Boeing Introduces Its Newest Drone

Boeing released the first images of its design for the MQ-25 Stingray, an autonomous, airborne refueling drone being lobbied for by the U.S. Navy.

Although the Boeing image may make a viewer pause due to the craft’s menacing visage, the Stringray will be an autonomous, carrier-based refueling craft referred to by the Navy as an unmanned carrier aviation air system (UCAAS). The fact that the vague term “air system” appears in the project’s title does lead one to believe that a more lethal or snooping drone based on the MQ-25 could be in the works someday, or even concurrently in the shadows.

Unfortunately, Boeing’s media splash doesn’t do much to inform interested parties what specifications its Stingray design carries. Boeing does say that the MQ-25 will “extend the combat range of deployed Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, Boeing EA-18G Growler and Lockheed Martin F-35C fighters. The MQ-25 will also have to seamlessly integrate with a carrier’s catapult and launch and recovery systems.” Beyond those scant details, the Boeing release can only be seen as fuel for the imagination of aviation enthusiasts.

If there’s one other detail that we can read from the image, it is that this MQ-25 design will be based on Boeing’s earlier Phantom Ray craft, which featured a flying wing fuselage and stealth technology.

Currently, Boeing’s Stingray is “completing engine runs before heading to the flight ramp for deck handling demonstrations early next year.”

When the MQ-25 comes into service, the Navy will have a formidable complement of both manned and unmanned craft flying off its carrier flight decks. If you add a hive of smaller autonomous attack craft to the manned fighters and refueling drones, you’ve got a vision of air warfare that was once the domain of science fiction films. Even more astonishing, the designs and manned/unmanned flight coordination procedures being created today are only around 115 years removed from the first flight at Kitty Hawk.