The Air Force’s hunt for a Reaper successor tells you everything about where cleared talent needs to focus in the next three years. The MQ-9A performed well in Operation Epic Fury — the chief of staff called it the MVP — but the service lost airframes, the production line shut down last year, and the cost per aircraft can hit $50 million depending on sensors. That’s not sustainable in a high-attrition fight, so the Air Force partnered with DIU on the Massed Modular Aircraft effort: attritable, mass-producible platforms with open architecture, modular payloads, and a target IOC of fiscal 2031.
If you’re running engineering, autonomy, or program leadership in the ISR or unmanned space, this is your next five-year roadmap. The service wants something cheaper and more flexible than the Reaper, built around the Autonomy Government Reference Architecture they’re already using for Collaborative Combat Aircraft. They’re running a concept refinement phase starting first quarter FY27, and they explicitly want nontraditional firms in the mix alongside the primes. The DIU solicitation closed in July; responses came from both sides of the fence.
For cleared executives and senior engineers, the message is straightforward: modular design, open systems, and autonomy software are table stakes now. If your background is in attritable systems, swarming concepts, or rapid prototyping with an eye toward production at scale, you’re exactly who program offices and primes will be mapping over the next eighteen months. The Air Force is moving fast — prototype flight testing within 21 months of award — and they’re applying every lesson learned from CCA. Track record in low-cost, high-volume platforms matters more than pedigree on exquisite systems.