MQ-25 taxi tests

Boeing said the MQ-25 Stingray has finished high-speed taxi tests, putting the Navy’s carrier-based refueling drone on the verge of a first flight. (boeing.com) Chief Executive Kelly Ortberg disclosed the update on Boeing’s April 22 earnings call, saying “the first flight is imminent.” Boeing’s first-quarter results the same day listed MQ-25 progress inside its defense business update. (boeing.com 1) (boeing.com 2) A taxi test is a ground run that pushes an aircraft to higher speeds before takeoff, checking steering, brakes, controls and how the jet behaves on the runway. For MQ-25, that step comes after slower taxi work reported earlier this year and before the first full flight of a production-representative aircraft. (twz.com) (boeing.com) The aircraft is meant to solve a specific carrier problem: Navy fighters now spend part of their time acting as tankers for other jets. Boeing says MQ-25 is designed to give the carrier air wing its own refueling aircraft and extend the range and endurance of manned fighters. (boeing.com) (navair.navy.mil) The Navy describes MQ-25 as its first operational carrier-based unmanned refueling aircraft. In the program’s current structure, the service has said the program of record is 76 aircraft, including 67 operational aircraft and nine test and development aircraft. (navair.navy.mil) (congress.gov) The program has been in motion for years. The Navy awarded Boeing an $805.3 million engineering and manufacturing development contract in August 2018 for four aircraft, with work centered in St. Louis. (navair.navy.mil) (boeing.com) MQ-25 already proved the core mission with an earlier test asset. In June 2021, the Boeing-owned T1 demonstrator refueled a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet in flight, the first air-to-air refueling by an unmanned aircraft. (navair.navy.mil) (boeing.com) It also went to sea before this year’s runway work. In December 2021, the Navy used the T1 aircraft aboard USS George H.W. Bush to test deck handling, including moving it around the flight deck and integrating it with carrier routines. (navair.navy.mil) (news.usni.org) Congress’s research arm said last week that the Navy had previously pushed the start of flight tests for engineering and manufacturing development aircraft from 2022 to 2025, a sign of how much schedule pressure has surrounded the program. Boeing’s latest update now points to that delayed first flight arriving in the next stretch of testing. (congress.gov) (boeing.com) For Boeing and the Navy, the next marker is simple: get the MQ-25 off the runway and into the air, then keep proving it can do routine tanker work from an aircraft carrier. (boeing.com) (navair.navy.mil)