AeroVironment demos MAYHEM 10 multi-role loitering munition
NewsMay 19, 2026
TAMPA, Florida. AeroVironment (AV) is showcasing MAYHEM 10, a modular, multi-role launched weapon designed for contested environments, at SOF Week 2026 this week.
MAYHEM 10 represents a departure from the single-purpose loitering munition model that AV sought to fill with its Switchblade line. Rather than a dedicated strike platform, the system is built around an open, modular architecture that allows multiple payload types -- electro-optical/infrared sensors, electronic warfare packages, communications relays, and lethal effects -- to be integrated onto a single airframe. The company says the architecture also allows third-party software and autonomy stacks to be incorporated more rapidly, treating capability as software-defined rather than fixed at production.
The system is designed for operational ranges on the order of 100 kilometers with up to 50 minutes of endurance, and is built to function in GPS-denied and communications-contested environments through a combination of onboard processing, alternative navigation approaches, and adaptable data links.
In a thought leadership piece, Brian Young, AV's senior vice president of loitering munitions, said the system's design is focused on "understanding what that target is, how it's behaving, what else is happening around it, and then deciding, in real time, what effect actually makes sense."
In the MAYHEM 10 construct, individual systems within a networked pack can dynamically assign roles -- signal detection, target classification, kinetic or non-kinetic effect -- and adjust those roles in real time through a secure mesh network.
On the production side, AV says MAYHEM 10 is designed for late-stage configuration based on mission requirements, with Low-Rate Initial Production targeted for fall 2026 and a manufacturing ramp to hundreds of systems per month planned for the first half of 2027.
