U.S. Army Tests Rogue 1 Loitering Munition for Anti-Tank Strikes Beyond 20 km.

U.S. Army soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division tested Teledyne FLIR Defense’s Rogue 1 man-portable loitering munition during Project Convergence Capstone 6 at Fort Irwin, California, on July 20, 2026. Designed to be carried and employed by a single soldier, the Rogue 1 can combine reconnaissance, target acquisition, and precision strikes against tanks and other armored vehicles at ranges exceeding 20 km, giving small U.S. Army units an organic anti-tank drone capability for engagements beyond direct line of sight.

The test follows the U.S. Army’s May 2026 selection of Rogue 1 for the Low Altitude Stalking and Strike Ordnance, or LASSO, program, which is intended to equip Infantry Brigade Combat Teams with man-portable precision weapons capable of locating, tracking, and striking armored targets. Project Convergence Capstone 6 provides a broader operational environment for examining how such loitering munitions can connect reconnaissance, command networks, and lethal effects in increasingly fast and electronically contested combat.

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U.S. Army Spc. Tanner Shanklin, assigned to the 4th Infantry Division, prepares a Rogue 1 unmanned aerial system for employment during Project Convergence Capstone 6 at Fort Irwin, California, on July 20, 2026. The man-portable VTOL loitering munition is being evaluated for reconnaissance and precision-strike missions against targets beyond direct line of sight. (Picture source: U.S. Department of War/Defense)

Rogue 1 is developed by Teledyne FLIR Defense, part of Teledyne Technologies, and represents the company’s entry into the rapidly expanding market for small precision loitering munitions. Teledyne FLIR Defense unveiled the system in 2024 and has since developed it to meet U.S. military requirements for reusable, man-portable unmanned weapons capable of conducting reconnaissance and precision engagements with the same aircraft.

The Rogue 1 has already secured a significant U.S. military customer outside the U.S. Army. In December 2025, Teledyne FLIR Defense announced a $42.5 million U.S. Marine Corps contract covering more than 600 Rogue 1 systems, ground control stations, and items of training equipment for the Organic Precision Fires-Light program. That requirement is intended to provide Marine rifle squads and platoons with an organic precision-strike capability for engaging targets beyond line of sight.

The U.S. Army’s LASSO requirement addresses a similar battlefield problem from an anti-armor perspective. The U.S. Army describes LASSO as a man-portable, tube-launched lethal unmanned aerial system integrating electro-optical and infrared sensors, precision flight control, and the ability to locate, track, and engage non-line-of-sight targets and armored vehicles. The U.S. Army currently plans to place this class of loitering munition in soldiers’ hands by summer 2028.

Rogue 1 Block 2 expands the system’s operational envelope considerably. Teledyne FLIR Defense states that its operating range now exceeds 20 km, twice that of the earlier configuration, while endurance exceeds 30 minutes and burst speed is greater than 113 km/h. The combination allows a small unit to launch the unmanned aircraft from cover, rapidly move it toward a suspected target area, and retain enough flight time to search for, identify, and prosecute a target.

Its vertical takeoff and landing architecture differentiates Rogue 1 from many tube-launched fixed-wing loitering munitions. The aircraft can operate without a runway and can be deployed from confined or austere locations, capabilities that can be valuable for infantry operating in urban terrain, forests, mountains, or dispersed defensive positions where launch space is limited.

The system carries electro-optical sensors and a FLIR Boson 640+ thermal camera for day-and-night reconnaissance and target identification. Teledyne FLIR Defense also integrates the sensor package closely with the warhead in a gimballed payload, allowing the operator to maintain observation of the target during the terminal phase and support more precise engagement.

Rogue 1’s modular payload architecture is central to its multi-mission design. Earlier versions have been offered with mission-specific effects, including fragmentation and explosively formed penetrator payloads, while the Block 2 upgrade introduced a new shaped-charge anti-armor payload intended to improve effectiveness against hardened vehicles. This development moves Rogue 1 from being a reconnaissance drone with a limited lethal capability toward becoming a dedicated anti-tank loitering munition able to threaten armored vehicles from outside direct-fire range.

Block 2 also incorporates upgraded onboard computing, communications, and autonomy. Dual-band radio support is intended to improve communications range and resilience against electronic warfare, while improvements to propulsion, antenna design, and thermal efficiency increase endurance. These characteristics matter because drone warfare in heavily contested environments increasingly requires unmanned aircraft to continue operating when satellite navigation, radio links, or other communications are degraded.

Another distinctive characteristic is Rogue 1’s recoverability. The design includes a fuzing arrangement that permits an operator to abort an attack and recover the unmanned aircraft when a target is no longer valid. For small units carrying limited numbers of precision weapons, retaining an unused munition rather than automatically expending it could reduce logistical demands and preserve combat power during extended operations.

For U.S. Army infantry formations, the operational consequence is greater tactical independence. A squad or platoon equipped with a man-portable Rogue 1 could search terrain beyond direct observation, identify an enemy armored vehicle, and potentially attack it without first waiting for artillery, aviation, or another higher-echelon precision weapon.

This sensor-to-shooter compression is particularly important against mobile targets. Tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, command vehicles, and mobile air-defense systems can relocate quickly after being detected, meaning delays between reconnaissance and engagement can cause targeting opportunities to disappear. A loitering munition controlled by the same formation that conducts the reconnaissance can reduce that delay.

Related Army Recognition coverage on U.S. Army loitering munitions has highlighted how the U.S. military is increasingly shifting precision effects toward smaller tactical formations. [Army Recognition analysis of Project Convergence] also shows how these weapons are being evaluated not simply as individual drones, but as components of broader networks connecting sensors, command systems, and shooters.

Rogue 1 enters a U.S. loitering-munition market in which AeroVironment’s Switchblade family provides an important comparison. The Switchblade 300 Block 20 is optimized for rapidly deployable beyond-line-of-sight attacks against personnel, light vehicles, and some armored threats, with modular fragmentation and explosively formed penetrator warheads. Rogue 1’s VTOL configuration, recoverability, and dedicated Block 2 shaped-charge option give it a different operational approach, particularly for troops requiring flexible launch and recovery from restricted terrain.

The larger Switchblade 600 is more directly comparable in the anti-armor mission. AeroVironment states that the current Switchblade 600 provides more than 40 minutes of endurance and a baseline range beyond 40 km, while its anti-armor warhead is designed for fixed or moving hardened targets. The munition weighs about 15 kg, while the complete all-up round weighs roughly 29.5 kg, and is deployed from a self-contained launch tube.

That gives Switchblade 600 greater published range and endurance than Rogue 1 Block 2, but the two systems reflect different design priorities. Rogue 1 emphasizes VTOL operation, compact deployment, recoverability when a strike is aborted, and modular payloads, while Switchblade 600 emphasizes longer-range anti-armor engagement and higher-speed fixed-wing flight. AeroVironment has also introduced Switchblade 600 Block 2, extending the family further with increased endurance, expanded range, and enhanced sensors and networking.

The comparison also illustrates why LASSO is strategically important for the U.S. Army. Rather than relying on a single loitering munition architecture, the requirement creates competition around range, anti-armor lethality, portability, electronic-warfare resilience, ease of employment, and cost. The resulting systems could ultimately determine how much precision anti-tank capability can realistically be distributed to infantry formations.

For maneuver units, Rogue 1 could therefore complement rather than replace anti-tank guided missiles, artillery, reconnaissance drones, and larger loitering munitions. A soldier could use the unmanned aircraft to investigate a suspected target, maintain observation, and conduct a precision strike while preserving weapons with greater destructive power or longer range for targets that demand them.

This capability could be particularly valuable in urban terrain, mountainous areas, and dispersed operations where conventional fire support may be difficult to coordinate. VTOL operation also reduces dependence on prepared launch areas, while a range exceeding 20 km allows soldiers to remain at a substantial distance from the armored vehicles they are attempting to locate and destroy.

Project Convergence Capstone 6 consequently tests more than the flight performance of the U.S. Army’s Rogue 1 drone. It provides an opportunity to assess whether a man-portable loitering munition can function inside a wider reconnaissance-strike network in which sensors detect enemy forces, targeting information moves through digital command systems, and a precision weapon is assigned to the target before it can reposition.

If Rogue 1 demonstrates sufficient reliability, precision, anti-armor effectiveness, and electronic-warfare resilience, its importance to the U.S. Army could extend well beyond LASSO. The combination of one-soldier portability, a range of more than 20 km, day-and-night sensors, modular warheads, and recoverable VTOL operation points toward a form of drone warfare in which infantry units increasingly carry their own aerial reconnaissance and precision anti-tank weapons into combat.

With the U.S. Marine Corps already ordering more than 600 systems under a $42.5 million contract and the U.S. Army evaluating Rogue 1 for LASSO, Teledyne FLIR Defense is positioning the loitering munition for wider adoption across U.S. ground forces. For the U.S. Army, the central question emerging from Project Convergence is whether Rogue 1 can translate those technical characteristics into a reliable battlefield capability that enables small units to find, track, and strike armored threats before the enemy can react.

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Written by Alain Servaes – Chief Editor, Army Recognition Group
Alain Servaes is a former infantry non-commissioned officer and the founder of Army Recognition. With over 20 years in defense journalism, he provides expert analysis on military equipment, NATO operations, and the global defense industry.