U.S. Navy gives Boeing up to $80M to improve MQ-25 drone
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The U.S. Navy has given Boeing a contract worth up to $80 million to keep developing and improving the MQ-25A Stingray, the uncrewed tanker designed to refuel fighter jets from aircraft carrier decks. The indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract, announced by the U.S. Department of War, covers system improvements, development and integration of new aircraft configurations, production readiness and sustainment work for the MQ-25A. Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River, Maryland, awarded it on a sole-source basis, with work to be done in St. Louis, Missouri, through October 2031. No money was obligated at signing; the U.S. Navy will fund the work through individual orders as it needs them. The MQ-25A is the U.S. Navy's first operational carrier-based drone. Its main job is aerial refueling, a task now often handled by F/A-18E/F Super Hornets carrying fuel tanks, which takes fighters away from combat missions. Handing that work to an uncrewed tanker is meant to free up Super Hornets and extend how far the carrier air wing can strike. The new contract follows a busy year for the program. The first production-representative MQ-25A flew for about two hours on April 25, 2026, from Boeing's facility at MidAmerica Airport in Mascoutah, Illinois, taxiing, taking off, flying and landing autonomously while U.S. Navy operators sent commands from a ground control station...
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