Army Buys AeroVironment Red Dragon Long-Range Attack Drones in $17M Contract

The Army awarded AeroVironment a $17+ million contract for Red Dragon long-range one-way attack drones — loitering munitions with 400+ km range (nearly 4x the Switchblade 600), 10 kg payload capacity, and autonomous operation in GPS-denied and communications-degraded environments. The software-defined platform features perception systems for autonomous target detection and classification. The acquisition aligns with Defense Secretary Hegseth's 'Drone Dominance' initiative to expand lethal unmanned systems capabilities.