Low-Cost & Long-Flight = Optimal Reconnaissance Drone Design

The US military is rethinking the way forward for its long-range reconnaissance drone fleet, as the Pentagon looks to invest in pilotless surveillance aircraft which can fly for days and yet are a fraction of the cost of currently deployed drones, such as the MQ-9 Reaper.

The revelation came when U.S. Central Command inadvertently published pictures of its new Ultra Long-Endurance Tactical Reconnaissance Aircraft (ULTRA) taking off from Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates.

The drone had already been flying for some months on missions in the Middle East and Africa and so its presence was kept a secret for fear of compromising the mission safety. But now that the secret is out, military analysts and drone specialists are eager to learn more about this latest addition to US surveillance capabilities.

Up until recently, the US and its western allies had been relying on uncrewed aircraft such as the MQ-9 Reaper or the MQ-1 Predator drone for long-range surveillance. However, critics had been wary that it was an expensive option as a Reaper costs approximately $30 million. This prohibitive cost was incurred in part because it had been designed to function as a behind enemy lines strike aircraft.

But with less than ten per cent of reconnaissance flights requiring strike capability, the drone was beginning to be viewed as an excessive cost ‘Ferrari’ when a cheaper, pick-up truck loaded with sensors would be sufficient.

As the industry journal Defense One reports, “The Air Force officially started buying ULTRA, which began under the DOD’s small business innovation research program (SBIR), in the 2025 budget request, and asked to buy four drones for $35 million [less than $9 million each], according to budget documents. The program was developed from DZYNE’s Long Endurance Aircraft Program, or LEAP … a previously under wraps autonomous aircraft deployed since 2016 that can fly for up to 40 hours.”

The long flight, low-cost combination has been a highly effective sales point. As Matt McCue, CEO of ULTRA manufacturing company DZYNE explains, “By having airplanes that are nearly an order magnitude cheaper or less expensive, but still very capable and longer endurance and more capability, it's made the government have a strong value proposition to not have to go to use the status quo and continue to pay the prices they have.”

However, the latest modifications now allow the glider-like ULTRA to fly for as long as 80 hours without refuelling or landing and can carry payloads weighing more than 180 kg.

At its core, ULTRA is cheaper due to an extensive list of cost savings. For example, according to the Airforce Research Laboratory, the drone’s body is an adaption of a “previously manned commercial sport gilder.”  Other costs have been kept low as the drone uses, “… commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) UAS technology, existing manufacturing, and supply channels, and limited custom avionics. [Additionally], Integration of lower cost EO/IR and RF sensors is made possible due to lower operating altitudes which don’t require large optics, or high-power RF to maintain effectiveness.”

The mix of low-cost and long-endurance has made it a perfect fit for the needs of the US military.

“The business was brought forth by really working with the end users,” says McCue. “We were brought into usually secure, classified environments, they would talk about a need that they couldn't get from industry, and we would put together a program for them and help them solve a problem.”

Part of the issue was the high cost of the legacy ISR drones, such as Reaper, which were being shot down in increasingly large numbers. However, the problem was further brought to a head by the withdrawal of American forces from Niger, where the US maintained a military base from which to fly reconnaissance missions.

Thanks to the addition of ULTRA to the US fleet, missions can now be flown from bases much further away and still be able to cover the African interior. For example, it can still fly over contentious trouble hotspots such as Southern Sudan, Niger, Israel, or the Red Sea from bases in Italy.

According to McCue, this allows a military to reach, “multiple COCOMs from a single location, which is not something that's been available to commanders before.”

Such a long-range would be even more practical when covering the vast distances in the Indo-Pacific region, where basing options are fewer. Instead of securing distant airstrips, a force could deploy a drone which can fly over 3,200km and then loiter and observe for a day before returning to base.

“Part of the ethos of why ULTRA is unique is it provides mission flexibility to the users,” notes McCue. “Considering this very challenging time we have with recent withdrawals over the last several years from certain countries and certain major affairs that are ongoing that are sensitive to the U.S. national security interests. Especially for these upcoming, urgent areas like INDOPACOM, where you have the tyranny of distance between basing that are thousands of miles away, hundreds of thousands of miles away, that most airplanes and assets aren't useful, an asset like this is very, very powerful for those kinds of theaters because they're long-range areas.”

As the threats facing modern militaries continue to evolve, the importance of low-cost, long-endurance, long-range reconnaissance drone aircraft has never been more apparent. The ability to field versatile uncrewed aerial vehicles can provide a crucial advantage on the battlefield, allowing commanders to gather vital intelligence without risking the lives of pilots or troops on dangerous surveillance missions.

With the ability to remain airborne for extended periods while covering vast swaths of territory, these drones can meticulously map terrain, track enemy movements, observe activity in ports and airstrips, and identify potential threats with unparalleled persistence and precision.

In an era of great power competition and asymmetric warfare, the strategic value of these long-range, long-endurance reconnaissance platforms cannot be overstated- especially if it is under budget.

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Photo credit: Wikimedia, Nara, Wikimedia, Picryl, & Pickpic