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Boeing demonstrates MQ-25′s utility as surveillance drone

Company paired UAV with three Navy aircraft types in virtual manned-unmanned teaming demo

By Megan Eckstein

 Sep 16, 03:46 PM

The unmanned MQ-25 Stingray test asset conducts its first aerial refueling flight with an E-2D on Aug.18 at MidAmerica Airport in Illinois. (Boeing photo)

WASHINGTON — Boeing said it proved in a virtual demonstration this spring that several U.S. Navy aircraft types could task the company’s MQ-25 Stingray tanker drone with surveillance missions and receive live imagery in support of their own missions.

BD Gaddis, Boeing’s director of MQ-25 advanced design, told Defense News the demonstration in the company’s mobile manned-unmanned teaming laboratory proved that its waveform-agnostic communications architecture worked, that the MQ-25 would be relevant to the surveillance mission and that operators aboard manned planes could easily task the MQ-25 and monitor its findings.

The demonstration took place in May, though Boeing just announced it in a news release this month. More than 100 customers — mostly from Naval Air Systems Command and the chief of naval operations’ staff, with some from the U.S. Air Force — visited for a series of briefs and demonstrations over the course of four days, Gaddis said.

The demonstrations included multiple use cases, or potential operational scenarios: the MQ-25 would fly off an aircraft carrier under the command of a ship-based control station; the air vehicle would announce itself as available for tasking; and one of three Navy aircraft types would take command of the drone from the ground station and send the MQ-25 the parameters of an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission, including any restrictions or no-fly zones.

Boeing proved its F/A-18 Super Hornet Block III fighter jet and its P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, as well as the Northrop Grumman-made E-2D Advanced Hawkeye command-and-control aircraft, could coordinate with the ground control station and the drone during this operation.

Gaddis said the mobile lab included an actual Super Hornet Block III cockpit — one of the key improvements compared to older versions of the jet — that showed visitors how a pilot could grab command of the drone and then see live imagery it captured.

He also said the drone paired well with the P-8, which hunts for submarine and surface ship targets from the air. The demonstration showed the two could operate 300 miles apart, covering a huge swath of ocean as the MQ-25 investigated surface target tracks and passed ones of interest to the P-8 to further investigate or engage.

This spring’s demonstration follows the first-ever MQ-25 manned-unmanned teaming virtual demonstration last year when the MQ-25 was sent on a tanking mission by the ground control station and a Super Hornet or Hawkeye took command of the drone to reroute their rendezvous for a new time and location. Last year, the company also conducted its first-ever live manned-unmanned refueling in the skies over Illinois.

The Navy determined tanking would be the primary mission for MQ-25, with ISR as a secondary mission.