Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commander of Naval Air Forces, is confident the Navy will fly its MQ-25s this year and integrate them aboard aircraft carriers as part of manned-unmanned teaming next year.
The U.S. Navy is getting closer to fielding the new MQ-25 Stingray unmanned tanker, with Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commander of Naval Air Forces, saying he’s confident the service will fly it in 2025 and start the integration aboard aircraft carriers in 2026. The development follows the installation of the first Unmanned Air Warfare Center (UAWC) aboard USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) and continued testing of the Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control Station’s (UMCS).
The operational introduction of the MQ-25
“We will fly MQ-25 in 25. You can quote me on that. We will fly that platform in 25 and get that thing on a carrier in 26 and start integrating [it],” said Vice Adm. Cheever at the WEST 2025 conference in San Diego. “That unlocks the future of manned-unmanned teaming. We’re going after that thing in a big way so we can do manned-unmanned teaming off an aircraft carrier and that is a different world. It opens up the future of sixth-gen collaborative combat aircraft and everything that comes after it.”
Boeing delivered in early 2024 the first MQ-25 Stingray to the U.S. Navy for testing, with the unmanned aircraft planned to undergo a rigorous airframe integrity evaluation, hinting at it possibly being a static test airframe. In November 2024, Vice Adm. George Wikoff, head of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said the Navy expects to take delivery the MQ-25 in 2025.
Vice Adm. Cheever said he’s confident about the service’s ability to integrate the unmanned asset in the Carrier Air Wing aboard an aircraft carrier. Obviously, there are some challenges in the integration of an Unmanned Aerial System in the highly dynamic environment of an aircraft carrier, but the Navy has been working to mitigate them so it could seamlessly and safely operate it.
“I don’t see a lot of issues bringing it together,” said Cheever. “I’m just going to turn the weapons tactics instructors loose, and they will exactly figure out how to operate this thing seamlessly in a manned-unmanned teaming [environment]. So, [I’m] pretty excited for that, because we need that capability and we need it this year to start flying.”
The plans for the MQ-25
The MQ-25 will have two roles once in service, of which air refueling will be the primary one, with the other one being intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. The Navy said that the introduction of the Stingray will allow to reduce the fatigue on the Super Hornets, currently also used for the air refueling role, as well as making more of them available for combat missions.
In fact, the F/A-18 is routinely also employed as a tanker to support the Carrier Air Wing, accounting up to 30% of its sorties according to reports. In this role, the Super Hornet uses the so called the “five wet” configuration, with four 480 gallon external fuel tanks under the wings and a centerline hose-and-drogue “buddy” refueling pod.
The MQ-25 is equipped with the Cobham ARS pod, the same currently used by F/A-18s, installed under the wing. The MQ-25 T1 test asset has successfully refueled the F/A-18 Super Hornet, F-35C Lightning II and E-2D Hawkeye during testing, although it is unclear if further testing will be performed with the CMV-22B Osprey.
The latest plans of the U.S. Navy see the MQ-25 reaching the initial operational capability (IOC) in the second half of 2026, with one of the requisites being the delivery of 13 aircraft, according to Flight Global. The service is planning to procure more than 70 MQ-25s to be employed on both its Nimitz- and Ford-class aircraft carriers.
The MQ-25 Stingray
The Boeing MQ-25 Stingray is an aerial refueling drone that resulted from the Carrier-Based Aerial-Refueling System (CBARS) program, which grew out of the earlier Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program.
The genesis of the MQ-25 Stingray traces back to the U.S. Navy’s imperative for a carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of providing aerial refueling to carrier strike groups’ assets. The primary mission of the MQ-25 is to deliver on-demand refueling support, significantly extending the endurance and operational flexibility of carrier-based aircraft.
The MQ-25 Stingray carried out the first ever air-to-air refueling operation between an unmanned tanker and a manned receiver aircraft, (a U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet) on June 4, 2021. The milestone was achieved by the Boeing-owned MQ-25 T1 test asset flying from MidAmerica Airport in Mascoutah (Illinois) and employing the Cobham Aerial Refueling Store (ARS), the same used by F/A-18s, to perform the refueling operation.
The U.S. Navy is planning to procure more than 70 MQ-25, which will replace the F/A-18E Super Hornets in the aerial refueling role they currently have as part of the Carrier Air Wing, becoming also the first operational carrier-based UAV. This way, the Carrier Air Wing will have more Super Hornets available for operational missions, without the need to reserve some of them for the AAR (Air-to-Air Refueling) mission.
More from The Aviationist
“MQ-25 increases the overall lethality of the CVW by relieving the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet of the aerial refueling mission, enabling ordnance to replace refueling stores on the F/A-18’s pylons. As secondary missions, MQ-25 will conduct recovery tanking and organic intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) to the CSG,” says the website of Unmanned Carrier-Launched Multi-Role Squadron Ten (VUQ-10), the Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) for the MQ-25 Stingray, established on Oct. 01, 2022, at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.
In addition to VUQ-10, two operational MQ-25A squadrons, VUQ-11 and 12, will be established. Earlier this year, Boeing showcased a new software that allows F/A-18 pilots to control the MQ-25 during the air refueling operations, as part of the development of the manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) technology.
The latest developments
In May 2024, Boeing showcased the maturity of software critical for future U.S. Navy operations in a simulator lab, where an F/A-18 pilot remotely commanded an MQ-25 Stingray UAS (Unmanned Aerial System) to perform aerial refueling. The software is part of Boeing’s manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) technology.
During the demonstration, using the existing communication links, the pilot sent commands to the MQ-25 to release a refueling drogue and refuel the Super Hornet. The baseline system is designed to be controlled only by the drone’ pilots on the aircraft carrier, while the new software would allow fighter pilots to initiate commands right from their cockpit.
The new software will significantly reduce the time it takes for an F/A-18 to communicate with an MQ-25, giving pilots greater safety and flexibility in refueling operations from longer distances.
In August, the Navy has announced the installation of the first Unmanned Air Warfare Center (UAWC) aboard USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77). The UAWC will be used by Air Vehicle Pilots (AVPs) to control the MQ-25 Stingray during airborne operations, as well as future unmanned platforms.
The Unmanned Air Warfare Center will act as a carrier-based control room for the unmanned platforms which will integrate in the future Carrier Air Wing. The UAWC includes software and hardware systems that make up the first fully operational and integrated Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System (UMCS) MD-5E Ground Control Station (GCS).
UMCS is the system-of-systems required for the MQ-25 air vehicle command and control and is critical to the unmanned aircraft refueler’s operations. The GCS was developed by the Navy and integrates the Multi Domain Combat System (MDCX) developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works, along with additional supporting equipment and hardware.
In November 2024, the Navy demonstrated with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works the ability of the UMCS to command a variety of unmanned aircraft in addition to the MQ-25. Specifically, Navy Air Vehicle Pilots (AVPs) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, controlled GA-ASI’s MQ-20 Avenger during its flight from the company’s test site in California.
