The Navy's autonomous carrier-based refueling drone has finally flown

After missing its 2025 target, Boeing's MQ-25A Stingray is one step closer to a carrier deck

The US Navy’s current carrier-based refueling aircraft may soon be getting help, as Boeing has completed the first flight of its autonomous tanker drone designed for carrier operations.

Boeing announced on Monday that it had successfully flown the MQ-25A Stingray for the first time. According to the aviation firm, the Stingray successfully undertook a two-hour flight over the weekend, demonstrating its ability to "autonomously taxi, take off, fly, land, and respond to commands" from ground control operators. 

Once in the skies, the Stingray undertook a predetermined mission that validated flight controls, navigation, and safe integration with the ground control station, but it doesn't appear that there were any tests of its ability to autonomously refuel naval aircraft as part of the test. 

"The MQ-25A is the most complex autonomous system ever developed for the carrier environment, and this historic achievement advances us closer to safely integrating the Stingray into the carrier air wing," Boeing Air Dominance GM and VP Dan Gillian said of the test flight. 

The MQ-25A has been in development since 2018, when the Navy awarded Boeing an $805.3 million contract to design, build, and test four aircraft. Earlier versions of the program flew as early as 2019, but this MQ-25A is the first operational aircraft intended for Navy delivery, making it the first flight of a Stingray the service is expected to use.

Boeing is preparing four Stingrays for eventual delivery to the Navy, but that number could grow. 

While it is designed to become the Navy's first operational carrier-based unmanned refueling aircraft with autonomous aerial refueling intended to extend the range of carrier-based aircraft, Boeing told us that refueling isn't the only role the Stingray will fill. 

"Beyond tanker duties, the MQ-25 has multi-mission potential: It is equipped to perform intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions, and its adaptable design allows the Stingray to be configured for additional mission sets if required," a Boeing spokesperson told The Register in an email. 

That said, its tanker role comes first, and the Navy primarily hopes Stingrays will allow F/A-18 Super Hornets that have been reconfigured to serve as refueling craft to return to their fighter jet role. 

It's not clear what the final fuel-hauling specs of the Stingray are, but former head of Navy aviation, Vice Admiral Mike Shoemaker, said in 2017 that he hoped that the autonomous aircraft would be able to deliver 15,000 pounds of fuel at 500 nautical miles to strike fighters, which he said would double their operational range. 

The test flight comes following promises from Boeing that the Stingray would be airborne in 2025, which didn't happen. Boeing told us that the delay was necessary "to complete deliberate systems level testing and review and approve the final airworthiness artifacts needed for a flight clearance." 

As for when the Navy can expect its first delivery of Stingrays, Boeing told us it still doesn't have a timeline. 

"We're continuing flight testing and working through the remaining development steps with the Navy," the Boeing spokesperson told us.

Once the Navy receives its Stingrays, it'll still have to pass carrier qualifications, which might not be easy: Landing an aircraft on a carrier is considered to be one of, if not the toughest, military aviation tasks. Whether the Stingray's autonomous systems have the Top Gun-like skills needed to perform such a tricky bit of flying will be for the next phase: Remaining test flights are all launching from solid ground. ®