Three 'unofficial' successful tests may have revealed the successor to the U.S. Air Force's MQ-9 Reaper — General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the same company that developed the Reaper and MQ-1 Predator, is responsible for developing the Predator C Avenger unmanned aerial vehicle.
Next-generation Avenger (Source: U.S. Air Force)

The Avenger, a next-gen unmanned aerial vehicle measures 41-feet long with a 66-foot wingspan, proving to be bigger than the 36 foot long Reaper. The Avenger has been designed to carry 500-pound live bombs with GPS navigation and laser guidance kits utilized, and up to 3,000 pounds of weapons and other technology can be carried on the craft. Yet with this increase in size, the Avenger is jet-powered, enabling it to travel more than twice the speed of Reaper clocked fast as 460 miles per hour, while Reaper's top speed is 230 miles per hour.

For obvious reasons, Drones are critical in Iraq and Afghanistan, being cheaper and safer for attack and reconnaissance missions. The report capabilities of helping to create "patterns-of-life analysis" footage to help monitor individual Iraqis and Afghans who may launch attacks from crowds of civilians are invaluable.

While the Air Force and General Atomics haven't signed an official contract for the development of the Avenger, it seems like a no-brainer that the new drone will be incorporated into the A.F. fleet soon. And drawing from previous history, General Atomics built both the Reaper and Predator without signed agreements from the U.S. government.