Boeing MQ-25 Stingray first refueling in flight (1 Viewer)

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lomcovak

Airman
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Mar 29, 2020
The Boeing MQ-25 Stingray is an aerial refueling drone that resulted from the Carrier-Based Aerial-Refueling System (CBARS) program, which grew out of the earlier Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (UCLASS) program. The MQ-25 first flew on 19 September 2019.
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I'm watching the drone take off and it got me wondering. If these things went into service, how does the tower and the drone communicate? How would it know which taxiway or when it is cleared for take off? Would it be some remote operator in a trailer talking to the tower? Would it be the guys in the tower pushing the buttons/joystick? Just how autonomous are these things to be? If a squadron of big, thirsty bombers needs refueling, how many drones would there be? How would comm protocol work out?
BTW, I think drone tankers are a great idea. They could orbit the fleet without fatigue. Big help for the CAP.
 
I'm watching the drone take off and it got me wondering. If these things went into service, how does the tower and the drone communicate? How would it know which taxiway or when it is cleared for take off? Would it be some remote operator in a trailer talking to the tower? Would it be the guys in the tower pushing the buttons/joystick? Just how autonomous are these things to be? If a squadron of big, thirsty bombers needs refueling, how many drones would there be? How would comm protocol work out?
BTW, I think drone tankers are a great idea. They could orbit the fleet without fatigue. Big help for the CAP.
This is using a drogue only, no boom. So probe equipped aircraft only, or primarily Navy/Marine aircraft. AF uses boom for fuel transfer so this particular drone would not be for bombers. It doesn't appear it could hold a useful enough fuel load for bombers anyway regardless of how many drones you have. Fighters take thousands of pounds of fuel on a squirt. Bombers and cargo acft take tens of thousands on a hook up. That said, I'm sure they could figure something out.
 
I'm watching the drone take off and it got me wondering. If these things went into service, how does the tower and the drone communicate? How would it know which taxiway or when it is cleared for take off? Would it be some remote operator in a trailer talking to the tower? Would it be the guys in the tower pushing the buttons/joystick? Just how autonomous are these things to be? If a squadron of big, thirsty bombers needs refueling, how many drones would there be? How would comm protocol work out?
BTW, I think drone tankers are a great idea. They could orbit the fleet without fatigue. Big help for the CAP.

Current generation large drones (e.g. MQ-9) have a local operator to take-off and land the UAV, with control then switched to a remote operator for the actual mission. For operations aboard a carrier, the problem is somewhat simplified because the deck crew can simply push the drone onto the catapult, fire up the engine, and the drone can be relatively autonomous.

For a probe-and-drogue tanker, there actually isn't much need for human input. Program in the flight to the tanking area and the required orbit dimensions, set the aircraft altitude and it can just keep burning circles in the sky while the combat jets roll in to tank as required. Boom tanking will be more complex because there's an actual boom operator onboard the tanker. Not sure how practical it would be to automate that process.
 

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