Ukraine is Getting Great Results From the Switchblade Kamikaze Drone
A mere month after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Biden administration announced a massive $800 million package of lethal military assistance.
We now know that among the weapon systems included were 100 Switchblade 300 loitering munitions, a kind of “piloted missile” ideal for anti-personnel strikes.
Over the past several years of war, the US has sent Ukraine over 700 of these lighter suicide drones. The DoD had planned to send the larger, more powerful Switchblade 600, but it was delayed at the time because it was still a prototype.
Now, Kyiv Post is reporting that a Ukrainian Switchblade 600, the larger kamikaze drone meant to take out armor, destroyed one of Russia’s $25 million SA-15 Gauntlet (TOR) air defense systems just this week.
This means at some point, Ukraine got its hands on some Switchblade 600s and is putting them to good use.
The Ukrainian 14th Separate Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Regiment published a video on its Telegram channel on Monday that showed the SA-15 starting its engine in preparation to leave its location. Then, the first of two Switchblade 600s hit the SAM in the rear which caused the vehicle to stop.
