U.S. Navy Gets Aircraft Carrier Capable of Operating New MQ-25 Stingray Drones

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt has become the first U.S. Navy vessel capable of operating the new MQ-25 Stingray unmanned aircraft.

The War Zone reported on the development.

The vessel has been equipped with an Unmanned Air Warfare Center (UAWC). However, significant work remains before the Stingray can be fully integrated into the carrier’s routine flight operations.

New details about the UAWC aboard Theodore Roosevelt and other information about the MQ-25 are included in the Modernized Selected Acquisition Report (MSAR) recently released by the Pentagon.

The report is dated April 21, 2026, and was prepared as part of the U.S. armed forces’ fiscal 2027 budget request.

In 2024, the U.S. Navy publicly announced the integration of a UAWC aboard the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush, making it the first system of its kind. It is unclear why the UAWC aboard Theodore Roosevelt became the first to receive full certification to support MQ-25 operations.

As previously reported, the MQ-25 program has faced delays and rising costs for years. The U.S. Navy initially hoped that the Stingray would reach initial operational capability (IOC) in 2024.

The IOC date was later pushed back to July 2027 and has now been delayed further to February 2029. The first production aircraft made its maiden flight in April 2026.

MQ-25 Stingray

The Boeing MQ-25 Stingray is an aerial refueling drone developed under the U.S. Navy’s Carrier-Based Aerial Refueling System (CBARS) program.

Development of the program began in 2006. The program initially envisioned combining strike and aerial refueling capabilities, but its focus shifted toward aerial refueling as development progressed, while strike capabilities were deprioritized.

The MQ-25 can carry approximately 7,200 kilograms of fuel over a range of up to 500 nautical miles.

This allows a single sortie to provide aerial refueling to two or three F/A-18 Super Hornets, which have an internal fuel capacity of approximately 6,000 kilograms, depending on the variant.