On the road between St. Louis and Mascoutah, Illinois, drivers recently passed something that looked like a manta ray in a white bedsheet. It was the US Navy's second MQ-25A Stingray, wings folded and fuselage shrink-wrapped, riding a flatbed truck to the place where it will finally be finished.
Boeing Defense confirmed the move on 26 October: the airframe travelled from Boeing's St. Louis, Missouri, site to MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah, Illinois, where it will undergo final assembly before ground testing. It is a small logistics story with a big program behind it. The MQ-25 is the Navy's first carrier-based uncrewed tanker, and the first operational uncrewed aircraft meant to live on a carrier deck.
Kurzinfo
- Flugzeug: Boeing MQ-25A Stingray, carrier-based uncrewed tanker
- Ereignis: Second Navy MQ-25A trucked from St. Louis to MidAmerica St. Louis Airport (announced 26 October 2026)
- Next steps: Final assembly, then ground testing
- First Navy MQ-25A first flight: 25 April 2026, about two hours
- Initial operational capability: Now expected in 2029
- First production contract: $562 million for three aircraft (14 September 2026)
- Program of record: 76 aircraft (67 operational, 9 test)
- Motor: One Rolls-Royce AE 3007N turbofan
A 25-mile trip to the final assembly line
According to The Aviationist, the road trip covered roughly 25 miles. Boeing's own video shows the aircraft towed out by tug, loaded with its wings folded and its body wrapped in white protective covering. The airframe still lacked the nose air-data probes and the Cobham aerial refuelling store carried by the first Navy aircraft; those are expected to be fitted at MidAmerica.
MidAmerica is where the Stingray program now lives. Boeing announced the roughly 300,000-square-foot factory in September 2021 with a planned $200 million investment, and it is where the first Navy-owned MQ-25A has been flight testing since the spring.
From first flight to production
That first Navy aircraft took off from MidAmerica at 10:49 a.m. on 25 April 2026 and flew for about two hours on a preprogrammed profile, controlled from a ground station. Boeing's company-owned T1 demonstrator had first flown back in September 2019, and in June 2021 it became the first uncrewed aircraft to refuel another aircraft, passing fuel to a Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet.
The Navy approved production in May 2026, and on 14 September it awarded Boeing a $562 million fixed-price incentive contract for the first low-rate production lot: three aircraft plus long-lead parts for three more, with deliveries from 2029. The program of record is 76 aircraft, 67 for the fleet and nine for testing.
Why the Navy wants it, and why it is late
The Stingray's job is to take tanker work away from the Navy's Super Hornets. Today, carrier air wings use fighters fitted with buddy refuelling stores to top up other fighters, which ties up airframes that would otherwise fly combat missions. The Navy's stated goal for the MQ-25 is to deliver around 14,000 pounds of fuel at 500 nautical miles from the carrier, stretching the reach of the whole air wing, including the F-35C.
The schedule has slipped. USNI News reported in April that the Navy had pushed initial operational capability to 2029, citing carrier availability and manufacturing problems. The Navy defines IOC as three MQ-25As with trained people and equipment ready to deploy on a carrier equipped for them.
There are signs of progress beyond the factory. On 19 October, according to The Aviationist, the first Navy MQ-25A was controlled for the first time from a ground station aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan while the ship was at sea in the Pacific, with the aircraft itself still on the ground in Illinois. A second airframe on the assembly line is the next step towards a carrier deck.
Boeing's footage of the first Navy MQ-25A Stingray flight on 25 April 2026.
Sources: Boeing Defense, The Aviationist, USNI News, NAVAIR, Defense News, Naval News, St. Louis Public Radio
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