By: Gavin Thorne – SeaPRwire – The USS Roosevelt now carries the first fully operational unmanned aviation warfare center in the US fleet. Pentagon paperwork calls it ready for the MQ-25A. That label feels thin. The program began in 2006. Initial operational capability was promised for 2024. It now sits in fiscal 2030. Turkey already flies drones as its main carrier aircraft. Britain tested them years ago. China designed its newest decks for the same role from day one. The American timeline simply did not keep pace.
Official numbers arrive first. The latest Modernization Selected Acquisition Report states that Roosevelt’s center makes it the first US carrier with full MQ-25A operational and deployable capability. The same center on the USS Reagan is projected to reach that status by the end of this August. The setup integrates the shipboard unmanned aviation mission control system with the MD-5E ground control station. Those two pieces form the core command link the tanker drone needs. In May the Acting Navy Secretary told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the MQ-25A had moved into low-rate initial production and deployment. The aircraft’s stated purpose is to take the buddy-tanking load off the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. That change is supposed to free the fighters for strike work and stretch the reach of the entire carrier group.
The quieter record shows how long the slip lasted. Fixed-wing carrier drones were already under discussion in 2006. The Navy launched the Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike program, or UCLASS, in 2010. The goal then was a stealthy jet that could push deep inland and extend the strike group’s range. Technical hurdles and budget pressure forced a 2016 rewrite. The effort became the Carrier-Based Aerial Refueling System, CBARS. Boeing received a 2018 contract for four MQ-25A airframes covering design, development, manufacture, test, and delivery. The full program was sized at 72 aircraft and roughly 13 billion dollars. The first control center was installed and tested on the USS Bush in August 2024. Only now has Roosevelt brought the system to actual operational status. Every major milestone moved later than planned.
Other fleets did not wait. Turkey’s Anadolu entered service in 2023 as the first carrier built around drones as its primary aircraft. Domestic Turkish drones completed their first takeoffs and landings from that ship in 2024. The British carrier Prince of Wales finished Mojave drone trials several years earlier. China’s Fujian carrier and Type 076 amphibious assault ship were drawn from the start with fixed-wing drone operations in mind. Multiple stealth drone types appeared openly in the 2025 parade. The US Navy still treats the MQ-25A as a future capability while those platforms already operate or sit ready. The supply chain and industrial base that once led this field now chase schedules set by others. The next concrete step is simple: get the remaining control centers online and the first operational tankers onto the deck before another year slips.
Author bio: Gavin Thorne, a former Silicon Valley technical director who now analyzes unmanned systems and carrier aviation programs for defense and industry clients.