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 production line shut down last year, losses mounted, and the service now wants something cheaper, modular, and attritable. They’re not looking for another exquisite platform; they’re looking for mass.
The Massed Modular Aircraft effort, run through DIU, sets a 21-month prototype timeline and a fiscal 2031 IOC. That’s fast. The requirements — 2,800-pound payload, 2,300-nautical-mile radius, open architecture, autonomy from day one — point to a different kind of program office and a different kind of leader. If you’ve spent a career optimizing low-density, high-value fleets, this is a pivot. If you’ve built things quickly at scale with modular design and software-defined capability, you’re in the sweet spot.
We’re already mapping passive candidates who’ve led rapid prototyping programs, stood up autonomy architectures, or managed portfolio approaches across multiple air vehicles. The Air Force is borrowing heavily from Collaborative Combat Aircraft — competitive down-selects, reference architectures, nontraditional primes welcome — and they want people who’ve done it before. Cleared program managers and systems engineers with that track record are getting calls now, not in 2027.