GA ASI Reveals First Wildfire UAS Renderings

 

I shamelessly clipped this from "Aviation week"..   I'm wondering how much AI is having an effect on drone and UAS operation. 

A Wildfire UAS Fires a one of potentially 4 AGM-158c's

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) released the first renderings of the proposed Wildfire uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) on Sept. 9, revealing a configuration that the company hopes will gain support from the U.S. Air Force amid a pending competition to replace the MQ-9A Reaper fleet.

Three renderings released on social media reveal a fuselage shape that for the first time lacks the familiar, upside-down-spoon profile of the satellite communications radome common to the company’s Predator A/B series.

But the renderings released on the eve of the Air, Space and Cyber convention next week also show off the full weapons capacity of the Wildfire design. One image shows the aircraft potentially equipped with up to two Lockheed Martin AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship (LRASM) cruise missiles, each weighing nearly 2,800 lb. for a maximum payload weight of 5,600 lb.

Two other renderings present the aircraft with four Kongsberg Joint Strike Missiles, a 900-lb. anti-ship cruise missile.

GA-ASI shows the Wildfire UAS launching anti-ship cruise missiles at a distant naval fleet.

A GA-ASI spokesman previously said that other features being considered for the Wildfire UAS are a 10,000-nm ferry range, and an ability to swarm 100 of the aircraft together at the same time. One rendering appears to show an attack by a swarm of Wildfire UAS on a fleet of naval ships.

The renderings have been released as the Air Force looks for an affordable Massed Modular Aircraft (MMA) to backfill a dwindling supply of Reapers, which have sustained dozens of losses in combat operations against Iran and Yemen since 2024. For the first time, the MMA program threatens GA-ASI’s grip on the Air Force’s hunter-killer mission that was largely defined by the Reaper over the last 20 years. A new group of startup companies, including Swarm Aero, are likely to propose new aircraft to meet the Air Force’s goal for a $10 million MMA that still offers a hefty payload and range.