The US Navy’s first production-representative Boeing MQ-25 Stingray completed its maiden flight on April 25, 2026, taking off from MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah, Illinois, in the most significant step yet toward fielding the service’s first carrier-based unmanned aircraft.
The flight, originally targeted for the end of 2025, was conducted with a Boeing-owned TA-4J Skyhawk and a US Navy UC-12M Huron acting as chase aircraft, The Aviationist reported. A first attempt on April 22, 2026, was aborted for undisclosed reasons.
The flight comes almost seven years after the T1 demonstrator’s first sortie on September 19, 2019. The new airframe introduces several modifications compared with T1, including a retractable electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) turret. A total of nine aircraft are being built to support the test campaign, and the US Navy is targeting Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in fiscal year 2027.
Transition to flight test
The maiden flight follows an extended ground test phase that included low- and high-speed autonomous taxi trials, system integration checks, and verification work conducted at Boeing’s MidAmerica facility, which the manufacturer expanded with a $200 million production line in 2024. Taxi trials were carried out by US Navy Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23) and Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 24 (UX-24), with the latter specializing in unmanned systems developmental testing. The two squadrons will continue to share responsibility for the flight test campaign.
Although the T1 demonstrator already validated the unmanned aerial refueling concept, including contact tests with the Cobham ARS pod carried by F/A-18 Super Hornets, further testing will be required to certify the capability in the production configuration. Once envelope expansion work is complete, the US Navy is expected to move to carrier-environment testing. The T1 previously completed deck-handling demonstrations aboard USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) in late 2021, but did not fly during that phase.
Tanking and carrier integration
The Stingray’s primary role is to take over aerial refueling duties currently performed by F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, which dedicate between 20% and 30% of their flight hours to tanking missions. Carrying the same Cobham ARS pod as the Super Hornet, the MQ-25 is expected to deliver between 14,000 and 16,000 lb of fuel at 500 nautical miles, according to figures the US Navy submitted to Congress in an August 2025 report.
Boeing has already demonstrated software allowing an F/A-18 pilot to command an MQ-25 directly from the cockpit during refueling operations.
The aircraft is also intended to carry secondary intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) payloads through its new sensor turret, including signals intelligence and Automatic Identification System receivers.
The US Navy is also working with Lockheed Martin on the Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System (UMCS), which has been installed aboard USS George H.W. Bush and at shore sites since 2024. US Navy Air Vehicle Pilots have used the system to command both the MQ-25 and the General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger.
Schedule and cost pressure
The program has slipped significantly from its initial timeline. According to Pentagon Selected Acquisition Reports and Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessments cited in the August 2025 congressional report, major program milestones, including the first engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) aircraft flight and IOC, have shifted by approximately two years over successive development cycles.
The GAO has also flagged cost risk if low-rate initial production begins before flight testing matures. The US Navy’s fiscal year 2026 budget request includes $1.04 billion for procurement and research, development, test, and evaluation funding, covering the first three low-rate initial production aircraft and continued UMCS development.
