MQ25 continues flight testing...the Navy/Marines have their interim unmanned Strike/ISR/Refueling platform, just kit it out....

From late summer to fall and now winter - #MQ25 is still flying! Ongoing flight tests are providing hundreds of data points as we continue developing the @USNavy’s unmanned aerial refueler. pic.twitter.com/s6Ege4fxlr

— Boeing Defense (@BoeingDefense) December 18, 2019

This bird is in hand now time to make it work.  Want real innovation?  Take an LHA, strip off all the manned aircraft from it, load it up with these puppies and see how it does on exercise.

Want a POWERFUL MEU going into the future?  First call it by its correct name. MEU-RSG (Reinforced Strike Group).  Add two ship to the current package.  The first will be an additional LHA carrying nothing but unmanned aircraft...the MQ25. The second ship you would add is flexible.  In the Persian Gulf it would be (in my estimation) ANOTHER LHD with a standard loadout.  In the Pacific it would be a Expeditionary Transfer Dock.  It would carry additional Amphibious Combat Vehicles, its standard loadout of LCACs and any robotic vehicles the Corps can get running.

We're dabbling at the edges of this thing.  Real innovation next to be experimented on in the fleet, not in a classroom - boardroom - or over drinks in the O-Club.