USS Ronald Reagan becomes second U.S. aircraft carrier ready for MQ-25 Stingray unmanned tanker operations.

The U.S. Navy completed the integration of an Unmanned Air Warfare Center housing the MD-5C Ground Control Station aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76). This milestone makes the vessel the second nuclear-powered carrier equipped to command and control the Boeing MQ-25A Stingray unmanned aerial refueler. The concurrent installation aims to accelerate the deployment infrastructure for autonomous carrier-based aviation ahead of initial operational capability.

All eleven modifications required for the Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System were installed during a 17-month Drydocking Planned Incremental Availability at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The setup incorporates Lockheed Martin MDCX server racks and multiple operator consoles to manage future fleet tanker operations.

Related topic: US Navy awards Lockheed Martin $57 million MDCX contract to control MQ-25A tanker drones from aircraft carriers

The U.S. Navy has now equipped the USS Ronald Reagan with the control center needed to operate MQ-25A Stingray tanker drones ahead of their planned 2029 operational entry. (Picture source: US Navy)

On September 30, 2026, the U.S. Navy announced the integration of an Unmanned Air Warfare Center (UAWC) aboard the Nimitz-class USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), making it the second aircraft carrier equipped with the MD-5C Ground Control Station for the MQ-25A Stingray tanker drone after the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) received the first unit in March. All 11 modifications were installed concurrently during the USS Ronald Reagan's 17-month Drydocking Planned Incremental Availability (DPIA) at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, rather than across several maintenance periods, and the carrier returned to sea on September 3.

Ship modification is running ahead of aircraft fielding: the first production-representative MQ-25A flew on April 25, reached Milestone C on May 18 and entered initial production on September 14, while first Lot 1 deliveries and initial operational capability are planned for 2029. Lot 1 contains three aircraft, only 4.5% of the planned 67-aircraft production fleet, while the complete inventory is planned at 76, including nine developmental and test aircraft. Both the USS Ronald Reagan and USS Theodore Roosevelt are therefore receiving the infrastructure for unmanned tanker operations roughly three years before the first MQ-25As are expected to begin operational service, while pier-side and at-sea testing must still validate the USS Ronald Reagan's newly installed control system.

The USS Ronald Reagan's MD-5C is not a single drone-control terminal but the carrier element of the Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System (UMCS). A representative installation combines seven to nine Air Vehicle Pilot consoles, three to four MDCX server racks, a Video Management System, air traffic control picture, Unmanned Carrier Aviation Transport System, ARC-210 radios, Digital Modular Radio, and an integrated communications rack. Lockheed Martin's MDCX provides the computing architecture used for mission planning and execution, while U.S. Navy communications and C4I equipment connect operators with the aircraft.

PMA-268 integrates these elements with Boeing's MQ-25A, and the Navy has carrier, shore, and expeditionary MD-5 variants rather than tying aircraft control exclusively to the ship carrying them. The architecture has also been used to control an MQ-20 Avenger in California from NAS Patuxent River in Maryland through beyond-line-of-sight satellite communications, demonstrating that aircraft and control crews can operate from different locations.

The MQ-25A Stingray is 15.5 m long with a 22.9 m unfolded wingspan, which contracts to 9.54 m when folded, a 13.36 m (58.3%) reduction intended to reduce its footprint during elevator movement, hangar storage, and flight-deck spotting. Its single Rolls-Royce AE 3007N turbofan engine produces more than 44 kN of thrust. The central requirement is fuel offload rather than maximum range: the aircraft must transfer at least 6.35 tonnes of fuel 930 km from the carrier, with available figures extending between 6.8 and 7.25 tonnes. A mission at that distance requires at least 1,860 km of outbound and return flight before adding tanker orbit, rendezvous, maneuvering and recovery reserve. The Cobham hose-and-drogue refueling system supports aircraft including F/A-18E/Fs, F-35Cs and EA-18Gs, making fuel transferred per sortie at 930 km the principal metric for determining how much crewed tanker capacity MQ-25 can replace.

Boeing's T1 demonstrator first flew on September 19, 2019 and completed the program's first airborne refueling on June 4, 2021 during a 4.5-hour flight with an F/A-18F, including more than 10 minutes of dry and wet contacts and a 147 kg fuel transfer. Refueling trials later included the F-35C and E-2D, but T1 never conducted a carrier catapult launch or arrested recovery. The first production-representative MQ-25A flew for roughly two hours on April 25, 2026, after an integrated MQ-25/UMCS connection in October 2025 and autonomous low-speed taxi testing in January 2026. The remaining carrier work is therefore substantial: the production configuration must demonstrate deck taxiing among other aircraft, catapult launches, arrested recoveries, elevator and hangar movement, refueling, servicing and maintenance while operating inside a carrier's cyclic flight schedule. Earlier prototype testing also differed from the production aircraft in internal structure, fuel system, communications and network architecture, increasing the importance of operationally representative testing.

Procurement has contracted while costs have increased. Planned low-rate production fell from 11 aircraft in FY2023-FY2025 to six in FY2026-FY2027, a reduction of five aircraft or 45%, leaving LRIP equivalent to 7.9% of the planned 76-aircraft inventory instead of 14.5%. Average Procurement Unit Cost increased $15.089 million, or 12.39%, from $121.751 million to $136.840 million in constant-year dollars, while Program Acquisition Unit Cost increased $16.627 million, or 10.01%, from $166.030 million to $182.657 million. Total constant-year acquisition cost simultaneously increased $1.264 billion, from $12.618 billion to $13.882 billion, even though planned production procurement declined from 72 to 67 aircraft. The three-aircraft Lot 1 order consequently represents only 4.5% of planned production, leaving 64 production MQ-25As to be acquired through subsequent lots.

The September 14 production award is worth roughly $562 million for three Lot 1 aircraft and long-lead material for three Lot 2 aircraft, while associated contract data place the production ceiling at $552.053 million. Initial obligations total $164.428 million, or 29.8%, including $100 million in FY2025 Aircraft Procurement, Navy funding and $64.428 million in FY2026 funding. St. Louis accounts for 56% of production work, followed by Torrance at 8%, Indianapolis at 4%, Quebec at 3%, McKinney and Ontario at 2% each and Kansas City, Wichita and Irvine at 1% each. Contract activity extends through July 2031, while IOC is targeted for 2029, roughly five years later than the original 2024 objective. VUQ-10, established at NAS Patuxent River on October 1, 2021, is the Fleet Replacement Squadron, with VUQ-11 and VUQ-12 planned as operational units as aircraft become available.

Software is progressing on a separate schedule from the carrier and aircraft. NAVAIR's September 30 contract gives Lockheed Martin a ceiling of $57.710 million for MDCX development, qualification, integrated testing and field support through September 2027. Initial obligations are $14.124 million, or 24.47%, leaving as much as $43.586 million, or 75.53%, for later obligation; workshare is 42% Marietta, 38% Fort Worth, and 20% Patuxent River. The contract requires a qualification-tested software build after MD-5C hardware has already reached two carriers. The program therefore has four schedules running concurrently: two carrier installations completed by August 2026, MDCX qualification through September 2027, aircraft flight testing continuing after the April 2026 first flight, and production deliveries beginning in 2029. A delay in any one of those tracks can become the pacing factor for IOC because an installed UAWC without qualified software or available aircraft cannot logically generate operational tanker sorties.

The operational return will ultimately be measured against the F/A-18E/F capacity consumed by buddy tanking. The USS Ronald Reagan is 333 m long, displaces roughly 101,400 long tons, and can accommodate up to 85-90 aircraft, so each embarked MQ-25 occupies finite deck, hangar, elevator, and maintenance capacity rather than adding aircraft without a physical cost. In exchange, an MQ-25 capable of transferring at least 6.35 tonnes of fuel 930 km from the ship can replace Super Hornets carrying external tanks and a refueling store, returning those aircraft to fighter and strike missions while reducing tanker-related engine hours and structural fatigue. The relevant post-IOC measurements are therefore specific: tonnes transferred at 930 km, F/A-18E/F tanker sorties replaced, Super Hornet flight hours recovered, MQ-25 mission-capable rate, tanker sorties generated per aircraft and changes in carrier deck-cycle throughput. The two UAWCs installed in 2026 provide the control infrastructure, but those figures will determine whether the future MQ-25 force produces a measurable increase in usable carrier-air-wing capacity.

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Written by Jérôme Brahy

Jérôme Brahy is a defense analyst and documentalist at Army Recognition. He specializes in naval modernization, aviation, drones, armored vehicles, and artillery, with a focus on strategic developments in the United States, China, Ukraine, Russia, South Korea, Türkiye, and Belgium. His analyses go beyond the facts, providing context, identifying key actors, and explaining why defense news matters on a global scale.