General Atomics Prepared to Meet U.S. Air Force Autonomous Aircraft Production Goals
General Atomics has declared its readiness to meet the U.S. Air Force's ambitious production targets for autonomous aircraft. Mike Shortsleeve, Vice President of Strategic Development at General Atomics, stated at AFA's Air, Space and Cyber conference in National Harbor, Maryland, that the company's Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) line is fully tooled and operational. The Air Force aims to deploy 1,000 new autonomous aircraft by 2032, with an equal split between Massed Modular Aircraft (MMA) and CCAs. The initial target includes 100 MMAs by 2029. Shortsleeve highlighted the company's past experience with MQ-9 Reaper production, where they built an aircraft every three days at peak, as a testament to their capability to achieve these new goals. General Atomics is proposing its Wildfire design for the MMA competition, demonstrating confidence in its skilled workforce and existing infrastructure to scale production effectively.