“The pilots will come from the Hornet, E-2, Growler and F-35 communities.” We will likely operate the MQ-25 in the same fashion-creating a small detachment of officers who run the MQ-25 and operate it on deployment,” he said. “We are looking at the manning construct of that right now. Shoemaker also talked about the Navy’s plans to man and operate the Stingray and described an arrangement similar to how the service’s helicopter community will cross-train to operate the MQ-8B/C Fire Scout UAV. I think the combination of having extra gas airborne and the precision landing modes will reduce the number of tankers needed because the air wing’s ability to recover much more efficiently,” he said. “We also have precision landing modes we are delivering in Super Hornets and Growlers that will make landing on the carrier much easier. The Navy is also expecting the new MAGIC CARPET precision landing modes for aircraft to help reduce the need for standby tankers, Shoemaker said. The only tankers we have in the air wing are the Rhinos.” … Right now, the focus is to make it a tanker to extend the reach of the air wing and reduce some of the fatigue life expenditure on our Super Hornets. We will not be putting any wear and tear on Super Hornets for the tanking mission, which is good. Launch one airplane, and it goes overhead, drops back down for the recovery, and goes back up to altitude to wait for the next recovery. “It will also work as a recovery tanker for cyclic ops, with the ability to cover at least three cycles. “The MQ-25 will be much more efficient than the Rhino (Super Hornets), and it will give us the ability to get out there and refuel four to six airplanes at range,” Shoemaker told Proceedings. Mission tanking extends the operational range of aircraft hundreds of miles from the strike group while recovery tanking missions happen close to the carrier and are a hedge against aircraft running out of fuel during landing. The Super Hornet has two refueling missions - recovery and mission tanking - that will be taken over by the Stingrays. At the moment, 20 to 30 percent of Super Hornet missions are for refueling other aircraft. In addition to the extension of the air wing’s lethal radius, Shoemaker said the Stingray would take pressure off the current Super Hornets that refuel the air wing. Mike Shoemaker speaks with sailors in Atsugi, Japan on March 23, 2016. An F-14D had an estimated unrefueled combat radius – with two fuel drop tanks – of about 650 nautical miles.Ĭommander, Naval Air Force, U.S. The additional range extension would be the farthest the air wing could reach out since the Navy retired the Grumman F-14D Tomcat from its inventory in 2006. The additional 300 to 400 miles could potentially extend the reach of the fighters up to or beyond 700 nautical miles.
The strike range of a carrier air wing is now only about 450 nautical miles – the effective unrefueled radius of a Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. “That will extend the reach of the air wing, and when we combine that with additional weapons we are buying, we will get an impressive reach.” We will be able to do that and sustain a nominal number of airplanes at that distance,” Shoemaker said in an exclusive interview in the September issue of Proceedings. “The MQ-25 will give us the ability to extend the air wing out probably 300 or 400 miles beyond where we typically go. Mike Shoemaker said the service’s goal was for the Navy’s first operational carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicle to be able to deliver about 15,000 pounds of fuel at 500 nautical miles from the carrier to the air wing’s strike fighters, which would almost double their operational range. Naval Institute’s Proceedings.Īir Boss Vice Adm. carrier air wing could increase the effective strike range of the strike fighters aboard aircraft carriers by up to 400 nautical miles, the commander of Naval Air Forces told U.S. The inclusion of the unmanned MQ-25 Stingray aerial tanker into the U.S.
Boeing image of the company’s MQ-25A Stingray bid.
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