First flight of drone which can refuel US fighter jets mid-air

The United States has shown off the first flight of a robot aircraft set to make jet fighter missions more deadly.

The autonomous MQ-25A Stingray will refuel warplanes in mid-flight, allowing them to carry out missions for longer.

Developers Boeing and the US Navy say they completed the first two-hour test flight of an operational model.

During the flight, the unmanned aircraft successfully demonstrated its ability to autonomously taxi, take off, fly, land and respond to commands from the Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System MD-5 Ground Control Station.

The MQ-25A Stingray will be used mainly as a carrier-based aerial refuelling drone for the US Navy.

It will help refuel fighter jets at sea, extend the range of the carrier air wing and free up F/A-18 Super Hornets to focus on strike missions.

It may also be used for surveillance and other support roles from an aircraft carrier.

Boeing said, ‘The milestone advances the Stingray closer to aircraft carrier operations and marks the beginning of a new era in naval aviation.’

Dan Gillian, vice president and general manager of Boeing Air Dominance said: ‘Today’s successful flight builds on years of learning from our MQ-25A T1 prototype and represents a major maturation of the program.

‘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.’

The aircraft is the first of four Engineering Development Model aircraft that will be delivered to the Navy under the original $805m Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract.

Boeing and the Navy will conduct additional test flights out of MidAmerica St. Louis Airport to further validate the aircraft’s flight controls and capabilities before transitioning to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, to prepare for carrier qualifications.

The US has been utilising more advanced military weapons in recent combat operations, including 5,000-pound penetrator bombs, which have been dropped along Iran’s coastline.

The munitions, named by a government official as GBU-72 Advanced 5k Penetrator bombs, were first released in 2021.

The US released them over Iran in hopes of reaching ‘hardened, deeply buried target challenges’ – namely, missile silos along the Strait of Hormuz.

The Air Force describes it as: ‘The weapon design and its projected effectiveness were developed using advanced modelling and simulation techniques and processes before the first warhead was forged.

‘This is a repeatable process for all future direct attack weapons. Lethality is expected to be substantially higher compared to similar legacy weapons like the GBU-28, according to James Culliton, GBU-72 program manager.’

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