AeroVironment plans to start producing Switchblade kamikaze drones in Ukraine

The U.S.-based AeroVironment signed an agreement with a Ukrainian company to localize its production of Switchblade 600 loitering munitions, marking the latest of several recent agreements between Ukrainian and foreign companies to produce weaponry in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian company is not being named because of security reasons.
The agreement was signed on Oct. 1 during the DFNC2 International Defense Industries Forum in Kyiv, where nearly 300 companies from over 30 countries attended.
The Switchblade 600 is a loitering munition used to strike targets by crashing into them. They have a flight range of 40 kilometers or more, and can stay in the air for over 40 minutes.
Brett Hush, a senior vice president at AeroVironments who signed the agreement in Kyiv, praised the Switchblade’s performance and added, “with the support and feedback from Ukraine, it’ll be even better.”
The Switchblade 600 has been included as part of U.S. assistance packages to Ukraine since 2022.
The agreement was one of several signed at the forum to increase joint production between Ukrainian and foreign companies as Ukraine builds its defense capabilities two and a half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The Prague-based Czechoslovak Group signed an agreement for production of several types of heavy artillery ammunition, including 155 shells. The agreement envisions production to start early next year after the required licenses are obtained.
“Since the war started, we were able to bring here more than one million pieces of heavy artillery ammunition, and I’m more than sure that thanks to this effort which we recently started, we will be able to double our production capabilities,” said CSG’s Richard Kubena who signed the agreement at the event.
U.S.-based D&M Holding Company signed an agreement for joint production of ammunition and specialty chemicals, and Poland’s METALEXPORT signed an agreement for joint production of a strike drone.
Also at the forum, French-German defense company KNDS announced it opened an office in Kyiv and plans to produce artillery ammunition in the country.
These agreements follow a string of joint production announcements between Ukraine and foreign companies. Among them are German’s defense giant Rheinmetall, Estonia’s Frankenburg Technologies, and Sweden’s Saab.
At the forum, President Volodymyr Zelensky highlighted that Ukraine has exponentially increased domestic ammunition production over the past two years and has successfully tested its own ballistic missile.
“In the first half of this year alone, Ukraine produced 25 times more artillery and mortar ammunition than in the entire year of 2022,” Zelensky said.
According to the president, Ukraine can now produce 4 million drones per year and has already contracted 1.5 million. The country is also producing between 15-20 Bohdana howitzers per month.