Boeing Co. won an $805 million contract on Thursday to develop the first unmanned plane for Navy aircraft carriers, a tanker drone that can refuel fighter jets in mid-flight.
The initial agreement covers development of four aircraft, which are expected to be complete in August 2024, the U.S. Defense Department said in a statement. The Chicago-based planemaker, which intends to do the work in St. Louis, was one of three companies that submitted bids for the project; its rivals were General Atomics and Lockheed Martin.
The Navy wants the Stingray drone not only to stretch the combat range of fighters from Boeing’s own F/A Super Hornet to rival Lockheed Martin’s F-35 but also to enable carriers to launch them farther away from targets. The service envisions the unmanned aircraft as a crucial component of its force, supporting missions that would have been impossible otherwise.
“This is a historic day,” said Adm. John Richardson, the Chief of Naval Operations. “We will look back on this day and recognize that this event represents a dramatic shift in the way we define warfighting requirements, work with industry, integrate unmanned and manned aircraft and improve the lethality of the airwing.”
The Navy is using an accelerated acquisition program for the drone, which is designed to trim five to six years from the development timeline.
“Everyone who helped achieve this milestone should be proud we’re here,” Richardson said. “But we have a lot more to do. It’s not the time to take our foot off the gas.”
The contract is a morale booster for Boeing, which lost the right to develop the F-35 jet, the costliest weapons program in U.S. history, to Lockheed in 2001, the first year of George W. Bush’s presidency.
That stealthy, supersonic plane was designed to replace aging fighter jets such as the Air Force’s F-16s while deftly handling both precision air-to-ground strikes and mid-air combat with other jets.
The Navy conducted the first launch and recovery of an unmanned drone from an aircraft carrier in 2013 and ran limited tests afterward, Roman Schweizer, an analyst with Cowen Washington Research Group, said earlier this summer.
“As a company, we made an investment in both our team and in an unmanned aircraft system that meets the U.S. Navy’s refueling requirements,” said Leanne Caret, head of Boeing’s defense business. “The fact that we’re already preparing for first flight is thanks to an outstanding team who understands the Navy and their need to have this important asset on carrier decks around the world.”
