US Army selects Switchblade 400

The Army just gave AeroVironment a real opening to push a new class of infantry-fired strike drone into the force. On May 4, the company said the service selected its Switchblade 400 under the Low-Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance program — LASSO for short. That sounds bureaucratic, but the point is simple: soldiers want something they can carry, launch fast, and use to kill armored targets without waiting on artillery or aircraft. ### What did the Army actually choose? It chose the Switchblade 400 for a prototype agreement, not a giant full-rate production buy. But that still matters. LASSO is the Army’s route for rapidly developing, delivering, and testing a portable loitering munition for mobile brigade combat teams, and AeroVironment now has a seat in that effort with its newest anti-armor variant. ### What is Switchblade 400? Think of it as a bigger, harder-hitting cousin inside the Switchblade family. AeroVironment describes the 400 as a medium-range, man-portable, anti-armor loitering munition. In plain English, it is a backpackable weapon that can fly out, search, and then dive into a target instead of acting like a one-shot rocket fired on a fixed line. ### Why does “loitering” matter here? Because the hard part is not just hitting a target — it is finding the right one in time, in clutter, with the shooter still alive. A loitering munition buys time over the battlefield. That gives small units a way to hunt vehicles or other high-value targets beyond immediate line of sight, then strike with less collateral damage than larger fires. That is exactly the niche LASSO is trying to fill. ### Why is the Army interested now? Because the war in Ukraine and broader drone proliferation changed the baseline. Small units now expect organic precision strike, not just surveillance. The Army has been trying to close that gap for years, and LASSO looks like part of the answer — a way to give brigade-level formations their own. That is the bigger signal behind this award. ### Is AeroVironment the only player? No — and that is important. Reporting around the award makes clear this is a prototyping competition, with other companies including Textron and UVision also involved in the broader LASSO effort. So this is not the Army declaring the contest over. It is the Army expanding the field and pushing systems into hands-on evaluation faster. ### What is special about the 400 version? The company has been pitching it as a more capable anti-armor step beyond earlier Switchblade systems, with aided target recognition and more autonomy for detecting, classifying, and engaging targets in denied environments. The catch is that company claims are not the same as performance in real electronic warfare. ### Where does MAYHEM 10 fit in? Mostly as context, not as the news itself. AeroVironment has also been showing off MAYHEM 10, a more modular launched-effects drone with ISR, electronic warfare, relay, and strike options. That tells you where the market is going: not just disposable attack drones, but families of products. ### Bottom line? This is not yet a mass fielding announcement. But it is more than a concept slide. The Army is moving one step closer to giving frontline units a carryable anti-armor loitering munition, and AeroVironment just put Switchblade 400 in the middle of that lane.