Unmanned Long-endurance Tactical Reconnaissance Aircraft

The Unmanned Long-endurance Tactical Reconnaissance Aircraft or ULTRA is a developmental unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) built by Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Center for Rapid Innovation (CRI) and DZYNE Technologies Incorporated.

Design and development
Since 2008, the U.S. Air Force's primary reconnaissance aircraft has been the MQ-9 Reaper. However, at a price of $30 million per aircraft, it has been shown to be costly if lost, as demonstrated when several were shot down during the Red Sea crisis. Part of the cost comes from its configuration as a strike UAV, but only a "single-digit percentage" of surveillance missions it flew required a strike capability, so the Air Force pursed a simpler and cheaper alternative for flying pure recon missions.

AFRL's CRI began development of an affordable UAS capable of multiple-day duration flights in 2019, going from concept to first flight in less than 10 months. DZYNE had previously worked on the Long Endurance Aircraft Program (LEAP), which produced an autonomous aircraft that had been deployed in 2016 and could fly for up to 40 hours. This prior experience led to the development of ULTRA, which the Air Force officially started buying in the 2025 budget request, procuring four drones for $35 million.

ULTRA was planned to achieve long endurance and acquisition cost objectives by repurposing the previously manned Stemme S12 commercial sport glider and converting it to a military hardened UAV. Commercial-off-the-shelf UAV technology, existing manufacturing and supply channels, and limited custom avionics are utilized to ensure acquisition and sustainment costs remain low. Integration of lower cost electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) and radio frequency (RF) sensors is made possible due to lower operating altitudes which don't require large optics or high-power RF to maintain effectiveness. It has an endurance capability that exceeds 80 hours while carrying over 400 lb of payload.

ULTRA is designed to be an Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) truck capable of carrying a variety of EO/IR, RF, other low-cost intelligence collection payloads, and sensors to provide the user with a reconfigurable missionized platform. Exceptionally long endurance allows these ISR sensors to provide coverage of areas of interest with fewer aircraft. It has enough range and endurance to loiter for a day over a target after flying over 2,000 mi. The aircraft relies on an operator friendly command and control system that allows for "Point and Click" operations. Full global operations are possible through satellite-based command and control links that also provide the high-rate ISR data feed to the operators in real time.

In May 2024, The War Zone reported that ULTRA was being operated from Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates.