On Tuesday evening, the Defense Department announced that the Army awarded a deal to the company for an “organic, stand-off capability” for dismounted infantry units to destroy tanks, light armored vehicles, hardened targets and enemy personnel. However, it didn’t identify which specific system the service was buying.

“We have no additional information to provide at this time, beyond what is reflected in the initial contract announcement,” a DOD spokesperson told DefenseScoop in an email Wednesday.

But then AeroVironment confirmed in a release on Wednesday that the agreement is for Switchblade drones to meet a “Lethal Unmanned Systems” requirement for the Army. DefenseScoop was later told that both the Switchblade 300 and 600 variants will be provided to the Army under the IDIQ contract.

Deliveries are expected to start in “months,” according to an AeroVironment release.

“AV is proud to have been selected to provide Switchblade for this critical and urgent Army requirement,” Brett Hush, the company’s senior vice president and general manager of loitering munition systems, said in a statement. “Starting with the LUS Directed Requirement, we are well positioned to meet the Army’s emerging needs, leveraging our robust production capability and supply chain capacity to ensure rapid fielding and enhanced combat overmatch for our soldiers.”

Unlike traditional munitions, loitering munitions — also known as kamikaze drones or one-way-attack unmanned aerial systems — can fly around until they identify a target. They destroy their target by crashing into it, and they can be armed with a warhead to enhance their potency.

Funding under the five-year deal will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of Aug. 26, 2029, according to DOD’s announcement.

DefenseScoop reached out to a strategic communications director for Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush for comment about the latest award. An Army official directed DefenseScoop’s query to the spokesperson in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

The Switchblade 600 carries high-precision optics and an anti-armor warhead. It has upwards of 40 minutes of loitering endurance, a range of 40-plus kilometers, and a “sprint speed” of 185 kilometers per hour, according to a product description from the vendor. The all-up round weighs 65 pounds.

“As an all-in-one, man-portable solution, Switchblade 600 includes everything required to successfully plan and execute missions and can be set up and operational in less than 10 minutes. Equipped with class-leading, high-resolution EO/IR gimbaled sensors and advanced precision flight control, Switchblade 600 empowers the warfighter with quick and easy deployment via tube-launch, and the capability to fly, track and engage non-line-of-sight targets and armored vehicles with precision lethal effects without the need for external ISR or fires assets,” according to a company product description.

“Patented wave-off and recommit capability allows operators to abort the mission at any time and then re-engage either the same or other targets multiple times based on operator command,” per the description.

Meanwhile, the tube-launched Switchblade 300 Block 20 can be deployed in less than 2 minutes and has a range of 30 kilometers, upwards of 20 minutes endurance, and a “sprint speed” of 161 kilometers per hour. The all-up round weighs only about 7 pounds, according to a product description.

“Cursor-on-target GPS coordinates provide situational awareness, information collection, targeting and feature/object recognition, that together deliver the actionable intelligence and precision firepower needed to achieve mission success across multiple domains,” per the description.

The Army is pursuing the Switchblade 600 for the initial increment of its Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance (LASSO) program. The service requested $120.6 million to procure LASSO production systems in fiscal 2025 as the U.S. military moves to beef up its arsenal of loitering munitions.

Acquisition of the Switchblade 600 is also being accelerated under the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative, which aims to field multiple thousands of autonomous systems by August 2025 to counter China’s military buildup in the Indo-Pacific. Plans call for purchasing more than 1,000 Switchblades to support Replicator, Gen. James Mingus, the Army’s vice chief of staff, told lawmakers in June.

AeroVironment is already delivering Switchblades to the Army under a contract awarded in December 2023 to help meet the service’s Lethal Unmanned Systems-directed requirement, according to the company.

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A stated goal of Replicator is to accelerate programs and field thousands of “attritable autonomous” systems across multiple domains by August 2025 to help the U.S. armed forces counter China’s military buildup.

Officials say the department got the money it was seeking from Congress for fiscal 2024 as it works to achieve that goal.

“The Department has secured its needed funding of about $500 million for FY24, to include approximately $300 million from the Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 defense appropriations bill supporting the Department’s reprogramming request and additional funding identified using existing authorities and Defense-wide sources,” the Pentagon said in a release Monday.

Some of that additional $200 million in funding will come from reprogramming “under-executed” funds that were available and other pots of money, senior defense officials told a small group of reporters during a call ahead of the announcement.

“The funding is fully identified from the department’s perspective. So in addition to the $300 million … there is additional money that is either in the FY ‘24 appropriation that could be used for this effect. There’s funding in the recently passed [national security] supplemental that could be used for this. And so … internally the funding is fully aligned to Replicator and we are just going through the final processes to formalize that,” one of the officials said.

After the call, the department issued a statement saying: “We were pleased to see the appropriators include approximately $300 million toward the initial tranche of Replicator systems. This amount fully satisfied the classified reprogramming request that we transmitted to Congress in January. Since the enactment of the FY24 budget, we have worked with Congress to successfully reach our requirement of around $500 million using existing authorities and Defense-wide sources.”

As DefenseScoop has previously reported, the first tranche includes kamikaze drones, unmanned surface vessels and counter-drone systems. The Pentagon publicly released some information about the systems it selected in its announcement Monday.

Officials noted that the vendor base for Replicator includes traditional and non-traditional vendors providing systems, components, software and payloads.

Replicator-related funding for the Switchblade 600, a kamikaze drone made by AeroVironment, will boost the LASSO program, the Army’s acquisition chief Doug Bush told DefenseScoop last week during a meeting with reporters.

The first tranche will also feature maritime drones including various types of unmanned surface vessels.

“In the maritime domain, the Department is diversifying the vendor base for USVs through the recently announced Production-Ready, Inexpensive, Maritime Expeditionary (PRIME) Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO). The CSO process allows U.S. and international companies to pitch technologies to the Department in a fast-track process for a prototype contract. Launched on January 30, 2024, the PRIME CSO received over one hundred applications from commercial technology companies. With FY24 funding secured, the Department is on track to award several contracts this summer,” the Pentagon said in Monday’s release.

The Defense Innovation Unit, headquartered in Silicon Valley, is spearheading the PRIME initiative.

“Meeting the strategic imperatives facing the nation requires that we harness the very best of America’s commercial technology in non-traditional partners, alongside our traditional sources of defense capabilities,” DIU Director Doug Beck said in a statement. “Replicator is doing just that, and that is why we at DIU are proud to work with our partners from across the Department of Defense to make it a reality.”

The first tranche of Replicator systems includes capabilities that remain classified, including “others in the maritime domain” and some in the counter-drone portfolio, according to the release.

“I am pleased to announce that the Department will begin investing in scalable production for these critical capabilities,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks said in a statement. “We are taking an important step toward strengthening our defense and technology industrial base. And, we are demonstrating the Department’s ability to break down barriers to scaling innovation at speed not just for [all-domain attritable autonomous] systems, but in our ability to develop new capabilities and processes for the Department and key stakeholders, including Congress.”

DefenseScoop previously reported that USV systems and interceptors affiliated with a Navy Special Warfare and Office of Naval Research program were also chosen for Replicator. Anduril’s Wide-Area Infrared System for Persistent Surveillance (WISP) counter-drone technology was also tapped for ramped-up production in association with efforts put forth by the Marine Corps’ Ground Based Air Defense program.

During the background call ahead of Monday’s announcement, senior defense officials said the Pentagon is now on track to meet the goals laid out by Hicks to field thousands of Replicator-related systems by August 2025.

“We’re now poised to execute on tranche one,” one of the officials said. “We will either be awarding contracts or in some cases, contracts already exist and will be modified to accommodate investments from tranche one.”

The officials declined to provide a breakdown of how much funding would go toward each of the capabilities that have been selected.

“We have for reasons of the operational need made some classification decisions, and one of those decisions is around the quantities of specific systems. And so, we won’t be providing the funding at a system level,” an official told DefenseScoop during the call.

Adm. Samuel Paparo, the new commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, applauded the recent developments.

“This is a critical step in delivering the capabilities we need, at the scale and speed we need, to continue securing a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he said in a statement.

While securing the money needed for fiscal 2024 was a key step, there are more challenges to tackle besides buying these systems and having industry manufacture as the Pentagon prepares to field them.

“With that comes a whole lot more hard work that will need to go into making this a reality by August of 2025,” a senior DOD official said during the call with reporters. “That includes continuing to refine the concept of operation and employment for these capabilities; accelerating the experimentation timelines for individual capabilities, but also the collective portfolio to make sure that we are adequately testing and experimenting the mass effects that that we hope to achieve.”

It also includes “generating and tagging high-quality data and developing the algorithmic models to enable the safe, secure and effective degrees of autonomy for these systems; conducting policy reviews to ensure the systems are compliant with our policies and our values; you know, developing common autonomy AI architectures. So there’s just a whole lot of additional work that will continue to go into this so that we can deliver capabilities that are ready to use at the time that they’re delivered,” they added.

Looking ahead, the department has requested about $500 million for Replicator-related efforts in fiscal 2025 and said it will work with Congress to support that request.

Meanwhile, it’s currently evaluating additional capabilities for tranche two.

“I expect that that will include additional attritable systems in some of these same domains that will complement the capabilities of tranche one, and it will also will prioritize enablers such as command and control, autonomy and other software that will increase the overall effectiveness and collaboration across these systems,” a senior DOD official told DefenseScoop during the call.

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Since unveiling the effort in August 2023, Defense Department leadership has declined to publicly identify specific Replicator-enabling systems and programs. But broadly, it all marks the U.S. military’s new and ambitious plan to counter China’s military buildup by fielding thousands of “autonomous” systems across multiple warfighting domains by August 2025. 

To do so, the department intends to spend approximately $1 billion total in the fiscal 2024-2025 time frame.

Selections for these products are being made in different tranches. The first tranche — dubbed “Replicator 1.1” — includes more mature types of technologies. 

In January, DOD officials revealed that the initial tranche of Replicator systems had been officially picked from a cache of competing proposals submitted by teams across the enterprise. DefenseScoop was the first to subsequently report in February that Switchblade 600 kamikaze drones were among that first set of systems chosen to be mass-produced via Replicator.

Several officials familiar with the Pentagon’s Replicator 1.1 selections who spoke to DefenseScoop in recent conversations on the condition of anonymity shared new information about what can essentially be considered four “buckets” of technology systems set to be accelerated for military use in this first tranche of the initiative.

They confirmed that the Switchblade 600s loitering munitions, made by AeroVironment, were picked for Replicator in association with Army Program Executive Office Soldier’s Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance (LASSO) program.

Counter-drone capabilities make up another set of assets selected for the Replicator 1.1 tranche. According to the officials, Anduril’s Wide-Area Infrared System for Persistent Surveillance (WISP) technology was tapped for ramped-up production, in association with efforts put forth by the Marine Corps’ Ground Based Air Defense program.

The company’s website states that WISP supplies artificial intelligence-enabled “passive, full-motion, 360-degree wide-area high-quality imaging to enable persistent automated threat detection and situational awareness.”

“WISP can be adapted to different applications across a variety of domains and mission sets. Leveraging the same underlying technology, WISP brings its capabilities to land, sea, and air applications, providing support to missions such as border and base security, counter drone missions, and maritime surface threat detection,” it notes.

The two other “buckets” selected in this first leg of the Replicator initiative involve a variety of different form factors of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) and interceptors that operate at various ranges. Officials asked DefenseScoop to withhold some details about these systems, citing operational security concerns. However, they verified that the Defense Innovation Unit will select small USVs and collaborative intercept capabilities through a recently closed DIU Prime solicitation to enable Replicator 1.1. 

Separately, USV systems and interceptors affiliated with a Navy Special Warfare and Office of Naval Research program, among others, were also proposed and selected as part of this first-round Replicator tranche.

The Pentagon did not provide comment before publication.

Meanwhile, DOD officials are finalizing proposals for the second tranche, known as Replicator 1.2. The Army’s acquisition chief recently told DefenseScoop that the service is proposing three systems for that round, although he declined to name them.

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The DOD’s stated goal of Replicator is to counter China’s massive, ongoing military buildup by fielding thousands of attritable autonomous systems in multiple domains by August 2025. Replicator selections for to-be-fielded products will be made across roughly 10 technology portfolios or sets and announced in various tranches, with the first encompassing more “mature” capabilities that have already been proven within U.S. military components.

The Pentagon recently revealed that a small number of capabilities were chosen last month to be prioritized for the initial Replicator tranche — but officials would not identify them. In December, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology Doug Bush had previously suggested to DefenseScoop that the service nominated several drone systems for the initiative.

Sources who spoke to DefenseScoop on the condition of anonymity this week said AeroVironment-built Switchblade 600 attack drones made Hicks’ cut for the Replicator loitering munitions capability set, via the Army’s Tactical Aviation and Ground Munitions (TAGM) program.

With a 24-mile range, 40 minutes of loitering endurance and the ability to fly at speeds of up to 115 miles per hour, Switchblade 600s are built to destroy armored vehicles and other targets in multi-domain military operations.

Since Replicator was unveiled by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks in August, she and officials across the Defense Department have been tight-lipped about certain aspects of how the initiative is really coming together, pointing to a need for secrecy so as not to tip off adversaries.

“The deputy secretary selected capability areas in December. The military departments then identified specific systems and associated acquisition strategies to meet those capability needs. The department recently notified our congressional committees of jurisdiction of those system requests, on plan with Replicator’s established timeline. We have no further details to provide on individual systems at this time,” Pentagon spokesperson Eric Pahon told DefenseScoop on Friday after being asked to confirm the Switchblade 600 selection.

Pahon also declined to provide specifics regarding how many millions in funding might be reprogrammed through Replicator for the loitering munitions in 2024.

“We submitted a spend plan and reprogramming requests to Congress [on Jan. 31]. We hope they will act quickly, which will allow us to ramp up and accelerate production on Replicator capabilities. We aren’t able to provide specifics on the reprogramming request at this time,” he said.

Notably, loitering munitions are just one of multiple different capability areas that DOD seeks to accelerate with Replicator.

During a press briefing with reporters in November, Hicks said “the idea that this is all about sort of kinetic swarms I think is very misleading.”

“I don’t think ‘kamikaze drone’ is the right way to think about it. You need to think, again, well beyond the kinetic side of this into the ability to deliver logistics, command and control, ISR, if you will, and again, multiple domains,” she said.

In response to DefenseScoop’s questions, Pahon would not detail the other Replicator capability sets that Hicks’ team approved. He also hinted that more selections and considerations for loitering munitions may be made in the near term.

“The department is constantly seeking opportunities to bring in new vendors across a multitude of capability areas. This is reflective of [the Defense Innovation Unit’s] core mission to engage emerging technology providers through the commercial solutions offering process. We have no further details to provide on individual systems at this time,” he said.

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The Defense Department’s Chief Technology Officer and Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Bill LaPlante and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology Doug Bush are set to meet with experts from AeroVironment at the facility while they are in California for the annual Reagan National Defense Forum.

AeroVironment produces a variety of uncrewed platforms, including small- and medium-sized unmanned aerial systems, robotic ground vehicles and loitering munitions like the Switchblade family of kamikaze drones.

U.S. Army units have been training with and employing AeroVironment UAS, and the service has purchased multiple variants of Switchblade systems, which are one-way attack drones that are designed to destroy their targets by crashing directly into them.

The Biden administration has also committed to arming Ukraine with hundreds of Switchblades to deploy against Russian forces, and it’s been considering a recent capabilities request that Israel submitted for assistance to defeat Hamas that includes 200 Switchblade 600s.

While sources confirmed to DefenseScoop on Tuesday that the three senior Pentagon officials would be engaging with AeroVironment staff at the Simi Valley plant, they would not speak to the nature of this visit — or verify what’s on the discussion agenda. The company did not respond to requests for comment.

Shyu, LaPlante and Bush are expected to meet with other DOD technology providers while on the West Coast, as well.

“We have no details to provide regarding possible senior leader engagements at this time,” a Pentagon spokesperson told DefenseScoop.

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The high-tech loitering munitions were included among other capabilities Israeli leadership explicitly asked their American counterparts for on or before Oct. 30, according to a Pentagon document obtained by DefenseScoop and multiple officials who confirmed this request on the condition of anonymity.

It’s unclear how long it will take U.S. agencies to make a decision on the inquiry — or when the advanced capabilities would be delivered to Israel, if approved.

Produced by drone manufacturer AeroVironment, Switchblade 600s are designed to destroy armored vehicles and other targets in multi-domain operations. U.S. Army units recently moved to experiment with these kamikaze drones, which have a 24-mile range, 40 minutes of loitering endurance and can move at speeds of up to 115 miles per hour. 

“Equipped with class-leading, high-resolution EO/IR gimbaled sensors and advanced precision flight control, Switchblade 600 empowers the warfighter with quick and easy deployment via tube-launch, and the capability to fly, track and engage non-line-of-sight targets and armored vehicles with precision lethal effects without the need for external [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] or fires assets,” according to an AeroVironment product description.

“Patented wave-off and recommit capability allows operators to abort the mission at any time and then re-engage either the same or other targets multiple times based on operator command,” it added. 

AeroVironment has not shared the price for a Switchblade 600 publicly — but budget documents reveal that the company’s smaller, Switchblade 300 system, might cost around $80,000 each.

The Biden administration has positioned the U.S. as a staunch supporter of Israel, since the country was ambushed by the Palestine-based militant group Hamas on Oct. 7 and suffered more than 1,400 fatalities. However, it has repeatedly declined to confirm key details about the military supplies and aid it has supplied to Israel, since then. 

The Pentagon on Monday acknowledged that thousands of civilians have been killed in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war started last month. 

“We don’t put conditions on assistance given to Israel. What I can tell you is that anytime a country like Israel is receiving arms or military support from the United States, we expect them to comply with international humanitarian law,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told DefenseScoop during a briefing on Tuesday.

DefenseScoop has asked the U.S. National Security Council and Israel’s Ministry of Defense for more information regarding the request for Switchblade 600s, and is waiting to hear back.

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The $2 billion security assistance package announced by the Pentagon on Friday includes an unspecified quantity of JUMP 20, Switchblade 600, ALTIUS-600 and CyberLux K8 unmanned aerial systems.

The JUMP 20 is a fixed wing, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) platform that can provide “advanced multi-sensor” intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities, according to manufacturer AeroVironment.

The drone has 14-plus hours of endurance, a range of 115 miles, and payload capacity of up to 30 pounds, and can be equipped with imaging sensors such as ARCAM 45D, long range EO/MWIR as well as onboard tracking, stabilization and video processing. The “runway independent” system can be set up and operational in less than an hour without the need for launch or recovery equipment, according to the company.

The ALTIUS-600, made by AREA-I, is a tube-launched drone that can be deployed from ground vehicles, aircraft, or naval platforms. It has an endurance of three to four hours and can cover distances over 200 nautical miles, with mission-specific payload configurations that can contribute to ISR, electronic warfare, counter-UAS or “kinetic” actions, according to the company.

“ALTIUS was designed with a modular payload nose to give customers an on-demand UAS solution with a sensor or payload package to meet specific mission needs,” the company said in a product description.

The Switchblade 600 is a kamikaze drone, or loitering munition, that attacks its target by crashing into it. The system weighs 120 pounds, has a 40-plus kilometer range, 40-plus minutes endurance, and a “dash” speed of 115 mph, according to manufacturer AeroVironment.

The weapon can be set up and operational in less than 10 minutes, according to the company.

“Equipped with class-leading, high-resolution EO/IR gimbaled sensors and advanced precision flight control, Switchblade 600 empowers the warfighter with quick and easy deployment via tube-launch, and the capability to fly, track and engage non-line-of-sight targets and armored vehicles with precision lethal effects without the need for external ISR or fires assets,” per the product description. “Patented wave-off and recommit capability allows operators to abort the mission at any time and then re-engage either the same or other targets multiple times based on operator command.”

Little information was immediately available about the CyberLux K8, and DefenseScoop will provide an update when it learns more about the system.

Previous security assistance package for Ukraine also included drones. As of Feb. 20, the U.S. had committing to providing more than 700 Switchblades, approximately 1,800 Phoenix Ghost loitering munitions, 15 ScanEagle systems, and an unspecified number Puma UAS, according to a Defense Department fact sheet.

The Biden administration has committed more than $32 billion in security assistance to Ukraine over the past year, according to the Pentagon.

The security assistance package for Ukraine announced on Friday also includes counter-UAS and electronic warfare detection equipment; additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS); additional 155mm artillery rounds; munitions for laser-guided rocket systems; mine clearing equipment; secure communications support equipment; and funding for training, maintenance and sustainment.

All of the weapons in the new package will be procured from contractors using Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) funds — not drawn from existing DOD stocks — which means it could take many months for them to be manufactured and delivered to Ukraine.

“Today’s solemn anniversary is an opportunity for all who believe in freedom, rules, and sovereignty to recommit ourselves to supporting Ukraine’s brave defenders for the long haul — and to recall that the stakes of Russia’s war stretch far beyond Ukraine,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement Friday.

“Putin thought that Ukraine’s defenses would collapse, that America’s resolve would falter, and that the world would look the other way. He was wrong. One year later, Ukraine’s brave defenders have not wavered, and neither has our commitment to support them for as long as it takes,” Austin added.

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Loitering munitions, also known as kamikaze drones or suicide drones, are primarily designed to go on one-way missions where they fly around until they find a target and then crash into it to destroy it. Equipped with sensors, they can also provide intelligence information about the location of enemy forces.

The tactical unmanned aerial systems offer advantages over more traditional fires such as mortars and artillery, which have a predictable ballistic trajectory and rely on prepositioned targeting, Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger told FedScoop Tuesday during remarks at the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington.

“The advantage of having all the way down to the squad level a weapon system that can fly, can shoot even maybe out of a mortar tube and loiter for 40-45 minutes, [or] out of a vehicle that can loiter for 90 minutes … is huge, because at the time that you launch that munition either A, you may not have a precise location for the target, or B, it may be moving,” Berger said. “It gives you so much flexibility to engage either targets that are concealed or targets that are moving because of the loiter time.”

Deploying such weapons could also enable the Marines to mess with the minds of their enemies, according to Berger.

“From an infantry ground guy perspective, it’s incredibly frustrating to know that there’s a loitering munition up above your head. There’s a psychological impact,” he said.

Such weapons could be remote-controlled or operate autonomously.

The Corps has been experimenting with these types of drones as part of its “campaign of learning” that is informing Berger’s vision for the future known as Force Design 2030.

The experimentation, which has included arming an unmanned service vessel with loitering munitions, has already demonstrated the “potency” of that kind of capability, Berger said.

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has also highlighted the utility of kamikaze drones.

The United States is providing hundreds of Switchblade systems to Ukraine to help the country in its battle against Russian invaders. The Department of Defense is also supplying a newly developed weapon known as Phoenix Ghost — a project overseen by the Air Force’s secretive “Big Safari” office.

More than 20 of the 121 Phoenix Ghost systems slated for delivery to Ukraine have already arrived. The first cohort of Ukrainian soldiers to be trained on the system recently wrapped up a week-long training course with American instructors at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

“How many of you have seen any of the YouTube videos coming out of Ukraine on loitering munitions?” Berger asked the conference attendees. “Yeah, me too,” he said after a number of hands went up.

The latest update to Force Design 2030, released Monday, said fielding loitering munitions and other anti-armor/anti-personnel systems to small units will help “provide the close-combat lethality enhancements long-envisioned by infantry Marines.”

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, speaking at the conference, also highlighted the importance of these types of unmanned aerial systems.

“Drone technology that’s evolved in the past 20 years, quite frankly, has been transformational on the battlefield. And it’s exactly the type of technology that we need to embrace in order to win conflicts in the future,” he said.

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The unmanned aerial vehicles are part of a new $800 million security assistance package that includes other military equipment such as heavy artillery, dozens of howitzers, and 144,000 rounds of ammunition.

More than 120 Phoenix Ghost tactical UAVs will be part of the package, according to a Pentagon press release.

The Phoenix Ghost drone was already being developed by the U.S. military and AEVEX Aerospace before the recent Russian invasion began on Feb. 24.

“The Air Force was working on this and, in discussions with the Ukrainians again about their requirements, we believed that this particular system would very nicely suit their needs, particularly in eastern Ukraine,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters. “It was already in development, but we will continue to move that development in ways that are attuned to Ukrainian requirements for unmanned aerial systems of a tactical nature in eastern Ukraine.”

The system’s purpose is akin to that of AeroVironment’s Switchblade suicide drones that have already been sent to Ukraine. It is designed to attack targets like a kamikaze on “one way” missions, he said.

It could also provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.

Like most UAVs, the system has optics. So “it can also be used to give you a sight picture of what it’s seeing, of course, but its principal focus is attack,” Kirby said.

Although the Phoenix Ghost can perform similar missions as the Switchblade, it does have different capabilities, Kirby said. He declined to say specifically how the new system is different or provide more details about its capabilities.

“The kinds of things this drone can do lend itself well to this particular kind of terrain” in eastern Ukraine, Kirby said. “I think I’m just gonna leave it at that.”

The systems will require some training for the Ukrainians to use them. “We’re working that out right now,” Kirby said.

The Phoenix Ghost isn’t only intended for Ukraine’s use. It was already in the U.S. military’s inventory when the new security assistance package was announced.

“The whole idea of [developing this] this was for us to use it. So I would expect we still have an interest in using this capability. But … [we] can see the benefit right now in the moment for Ukraine to use it. And so we’re going to provide some of them,” Kirby said.

The Phoenix Ghost isn’t the only unmanned system that the U.S. is providing to Ukraine.

As of April 14, after the previous $800 million security package was announced, the United States had committed to providing more than 700 Switchblades to Ukraine, as well as an undisclosed number of Puma UAVs and mysterious “unmanned coastal defense vessels.”

With this latest package, the United States has now committed approximately $3.4 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia kicked off its large-scale invasion of its neighbor on Feb. 24.

The latest package is “tailored to meet critical Ukrainian needs for today’s fight as Russian forces launch a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine,” Kirby said in a press release. “The United States will continue to utilize all available tools to support Ukraine’s Armed Forces in the face of Russian aggression.”

In remarks at the White House when he announced the new round of aid, Biden said: “Now we have to accelerate that assistance package to help prepare Ukraine for Russia’s offensive that’s going to be more limited in terms of geography, but not in terms of brutality … Combined with our recent drawdowns [in DOD weapon stocks], it will ensure a steady flow of weapons and equipment into Ukraine over the next few weeks.”

Biden said he plans to send Congress a supplemental budget request next week to get additional resources so that U.S. weapons and ammo can keep “flowing without interruption.”

The United States has the capacity to continue providing security assistance “for a long time,” he added. “The question is are we going to continue to maintain the support of the international community and keep the pressure on Putin to prevent him from overrunning the country.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at the Pentagon Thursday afternoon where they discussed U.S. security assistance.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional comments from Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby.

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