First Unmanned Air Warfare Centre installed for Stingray operations
The first installation of the Unmanned Air Warfare Centre (UAWC). (Photo: US Navy)
The Unmanned Air Warfare Centre (UAWC) on board the USS George H.W. Bush will control MQ-25 Stingray airborne operations.
The US Navy has installed the world’s first UAWC aboard USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77). The centre will let Air Vehicle Pilots (AVPs) control future MQ-25 Stingray airborne operations.
The CVN-based control room includes software and hardware systems that make up the first fully operational and integrated Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System (UMCS) MD-5E Ground Control Station (GCS).
“CVN 77’s UAWC lays the foundation for how the US Navy will operate and control uncrewed aircraft, and perhaps other unmanned vehicles, with UMCS,” said Unmanned Carrier Aviation (PMA-268) programme manager Capt Daniel Fucito. “These systems will initially support the MQ-25, but also future unmanned systems such as Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) that comprise the air wing of the future.”
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The GCS includes Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works Multi Domain Combat System (MDCX), along with additional supporting equipment and hardware. The hardware installed in the racks and cockpits is the baseline for the production systems currently being fabricated for installation on CVNs 70, 71, and 76, beginning in Fiscal Year 2025.
The MQ-25 Stingray is a carrier-based, long-endurance UAS that will conduct aerial refuelling as a primary mission and provide ISR capability as a secondary mission. Once integrated into carrier fleets, the Stingray will extend the range of US carriers' existing crewed aircraft. When fully launched, the MQ-25 will become the first uncrewed vehicle capable of refuelling others mid-flight.
The first drone was delivered to the USN for testing in February 2024.
The George H.W. Bush was designed as a cross-over between the established Nimitz class aircraft carrier and the new Gerald R. Ford-class, which will gradually begin to replace the Nimitz as those craft start to retire from 2025 onward.
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