The Biden administration is considering providing Ukraine with U.S.-made killer drones
— cutting-edge guided missiles that could accurately target Russian
tanks and artillery positions from miles away — two congressional
officials briefed on the matter told NBC News.

No
decisions have been made, but the officials said the White House is
mulling whether to equip Ukraine with explosives-laden “loitering
missiles,” called Switchblades, as part of a new package of military aid
President Joe Biden is expected to discuss Wednesday.

There
are two variants of the weapon, the Switchblade 300 and the 600, that
have been sold to U.S. Special Operations Command by manufacturer
AeroVironment, based in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. The 300 is
designed for pinpoint strikes on personnel, and the larger 600 is meant
to destroy tanks and other armored vehicles. 

NBC News reported on
an exclusive demonstration of the Switchblade 300 in
December. AeroVironment officials said at the time that the government
forbade them from demonstrating the 600.

AeroVironment officials did not respond to requests for comment.

“We
stand with our allies and sovereign nations in their right to protect
their homelands and their very lives when this fundamental right is
threatened,” the company said in a statement on its website headlined “AeroVironment stands with the people of Ukraine and all of NATO.”

The
Switchblades are essentially robotic smart bombs, equipped with
cameras, guidance systems and explosives. They can be programmed to
automatically strike targets miles away, and they can be steered around
objectives until the time is right to strike. The company says the 600
can fly for 40 minutes and up to 50 miles.

They are
single-use weapons, which is why they have been dubbed “kamikaze
drones.” But they are orders of magnitude cheaper than the Hellfire
missiles fired by U.S. Reaper drones. The 300 can cost as little as
$6,000, by some estimates.

Both weapons can be set up in minutes and launched from tubes. They fly much faster than the Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones that Ukraine has been using to inflict damage on Russia, and presumably they would be able to penetrate the spotty air defenses Russia is maintaining over its forces.

If
the Switchblade were given to Ukraine, it could result in the most
significant use of the weapon in combat to date. The U.S. military used
the Switchblade in combat under limited circumstances in Afghanistan and
elsewhere but has not publicized that fact, sources familiar with the
matter have said.  

Many questions remain about the
proposed arrangement with Ukraine, including how many of the missiles
the U.S. has in its stockpiles, how fast AeroVironment can manufacture
new ones and how much training Ukrainians would require to operate the
systems.