DROGUE WARRIOR: MQ-25 DRONE PROGRESSING TOWARD NEW ERA OF NAVAL AVIATION.

• Author: Harper, Jon

The Navy's MQ-25 Stingray drone program racked up major achievements over the past year and is on track to usher in a new era of manned-unmanned teaming. However, service officials are still pondering whether the aircraft carrier-based tanker will be armed with offensive strike weapons.

In 2018, Boeing was awarded an $805 million engineering and manufacturing development contract to build the Stingray. Experts say the new unmanned aerial system--the first large, fixed-wing drone that will operate from a ship and support manned planes--will have an outsized impact on the future of naval aviation.

"The MQ-25 will establish the basics of operating an unmanned aircraft in the carrier environment, laying the groundwork for all future carrier-based UAS operations," Capt. Sam Messer, unmanned carrier aviation program manager, said in an email to National Defense. "It will also serve as an early example of manned-unmanned teaming--an operational concept that provides our warfighters with tactical advantages to win the fight."

Advanced technologies that will support the program and facilitate future missions include a deck handling device, ground control station and communication links.

The MQ-25 will be different from the iconic drones of the post-9/11 counterterrorism wars, such as the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper, in that it will fly autonomously and not be remotely piloted.

The way the platform operates will be similar to how commercial airlines leverage autopilot capabilities--except there won't be any humans inside the Stingray, said Dave Bujold, MQ-25 program director at Boeing Defense, Space and Security's autonomous systems division.

"They're not hand-flying every stick and throttle move," he explained in an interview. Instead, the Stingray will use a way-point system after it is catapulted off a carrier.

"It knows where it's supposed to go right after takeoff, and it goes there. And then from there, it continues all along its authorized mission," he said.

Aerial refueling will be "well scripted," and pilots on the receiving end will have communication links with the ground station overseeing the MQ-25's mission, just like they have with manned tankers today, he noted.

When the Stingray returns to the carrier, it will use the joint precision approach and landing system, or JPALS, which is the same technology that manned aircraft use.

"It autonomously will touch down on the deck and catch the hook on the wire," Bujold said. If it misses the...