Boeing will build the first unmanned aircraft to be a permanent part of the U.S. Navy’s carrier air wing, according to a Thursday Pentagon contract announcement.
Under the $805 million contract, Boeing will “provide the design, development, fabrication, test, verification, certification, delivery, and support of four MQ-25A unmanned air vehicles, including integration into the carrier air wing to provide an initial operational capability to the Navy.â€
The Navy plans for the first four Stingrays to achieve initial operational capability on carrier decks in 2024.
The new tanker could double the strike range of the carrier air wing, with the MQ-25A delivering up to 15,000 pounds of fuel at 500 nautical miles. The contract award comes as the Navy is struggling to keep up the readiness of its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fleet, which also serves as a tanker for the air wing. Anywhere from 20 to 30 percent of Super Hornet flight hours are devoted to aerial refueling operations, and cutting those hours is part of Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson’s drive to get MQ-25s to the fleet.
Pic at link, too high res for here.
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https://news.usni.org/2018/08/30/navy-picks-boeing-build-mq-25a-stingray-carrier-based-droneFTA: "“[Richardson’s] number-one priority is the schedule. Price is number two." We having a saying in aerospace, "You can have it fast, cheap or good, but not all 3. Pick 2" Well, they've chosen which typically means, it will have "teething problems".
