In a major victory for Boeing, it has won the U.S Navy’s MQ-25 tanker drone contract.
The initial contract of $805 million covers the design, development, fabrication, test,
and delivery of 4 Stingray unmanned tanker drones.
Ultimately, the contract is worth $13 billion as around 72 such drones will be inducted in total.
In this video Defense Updates, analyzes why MQ-25 Stingray tanker drone will make F-18,
F-35C & EA-18G Growler much more lethal & protect U.S supercarrier?
Let's get started.
In October 2017, U.S Navy released the final MQ-25 Stingray RFP.
The competitors were Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and General Atomics.
General Atomics proposed Sea Avenger concept which is an enlarged version of Avenger drone
customized for air refueling.
Lockheed Martin put on the table, their Sea Ghost design based on the RQ-170 Sentinel.
Northrop Grumman initially proposed X-47B but later withdrew, stating it wouldn’t
be able to execute the program under the terms of the service’s request for proposals.
Boeing came into the competition, with full-fledged prototype derived from its Phantom Ray demostrator
which ultimately won.
The designed is powered by single Rolls-Royce AE 3007N turbofan engine that delivers 10,000
lb or 4,500 kg of thrust.
Potentials rivals of U.S, China and Russia have been putting in a large amount of resources
on Anti Ship missiles.
Chinese DF-21D and DF-26 anti-ship guided missiles are reportedly capable of destroying
targets as far away as 900 nautical miles or around 1666 km
Russia has unveiled a new Anti Ship missile named Kinzhal.
It has a range of approximately 1,100 nm or 2000 km and a top speed of more than 10 times
the speed of sound i.e. Mach 10.
The missile’s speed coupled with the ability to fly erratically will make it very hard
to intercept.
There are still lots of question marks about the real-life performance of these missiles
when used against a moving target like an aircraft carrier, in a vast open ocean at
long ranges.
Also, U.S supercarriers have multilayered air defense as they always move as part of
a U.S Carrier Strike Group consisting of multiple destroyers and having long-range AWACS cover.
But even with these considerations, it must be said that the billion dollar supercarriers
are at risk when in range of these anti-ship missiles.
To reduce the risk, the U.S supercarrier will have to operate further from shore.
U.S aircraft carries have F-18 Super Hornet, F 35C and EA-18G Growler as the main strike options.
F-18 Super Hornet is the 4++ generation multirole fighter
It has a range of 1,089 nm or 2,017 km and a combat radius of 400 nm or 741 km
F35C is the 5th generation multirole stealth fighter.
It has a range of 1,200 nm or 2,220 km and a combat radius of 669 nm or 1,407 km for
internal air to air configuration.
EA-18G Growler specialized version of the two-seat F18 Super Hornet for Electronic Warfare
It has a range of 1,275 nm or 2,346 km and a combat radius of 390 nm or 722 km
This is where MQ-25 tanker will come into the picture.
With it, the range of F 18, F35C & EA-18G Growler will increase drastically enabling
them to be launched from supercarriers that are much further away from the target and
not in the range of anti ship missile systems.
The increase in combat radius will also provide
much more tactical freedom when executing strike missions.
Overall MQ-25 Stingray will be a great force multiplier for the U.S Navy.