SAIC MQ‑25 Task Order

SAIC has won a $75.2 million Navy task order to support aviation gear and help integrate the MQ-25 Stingray’s refueling system into fleet operations. (investors.saic.com) The award was announced April 20 under the General Services Administration’s Personnel and Readiness Infrastructure Support Management contract, with work for Naval Air Systems Command. SAIC said the order covers aircraft armament equipment, support equipment, and aerial refueling system integration for the MQ-25. (investors.saic.com) Aerial refueling is the basic mission: one aircraft passes fuel to another in flight so fighters can stay airborne longer and operate farther from the carrier. The MQ-25 is the Navy’s carrier-based version of that tanker role, flown without a pilot on board. (navair.navy.mil) The Navy says the MQ-25 is meant to bring “an effective, affordable, sustainable and adaptable unmanned air system” into the carrier air wing. On the same program page, Naval Air Systems Command identifies it as the first operational carrier-based unmanned refueling aircraft. (navair.navy.mil) That carrier piece is the hard part. Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever said in January 2025 that the Navy expected to fly MQ-25 in 2025 and get it aboard a carrier in 2026 to begin integration with manned aircraft. (news.usni.org) SAIC’s task order lines up with that schedule because it funds support around the refueling system and the ground equipment that keeps carrier aviation running. SAIC said the work also supports NAVAIR offices PMA-201, PMA-260, and PMA-268, the unmanned carrier aviation program office. (investors.saic.com) The MQ-25 program is bigger than the aircraft itself. Naval Air Systems Command said in 2022 that the program had to integrate the air vehicle, the MD-5 Ground Control Station, and carrier modifications needed to operate the system at sea. (navair.navy.mil) The Navy and Boeing have been building toward that for years. Boeing’s MQ-25 T1 test asset first flew in September 2019, then refueled a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet in June 2021 in the first air-to-air refueling by an unmanned aircraft. (secure.boeingimages.com, investors.boeing.com) The Navy then took the aircraft to sea in December 2021 aboard USS George H.W. Bush, where deck crews directed it with standard carrier hand signals and tested how it would move around the flight deck. The service called that an initial carrier demonstration. (navy.mil, boeing.mediaroom.com) The program’s scale is also clear in the production contract. Naval Air Systems Command says Boeing’s August 30, 2018 award had an $805.3 million ceiling for design, test, delivery, support, and four MQ-25A aircraft for initial integration into the carrier air wing. (navair.navy.mil) This new SAIC order does not buy more MQ-25 airframes. It pays for the engineering, sustainment, and integration work needed to turn unmanned tanking from a test effort into a routine carrier function. (investors.saic.com, navair.navy.mil)