February 5, 2025: American firms are now rebranding, modifying and upgrading their current drone systems to adapt to the lessons of drone warfare in the Ukraine War, Among the new drone designs is the C100 quadcopter. This drone was designed to work with many different payloads. The 9.7 kg C100 has a 4.5 kg payload and can stay in the air for up to 74 minutes. Max range from the operator is ten kilometers. Top speed is 64 kilometers an hour or about one kilometer a minute. Part of the basic equipment is a camera for a FPV/First Person View operator who wears a device over his eyes that displays what the drone camera is seeing. Resolution can be 640x512 or 1280x720. The control and video links are encrypted. C100 can carry several types of payload cameras. These differ in the width of their field of view and accessories like a laser pointer.

Then there is the anti-drone system called Roadrunner. These drones weigh 85 kg, are 1.8 meters tall and are propelled by twin jet engines with a top speed of about 700 kilometers an hour. Most other specifications and capabilities have not yet been released.

Roadrunner is a small VTOL/Vertical Take Off and Landing drone that can be used for reconnaissance and return after each mission to be reused several times. If the explosive warhead and fire control system is used, Roadrunner will operate as an explosive drone that will destroy itself when it demolishes a drone, helicopter or aircraft.

The U.S. Department of Defense has purchased 500 Roadrunners for about $400,000 each. Most of them will go to the Special Operations Command/SOCOM, which will use Roadrunner to support its Special Forces or SEAL operators. Roadrunner is transported in a box-like launch container. This container can be moved by UH-60 helicopter via a sling underneath. With a larger transport helicopter, like the CH-47, the container or containers can be carried inside the helicopter on pallets.

While Roadrunner is useful for reconnaissance and surveillance, using them to destroy low value targets like drones makes little sense. Going after helicopters or low flying jets is cost-effective, but there are numerous anti-aircraft systems available for that.

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, in 2018 the U.S. Army upgraded all its older Switchblade drones to the Block 10C standard. This involved upgrading the communications between operator and drone to use an encrypted digital link. This makes it nearly impossible for enemy forces to eavesdrop or hijack Switchblade communications. Block 10C was introduced in 2016 but there were still older models without the encrypted data link and, with Russian electronic warfare forces so active in Syria and elsewhere, it became important to use only Block 10C Switchblades. Moreover, Switchblade is frequently used by special operations troops where secure communications and reliability are particularly important

Since 2014, when most American and NATO forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan, most of the U.S. troops in combat have been SOCOM/Special Operations Command personnel and Special Forces in Iraq and Syria and elsewhere. These troops require some special equipment and one of the most used items is Switchblade, which is a one-kilogram expendable drone that can be equipped with explosives and used as a weapon. The Switchblade is launched from its shipping and storage tube, at which point wings flip out, a battery powered propeller starts spinning and a vidcam begins broadcasting images to the controller. The Switchblade is operated using the same controller as the larger two kg Raven drone.

A complete Switchblade system with a missile, container, and controller weighs 5.5 kg. Switchblade was very popular with troops in Afghanistan, where it was first tested, and with SOCOM in all sorts of places they won’t discuss in detail. Switchblade is still widely used with over 5,000 produced so far. Switchblade first saw combat in 2009 and each one costs about $80,000. For SOCOM forces, who often travel light into enemy territory, hauling along a Switchblade or two can be crucial for completing a mission, not to mention a lifesaver in emergencies. Users regarded Switchblade as a micro-drone/cruise missile. It was both aerial surveillance and a weapon. More importantly, it could be carried and used by individual troops. Moving at up to a kilometer a minute, the Switchblade can stay in the air for 10-15 minutes (depending on whether or not it is armed with explosives) and remain under operator control up to ten kilometers away. The armed version can be flown to a target and detonated, having about the same explosive effect as a hand grenade. Switchblade thus enables ground troops to get at an enemy taking cover in a hard to see location. Technically a guided missile, the use of Switchblade as a reconnaissance tool encouraged developers to refer to it as a drone. But because of the warhead option and its slow speed, Switchblade also functions like a rather small cruise missile and can be flown by its controller or autonomously via GPS coordinates. The troops were particularly enthusiastic about the armed version because it allowed them to easily take out snipers or a few bad guys in a compound full of civilians.

The United States sent some Switchblade drone systems to Afghanistan in 2009 for secret field testing. This was very successful and the troops demanded more, and more, and more. That was unexpected because initially, Switchblade was mainly used largely by Special Forces and other special operations troops. In 2011, after more than a year of successful field testing, the army ordered over a hundred Switchblades for troop use and every year more had to be ordered because regular infantry units in combat got their hands on it and demanded more. By 2012 the U.S. Marine Corps was using Switchblade as well. Some classified modifications were made to Switchblade based on what was learned in Ukraine.

Others noticed Switchblade. In 2015 An Israeli firm introduced a new loitering drone, portable enough in weighing 3 kg for the infantry to carry and use. The Hero 30 has 30 minutes endurance and has a small warhead that can be used to turn it into a weapon if the onboard vidcam indicates a target that has to be taken care of immediately. Otherwise, it can be landed and reused. Hero 30 is based on the older Hero 400 which weighed 40 kg and had an 8 kg warhead. This drone had a four hour endurance and could operate up to 150 kilometers from the operator.