US Navy officials tell warrior Maven this service plans to formally start flight testing for a new carrier launched aerial refueling drone by 2021.
MQ-25 Stingray
It’s called the MQ-25 Stingray, they recently awarded a production deal to Boeing, it’s significant in a number of key respects the principal advantage extend the attack range of a fighter jet like an F-18 and F-35.
See when that’s operational, the notion is if you have a fighter that can fly maybe three, four or 500 miles, it has to perform its attack mission and then return also runs out of fuel.
MQ-25 Refueling Drone
Well, if you have an aerial refueling drone, you can refuel these aircraft in flight, giving them a much longer strike range. They can penetrate deep inland should there be enemy targets engaged in dogfighting, air to air combat and hit targets over a longer period of time and with emerging targets that can be of a tremendous combat advantage.
Also with an aerial drone that is less of us radar signature than something like a KC 46 refueler. It’s not only unmanned so that it has a lower risk to people, but it also is smaller, so it’s going to be less detectable by enemies, and it will operate over high threat environments, which of course is very helpful to allowing fighter jets to perform their missions as well. It bears with quite relevance on the often discussed anti access area denial.
The Navy has said specifically with their layer defense system of carriers including interceptor missiles, lasers down the road other kinds of torpedo defenses, they feel they can operate anywhere and project power in any hostile environment. At the same time, there is a growing recognition that some of China’s long range weapons like the df 26 the df 21 D both of them cited by the Pentagon’s recent China report could hold carriers at risk for up to as much as 900 miles.
They’re called carrier killer missiles. So the idea is quite significant. If you have a fighter that can go that far with an aerial refueler you can keep a carrier then at a safer distance and still project power. And the Navy plans for this to be operational by 2024.
