MQ-25 aboard a UN Navy aircraft carrier. (Photo : US Navy)
The identity crisis-plagued Northrop-Grumman MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aerial drone will likely serve as an aerial tanker to refuel U.S. Navy F-35C Lightning II stealth fighters over the vast ocean expanses in Asia should a conflict with China arise.
Vice Admiral Mike Shoemaker, Commander, Naval Air Forces, revealed the latest round of discussions with U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter did not stress the Stingray's survivability aspect. This suggests the multi-role unmanned aerial vehicle first intended as a reconnaissance and attack drone will play the single role of an aerial tanker taking off from U.S. Navy carriers to refuel aircraft on long-range combat missions.
This mission would seem make stealth unnecessary for the Stingray although industry players are batting for stealth to increase the drone's survivability. Stingray's now stands as the frontrunner in the Navy's future Carrier-Based Aerial Refueling (CBARS) UAV program.
"There was an article recently that talked about stealth tanker," said Adm. Shoemaker. "Those two don't go together with MQ-25. That's something we'll continue to evolve and then figure out where it fits going into that contested environment."
"As I talk to industry, those two designs to do one or those other mission sets alone are different," he said.
"You drive a high endurance, probably not a lot of fuel on board, large wingspan, very efficient platform for the ISR. If you're going to be a tanker at range, obviously you've got to be able to carry a fair amount of fuel internal to the platform."
"Even though we've said survivability is not a key performance parameter this time, I think there's ways to take advantage of some of the shapes already out there," he said.
"We kind of revamped our strategy," said U.S. Navy Chief of Naval Operations Admiral John Richardson last February. "It has a legitimate role in terms of tanking, and I would say that (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) is on the table, for sure."
Downgrading the Stingray to the role of an aerial tanker with reconnaissance capabilities marks an inglorious end to the combat version of this aerial drone that was to have changed the face of aerial warfare by proving drones could survive high-intensity combat.
As the MQ-25, the main mission will be "recovery tanking" where it refuels planes flying in a fixed orbit around an aircraft carrier. This method will allow Navy combat jets such as the F-35C and F/A-18E/F Super Hornets to fly missions with enough fuel to return to their mother carriers. The Navy currently has no purpose-built refueling tanker that can land on and take-off from a carrier.
