Switchblade and Caesar Howitzers – More Defense Companies Come to Ukraine

The American company AeroVironment has signed an agreement with a Ukrainian company to undertake local production of its Switchblade 600, Ukraine’s defense issues website Militarnyy reports.

The deal was signed just a day after KNDS, the European manufacturer of the Сaesar wheeled artillery system and Leopard tanks, opened a subsidiary in Kyiv under the name KNDS Ukraine LLC.

AeroVironment signed the agreement with its new Ukrainian partner, whose identity has not been disclosed for security reasons at DFNC2: the International Forum of Defense Industries in Kyiv.

The manufacturing of Switchblade in Ukraine will be phased in. Initially subsystem components will be shipped to Ukraine from the US for assembly, and then eventually the components themselves will be made in country. Bret Hush, senior vice president and general manager of AeroVironment's barrage strike systems division outlined their plans to Militarnyy. 

The Joint Venture remains subject to US government approval, a process that may take about 9 months.

The AeroVironment Switchblade is a loitering munition that fits in a backpack. It launches from a tube, glides to the target area using flip-out wings, before crashing into its target and detonating its explosive warhead.

The original Switchblade branded as the Switchblade 300 was introduced in 2011. The larger Switchblade 600 is an anti-armor variant, which was released in 2020 has a range of 40 kilometers (24.9 miles) and carries a warhead based on the Javelin ATGM. 

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On Oct.1, the Franco-German defense group KNDS, announced it is opening a subsidiary in Ukraine that will be set up to carry out maintenance, repair and overhaul work on KNDS systems provided to Kyiv as military aid including:

• Leopard 1 and 2 main battle tanks, 
• the CAESAR artillery gun, 
• the AMX10 RC, 
• the PzH 2000 armoured howitzer 
• the Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft gun tank.

It is also planned to set up a facility to jointly manufacture 155 mm artillery ammunition for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.