MMA Drone: Air Force Sets 2028 Date for a Cheaper Reaper
The Air Force says operational prototypes of its Massed Modular Aircraft, a low-cost MQ-9 Reaper successor, will field by 2028 after heavy Reaper losses.
The Air Force has put a date on its successor to the MQ-9 Reaper. “We’re going to be fielding operational prototypes by ’28, and we’re just awarding the contract now,” Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said on 14 October at the Association of the U.S. Army annual meeting in Washington, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported. An Air Force spokesperson confirmed to the magazine that he was referring to the Massed Modular Aircraft (MMA), a low-cost drone meant to take over Reaper missions. Meink said large-scale production should start in 2029.
Meink said the contracts were awarded “in collaboration with DIU,” the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, but he did not name the companies or say how many there are. Citing unnamed sources, the magazine reported that seven firms remain in contention: Anduril, Chaos Industries, General Atomics, Grid Aero, Otto Aerospace, Shield AI and Swarm Aero. No contract values have been disclosed.
Why the Air Force wants a cheaper Reaper
The push follows heavy combat losses. A Congressional Research Service insight updated on 5 October lists 45 MQ-9 Reapers among 81 U.S. aircraft reportedly lost or damaged in operations against Iran since 28 February. CRS draws that figure from an August news report in which three U.S. officials put Reaper losses at “at least 45,” and it cautions that the overall count may change because of classification, ongoing combat and attribution.
Air & Space Forces Magazine has described those losses as roughly a quarter of the fleet. “Although we have plenty of MQ-9As today, we are going through them at a rate that is concerning to us,” Lt. Gen. Christopher Niemi, the Air Force’s chief modernization officer, told reporters in September, the magazine reported. He said an MQ-9A costs “on the order of $50 million, with the sensors,” and that the service passed on the larger MQ-9B because it needed something more attritable, meaning cheap enough to lose in numbers.
General Atomics, which builds the Reaper, stopped making new MQ-9As in 2025, Breaking Defense reported. The company plans to pitch a newly designed drone it calls Wildfire for MMA. “You can have everything that makes Reaper special, plus more, at a price that doesn’t break the bank,” spokesman C. Mark Brinkley said in a statement quoted by Air & Space Forces Magazine.
What the Air Force is asking for
DIU opened the competition on 7 July. Its notice called the military’s reliance on “exquisite” aircraft costing more than $30 million apiece “unsustainable” against layered air defenses, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported, and said the force must deploy cheaper drones “designing them from the start with the expectation that some will be lost in combat.” According to Breaking Defense, the notice also required that one-third of prototype costs come from sources other than the federal government, and said a successful prototype could lead to production contracts without a new competition.
| Attribute | Target | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Base aircraft price | $10 million, excluding sensors and weapons | Air Force and DIU, via Air & Space Forces Magazine |
| Payload | At least 2,800 lb | DIU notice |
| Combat radius | At least 2,300 nautical miles with payload | DIU notice |
| One-way self-deployment | At least 8,000 nautical miles | DIU notice |
| Speed and runway | At least 200 knots; runways of 6,000 ft or shorter (secondary goals) | DIU notice |
| Propulsion and layout | Likely turboprop with long wings | Lt. Gen. Christopher Niemi |
| Fleet goals | 100 by 2029 and 500 by 2032 | Secretary Troy Meink |
Table compiled by Peter’s World from the Air & Space Forces Magazine and Breaking Defense reports listed under Sources. These are program goals, not demonstrated performance.
Niemi has described MMA as deliberately simpler than the Air Force’s flagship drone effort. “It’s not going out and autonomously finding targets and employing weapons,” he said. “It’s more like a truck that’s carrying packages, whether it’s a sensor package or whether it’s a weapon, to a point where it can be employed.” Officials want each drone to fly about 4,000 miles, roughly twice the expected range of a Collaborative Combat Aircraft, carrying more but flying slower. An open architecture is meant to let payloads from different vendors be swapped in, and one airman should be able to control several aircraft at once.
A faster clock, an unfunded budget
The schedule has tightened twice. In July, DIU wanted a full-scale prototype flying within 21 months of award and 20 mission-ready aircraft by fiscal 2031. In September, DIU military deputy Maj. Gen. Joseph Kunkel said the program would try to prototype within a year of a contract and field at scale as soon as 2029. Niemi said the change came after Meink “called us in and said ’You need to move faster.’” Meink’s October target moves that up by another year.
Money is the open question. Meink said the Pentagon will work with Congress on funding: “It is heavily dependent upon the resources we get from the Hill,” he said. Air & Space Forces Magazine noted that the administration’s $1.5 trillion fiscal 2027 defense request is stalled on Capitol Hill. Meink spoke on a panel about Project Agincourt, the Pentagon drive to field autonomous systems faster and stand up a four-star Autonomous Warfare Command.
Why it matters
Peter’s World analysis, based on the sources cited in this article.
The Reaper was designed for airspace the United States largely controlled. The Iran war showed the cost of flying it where that was no longer true, and MMA is the Air Force’s answer: accept losses and buy enough aircraft to absorb them. Niemi put the stakes bluntly in September, saying that in major combat “we could be losing dozens [of MMA drones] a day.” That makes production capacity, not just design, the real test.
MMA also fills a gap that the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program does not. CCAs are jet-powered wingmen built mainly for air-to-air work beside crewed fighters; MMA is a slower, long-range carrier for sensors and weapons. In our view, the main risks are familiar ones. The price target covers only the airframe, so the real cost per mission-ready drone may be higher, and a 2028 date with a crowded field and no approved budget leaves little room for slips.
What to watch: the names and values of the DIU awards; whether Congress funds MMA in the fiscal 2027 bills; first prototype flights; whether General Atomics’ Wildfire stays in the field; and further loss reports, which Peter’s World follows on its Iran War Tracker.
Sources
- Air & Space Forces Magazine, Meink: Operational Prototypes for MMA Drones Coming in 2028, 14 October 2026.
- Air & Space Forces Magazine, Air Force Speeding Up New Low-Cost Drone Program after Heavy MQ-9 Losses Against Iran, 4 September 2026.
- Air & Space Forces Magazine, Air Force and DIU Want Cheap Drones to Take on MQ-9 Missions, 9 July 2026.
- Congressional Research Service, U.S. Aircraft Combat Losses in Operation Epic Fury: Considerations for Congress, IN12692, updated 5 October 2026.
Additional sources
- Breaking Defense: DIU seeks cheaper drones to carry out Reaper missions, 7 July 2026: the cost-share term, the Other Transaction route and the end of MQ-9A production.
