California-based Swarm Aero on Monday unveiled Gamera, a new Group 5 unmanned aircraft developed for long-range strike and surveillance missions. The company revealed the aircraft at the Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, as the Air Force evaluates concepts for its next generation of large unmanned aircraft.
Long-Range Design
Gamera has a 72-foot wingspan and uses a Honeywell TPE331 turboprop engine. Swarm says the aircraft will fly more than 9,000 nautical miles without refueling and carry more than 2,800 pounds across seven payload stations. The company says the design can accommodate LRASM and JASSM-ER weapons as well as other cruise and hypersonic missiles.
“The next few decades will see a continuous contest with China over global power projection, first focused near China over Taiwan, over time extending globally,” Swarm co-founder and chief revenue officer Oliver Palmer told Military Times. “The [People’s Liberation Army] has built asymmetric ways to challenge our legacy force structure.”
Air Force Requirement
Swarm is pitching Gamera for the Massed Modular Aircraft program, an Air Force and Defense Innovation Unit effort examining lower-cost drone that could perform missions currently assigned to the MQ-9 Reaper. The program calls for aircraft capable of carrying at least 2,800 pounds and operating at greater risk than traditional high-cost platforms. Air Force officials have also emphasized modular systems and designs that can be manufactured in larger numbers.
Gamera has been under development since Swarm was founded in 2022. The company has also developed its Legion command-and-control software for coordinating multiple unmanned aircraft and has received more than $10 million in Air Force Research Laboratory contracts related to high-rate composite manufacturing. Swarm says it eventually sees possible civil uses for its aircraft technology, including logistics and firefighting, although Gamera is currently being developed for military missions.
0 replies