kamikaze

AeroVironment has unveiled a new member of its Switchblade family of loitering munitions, the Switchblade 400. It is designed to offer similar capabilities, especially when it comes to destroying enemy tanks and other heavy armor, to the larger Switchblade 600, but in a package that a single individual can employ. It is also sized to fit into U.S. military standard Common Launch Tubes (CLT), which are typically used to fire precision-guided munitions and small uncrewed aerial systems from crewed and uncrewed aircraft, primarily within the special operations community.

Todd Hanning, product line director for what AeroVironment is currently calling its Mojave systems, which includes the Switchblade 400, talked about the new offering with TWZ‘s Howard Altman on the show floor at the Association of the U.S. Army’s (AUSA) main annual symposium today. The Switchblade 400 was originally developed to meet a U.S. Army requirement under the service’s Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance (LASSO) program. LASSO is also part of a larger effort that the service calls its Lethal Unmanned Systems Directed Requirement (LUS DR). The Army has already been buying Switchblade 300s, which are smaller than the new 400 version, as well as the bigger 600s, to meet its LASSO/LUS DR needs.

Hanning explained that the core Army requirement that led to the Switchblade 400 was a total weight of 40 pounds for the All-Up-Round (AUR), which consists of the loitering munition and its launch tube. AeroVironment’s website says a single individual can carry the weapon and have it ready to launch within five minutes. The Switchblade 600 is available in a man-portable form, but is designed for employment by a team and takes twice as much time to set up.

Switchblade 400 needed to be a “single soldier lift,” Hanning said. “Switchblade 600, coming in at about 67 pounds, so right out of the gate, we’ve got to shed about 30 pounds off this thing. Yet we still want the same lethality for [sic; as] a Javelin.”

The Switchblade 600 notably features an anti-armor warhead based on the one in the FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank guided missile (ATGM). AeroVironment also unveiled a Block 2 version of the Switchblade 600 today, which offers greater endurance and a new secondary payload bay for added flexibility, as well as improvements to its artificial intelligence and machine learning-driven automated target recognition capabilities.

Hanning said that the Switchblade 400 and Switchblade 600 Block 2 reflect a new modular, open-architecture approach AeroVironment is taking, which offers benefits when it comes to manufacturing and supply chains. The “same avionics, … the same camera architecture, same motor, [and] same power technology” are used in both models.

Overall, Switchblade 400 is “how do we take, really, a Block 2 [Switchblade 600], the next-gen, take 30 pounds out of it, and still do the same mission,” Hanning added. “Now you’re losing a little bit of endurance, right? We had to pull two cameras out, but you still have a gimbaled payload with probably the best optics out there on this kind of a platform, you’ve got the Javelin [warhead], you’ve got some new battery technology, and it’s very lightweight.”

AeroVironment’s website says Switchblade 400 has a maximum endurance of 35 minutes, and a speed profile that allows for 27 and 15 minutes of loiter time after reaching target areas 12.4 miles (20 kilometers) and 21.7 miles (35 kilometers) away, respectively. The company also says it can reach out to around 40 miles (65 kilometers) by handing off control to an operator closer to the target.

This all puts Switchblade 400 roughly in between current-generation Switchblade 300s and Switchblade 600s in terms of range and endurance, but with the ability to engage the same kinds of targets as the latter. Switchblade 300s have much smaller warheads weighing just under four pounds. Switchblade 400 also gives a single user a major boost in capability over a Javelin, which has a demonstrated maximum range of just under two and a half miles (4,000 meters) in its latest man-portable configuration, and no ability to loiter.

Hanning used the breadth of targets that Ukrainian forces have been using Switchblade 600s against to underscore the capabilities on offer. Ukraine has received tranches of both Switchblade 300s and 600s.

“They were shooting some tanks early on, but now you’re seeing them take out surface-to-air missile batteries constantly,” he said. “They’ve taken out some trains. A lot of command elements. But mostly what you’re seeing is those high-value assets, those mobile surface-to-air missile batteries.”

It is worth noting here that AeroVironment has been securing sales of Switchblade 300s and 600s to a growing number of countries beyond the United States and Ukraine in recent years. Last year, the U.S. government notably approved the potential sale of 720 Switchblade 300s to Taiwan. The Taiwanese armed forces have been stepping up their acquisition of a growing array of one-way attack drones as part of a larger strategy to challenge a potential intervention from the mainland, as you can read more about here.

That being said, lessons learned from the particular drone-heavy war in Ukraine have been very important for AeroVironment, according to Hanning.

“We take lessons learned from all of the systems that are in Ukraine, and rapidly inject that technology into the 400 and the 600 Block 2,” Hanning said. “So launching in different environments, on different ground surfaces, that was one. Tactics for range and for how you engage the target. So we’re engaging from higher altitudes. We’re engaging faster. We have different communication modes, silent modes, things like that.”

Hanning said the silent mode referred to here involves operating, at least for a time, without emitting signals that enemy forces could detect. He noted that members of the Switchblade family are designed around concepts of operations that involve a human at least ‘on-the-loop’ during any endgame attack run, despite their highly automated targeting capabilities.

In general terms of controlling Switchblades after launch, “we are running Silvus radio[s], but we are agnostic to radios. So we’ve also integrated an L3Harris radio. We did that about two weeks ago. Very easy,” he added. “So, we’re looking to, how can we shed weight at the soldier level so that we’re using all the common systems that they’re already carrying. So, if that’s a PRC radio that they’re already carrying, if we can leverage that for our C2 [command and control] scheme, then that’s what we’d want to do. … that’s part of that whole modular, open system architecture.”

Switchblade 400s, as well as 600s, could make use of their modularity in other ways going forward. Hanning highlighted the possibility of different warhead options by mentioning a test involving a different type supplied by a company called Corvid Technologies.

“We’re really open to whatever the DoD wants. When a lot of people come to us and say, ‘use my thing,’ and I’m like, well, what does the Army think about that?” Hanning said. “We need to know what they want versus what a vendor wants you to want. And so the best way to do that is to just be very open, hear the voice of the customer, and have the ability to integrate things.”

“When you start doing mixed payloads, you definitely want to play with some [things], maybe a smaller warhead, with some electronic warfare packages, things like that,” he continued. CACI is set to supply an electronic warfare package for testing on Switchblade 400 later this month.

AeroVironment’s emphasis on flexibility has already extended to launch modes. Launchers integrated into crewed and uncrewed armored and other ground vehicles, offering indirect fire and reconnaissance capabilities, have been put forward. The Switchblade 300, at least, has been test-launched from maritime platforms. Last month, General Atomics also announced a test launch of a Switchblade 600 from one of its MQ-9 Reaper drones.

Switchblade 400’s aforementioned ability to fit inside a CLT immediately opens up a host of additional potential launch platforms, including various crewed and uncrewed fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. CLT-launched munitions are a particularly significant part of the current armament package on the U.S. Air Force’s AC-130J Ghostrider gunships, something they inherited from the now-retired AC-130W variants.

When it comes to the Army requirement that drove the initial development of the Switchblade 400, the service is currently evaluating four different options, according to AeroVironment’s Hanning. A downselect of some kind is expected to come in time, but it’s unclear whether the service might choose to further pursue multiple entrants.

Whether or not the Army ultimately acquires Switchblade 400s, it looks to be a significant new addition to this family of loitering munitions, which is seeing growing popularity globally.

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A long-range kamikaze drone that U.S. firm Kratos is working on together with Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) is set to make its maiden flight early next year. The jet-powered Chien Feng IV (Mighty Hornet IV) will feature artificial intelligence (AI) enabled systems and is being developed with a particular eye toward use as an anti-ship weapon. It could also be employed against targets on land and act as a decoy.

Steve Fendley, president of Kratos’ Unmanned Systems Division, offered new details about the Chien Feng IV while speaking with TWZ‘s Howard Altman on the sidelines of the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2025 Air, Space, and Cyber Conference yesterday. A model of the design, which is derived from Kratos’ MQM-178 Firejet target drone, was shown to the public for the first time last week at the biennial Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition. NCSIST is a government-run organization in Taiwan charged with conducting advanced military research and development and test and evaluation work.

Chien Feng IV will fly “soon, early next year,” Fendley said. “The basic aircraft exists. So what we’re doing is we’re integrating mission capability.”

“Our Fire Jet performance characteristics are public, and it’s [Chien Feng IV] a little bit better, pretty much in every category, a little bit more speed, a little bit more altitude, a little bit more endurance,” Fendley added.

“The modified MQM-178’s high-speed capabilities, including a speed of Mach 0.8, high G maneuvering, and a service ceiling of greater than 35,000 feet, make it an ideal base platform for this transformation,” a press release Kratos put out last week had noted.

At the time of writing, the company’s website also says the MQM-178 can fly at altitudes anywhere between 20 and 35,000 feet, can pull turns down to -2 and up to +9 Gs, and carry around 70 and a half pounds of payload internally, as well as 35 pounds more under each wing and an additional 20 pounds in pods on each wingtip. Range and endurance figures for Firejet are not provided, but are offered for an existing derivative called Airwolf, which is configured for tactical mission sets, including acting as a ‘loyal wingman’ for crewed aircraft. Airwolf, also known as Tactical Firejet, has a stated maximum range of 400 nautical miles and a maximum endurance of 1.3 hours. Both Firejet and Airwolf are designed to be launched via pneumatic catapult, and the latter design at least can be recovered at the end of a mission via parachute.

The Chien Feng IV is “our aircraft and NCSIST, so the Taiwanese government, [their] mission systems and warhead,” Fendley said, and deferred to the Taiwanese side for more details about the latter components of the drone’s design.

A brief video on the Chien Feng IV that NCSIST released around the Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition, seen below, highlights an electro-optical/infrared camera system (EO/IR) in the nose, as well as an AI-driven computer and datalink, as being among the design’s features. In terms of terminal guidance, an EO/IR system would make sense as it is immune to electronic warfare and is passive in nature, meaning it doesn’t pump out signals that can alert the target to the incoming threat.

The Chien Feng IV model shown at the exhibition in Taipei was fitted with small underwing pods, which might be able to hold defensive countermeasures or other equipment, or even just more fuel. It also had an opaque nose cone, which could point to additional sensor options, such as a radar seeker.

The NCSIST video also mentions at least a degree of swarming capability, though it is unclear if Chien Feng IVs will be able to operate in a fully networked collaborative manner.

In terms of missions, Chien Feng IVs are expected to be tasked with “ship-hunting, ship-attacking, ground force-hunting, [and] ground-force attacking,” according to Kratos’ Fendley.

As noted, NCSIST has put particular emphasis on the anti-ship mission, which makes sense for Taiwan. Authorities on the island face the real prospect of the Chinese government on the mainland attempting to impose a blockade or even launch a full-scale military intervention across the Taiwan Strait. The People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and its steadily growing fleets of more capable surface warships would play a critical role in either scenario.

At the same time, the Taiwan Strait is just under 100 nautical miles across at its widest, and Chien Feng IVs with ranges of around 400 nautical miles would also be able to hold Chinese targets at risk on the mainland. At the Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition, NCSIST representatives said the drones could just be employed as decoys, according to a report last week from Jane’s.

If the Chien Feng IV’s AI-enabled systems give it the ability to find and engage targets in a highly autonomous manner, the drone’s capabilities could be magnified greatly in a maritime or land attack scenario, especially against moving targets. This, in turn, could present major complications for an adversary like China. TWZ previously explored in great detail how the steady infusion of AI and machine learning technology, especially when it comes to dynamic targeting and swarming, is pushing development of uncrewed aerial systems toward a revolutionary moment, broadly.

As noted in TWZ‘s past reporting on the Chien Feng IV, massed attacks involving these drones would also compel the PLA to expend commensurate amounts of anti-air interceptors, putting additional strain on Chinese air defenses. More capable interceptors would also be required to engage the higher-flying jet-powered attackers.

Taiwan is also now pushing to significantly expand its inventory of various lower-tier kamikaze drones, including in cooperation with U.S. defense contractor Anduril. This is in line with a larger strategy that American officials have discussed for helping to defend the island from any future Chinese intervention, which has been called “Hellscape” in the past. What is envisaged is the Taiwanese military heavily saturating the air and waters around the island with relatively low-cost uncrewed platforms.

NCSIST also reportedly has an eye toward exporting Chien Feng IV. There is certainly growing global interest in long-range kamikaze drones, driven heavily by observations of their use on both sides of the ongoing war in Ukraine. Attacks by Iran and its regional proxies on Israel and ships in the Red Sea, as well as targets in and around the Middle East, have also underscored the value of this kind of capability. Back in 2019, TWZ called out a then-unprecedented drone and missile attack that Iranian-backed Houthi militants in Yemen launched against Saudi Arabia as a sign of things to come.

“I would say that our recent program with Taiwan, I’m going to call as a spin off of, sort of a combination of Apollo and Athena,” Kratos’ Fendley also told TWZ yesterday.

Fendley did not further elaborate. Details about the Apollo and Athena programs remain limited, but the company has previously told TWZ that they are aimed at the European market. The possibility is now raised that one or both of those designs could be long-range kamikaze drones, or at least be capable of being employed in that role.

Kratos is otherwise pursuing new opportunities globally. This includes a partnership with Airbus on a version of the stealthy XQ-58 Valkyrie drone for the German Luftwaffe. Kratos has now sold two XQ-58s to Airbus, which are expected to start flying in Germany next year following the integration of new mission systems, according to Fendley. The Valkyrie has already been flying for years in a largely experimental role with the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps. The Marines are now in the process of transitioning their XQ-58 efforts to an operational capability.

“Many, many domestic and international customers, who I’m going to say have been at the interest level, have transitioned to the we’re ready to do something level,” Fendley added, speaking more generally. “So, think some Asian countries, think some European countries, and the timeline is in, I would say the next 24 months, you’re going to see those happen pretty quickly.”

When it comes to the Chien Feng IV, specifically, more details may continue to emerge as Kratos and NCSIST get closer to the planned first flight next year.

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Kratos has confirmed it is working together with Taiwan’s National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) on a derivative of its jet-powered MQM-178 Firejet target drone called the Chien Feng IV. The Chien Feng IV is said to be eyed primarily as a lower-cost, longer-range kamikaze drone, and NCSIST is reportedly looking toward potential export opportunities along with sales to the Taiwanese military.

United Daily News in Taiwan was the first to report on the Chien Feng IV this past weekend, citing comments from NCSIST. A government-owned organization, NCSIST conducts advanced military research and development and test and evaluation work. The drone is set to make its official public debut at the biennial Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition next month.

“We can confirm the exciting partnership” with NCSIST and that the Chien Feng IV “is a derivative of the MQM-178 system,” Steve Fendley, president of Kratos’ Unmanned Systems Division, told TWZ. “Development started early this year and is progressing rapidly.”

“We expect that by the end of this year, we will receive a sole-source contract for the Kratos Airwolf tactical jet drone, which could lead to a production contract in late 2026,” Kratos’ CEO Eric DeMarco had also said during a quarterly earnings call earlier this month.

Airwolf, also referred to as Tactical Firejet, is based on the MQM-178 design, as well.

DeMarco’s “comment was tied to two opportunities, this partnership [with NCSIST] being one of them,” Fendley also told TWZ.

Fendley declined to provide more details about Chien Feng IV, saying that more information would come at the exhibition in Taipei in September. United Daily News‘ report also offered few specifics, but said that NCSIST had described the drone as being able to serve as a “low-cost cruise missile.”

The Firejet/Airwolf family offers a logical starting place for a Chien Feng IV drone that skirts the increasingly blurry line between longer-range kamikaze drones and cruise missiles, as well as decoys.

Kratos says the 10.8-foot-long MQM-178 with its wingspan of 6.5 feet can carry around 70 and a half pounds of payload internally, as well as nearly 35 pounds more under each wing and an additional 20 pounds in pods on each wingtip. It can get up to speeds of 0.69 Mach, as well as fly at altitudes anywhere between 20 and 35,000 feet. Designed as a target to fire air-to-air and surface-to-air missiles at during training and testing events, Firejet can pull turns down to -2 and up to +9 Gs. The drone is launched via catapult, but no mention is made of it being designed to be recoverable.

Airwolf has the same physical dimensions and general mode of operation as Firejet, but has a reworked internal arrangement to better allow it to be configured for tactical mission sets, including acting as a ‘loyal wingman’ for crewed aircraft. Kratos says it is recoverable via parachute and has a maximum range of 400 nautical miles and a maximum endurance of 1.3 hours.

Kratos’ website also describes Airwolf as being “low signature,” but does not offer specifics. On top of its relatively small size to begin with, the drone’s carbon fiber composite construction would help its radar cross-section. Route planning involving a low-level flight profile masked by terrain features could also help it evade detection.

With all of this in mind, the MQM-178-derived Chien Feng IV could possibly be configured for other roles beyond one-way attack, including electronic warfare and communications signal relay.

Even from what little is known about the Chien Feng IV now, it reflects broader trends globally. Just in the past few years, the ongoing war in Ukraine, attacks by Houthi militants in Yemen on ships in and around the Red Sea and targets in Israel, and fighting between Iran and Israel have underscored the value of and threats posed by long-range kamikaze drones. Jet-powered types have already begun to emerge, offering further boosts in capability and presenting new challenges for defenders, as TWZ has highlighted in the past. Armed forces around the world, including the U.S. military, are taking notice. Something of an industrial arms race to create new modular, relatively cheap, and small uncrewed aerial systems has now emerged, particularly in the United States.

United Daily News‘ report this past weekend said that NCSIST had stressed that there was no commitment yet from any branch of Taiwan’s armed forces to buy Chien Feng IVs. At the same time, the organization said that it could be a valuable companion to traditional cruise missiles in Taiwanese service, like the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E).

With help from the U.S. government, Taiwan has been working to significantly expand its arsenal of one-way-attack drones, as well as other uncrewed aerial and maritime systems, in the past few years. There has been a certain degree of additional openness with regard to this cooperation from U.S. defense contractors recently. Earlier this month, Anduril very publicly announced the opening of an office in Taiwan and expanded cooperation with NCSIST, all with a heavy focus on its ALTIUS line of drones, which can be configured as loitering munitions and for other roles. The U.S. government approved the sale of nearly 300 ALTIUS 600M-V loitering munitions to Taiwan last year.

For Taiwan, this is part of a broader effort, which has been referred to in the past as “Hellscape,” that envisions the Taiwanese military flooding the air and waters around the island with relatively uncrewed platforms in the event of a military invasion from the Chinese mainland.

Especially if it is a relatively low-cost design, Chien Feng IV, as well as other longer-range kamikaze drones, could also offer a way to extend the Hellscape plan to attacks on targets on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. As noted, Airwolf’s stated maximum range is 400 nautical miles. The Taiwan Strait, at its widest, is some 97 nautical miles across. Massed Chien Feng IV attacks would also force Chinese forces on the mainland to expend commensurate amounts of interceptors. Higher-flying jet-powered drones would, in turn, require higher-end interceptors to be employed, as well.

In addition, United Daily News‘ report said that NCSIST had explicitly highlighted potential export opportunities for Chien Feng IV, which speaks to the growing global interest in the kinds of capabilities this drone could offer. Hurdles would exist for any direct exports from Taiwan, which occupies a complicated space when it comes to foreign relations, but a partnership with a U.S. company like Kratos could help in that regard. In 2023, reports emerged that the United States could buy retired HAWK surface-to-air missile systems from Taiwan and then transfer them to Ukraine, as another example of an indirect workaround.

More details about the Chien Feng IV are set to emerge next month at the Taipei Aerospace & Defense Technology Exhibition. However, it is already an important reflection of new and expanding ties between Taiwan and the U.S. defense industry, as well as global trends when it comes to the new, longer-range kamikaze drones.

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