Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Isiah Enriquez launches a Switchblade drone during a 2021 training exercise at Camp Lejeune, N.C. Marine Corps Pfc. Sarah Pysher
Protest puts US Army’s $990M loitering-munition contract on hold
The month-old sole-source award went to AeroVironment for its Switchblades.
Updated: 3:16 p.m.
The U.S. Army has stopped work on an up-to-$990 million contract to buy AeroVironment Switchblade loitering munitions after a second company lodged a protest, according to an AeroVironment filing published Monday.
The protest was filed by Mistral, according to one industry executive speaking on background. The U.S. Government Accountability Office is to issue a decision on the protest by Dec. 16.
The Army awarded AeroVironment the five-year, sole-source contract on Aug. 27 to fill a need for “organic, stand-off capability to dismounted infantry formations capable of destroying tanks, light armored vehicles, hardened targets, defilade and personnel targets.” At the time, AeroVironment said it would begin filling the order for Switchblades within months.
In a research note cited by MarketWatch, analysts at William Blair wrote that the original contract winner generally retains 95 percent of these types of protests.
The award serves the Army’s lethal unmanned systems, or LUS, requirement, according to AeroVironment. More specifically, it is part of the Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance, or LASSO, program, which seeks to supply infantry brigade combat teams with loitering munitions to take out tanks, an Army spokesperson told Janes.
Switchblades are used by, among others, newly created units in the 101st Airborne’s second brigade such as the LUS platoon and the Multi-Functional Reconnaissance Company. The United States has also sent AeroVironment’s Switchblade 300 and 600 systems to Ukraine. The larger Switchblade 600 is designed to take out hardened targets, like tanks.
In May, the Defense Department announced that it would “accelerate fielding” of the Switchblade 600 to U.S. troops under the Replicator program. The program is an effort to field multiple thousands of affordable autonomous systems such as drones by August 2025.
“U.S.-supplied Switchblade drones have already demonstrated their utility in Ukraine, and this system will provide additional capability to U.S. forces,” the Defense Department said.