Boeing wins bid to build the Navy’s carrier-launched tanker drone

The US Navy has awarded Boeing an $805 million contract to construct four prototypes of its design for the MQ-25 “Stingray." The uncrewed, carrier-based tanker aircraft will help extend the range of the Navy’s future carrier air wings and keep carriers themselves out of range of coastal defenses. Boeing beat out Lockheed Martin and General Atomics for the contract. Northrop Grumman—which built the Navy’s first carrier-based drone prototype , the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System-Demonstration (UCAS-D)—dropped out of the competition last year. The prototype contract is the first step toward delivering “initial operating capability,” a first production run of the drones, by 2024.