Increased supplies of so-called suicide drones will be among the munitions included in the $1.3 billion US aid package to Ukraine announced Wednesday – aerial reinforcements that officials said will include both Switchblade and still enigmatic Phoenix Ghost loitering UAVs.
The provision of those funds for military equipment to Kyiv followed an earlier extension of US assistance for medical and humanitarian responses to Russia’s invasion, bringing the week’s total to $2.3 billion.
Included in that latter group are a range of heavy-hitting rocket and missile systems, as well as additional Switchblade and Phoenix Ghost drones. While capable of multiple reconnaissance and intelligence missions, those UAVs have gained the most attention for their effective use by Ukraine in one-way attacks on Russian troops and armored vehicles.
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Though the portion of drones in the new US aid package will be modest, reinforcement of Ukraine’s aerial assets comes at a critical time in the nation’s defense against the Russian invasion that began in February of last year.
To begin with, in May Kyiv acknowledged its forces are losing about 10,000 drones per month during both intelligence gathering and strike activities. That rate makes any and all replenishment of what have become vital assets to Ukraine’s defense efforts particularly urgent and valuable.
Meanwhile, military experts have said the relatively large losses of troops and slow advance of Ukraine’s recently launched counter-offensive are due primarily to the dense land mines Russian troops laid in anticipation. That potentially deadly terrain separating defenders from invading forces will therefore make additional locally launched US drones capable of inflicting precise attacks on distant targets especially useful.
While the conception, operation, and deployment of AeroVironement’s Switchblade drones have been fairly well documented, Phoenix Ghost UAVs remain rather mysterious over a year after their unveiling.
Developed by California company Aevex Aerospace under a US military program prior to Russia’s invasion, Phoenix Ghost drones have been described by officials as generally similar to Switchblades – albeit with a far longer maximal flight capacity of six hours, compared to the latter’s 40 minutes.
The attendant larger power requirement presumably means Phoenix Ghost UAVs are comparatively bigger as well. Yet both systems are said to be backpack portable, rapidly deployed, and capable of use by Ukraine’s troops with minimal instruction.
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Previous US military aid packages provided hundreds, possibly thousands of Switchblade loitering drones to Ukraine, and nearly 700 Phoenix Ghost munitions had been delivered by September 2022. Both systems can be manually guided or pre-programmed to fly round-trip reconnaissance missions, or in single direction strikes on designated targets.
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