September drone digest: attrition-tolerant aircraft pitched to replace the Reaper
GA-ASI conceived Wildfire as a low-cost and attrition-tolerant aircraft. (Photo: General Atomics)
The loss of many MQ-9 Reapers during the 2026 Iran War has underscored the risks of sending relatively expensive UAVs into contested airspace. In September, new contenders to replace the Reaper emerged, championing cheaper, modular aircraft designs for mass production and inevitable attrition.
On 10 September 2026, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) unveiled Wildfire, the company’s contender for the Massed Modular Aircraft (MMA) programme. The MMA is a US Air Force (USAF) competition intended to find a cost-effective medium- and long-term replacement for the force’s MQ-9 Reaper, which, as the programme’s name suggests, would be modular with the ability to be deployed in mass.
Upon unveiling Wildfire, GA-ASI directly addressed some of these aspects, with company president David R Alexander noting that the design is for “cost-conscious customers”. He added that the “attrition-tolerant Wildfire” possessed “lower-cost components, tailored capabilities and reimagined modularity”.
These features mean that, in battlefield
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