CORRECTION 11/15/2024 at 9:45am ET: The original version of this report erroneously stated Vice Adm. George Wikoff said the MQ-25 would join other unmanned systems in US Central Command’s Area of Operations. After publication, a CENTCOM official clarified Wikoff had not made that assertion, and the report has been updated to better reflect the admiral’s remarks.
BEIRUT — The Navy expects to take delivery the MQ-25 unmanned refueler in 2025, in what the head of US Naval Forces Central Command said offers a “glimpse into the future of naval aviation.”
“The [MQ-25] platform will set a new standard for future unmanned operations from the sea,” commander of NAVCENT and Fifth Fleet Vice Adm. George Wikoff reportedly said this week at the Manama Air Power Symposium.
For one, the MQ-25, which is still in development, should free F-18s from their current refeuling missions, allowing them to concentrate more on strike operations, he said, according to National Defense magazine and a CENTCOM official. As of April, the Navy had expected its first MQ-25s to go operational in 2026.
“The MQ-25 gives us a glimpse into the future of naval aviation, demonstrating the potential force multiplier advanced uncrewed systems will play in the carrier air wing moving forward,” Wikoff said in Manama.
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In August the Navy said it had finished the first carrier-based control room designed to operate the MQ-25 aboard the George H. W. Bush.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Wikoff noted the MQ-4C Triton, a large, long-range UAV that reached initial operating capability last year, has begun operating in the Middle East. The Navy announced in October that it had established a third “orbit” of Triton operations within Fifth Fleet’s Area of Operations (AOR), after deployments to Guam and Italy.
US Central Command’s AOR covers Northeast Africa, Middle East, Central and South Asia, and the Fifth Fleet’s encompasses the Arabian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman and part of Indian Ocean, a vast expanse that also includes critical chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb and Suez Canal.
UPDATED 11/18/2024 at 9:31am ET to correct past timeline of the MQ-25’s development.