Drone fyller tanken til F-35C - DefenseNews

 

US Navy, Boeing conduct first-ever refueling between unmanned tanker, F-35C

By Megan Eckstein Sep 14, 10:43 PM

An MQ-25 test asset conducts its first aerial refueling test flight with an F-35C Lightning II on Sept. 13 near the MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Illinois. (Boeing photo)

US Navy, Boeing conduct first-ever refueling between unmanned tanker, F-35C

By Megan Eckstein

 Sep 14, 10:43 PM

An MQ-25 test asset conducts its first aerial refueling test flight with an F-35C Lightning II on Sept. 13 near the MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Illinois. (Boeing photo)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy’s MQ-25 Stingray unmanned tanker conducted its first aerial refueling with an F-35C Joint Strike Fighter, the third aircraft type to take fuel from the Navy’s first unmanned system designed to deploy in a future carrier strike group.

Boeing’s T1 test aircraft and an F-35C from the Navy’s Air Test Wing and Evaluation Squadron 23 conducted a three-hour mission on Sept. 13, taking off from the MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah, Ill., and then going through a methodical process of linking up and refueling in this test environment. The Navy pilot conducted surveys and evaluations of the unmanned aircraft and the air around it before connecting with its drogue at 225 knots and 10,000 feet altitude. An air vehicle operator at the ground control station then initiated the fuel transfer from T1′s aerial refueling store to the F-35C.

 “Every T1 flight with another Type/Model/Series aircraft gets us one step closer to rapidly delivering a fully mission-capable MQ-25 to the fleet,” Navy program manager Capt. Chad Reed said in a news release. “Stingray’s unmatched refueling capability is going to increase the Navy’s power projection and provide operational flexibility to the carrier strike group commanders.”

The latest refueling follows a six-hour test flight on Aug. 18, when the MQ-25 refueled an E-2D Advanced Hawkeye for the first time. The E-2D was not originally built to receive fuel in-air but was modified to add the aerial refueling capability in 2019.

“Once operational, the MQ-25 will refuel every receiver-capable platform including E-2,” Reed said in a separate news release on the August flight test between T1 and the Navy’s Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Two Zero (VX) 20. “This flight keeps us on a fast track to getting the Stingray out to the fleet where its refueling capability will greatly increase the range and operational flexibility of the carrier air wing and strike group.”