Navy MQ-25A Stingray Completes First Test Flight to Start Formal Trials

Overview

• The MQ-25A, which flew April 25 from Boeing’s MidAmerica site in Illinois, lifted off at 10:49 a.m. CDT and stayed aloft for about two hours.
• Air vehicle pilots from the Navy and Boeing controlled the aircraft through the MD-5 ground station using Lockheed Martin’s MDCX software, with the drone taxiing, taking off, flying, and landing on its own after receiving simple commands.
• Test points validated basic flight controls, engine performance, and handling, confirming the aircraft’s core systems worked as designed on its first Navy-owned test asset.
• The Navy said the team will expand the flight envelope and finish ground-station integration before ferrying the aircraft to Naval Air Station Patuxent River this summer, then conducting launch and recovery testing at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in the fall and a carrier risk-reduction event on USS Ronald Reagan in fiscal 2027.
• The Stingray is built to pass fuel to fighters so F/A-18s can return to strike and training roles, and the flight builds on data from Boeing’s T1 prototype that first flew in 2019 and logged about 125 hours.