MQ-25 Stingray Carrier-Based Uncrewed Tanker Ground Testing Now Underway

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5 days ago

Ground testing has begun on the production representative MQ-25 Stingray tanker drone for the U.S. Navy. This comes ahead of an expected first flight before the end of this year, a goal the Navy has previously said will require 'a ton of work' to achieve.
Manufacturer Boeing disclosed the start of ground testing of the production representative MQ-25 during a quarterly earnings call today. For years now, the company has been using a flying MQ-25 demonstrator, also known as T1, to support work on the Stingray, but that test article is not fully reflective of the production-standard configuration.
Boeing announced the delivery of the first of nine pre-production MQ-25s to the Navy last year. Four of those drones will be Engineering Development Models (EMD), while the other five will be System Demonstration Test Articles (SDTAs) to be used for fatigue and other static testing work. The Navy's plan remains to eventually acquire a total of 76 Stingrays. In its 2026 Fiscal Year budget request, the service is asking for funds to buy its first three production MQ-25s at a cost of approximately $161.51 million each.
The Navy is currently hoping to reach initial operational capability (IOC) with the MQ-25 in Fiscal Year 2027. When Boeing won the Navy's Carrier-Based Aerial-Refueling System (CBARS) competition in 2018, the IOC target date was in 2024. The schedule subsequently slipped multiple times, due to technical issues and other factors, including downstream impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Stingray program has also seen significant cost growth as a result.
As noted, a production representative MQ-25 still has yet to fly, and the Navy itself has raised questions about the presently stated flight testing schedule.
'There's a lot of confidence in MQ-25 and [20]25. There is a ton of work to get MQ-25 and '25,' Navy Vice Adm. Carl Chebi, head of Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), said during a panel discussion at the Navy League's annual Sea Air Space exhibition in April. '70% of the capability that we deliver, [that] industry delivers to us, is late. So we're pushing hard.'
'We're going to fly this thing [Stingray] this year,' he added at that time. 'There's a lot of work right now. A lot of tough discussions are going to have to happen over the next couple months for us to fly that thing in 2025.'
'MQ-25 will fly this year because the airplane's telling us it's ready to go fly, and airplanes will tell you when they're ready to go fly, and this one is certainly ready to do that,' Dan Gillian, vice president and general manager of Air Dominance at Boeing, said while speaking at the same panel as Chebi.
#MQ25 on the move!The first @USNavy MQ-25 Stingray recently moved off the production line to our static test facility. This is the first of nine Stingrays to be put through static, fatigue and flight tests to ensure durability and airworthiness. pic.twitter.com/2UvYoKnK7G
— Boeing Defense (@BoeingDefense) September 14, 2023
'MQ-25 has had some challenges along the way,' he also acknowledged, but expressed further confidence in the current first flight schedule. 'We have our first airplane that's going to go fly this year over at our facility in MidAmerica [Airport outside of St. Louis, Missouri], brand new facility. We're really excited about it, and the program is building momentum each and every day. And when we fly this airplane later this year, it will be the safest, best unmanned airplane that we've ever produced.'
As Gillian noted, initial flight testing is expected to occur at MidAmerica. The Navy does not presently expect to begin flight testing from an actual aircraft carrier until next year. Boeing and the Navy have previously conducted deck handling and other tests using the T1 craned aboard the Nimitz class carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77), but that drone has never launched from or recovered on a flattop. Last year, George H.W. Bush also became the first Navy supercarrier to receive a dedicated drone control center.
Issues with the MQ-25 program notwithstanding, the Navy continues to describe the Stingray as a critical element of its planned future carrier air wings.
'MQ-25, plus long-range weapons and kill chains, plus a robust command and control, and platforms that can gain access to contested environments, are the vision and the key to the future of the carrier air wing to be able to operate out in the Pacific,' Capt. Lew Callaway, head of the Strike Aircraft and Weapons Branch within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations' Air Warfare Division, said during a panel discussion at the WEST 2025 conference in January. 'I want to pivot to the MQ-25 because it's the nearest, most important capability that we're going to field in order to extend the range and the persistence of the carrier air wing.'
Extending the reach of the carrier air wing, together with eliminating the need to use crewed F/A-18F Super Hornets in the tanker role, are the Navy's stated primary reasons for acquiring the MQ-25. The drones will also have a secondary intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability. TWZ has previously explored in detail how the MQ-25's design also offers a clear path for the Navy to employ the drones in a much wider array of roles, including as a long-range strike platform, in the future.
Navy officials also regularly describe the MQ-25 as the central 'pathfinder' in the service's broader efforts to integrate more uncrewed capabilities into future carrier air wings. The Navy has a long-standing goal to eventually see 60 percent or more of the aircraft embarked on its carriers be pilotless. At the same time, the service has made no secret that its main focus now is on getting the MQ-25 into service, and that it is taking a back seat to the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps when it comes to future Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) type drones.
'The United States Navy is in a tri-service memorandum of agreement and understanding with our sister services, the U.S. Air Force, as well as the Marine Corps, and we are developing that [CCA] capability together. Each of us are focused on a different aspect of that,' Navy Rear Adm. Michael 'Buzz' Donnelly, director of the Air Warfare Division (N98) within the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, also said at this year's Sea Air Space exhibition. 'The Air Force is leading and very forward leaning in the development of the actual air vehicle and the autonomy that goes in those for execution of mission. Marine Corps is working closely to develop manned-unmanned teaming between platforms such as the F-35, the F-35B being the baseline for their aviation capability right now. And the United States Navy is working based on our pathway of unmanned into the fleet with MQ-25.'
'As we work together for the United States Navy, I will tell you that we are definitely in the follow of those three services,' he added.
It's also worth noting that the Navy's broader future carrier air wing plans have been upset recently by the decision to effectively shelve work on a new sixth-generation carrier-based stealth combat jet, commonly referred to as F/A-XX. The Pentagon has said this decision was made in order to focus resources on the Air Force's F-47 program, and that America's industrial base cannot support two sixth-generation fighter programs simultaneously. Boeing, the prime contractor for the F-47 and a contender for the F/A-XX contract, has notably pushed back on that assertion.
'Nothing in the Joint Force projects combat power from the sea as a Carrier Strike Group, which at the heart has a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (CVN). To maintain this striking power, the CVN must have an air wing that is comprised of the most advanced strike fighters,' Adm. Daryl Caudle, the current nominee to become the next Chief of Naval Operations, wrote in response to a question about F/A-XX ahead of his confirmation hearing last week. 'Therefore, the ability to maintain air superiority against peer competitors will be put at risk if the Navy is unable to field a 6th Generation strike fighter on a relevant timeline. Without a replacement for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and E/A-18G Growler, the Navy will be forced to retrofit 4th generation aircraft and increase procurement of 5th generation aircraft to attempt to compete with the new 6th generation aircraft that the threat is already flying.'
'The Navy has a validated requirement for carrier-based 6th generation aircraft, and it is critical that we field that capability as quickly as possible to give our warfighters the capabilities they need to win against a myriad of emerging threats,' he added.
In the meantime, with ground testing now underway, Boeing and the Navy are still pushing forward toward a first flight for the production representative MQ-25 configuration, an important step toward finally getting the Stingray into operational service.
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