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, modular platforms you can build fast and lose without breaking the budget. They want 20 mission-ready aircraft by fiscal 2031.
If you’re running engineering, autonomy, or program leadership in the ISR or unmanned space, this is your lane. The service is borrowing hard from Collaborative Combat Aircraft—open architecture, the Autonomy Government Reference Architecture, concept refinement with multiple performers, and a real appetite for nontraditional primes. They closed the DIU solicitation in July and plan to kick off concept refinement in the first quarter of FY27. The April RFI on low-cost attritable ISR drew a strong response, and the program will likely fold both efforts together.
We’re already mapping this market for a handful of clients. The talent gap isn’t in legacy Reaper operators—it’s in leaders who can stand up modular production at scale, integrate autonomy software against a government reference architecture, and manage programs designed for attrition from day one. If you’ve got a TS/SCI clearance, a track record in rapid prototyping or open systems, and you’re still waiting for the phone to ring, you’re not talking to the right people.