With the Boeing MQ-25 Stingray drone, the company is pushing the envelope once more in naval aviation, and it will almost certainly redefine carrier-based operations for the US Navy. Conceived primarily as an aerial refueler, recent uplifts have set the MQ-25 on course for a wider range of missions to include surveillance and even targeted strikes.
Boeing unveiled a version of the MQ-25 carrying two Lockheed Martin Long Range Anti-Surface Missiles at the Sea Air Space conference. That’s a far cry from its earlier configuration, suggesting this could be quite a multifaceted future for the unmanned aerial vehicle. According to Troy Rutherford, Boeing’s MQ-25 program manager, though turned off, the drone natively is wired up to carry weapons or sensors.
While the main efforts remain with deploying the MQ-25 as a tanker, Boeing and the Navy are having discussions for alternative configurations that will meet the demands of modern warfare. Rutherford pointed out that these discussions form the “air wing of the future.”
The MQ-25 Stingray project was initiated in 2006 to develop a carrier-based UAV with stealth capabilities and precision strikes. The first flight took place on September 19, 2019, but by 2021, it was already being tested successfully aboard the USS George H.W. Bush. Its maiden aerial refueling flight took place on June 4, 2021, pouring 325 pounds of fuel into an F/A-18F Super Hornet. Early this year, the Navy got its first MQ-25 Stingray autonomous refueler courtesy of Boeing.
The US Navy plans to purchase a total of 76 MQ-25s, including test units. A total of $553 m has been provided in the fiscal 2025 budget to purchase three aircraft. The initial operational capability of the MQ-25 fleet will be achieved by late 2026 when 13 aircraft are delivered. A projection for the future indicates three aircraft per year until 2027, and then an increased annual buy.
Boeing also has been writing software that lets pilots flying other aircraft control the MQ-25. That software was tested on a simulator, with an F/A-18 pilot ordering an unmanned MQ-25 to extend its refueling drogue and transfer fuel. Alex Ewing, Boeing’s lead for F/A-18 new product development called it another option in addition to what’s available today, where pilots will be able to access and initiate commands directly from their cockpit.
Juan Cajigas, director of the MQ-25 program at Boeing, put the importance of progress in perspective. The ability to have one pilot in the air operating both the receiver and the tanker is the game-changer in aerial refueling technology.
It has also proven that MQ-25 can refuel a wide range of aircraft including the F/A-18, F-35C, and Northrop Grumman E-2D Hawkeye by using a company-owned demonstrator aircraft called T1, which has also conducted deck handling trials aboard the USS George H.W. Bush in 2021.
Last month’s digital simulation by Boeing demonstrated how a Northrop Grumman E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, Boeing P-8A Poseidon, and F/A-18E/F Block III Super Hornet could task four virtual autonomous MQ-25s to conduct tanking and ISR missions. Boeing Director of MQ-25 Advanced Design Don Gaddis confirmed to Breaking Defense that this demonstration used a non-proprietary architecture based on the government-owned Open Mission System specification.
That’s when Gaddis said large areas of the ocean could be surveilled, identified, and targeted when the MQ-25 is teamed with carrier-based assets such as the E-2D or the land-based P-8A patrol aircraft. This is a digital, open approach to manned-unmanned teaming that’s key to fielding critical warfighting capability at much lower cost, with greater speed and agility.
In all, the MQ-25 is anticipated to pass about 15,000 pounds of fuel out to as far as 500 nautical miles from the carrier, freeing up Super Hornets dedicated to tanking duties to operate as strike aircraft. The first operational MQ-25A is scheduled to be deployed aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt by 2026, a seminal moment in naval aviation.
The US Navy sees the MQ-25 Stingray as a key constituent of naval aviation modernization, serving to extend the operational life of its multirole strike fighter fleet and improve its combat readiness.