USS Ronald Reagan is second carrier with unmanned aircraft command center

USS Ronald Reagan is the second Navy aircraft carrier to be upgraded with a control center for unmanned aircraft, including the new Boeing MQ-25A Stingray autonomous aerial refueler, the Navy said Thursday.

During its recent 17-month Drydocking Planned Incremental Availability maintenance at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, a Lockheed Martin Unmanned Air Warfare Center was installed. The Navy announced in March that the first UAWC had been installed on USS Theodore Roosevelt.

The UAWC is the “operational nerve center for MQ-25A Stingray command and control,” essentially serving as the operational cockpit aboard the carrier for the large drone.

The installation “will serve as the command-and-control blueprint for the Navy’s future unmanned carrier aircraft and Air Wing of the Future.”

The MQ-25A Stingray is the Navy’s first operational carrier-based unmanned aircraft.

“Its primary mission is aerial refueling, extending the range and endurance of carrier-based aircraft such as the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, F-35C Lightning II and E-2D Hawkeye,” according to Boeing.

The Navy’s MQ-25A Stingray takes its first flight on April 25, 2026, at Boeing’s facility at MidAmerica Airport in Mascoutah, Ill. The MQ-25 is the Navy’s first operational carrier-based unmanned aircraft. (Jamie Cosgrove/Boeing)

The Stingray is 51-feet long with a 75-foot wingspan that can carry up to 16,000 pounds of fuel up to 500 nautical miles from its launch point on a carrier to receiving aircraft. The Navy has said this will allow fighters to operate much farther from the carrier strike group.

The MQ-25A is planned to replace manned F/A-18E/F Super Hornets that have served as tankers for other aircraft. By transferring that mission to the MQ-25, the Navy said it will free up the Super Hornets for combat missions.

The MD-5 Ground Control Station installed on Reagan incorporates Lockheed Martin Skunk Works MDCX (Multi-Domain Combat System) software and computing hardware, along with government-developed communications and networking equipment.

The Navy has developed shore, at-sea and expeditionary variants of the MD-5 that can fly the MQ-25A Stingray from anywhere around the globe.

The installation of a Ground Control Station on carriers is part of the Navy’s effort to “advance technology for future Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA),” the Navy said. CCA is the terminology for unmanned aircraft that can fly in combination with or under the control of manned aircraft.

The Navy says the “system of systems” installed on Reagan includes command, control, communications, computers and intelligence networks.

The Navy said that because Reagan was in the Puget Sound shipyard for an extended period, it could install the 11 modifications concurrently instead of a “multiyear, phased approach.”

Reagan is homeported at Naval Station Kitsap in Bremerton, Wash., adjacent to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

Since it left the shipyard in late August, Reagan’s crew has been involved in comprehensive “pier-side and at-sea test events with the UAWC to validate the readiness” to support the MQ-25A Stingray.

“This is a testament to the dedication, technical expertise, and synergy of our joint government and industry teams,” said Capt. Daniel Fucito, program manager for Unmanned Carrier Aviation Program Office (PMA-268).