The D Brief: Drone refuels jet; Biden's message to Europe; US embassy in Afghanistan; JADC2 uncertainty; And a bit more...
By Bradley Peniston and Jennifer Hlad
June 8, 2021 11:18 AM ET
Drone refuels fighter jet in flight. A milestone both for aviation and for the U.S. Navy’s plans to integrate UAVs into carrier operations, the June 4 test flight over Illinois saw the MQ-25 T1 Stingray drone pass some 325 pounds of fuel to an F/A-18F Super Hornet.
“Friday’s historic test gets us one step closer to providing MQ-25’s critical capabilities to the fleet,” Capt. Chad Reed, the program manager for the Navy’s Unmanned Carrier Aviation program office, told reporters Monday.
The Boeing-built MQ-25 is to become the first unmanned aircraft added to carrier air wings, for which it will handle some intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance tasks along with its refueling duties, Defense One’s Caitlin Kenney writes. Read that—and watch a Boeing video of the refueling—here.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2021/06/the-d-brief-july-08-2021/174573/
