The Air Force is accelerating its plans to field an MQ-9A replacement in the wake of heavy Reaper losses in operations against Iran, top officials said Sept. 3, and they’re targeting a price point of just $10 million per aircraft.
MQ-9 Reaper
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems predicts the new drone it plans to pitch for the military’s “Massed Modular Aircraft” program will exceed many of the military’s requirements for a successor to the MQ-9 Reaper.
The Air Force plans to select vendors by the end of 2026 to help develop concepts for cheap, attritable drones that could perform the MQ-9 Reaper mission—providing persistent intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, as well as strike capabilities—in a new way.
General Atomics plans to pitch a brand new design for a low-cost, attritable drone to take on missions now carried out by its MQ-9 Reaper.
The Pentagon is looking for industry’s ideas for lower-cost, attritable drones that can fly in groups and take on some of the missions that MQ-9A Reapers have performed.
Gallery of Weapons
U.S. Special Operations Command is shifting its aviation plans to favor more drone swarms and fewer militarized crop-dusters, according to its fiscal 2027 budget request.
The U.S. military conducted its second deadly strike on an alleged drug-carrying vessel off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump announced Sept. 15, as his administration continues an aggressive military campaign in the Caribbean.
An MQ-9 Reaper drone plunged into the Mediterranean Sea last winter after its propeller suddenly disconnected from the engine, a recently released Air Force investigation concluded.
The computer code that runs the MQ-9 Reaper drone will be overhauled in the next two years to test revolutionary new tools that would make its software “much, much harder to hack,” the Air Force says.
A new training initiative at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., is helping MQ-9 maintainers expand their specialties, essentially giving one Airman the skills of three to be able to generate sorties with minimal crews.
