Switchblade 400

Switchblade 400 is AeroVironment's middle-tier loitering munition, positioned to close the gap between the smaller anti-personnel Switchblade 300 and the larger anti-armor Switchblade 600. AeroVironment markets it as a lightweight tank destroyer able to defeat moving tanks and heavy armor at standoff distances of up to 65 km, using EO/IR sensors, aided target recognition and onboard edge computing to detect and classify targets autonomously by day or night within its 35-minute endurance. It is deployable by a single soldier in under five minutes and integrates with tactical networks such as ATAK and Nett Warrior. The status here is deliberately 'announced' rather than 'active': the US Army selected the Switchblade 400 on 4 May 2026 for the LASSO (Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance) program under an Other Transaction Authority prototype agreement, not a full-rate production contract, and AeroVironment's FreedomWerx production facility is not expected to be operational until late 2026 or early 2027. No unit has been fielded to an operational unit yet. A separate $186 million delivery order placed in February 2026 covers the Switchblade 600 Block 2 and 300 Block 20, not the 400, and should not be read as evidence of 400 fielding. The 18 kg figure recorded here is the all-up round weight; AeroVironment separately publishes a munition weight of 12 kg. Warhead mass is not published and is not recorded: neither the 12 kg nor the 18 kg figure is a warhead mass. Reporting by The War Zone describes the warhead as derived from the one used in the FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missile, which would explain its anti-armor lethality in a package lighter than the Switchblade 600, but this is press reporting and is not confirmed on AeroVironment's own product page, so only the generic warhead type is recorded as data.