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Video: Swarm Aero Unveils Gamera UAS
NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland—Startup Swarm Aero has detailed key features of newly unveiled Gamera uncrewed aircraft system (UAS), the outcome of a nearly five-year, largely secretive effort to offer a swarm-capable replacement for the MQ-9A Reaper.
Gamera is powered by the MQ-9 family’s identical Honeywell TPE731 turboprop engine and adopts the twin-boomed design of the Reaper’s international competitor — the Israel Aerospace Industries Heron TP UAS. It also features the latter’s boom-connecting horizontal stabilizer, but boasts a distinctive engine placement in a nacelle mounted atop the wings between the twin booms.
Seeking a replacement for the Reaper, a federal acquisitions agency in May published requirements for a new fleet of Massed Modular Aircraft (MMA), pushing for cheaper, bulk production of a long-range UAS. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink wants 100 MMAs by 2029 with another 400 to follow by 2032, he confirmed during a keynote at AFA’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference.
Aviation Week Senior Defense Editor Steve Trimble speaks with Swarm Aero CEO Peter Kalogiannis, and co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer Oliver Palmer, on-site at AFA, after the Gamera unveiling.
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