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Years after the MQ-25 demonstrator conducted initial tests, Boeing and the Navy expect a first flight in 2025.
The U.S. Navy and Boeing have good news about the uncrewed, carrier-based MQ-25 Stingray. But the refueler must navigate some potential bad news before the service and OEM can make the good news a reality.
The first missioned MQ-25 is to fly this year—a long-delayed milestone—officials in both parties say, noting that some quick fixes are coming to the program following frank discussions. However, the initiative has faced hurdles in recent years, and more could be coming, as the first aircraft is slated to be powered up soon.
- Both sides tout a cultural change on program
- Long-delayed tanker sets the stage for CCAs
“The airplane, the system and the team are all saying this is going to happen this year,” Dan Gillian, vice president and general manager of air dominance at Boeing, said at the annual Sea Air Space conference in National Harbor, Maryland, April 8. “If we get to a point where we’re not going to safely be able to fly the airplane, then we won’t. But we’ll use facts and data. We’ll have hard discussions. We’ll solve problems in real time as they come.
“Any time you turn an airplane on for the first time—fully on—that’s when the hard work really begins,” Gillian added. “So we’re just coming to that part of the program.”
Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commander of Naval Air Forces, was the first to say the MQ-25 will fly this year. Cheever said on the sidelines of Sea Air Space that he had seen Boeing and the Navy refocus their efforts on the program in recent months.
“I’ve seen their team swarm quickly on things to solve things that maybe before might have taken a month or two months—we solved [them] in days or weeks or less,” he said. “So I’m seeing this thing accelerate, and personally, I’m just getting more and more excited about it because I see the end of the rainbow here, where I’m actually flying the MQ-25 off the carrier.”
That goal has some margin, as issues can arise with powering on the $136 million MQ-25 and putting it into the air for the first time. Boeing and the Navy have flight-tested the demonstrator, but this is the first missioned Stingray for the service.
That has given the Navy’s acquisition side some pause. “A lot of work right now—a lot of tough decisions—are going to happen over the next couple months to fly the thing in ’25,” said Vice Adm. Carl Chebi, commander of Naval Air Systems Command.
About 70% of the new systems industry has provided the Navy have been late, Chebi noted. The MQ-25 is no different, as the service originally planned initial operational capability in 2024, which has been pushed back to 2026. Boeing received the engineering and manufacturing development contract in August 2018. That is still an aggressive timeline for an aircraft that will first fly this year.
“We’re entering the hard part, and the way you get through the hard part successfully is by being brutally honest with facts and data,” Gillian said. “And if the facts and data tell you you have to solve a problem, you solve a problem, and you don’t let decisions linger. . . . We have to be honest that we’re entering a hard part of the program, and it’s going to be hard work to get where you want to go, which is to fly by the end of the year.”
Flying an MQ-25 is only one milestone of all that is riding on the program. The Stingray’s refueling capability is needed to free up the F/A-18 Super Hornets, which fly that mission now, for combat operations. Beyond that, the MQ-25 is the trailblazer for the Navy’s future carrier air wing plans. The service aims to have 60% of its air wing uncrewed, and for that to happen, the MQ-25 must take the first steps.
The Stingray’s Lockheed Martin-made ground station, now called the Unmanned Air Warfare Center, eventually will control the Navy’s future Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). This is still in the early stages, so the Navy is letting the Air Force and Marine Corps take the lead on CCA development as it works on the MQ-25.
“Right from the start, manned-unmanned teaming is huge, because it unlocks the future of possibilities of CCA and everything else,” Cheever said. “That’s one of the keys of this thing. And unlocking the full strike fighter complement for use, directly, for strike fighter missions is huge. It’s a difference-maker for us.”
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