About Switchblade 300

Interview with Switchblade 300's user was conducted for "Tysk" by Serhii Haraluzhniy. Translation by Illia Morozenko.

— Which services and units work with Switchblade 300's?

Security Service of Ukraine, Special Operations Forces and Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.

Switchblade 300 in use by Special Operations Forces. Source

— How long does it take to train an operator and what does this process include?

Operator training takes 2 weeks. This is generally too long for most people: in fact, you can almost half this period. Flying the Switchblade simulator take the most of said period.

— How difficult is it to fly the drone? What is the hit-to-miss ratio? Is it easier to aim than an FPV drone?

It is easy to operate. The drone can do a lot of things on its own, it gains altitude, calculates an approximate trajectory during approach, tries to adjust its direction of movement in the wind, and when it comes to the target, it starts to descend and accelerate — you just need to fine-tune it. If it misses the target, it automatically goes for a second circle, makes an automatic approach, during which you can monitor the target with the side camera. The drone makes a circle, flies back in from the side of the first approach, and tries to hit the target again. It can repeat this a significant number of times as long as the battery lasts.

For the reasons mentioned above, it is much easier to aim it at a target than an FPV drone. It flies in a straight line, is more stable, does not need to be corrected in many planes, and does a lot of things automatically.

The percentage of successful hits is quite high, I would estimate it at 70-80% if the drone has successfully taken off and found the target.

— What is the drone's real destructive capacity? How is the mode of fragmentation selected and what does it depend on?

The hitting capability is slightly greater than that of the 40-mm automatic grenade launcher munition. The target is selected based on its specifics, and you need to understand what it is used for and where it is flying to. Even before the launch, it is clear which mode to choose. It does have several options for detonation, at different distances from the target — that determines the beam of projectiles that hits the target.

— How noisy is the drone? At what distance does the enemy notice it?

The drone sounds a lot like a DJI Mavic. When it hovers above you, you can tell that something is clearly flying. If there was a Mavic at that altitude, you would hear it too. The enemy notices it earlier for the simple reason that when it approaches the target, it changes its mode of operation, dives and switches on the engine to full power, which means it starts to work louder.

Just before. Source

— Did you manage to use the drone at its maximum range? Did you have to exceed these limits?

Yes, the drone was used at its maximum technical capacity, even beyond it — but these were individual cases. Is it possible to generalise and say that the drone operates at longer ranges? I wouldn't say so. These one-off cases were rather extraordinary events. Based on the nature of the drone, it never targets anything outside its combat radius, because it's just stupid and unprofessional.

— Were there any attempts to upgrade drones on the Ukrainian side?

No, there were no attempts to upgrade it. There was an attempt to make it work in a non-conventional way: this concerns charging systems and triggers, which do not always work. Roughly speaking, these are complaints about the launch station, not the drone itself.

— How often do failures and malfunctions occur? What are their causes?

They do from time to time, but it's more of a hardware problem, and mostly happens to the launch station. It's hard to say that the drone has caused any problems in flight and behaved abnormally. Taking into account active means of radioelectronic warfare, drone operates in a stable manner.

— When does it make sense to choose Switchblade 300 rather than any other weaponry?

We don't have many other munitions that can confidently fly into a window of a building 8 km away, and it's important to emphasise that we don't just have the ability to fly into a window, but to be able to fly into a window with a 70-80% chance. There are certain types of targets the location of which is determined by different reconnaissance means. Determining their location is very temporary and situational, and they need to be hit in a single shot. If this target is not hit now, it will move and you will never find it again. The maximum value and effectiveness of Switchblade is manifested in such cases, so they are usually used in this way.

— What are the preferred targets of the Switchblade 300?

As it logically follows from the previous point, these targets are poorly protected, very valuable, and their location is known in advance. Finding targets on Switchblade, even if you know in which area the target should be, is very difficult for a number of reasons, the most important of which is the poor quality of the camera and, say, the nature of this drone: The design of UAV is made with the assumption that you know exactly where it is going to fly. It's not good as a reconnaissance drone, and it's not why it has the ability to barrage.

The remains of a Switchblade 300, which, according to the Russians, was used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to unsuccessfully attack the mortar battery of the 4th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade of the 2nd Army Corps of the Russian Armed Forces near the village of Spirne in Donetsk Oblast.

— What does a typical Switchblade 300 mission look like? How many drones can be used simultaneously in a single combat mission?

A typical mission of this drone is like any other combat mission. This includes reconnaissance, follow-up reconnaissance, planning based on the drone's specifications, and failure scenarios. As a rule, 2 rounds are fired in one mission. As I said, reconnaissance is very important. It is crucial to understand where the target is located.

— Is the Switchblade 300 used against non-armoured vehicles?

Yes, they do. I know of such cases and it seems to have worked out well. But these vehicles are not supposed to be moving fast, as Switchblade has limited steering capabilities.

— How often is the Switchblade 300 launched from behind enemy lines?

I know about cases of its use from the frontline, the grey zone, but I don't know about cases of its use behind the line of contact. I assume that this will be a difficult task due to certain peculiarities of launching the drone and its orientation in space.

— What was the most significant target that this drone was able to engage? What was the result?

I probably shouldn't go into details, but it concerns the enemy's command staff. As far as I know, it was successful.

— Last year, we saw the destruction of the Grenadier autonomous technical surveillance post in the Russian border area using the Switchblade 300. What other non-infantry targets is it used against?

These targets must be unprotected, static or with a known location, and must be of some value. As a general rule, these are surveillance units, electronic intelligence, electronic warfare stations, various air monitoring systems, and so on. This is some kind of expensive equipment or valuable personnel. This is the optimal use of Switchblade.

3rd Chemical and Biological Reconnaissance Company of the 3rd Regiment of the UAF SOF, together with the command and control of artillery reconnaissance battery of the 110th Separate Mechanised Brigade, attacked a Russian 9A33-1B "Osa" (SA-8 Gecko) SAM of the 1st Army Corps with a Switchblade 300 drone. The video showed the munition functioning normally, while the Russians claim that the net was able to protect the anti-aircraft system. May 2023.

— Has it ever been used to engage another drone?

No, I don't know of any such cases. Again, Switchblade needs to know where the target is. All of its software is designed around this. Operator can try to redirect the drone, but it's difficult. The camera resolution is also quite low. If it is a small aerial target that is constantly moving, it is difficult to find it. In addition, the UAV itself flies slowly and its time in the air is very limited. In short, fighting drones will be of very little probable effectiveness and a high cost to attempt.

— Can you compare Switchblade 300 and FPV drones? What are the non-obvious advantages of the SB300?

The most important thing is that Switchblade is a finished product. It is a complete device that behaves more or less predictably. FPV drones are always a complicated matter with many unknown factors. The non-obvious advantages are a very simple interface that is fully tailored for a person to control the flying object, aim it correctly and hit the target. It's actually more complicated than it sounds, and that's why Switchblade helps with wind correction, trajectory, target search, and if you see that you're not hitting the target, it comes in for a second lap, turns on full throttle, flies up, starts circling the target, comes in again, re-targets, and tries to help you hit it again. It possibly can, say, do everything almost independently. The operator only needs to adjust its course, to correct it a little bit. Again, there are a lot of difficulties with this, because adjusting the route at a certain speed and altitude is one thing, and then adjusting the route at the final stage is quite another, with different camera zooms and so on. There are a lot of problems, but Switchblade does everything it can to help you. Unfortunately, there are no such things with an FPV drone. There's no zoom, no help, no stabilisation, no possibility of a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th chance from the exact same angle. Everything is in your hands. This greatly increases the requirements for the pilot's qualifications and severely limits the choice of tasks, as there are objective factors that make it impossible for a person to hit a target confidently the first time. With Switchblade, this is more likely to happen than not.

— Have the tasks and scope of the Switchblade 300 usage changed with the emergence of cheap FPV drones?

I won't say that the proliferation of FPV drones has affected Switchblade's tasks specifically. Rather, there are much fewer Switchblades, at least from what I can see, and tasks for FPV drones have appeared. That is, the tasks are not disappearing, but the means for them are now in short supply. We had to adapt. On the upside, these are still very specific, precise tasks, and FPV drones are simply seen as an alternative. The scale of use has not changed.

— What could explain the appearance of videos using the rather scarce and expensive Switchblade 300 against enemy infantry in the trenches?

I think this is because different units have different access to Switchblade. Unfortunately, this happens. The distribution is not always fair, in my opinion. Certain units have a surplus of something, while others have to literally claw and scrape for at least a few shots, although in general I rate those units' tasks equally in terms of their value. I also assess that training is also at the same level, but the access to ammunition is completely different. Some people have a surplus of ammunition, so they do bullshit. Of course, hitting ordinary infantrymen in the trenches with Switchblade is wasteful, stupid and unprofessional.

The SSU Special Operations Centre "A" destroys a Russian infantryman in a trench near Bakhmut using a Switchblade 300. January 2023. Full video.

— We've encountered claims, that there were very few videos published with the Switchblade 300 because of the hardware difficulties in recording footage. And yet, why is it that videos from it are actually quite rare?

I think that videos are rare because there are few Switchblades. There was a period when they were used more, then a period when they were used less simply because there were physically fewer of them. Plus, the picture quality itself is quite low and not very impressive. And then there's the fact that the screen recording shows some information and not everyone blurs it. In general, the objectives for Switchblade are quite specialised and not all of them should be disclosed, it is not always worth saying what was used so that the enemy does not use it to their advantage and to our detriment.

— Do you know of any cases of launching the Switchblade 300 from a Jump 20 UAV?

Only rumours. In reality, I have never encountered it, and I have never met people who use it.

Reference: Jump 20 is a tactical-level aircraft-type drone with vertical take-off that can be used to launch the Switchblade 300 UAV. This drone was transferred to the Ukrainian Armed Forces by the United States as part of a military aid package in February 2023. The manufacturer claims the following specifications:

range: 185 km
operating time: 14 hours
payload: 13.6 kg
length: 2.9 m
wingspan: 5.7 m
weight: 97.5 kg

— Have foreign partners drawn any conclusions based on the Ukrainian experience of operating the Switchblade 300?

Yes, they drew conclusions. I'm not sure if it's called the second generation, but they made a number of changes and improvements. I won't say that this has fundamentally changed or expanded the capabilities of Switchblade, but they have brought it up to date. These innovations make our work easier.

— Overall, how would you assess the effectiveness of the Switchblade 300?

Overall, I rate the effectiveness as high. Switchblade is generally enjoyable to use. If you know its capabilities, its strengths and weaknesses, and understand what it can do, it will most likely do it. Do not demand from it something more than what it is designed for (unfortunately, this happens all the time in our army). We have to explain, argue, and inform people that this weapon is specific and is used for specific tasks. If it is used professionally, correctly, based on professional capabilities, it is a great addition to your firepower.