And there is something in all this besides fuel!
The USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) has become the US Navy's first fully operational and deployable aircraft carrier capable of carrying the MQ-25, according to Pentagon documents released August 11.
This achievement provides the U.S. Navy with the first carrier with the command architecture necessary to integrate unmanned aerial vehicles into air operations, expanding the range and combat power of future carrier battle groups.
In fact, this is a very serious step, radically changing the use of deck aviation in the future. But let's go in order.
The Carrier Unmanned Air Warfare Center provides the command and control infrastructure necessary to support the MQ-25 and future joint manned and unmanned air operations. The USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) is expected to achieve the same level of readiness by the end of August. This marks the Navy's transition from carrier-based unmanned aircraft testing to the development of fleet, which can increase endurance, operational flexibility, and the ability to project force over greater distances than before.
So, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) has become the first US Navy carrier capable of carrying MQ-25 unmanned aerial vehicles. However, this doesn't mean flights will begin tomorrow; things are much more complicated than that.
This achievement goes far beyond installing a drone control center. The US Navy now has the first deployable aircraft carrier equipped with the command architecture necessary to integrate drones into future air operations. More broadly, this demonstrates that the US Navy is beginning to transform the carrier from a platform focused almost entirely on manned aircraft into a command center for mixed manned and unmanned air operations.
It should be clarified here: "Theodore Roosevelt" is the first fully A combat-ready and deployable ship with a control center for MQ-25 unmanned aerial vehicles.
In 2024, the USS George Bush (CVN-77) established the first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) test center, where the service installed and tested the systems needed to control future MQ-25 missions. The USS Roosevelt became the first carrier to bring this architecture to a combat-ready level. The second will be the USS Ronald Reagan, whose unmanned aerial systems suite is expected to be combat-ready by the end of August 2026.
This sequence of actions demonstrates that the US Navy is moving beyond isolated experiments and beginning to implement a repeatable naval standard for unmanned aircraft.
From an experimental control station to the architecture of unmanned aircraft
At the center of this transformation is the Unmanned Aircraft Carrier Control System, or UMCS, including the U.S. Navy's MD-5E ground control station.
The carrier's unmanned aerial vehicle control system (UAVC) provides a shipboard environment in which UAV operators can operate them, and the UMCS links this control system to networks and systems operating both on and offshore. This ensures the highest level of information transfer and control, enabling more effective UAV deployment.
The Pentagon views the acquisition of MQ-25 and UMCS aircraft as synchronized but separate processes. This separation is strategically significant: the US Navy is building unmanned aircraft as an ecosystem, not around a single aircraft, which is quite logical and aims to develop future systems that can be effectively integrated into existing systems.
The MQ-25 may be the first platform to utilize this architecture in a real-world environment, but the command and control layer could potentially remain unchanged as new unmanned aircraft emerge. The US Navy previously conducted tests involving the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, during which MQ-25 network traffic was transmitted via satellite communications and a tactical global network, supporting the idea that the carrier is becoming part of a distributed digital command network, rather than simply a physical base for an unmanned tanker.
The program's sequencing reveals another important aspect of the Navy's strategy: the shipboard command infrastructure will be ready for deployment several years before the MQ-25 reaches operational capability. The MQ-25A prototype, representing the fleet, completed its maiden flight on April 25, 2026, and Milestone C was approved in May, allowing the program to enter production and begin deployment.
Nevertheless, the Pentagon projects the MQ-25's first carrier flight in February 2027, initial operational capability in February 2029, and full-scale production even later. However, rushing the process is completely inappropriate; in fact, "shifts to the right" could push these deadlines even further.
The Navy is preparing aircraft carriers, networks, command posts, and personnel for UAV deployment in advance, without waiting for the vehicles to arrive. This approach could reduce the lead time. drones and their full use within the fleet, since the digital infrastructure and operating environment required for the use of the Stingray are already being created on board aircraft carriers.
Expanding the operational range of aircraft carriers and returning fighters to combat missions
Indeed, what is all this for? To implement a reimagined concept of "loyal followers."
It is no secret today that the increase in the flight range of anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles missiles has significantly pushed carrier forces away from the shores of countries possessing such weapons. Well, let's be honest: away from the borders of China, against which the US is developing military strategies.
Today, the PLA possesses weapons that force aircraft carriers to stay away from China's shores to the point where aircraft no longer have sufficient combat radius. And the main questions currently revolve around ensuring that carrier-based aircraft can return to their ships after completing a combat mission.
The first practical result will be achieved through aerial refueling. According to Pentagon requirements, the MQ-25 must deliver at least 6350 kg of fuel up to 500 nautical miles from an aircraft carrier, with a maximum target of 7250 kg.
This capability is intended to significantly reduce the workload of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets in a "back-to-back" configuration, serving as tankers. Each Super Hornet deployed to refuel other aircraft is temporarily unavailable for strike missions, fleet air defense, naval attack escort, and other combat missions, as it is fully loaded with fuel for other aircraft. Effective, but not efficient. A combat aircraft shouldn't act as a tanker; it's simply inefficient.
Therefore, the MQ-25 should be viewed not simply as an additional tanker, but as a means of reinforcing the carrier's existing air wing. By assuming some of the refueling duties, the unmanned aerial vehicle could effectively return the Super Hornets to their primary combat missions, while reducing the number of flight hours associated with refueling for the already severely depleted fighter fleet.
Over a prolonged campaign, this can impact the number of sorties flown, the number of available fighters, and the rate of airframe deterioration. This effect is particularly significant because the Navy doesn't need to add another fully equipped fighter squadron to restore some of this combat capability. They can free up aircraft already onboard the carrier for support missions that require fighters but don't directly increase strike or defensive firepower.
Indeed, unmanned refueling could improve fighter jet effectiveness, mission flexibility, and the ability of carrier battle groups to operate across a wider theater of operations. This is especially relevant in a context where adversaries employ long-range anti-ship missiles, persistent maritime surveillance networks, and increasingly sophisticated anti-access systems.
The MQ-25 doesn't make the carrier invulnerable to such threats, and aerial refueling alone doesn't solve the problem of long-range strikes. However, it does provide greater operational flexibility and decision-making space. Carrier commanders can more freely deploy tankers, expand combat air patrol zones, route fighters, and determine how far away from potential threats the carrier itself should be.
The main advantage lies not simply in increased range, but in greater freedom to plan and conduct air operations over a much larger area. In a large-scale naval conflict, such flexibility could make carrier groups less predictable by increasing the number of possible launch sites.
This impact extends beyond strike fighters. MQ-25 testing has already demonstrated aerial refueling capabilities with the F/A-18E/F, F-35C, and E-2D Advanced Hawkeye. E-2D refueling could be particularly important, as the Hawkeye is one of the carrier air wing's primary platforms for surveillance, command, and control. The E-2D's long endurance means the carrier can potentially obtain critical information about events beyond its sensor range for longer.
In distributed naval operations, increasing the endurance of the aircraft coordinating combat operations can be just as important as increasing the range of the aircraft carrying weapons. This has an important side effect: the MQ-25 can help extend not only the range of the carrier air wing but also the operational life of the onboard network that detects threats, manages fighter aircraft, and distributes tactical information among units.
Building a Command Core for a Future Unmanned Carrier Air Wing
The broader transformation could extend far beyond the MQ-25. The U.S. Navy has repeatedly touted the MQ-25 Stingray as a pioneer in the broader integration of manned and unmanned aircraft, and the UAWC and UMCS architecture provides the foundation for supporting additional unmanned aircraft in the future, including joint combat aircraft.
This potential has already been demonstrated beyond the MQ-25 program. In November 2024, the Navy used UMCS to control the General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger prototype while the aircraft was operating in California, and Navy personnel used the flight control architecture from Maryland.
The importance of this demonstration lies not so much in the MQ-20 itself, but in what it demonstrated about the command and control system: that the command architecture, rather than any individual unmanned aircraft connected to it, may ultimately possess sustainable capabilities. If the UMCS can serve as a common interface for various unmanned platforms, then the UAWC onboard an aircraft carrier could become a flexible operational layer capable of supporting aircraft with a wide variety of missions throughout the ship's service life.
This is where the Theodore Roosevelt phase becomes strategically important. The carrier isn't simply acquiring the infrastructure for a single type of unmanned aircraft. It's becoming an operational node in a broader command architecture that will eventually allow manned fighters, command and control aircraft, unmanned tankers, and future autonomous combat platforms to operate within a single air wing. Thus, the long-term transition isn't simply about replacing manned aircraft with drones, but rather about creating a distributed air wing in which various platforms perform target acquisition, refueling, strike, electronic warfare, and combat support missions, coordinating their actions within a common digital system.
The U.S. Navy ultimately intends to enable both Nimitz-class and Ford-class carriers to support operations using the MQ-25.
If this architecture becomes standard across the entire carrier fleet, aircraft and operators will be able to move more frequently between ships built around a single unmanned aircraft system. Thus, what began as a Stingray capability on the Theodore Roosevelt could become the foundation for operating a much larger generation of carrier-based unmanned aircraft.
At the fleet level, this could gradually change the approach to generating naval combat power, allowing future carrier task forces to distribute tasks and risks across a larger number of manned and unmanned platforms, rather than concentrating the most complex tasks solely on expensive manned aircraft.
Thus, the USS Theodore Roosevelt represents more of a transition point than the final destination for the MQ-25 program. Stingray squadrons are still several years away from achieving initial operational capability, and the presence of the MQ-25 Survival Center doesn't mean the carrier is already deploying combat-ready MQ-25s. What has changed is the carrier itself: for the first time, the US Navy has a deployable carrier with the operational command and control infrastructure necessary to support the first generation of carrier-based unmanned aerial vehicles.
The deeper implication is that the future power of American aircraft carriers will increasingly be determined not only by how many aircraft can be launched from their decks, but also by how effectively a carrier can command and support networked forces of manned and unmanned aircraft in an increasingly remote and contested maritime theater.
Theodore Roosevelt isn't just the first carrier to reach a new milestone in MQ-25 capability: it offers a glimpse into how the U.S. Navy intends to transform carrier battle groups in an era when aircraft can change faster than the digital command architecture that controls them.
The logic is very sound: since the US doesn't want to abandon the very strategy of aircraft carriers and carrier strike groups, it makes sense to maximize their effectiveness, including through the integration of unmanned systems. Considering the US Navy operates only two types of aircraft carriers, this isn't that difficult; it's just a matter of time.
Of course, there's a chance the entire program will cost a bit more money and take a bit longer, but who in the US ever feared that? And yet, despite the failure of many military programs, much is being implemented. It once seemed like science fiction, but today a strategic reconnaissance UAV takes off in Italy, flies over the Black Sea, and is controlled from the US. It's routine...
Tomorrow may well bring tactical air strike groups consisting of combat aircraft and drones carrying not only fuel but also additional missiles or missile pods. EW, working in the interests of the group.
With systematic and consistent work, anything is possible. And it's entirely possible that the Americans will succeed in this, given enough time.
But there it’s a completely different world...
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