First production MQ-25A Stingray during its first flight on April 25 at Boeing’s facility at MidAmerica Airport in Mascoutah, Illinois.

Posted by 221missile@reddit | WeirdWings | View on Reddit | 19 comments

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SloCalLocal@reddit

Cute lil sensor ball in the nose says "I'm not just for refueling...". With some software updates this thing will be lobbing LRASMs in no time.

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Jessky56@reddit

Theres models of it with LRASMs and a upgraded targeting pod making it a multirole carrier based refueling drone which is really funny

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InsertCutesyPunHere@reddit

They were designed for a contract for refuelling, but apparently Boeing is already suggesting them to the DoD for combat use, but the DoD has declined for now

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SloCalLocal@reddit

No, they were designed to be multirole, including strike. Look at the history of the program.

The Navy is buying them for tanking now because that's what they can provably do today. With software updates they'll be able to transform their tankers into multirole UCAVs without having to ask Congress to fund a new airplane.

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InsertCutesyPunHere@reddit

Sorry, comment deleted.

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mz_groups@reddit

Yeah, they're going to become ordnance trucks and sensor carriers once they have established their basic operational capability.

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xerberos@reddit

Yeah, those hardpoints are gonna be used for a lot of non-refueling purposes.

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rugger1869@reddit

Number 5, ALIVE!

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YearPractical5840@reddit

Got your Six!

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Important-Spring3977@reddit

This is EDM-3, engineering development model 3. The Stingray won't reach IOC until 2029, which is a bummer.

The sensorball makes, uh, sense, as the MQ-25A was originally conceived as a long range surveillance platform for the UCLASS program. It is as redesigned as a

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InsertCutesyPunHere@reddit

For context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_MQ-25_Stingray

It's an uncrewed carrier-based refuelling aircraft

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Kid_Vid@reddit

I thought this for cancelled a few years ago!

It's great to see it doing well, it will be cool seeing new aircraft on carriers and is a needed addition

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noneckjoe123@reddit

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babiekittin@reddit

The Navy has had them since '21 and formed two units in '22. First in-flight refueling by a MQ25 was in '19.

This photo is from around '20.

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Qtrfoil@reddit

Nope.

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mz_groups@reddit

This photo was from Saturday. This is the first operational one. The prior units were preproduction/testing. One Fleet Replacement Squadron (VUQ-10) has been stood up, but does not appear to be doing active operational refueling for fleet activities yet.

https://onfirstup.com/boeing/BNN/articles/first-us-navy-mq-25a-stingray-completes-test-flight

https://www.airpac.navy.mil/Organization/Unmanned-Carrier-Launched-Multi-Role-Squadron-10/

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