Refueling a fighter jet while both aircraft keep flying, with nobody in the tanker’s cockpit: that is the job Boeing is building the MQ-25A Stingray to do. The drone is designed to leave an aircraft carrier and deliver fuel to aircraft operating farther away.
Boeing has now moved its second MQ-25A airframe from St. Louis to MidAmerica Airport. Final assembly will take place there, followed by ground testing. In the footage, the aircraft is still wrapped in protective material: this latest step concerns its construction, rather than a first flight.
Delivering fuel without using another fighter
Refueling in the air gives an aircraft more range and more time over an area. But that fuel has to come from somewhere. The US Navy also uses F/A-18 Super Hornets to refuel other aircraft. A jet doing that job is acting as a tanker instead of carrying out its other missions.
The MQ-25 is designed to take over that job. This is no small quadcopter: it is about 15.5 meters long, with a wingspan of 22.9 meters. Folding the wings reduces that span to about 9.5 meters, helping crews park and move it on a busy flight deck.
Refueling with a hose and basket
Refueling uses a hose with a basket-shaped drogue at its end. The receiving aircraft’s pilot guides a refueling probe into that basket, allowing fuel to flow. The unmanned T1 test aircraft demonstrated this with a Super Hornet in June 2021. Trials with the E-2D Hawkeye and F-35C followed.
That is what makes this drone unusual: it must fly reliably while another aircraft comes very close to connect. The technology takes over a support task that matters to the operations of other aircraft.
Who controls an aircraft without a cockpit?
The MQ-25 flies autonomously, but people give it its mission. During the test flight in April 2026, operators issued commands from a control station. Onboard software then managed systems including propulsion, navigation and flight controls. The aircraft taxied, took off and landed autonomously. Operators continued monitoring the flight and could change or abort the mission.
The link to the ship is being tested too. On October 21, Boeing reported a satellite connection between an MQ-25 on the ground and a control station aboard USS Ronald Reagan. The ship’s crew could take control and hand it back to the airport team. This was a communications test, not yet a flight from the carrier.
The second airframe now adds another step to the program: completion and ground testing. The intended benefit remains practical—delivering fuel to fighters without having to use another crewed fighter as the tanker.
