Will the MQ-9 follow the digital century-series pattern?

The Air Force is looking for a replacement to the stalwart MQ-9 Reaper and intends to explore options ranging from commercial drones built by emerging tech firms to high-end unmanned aircraft, the service’s top acquisition official said Tuesday…

 

There likely won’t be a single, one-size fits all solution for replacing the MQ-9, Roper said. The Air Force may need drones that “are more high-end, military-unique” systems, and “they’ll likely be expensive,” he acknowledged. There may also be room for unmanned attritable aircraft, which are reusable but are cheap enough that they can be shot down in battle without incurring massive financial losses.

That was from the Defense News article, “Could a commercial drone replace the MQ-9 Reaper? The Air Force is considering it.” This looks right out of Air Force acquisition executive William Roper’s playbook. He wanted the F-35 replacement program to more frequently compete a series of aircraft designs. It seems that a similar concept will be used for the MQ-9 replacement. It might not be a single system, but rather, potentially several lower-end systems each of which serves narrower missions. Roper seems to be redefining the concept of a program of record. Rather than a particular system, he is increasingly looking at a program as though it were a portfolio.

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