# ‘Like a God-gun’: Armor unit adopts Switchblade kamikaze drones

**By:** Corey Dickstein, Corey Dickstein


 Corey Dickstein

                        Corey Dickstein covers the military in the U.S. southeast. He joined the Stars and Stripes staff in 2015 and covered the Pentagon for more than five years. He previously covered the military for the Savannah Morning News in Georgia. Dickstein holds a journalism degree from Georgia College & State University and has been recognized with several national and regional awards for his reporting and photography. He is based in Atlanta.  
**Published:** 2026-07-13T00:00:00+00:00  
**Source:** [Stars and Stripes](https://www.stripes.com/branches/army/2026-07-13/armor-unit-switchblade-kamikaze-drones-22249918.html)

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Army Spc. Lathan Thomley looks over the controls of a Switchblade 600 one-way-attack drone during training for the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division on June 11, 2026, while training at Fort Irwin, Calif. (Corey Dickstein/Stars and Stripes) 
 
                                                      
   FORT IRWIN, Calif. — In the first two days of its battle against Fort Irwin’s dedicated opposing force, Army 1st Lt. William Kaiser’s launched effects platoon had already destroyed 60 enemy vehicles.
 It was the first time the platoon had employed its new kamikaze drones in a major training environment, and Kaiser said it was quickly clear how useful those drones — Switchblade 600s — would be in combat.
 “It can kind of feel like a God-gun, you know,” Kaiser said as his platoon rested between missions on the third day of its fight last month against the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, known as Blackhorse, at the Army’s National Training Center. “We’re just killing people left and right.” 
 The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division established Kaiser’s launched effects platoon last year inside its 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment to experiment with kamikaze and first-person-view attack drones as part of the Army’s Transformation in Contact initiative. 
 That program seeks to incorporate the latest battlefield technology and new tactics into Army brigades to prepare them to fight an enemy with similar warfighting capabilities, such as China or Russia.
 At NTC, where 2nd Brigade spent much of June training, the Switchblades proved among the most effective new tech the unit employed, according to Lt. Col. J.P. Steadman, the commander of 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment.
 The Switchblade 600 is a GPS-guided loitering munition with an anti-armor warhead built by AeroVironment. It launches from a mortar-like tube and its blade-like wings expand in the air, inspiring its Switchblade moniker. Switchblade 600 can fly for about 45 minutes and reach about 25 miles, according to AeroVironment.
 “Think of it like a Javelin or a Hellfire missile with a camera and wings, and I can move it wherever I want to as I’m looking for a target,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Chris Radtke, one of the brigade’s drone experts.
 During the force-on-force fight, Steadman’s squadron controlled all the brigade’s Switchblades. 
      A launch tube for a Switchblade loitering munition. The Switchblade 600 is a GPS-guided loitering munition with an anti-armor warhead built by AeroVironment. It is launched from a mortar-like tube and its blade-like wings expand in the air, inspiring its Switchblade moniker. Switchblade 600 can fly for about 45 minutes and reach about 25 miles. (Taylor Gray/U.S. Army) 
 
   He prioritized using them to strike critical enemy infrastructure, such as command and control nodes, and to attack armored vehicles in areas where his front-line troops were operating.
 “As long as I can find a target within 40 minutes of flight time, I can maneuver that thing wherever I want. That has helped me immensely as it enables both my [troops to] maneuver and it also enables [attacks against objectives on] the brigade’s high priority target list,” Steadman said. “It really expands my capability as a squadron commander.” 
 While the unit had access to about 30 Switchblades per day during the force-on-force fight, it also had access to the traditional M109 Paladin self-propelled howitzers that armored brigades have long employed.
 At times during the fight against Blackhorse, Steadman and others debated using a Switchblade or Paladin 155mm artillery against targets. 
 The Switchblades gave Steadman more reach beyond the front lines than the traditional artillery pieces, which can strike targets about 19 miles away. But he had far fewer Switchblades, which at an estimated $70,000-$100,000 per drone, are much costlier than employing a 155mm round, which costs around $3,000. 
 The launched effects platoon has worked with the Switchblade 600 since November, when it used them in a live-fire exercise for the first time. 
 At NTC, during the force-on-force fight, the Switchblades were virtual. Soldiers simulated launching the drones, mapped their course on their tablet controllers and guided an imaginary Switchblade toward an enemy position where the soldiers acting as referees for the training fight would determine if the drone attack was successful. 
 Kaiser said his platoon was busy at the start of the fight and when forward units ran into Blackhorse, sometimes launching more than a handful of Switchblades back-to-back. He said his soldiers were typically able to get a virtual drone in the air within seven minutes of receiving orders to attack. Switchblades, he said, were often arriving at their target within about 15 minutes.
 Kaiser, an armor officer, said he was impressed with how easily his soldiers were mastering the kamikaze drones.
 The U.S. has provided Switchblades to Ukrainian since 2022, where they have been used against Russian forces. The kamikaze drones have proven useful in that fight, but they have faced some issues with Russian jamming. AeroVironment has said it has improved anti-jamming capabilities.
 In addition to the 65-pound Switchblade 600, AeroVironment also builds two smaller versions: the 300, which weighs about 7 pounds; and the 400, which weighs about 39 pounds, according to the company. It has received Army contracts for more than $1 billion in recent years to produce Switchblades for the service.
 The Army has not said precisely how many Switchblades it will order or how many it wants for each of its combat brigades. Currently, AeroVironment can produce about 240 Switchblade 600s a month in its Los Angeles plant. But the company hopes to produce up to 1,200 per month after opening a second assembly line in Salt Lake City by next year, AeroVironment officials have said.
 Steadman said he would recommend that armor brigades outfit all their combat battalions with Switchblades.
 Army Spc. Lathan Thomley, a cavalry scout who has trained to operate the Switchblade, said the kamikaze drone has made his job easier and was “super simple” to employ. 
 “You send it up there and let it loiter,” Thomley said, pointing out toward a mountain range about 10 miles away from his position at 6-8 Cavalry’s Switchblade Launching Area. “Then when you see something you want — Boom. That’s it.”
    Drones