and that hundreds of U.S. soldiers had been trained to operate and employ it.3 The company did not identify all of those units, specify how many systems each received, or provide an Army source for the totals.3
An official military public-affairs report provides a narrower, independently attributable example of training. The Indiana National Guard reported that soldiers from the 76th Mobile Brigade Combat Team launched, flew and tested Switchblade 600 during a weeklong May 2026 training event at Camp Atterbury, Indiana.9 The report described the system as portable and uncrewed, and quoted soldiers discussing its use with antennas, computers and controllers.9
That training report does not confirm the number of brigade combat teams fielded, the company’s count of trained personnel, or delivery of the Block 2 systems in the Aug. 26 order.9 Nor does it demonstrate operational use of the systems ordered in August. It documents a separate training event involving the Switchblade 600 family.9
AeroVironment said the Block 2 version was developed with U.S. Special Operations Command and incorporates upgraded avionics, automatic target recognition, resilient communications and navigation intended for GPS-challenged environments.3 The company’s product description similarly lists artificial-intelligence-enabled target recognition and a mobile ad hoc network radio among the design features.6 Neither source identifies a publicly released Army test report for those specific features, and the Aug. 26 release does not say the Army had completed operational testing of the systems in this delivery order.3 6
What remains to be established
The announcement establishes that AeroVironment reported a new $51 million delivery order under an existing Army contracting vehicle. It also establishes, according to the company, that the order mixes Army Block 2 systems with Block 1 systems for a foreign customer through FMS.3
It does not establish a procurement quantity, a per-unit price, an obligation amount for either the Army or FMS portions, a delivery date, an operational fielding date or the identity of the partner government.3 It also does not establish that the Army has made a new policy determination about long-range precision strike beyond issuing this delivery order. The LinkedIn post’s broader characterization is therefore best understood as the publisher’s framing of the announcement, not as a verified Army finding.1 3
The practical next public indicators would be an Army contract notice, a budget or program document, a delivery announcement or an FMS notification identifying the relevant customer and scope. Until then, the company announcement provides the available public description of the award, while the contract ceiling remains distinct from the value and execution of individual delivery orders.3 7