Pentagon: Ukrainian military is learning to work with the Switchblade kamikaze drones

The United States has already shipped over 100 Switchblade kamikaze drones to Ukraine and is providing training to the Ukrainian defenders on how to work with them.

Militarnyi reports about this.

John Kirby, Pentagon spokesman, mentioned this during a briefing.

Instruction is carried out in the United States.

“These are not the systems that Ukrainians usually use, so they need training. You can learn how to apply them in two days or so. Ukrainian servicemen undergoing training would be returning home and training the others,” Kirby said.

He also stated that the drones had been on the way and may have already arrived in Ukraine.

“We have already ordered 100 Switchblade drones from our warehouses and shipped them. I do not know how far along they are in the process of being transported, but they left earlier this week. Therefore, they will be in Ukraine soon or might have already arrived. These are the 100 drones that President Biden announced a few weeks ago,” Kirby added.

The United States is having talks with the Ukrainian authorities to ship over the additional batch of drones if necessary.

Switchblade is a product of the American company AeroVironment. According to the open data, there are two versions of this innovative ammunition: Switchblade 300 and Switchblade 600.

Previously, Bloomberg reported that the Switchblade 600 will be the one delivered to Ukraine as part of the $300 million in military aid announced by the Pentagon the day before.

Switchblade 600

Range – 40 km
Flight duration – 40 minutes
Weight – 54.4 kg
Flight altitude – 150-4500 m
Cruising speed – 110 km/h
Top speed – 185 km/h