Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach described the MQ-9A as the most valuable player of Operation Epic Fury during congressional testimony in May. “We’ve made many, many strikes — I don’t want to say how many because the number’s classified — but no other platform is even close to the MQ-9,” he said.
The combat experience also exposed the risks facing expensive unmanned aircraft in high-threat environments, with Air Force Secretary Troy Meink acknowledging Reaper losses during the Iran conflict. General Atomics ended MQ-9A production last year, while the Air Force has begun examining a successor designed around a different cost and survivability model.
The service partnered with the Defense Innovation Unit in July on the Massed Modular Aircraft initiative, which will directly inform requirements for the Reaper replacement. The concept calls for aircraft that can be produced faster, deployed in larger numbers and treated as more attritable than traditional high-value platforms.
Air Force Chief Modernization Officer Lt. Gen. Christopher Niemi said the MQ-9A continues to perform well in the Middle East but can cost as much as $50 million depending on its sensor configuration. “By getting something that’s more modular, we think we could take advantage of an opportunity — if you knew that aircraft was going to operate in a high-threat environment — of taking off those packages that drive that cost” and achieving a much lower price point, he said.
DIU is seeking an aircraft capable of carrying at least 2,800 pounds of payload and operating at a combat radius of 2,300 nautical miles without refueling. The platform must also self-deploy at least 8,000 nautical miles one way, reach at least 230 miles per hour and enter full-scale prototype flight testing within 21 months of an award.
The targeted initial operating capability is fiscal 2031, defined as 20 mission-ready aircraft delivered to an operational unit. DIU said continued reliance on low-density aircraft costing at least $30 million is unsustainable against adversaries equipped with layered defenses and increasingly inexpensive anti-aircraft systems.
“To operate effectively, we must accept this inevitable attrition, and deploy larger numbers of less expensive unmanned platforms, designing them from the start with the expectation that some will be lost in combat,” the solicitation said. Air Force planners are examining missions ranging from individual aircraft performing current MQ-9A tasks to large formations operating against enemy defenses.
“Keeping a constant airborne MMA presence to launch weapons, gather intelligence, perform electronic warfare missions or relay communications will force an adversary to stay on the defensive,” the solicitation said. “This relentless pressure will exhaust the adversary, forcing them to burn through expensive anti-aircraft missiles and resources faster than they can be replaced.”
Modularity is another central requirement, with the Air Force seeking an aircraft that can rapidly switch between sensors, weapons, fuel containers and other payloads. The service also plans to use the Autonomy Government Reference Architecture employed by its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program to simplify integration of new mission-autonomy software.
The Air Force has not set a specific unit-cost target for Massed Modular Aircraft, according to Col. John Dayton, portfolio acquisition executive for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and special operations forces. “We expect that as we get those inputs back from industry and bring that alongside operational analysis, we’ll be able to find whether there’s a sweet spot in that cost curve to make sure that they both provide the capabilities we need and that they’re attrition or loss tolerant going forward so that we can use them in the right environment,” he said.
A concept-refinement phase is planned for the first quarter of fiscal 2027, with multiple companies expected to compete as the Air Force examines what industry can deliver. The DIU solicitation attracted interest from traditional and nontraditional defense companies, while a separate request for information on low-cost attritable unmanned ISR systems also generated significant industry response.
The MQ-9A will remain part of the force while the replacement effort develops, and the Air Force is working to preserve as much existing capacity as possible. “We’re full court press to repair all that are available. We’re procuring a small number of capital assets from [General Atomics] to make sure we fill that out,” Dayton said.
Source: National Defense Magazine.
