MQ-25 Stingray Carrier-Based Unmanned Tanker Ground Testing Now Underway
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.
“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.
“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.
Source: The War Zone
