Drone MQ-25 flyr fra hangarskip i 2026 - Breaking Defense

 

MQ-25 will fly in 2025, fly off carriers in 2026, says Navy’s air boss

Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever expressed confidence in the Navy's ability to seamlessly integrate the new tanker into the air wing despite challenges associated with unmanned technologies and carrier flight operations.

By   Justin Katzon January 28, 2025 at 4:58 PM

A Boeing unmanned MQ-25 aircraft rests aboard the flight deck aboard the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77). (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Brandon Roberson)

WEST 2025 — The US Navy’s top operational aviator says he’s confident the service will have its new unmanned aerial tanker flying this year and operating off aircraft carriers in 2026, characterizing it as a key point in paving the way for future next generation aircraft.

“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],” Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever, commander of Naval Air Forces, told an audience here at West 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,” he continued.

The MQ-25, also dubbed Stingray, is an unmanned tanker designed to refuel the strike fighter fleet while performing a secondary intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance mission. Its fielding is also expected to relieve pressure on the service’s F/A-18s which have had to act as aerial refuelers in the meantime, taking them away from strike missions.

Boeing won the initial contract in 2018 to design and produce the aircraft, a bid that was strengthened by previous prototypes on the ultimately abandoned Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike program. At that time, service officials said the aircraft would reach initial operational capability — Pentagon nomenclature effectively signifying the aircraft is ready for fielding — in 2024, but program hiccups have pushed that date into fiscal 2025.

Boeing has previously conducted test flights with its prototypes, but Navy officials have targeted 2025 for its own test flights with the aircraft.

Cheever, who the Navy also refers to as the “Air Boss” because he is the most senior operational aviator, expressed confidence in the Navy’s ability to integrate MQ-25 into the air wing despite the operational challenges associated with unmanned technology and landing any aircraft onboard a carrier’s flight deck.

“I don’t see a lot of issues bringing it together,” he said. “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,” he said.