About 100 advanced suicide drones have been delivered by the United States in a new weapons package for Ukraine. Apparently, some Ukrainian soldiers have been trained long ago to use the drone called the Switchblade.
As quoted by us from The Hill, Thursday (7/4/2022) the Pentagon confirmed that a small number of Ukrainian soldiers had been trained how to use the drone. They were trained directly in the United States since before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
The number of soldiers from Ukraine who came to America is said to be less than 12 people. They then returned to their country to train other soldiers there on how to use the Switchblade to attack the Russian military.
"We took the opportunity to give them a few days of training on Switchblade so they could come back to train other Ukrainian soldiers," said Pentagon Secretary John Kirby.
Kirby noted that the Switchblade suicide drone was clearly unfamiliar to Ukrainian soldiers. So special training is needed even though it doesn't take long to master the system.
"So it does take a bit of training. It's not a very complex system that requires a lot of training. A soldier can be trained to use it in between one and two days," he explained.
One hundred Switchblades that have been delivered to Ukraine are the smaller Switchblade 300 variants. Then it will be added with the Switchblade 600 model which is bigger in size.
This Switchblade suicide drone is made by the AeroVironment company and is one of the mainstays of the US military. It is nicknamed the 'kamikaze' drone because it can hit its target with a high warhead so that both are destroyed.
The Switchblade 300 is designed to target human personnel, while the larger Switchblade 600 is aimed at destroying tanks and similar vehicles.
Coming back to Switchblade, this drone is basically a smart robotics bomb. Among other things, it is equipped with cameras, guidance systems and of course warheads to immobilize targets.
Then the Switchblade can be programmed to automatically go to targets that are located quite far away. This drone can also maneuver first while waiting for the right time to crash.
The smaller Switchblade 300 drone, measuring 610 mm in size and weighing 2.7 kilograms, is small enough for soldiers to carry. The wings are folded and only expand when airborne. It can be operated up to a distance of 10 kilometers.
As for the larger version, the Switchblade 600, it weighs up to 23 kilograms, but is still quite portable. This drone can fly up to 80 kilometers and strike targets at a speed of 185 kilometers per hour.
