A newly released Defense Department report said the Boeing [BA] MQ-25A Stingray carrier-based unmanned tanker average unit procurement costs have increased due to delays in the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) aircraft and detailed schedule shifts.
“Current estimates for all remaining Acquisition Program Baseline [APB] schedule parameters are in breach of the approved APB for delays in the build of EMD aircraft due to supplier management challenges and learning associated with the Full-Size Determinant Assembly (FSDA) manufacturing processes,” the DoD’s latest Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) for December 2022, released this month, said.
A June $4 billion omnibus reprogramming request by the DoD comptroller said the Navy wanted to decrease MQ-25 funds in the other aircraft procurement account by $580 million due to the EMD delays and obsolescence issues. The delays led to the Navy pushing back Milestone C and Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) awards from fiscal year 2023 to 2025 (Defense Daily, July 18).
In April, Program Executive Officer for Unmanned Aviation and Strike Weapons Rear Adm. Stephen Tedford said the revised MQ-25 IOC schedule was pushed back a year to 2026 due to these production maturity challenges (Defense Daily, April 13).
The SAR said the current estimates for average procurement unit cost is in breach of the approved APB because of increased obsolescence and risk costs associated with cost model updates.
Therefore, the Navy changed procurement plans from four in FY 2023 to one and four in DY 2024 to three. Over fiscal years 2023 to 2028 the Navy now plans to procure at a rate of 1/3/4/4/4/7 over the six years.
The SAR detailed the current state of delays in the acquisition program’s timeline.
The report said the first MQ-25 flight off a carrier was pushed back from December 2024 to June 2025, LRIP was moved from August to September 2023, initial operational test and evaluation (IOT&E) was delayed from August 2025 to July 2026, initial operational capability (IOC) was changed from September 2025 to July 2026, and full rate production completion was pushed from March 2026 to May 2027.
The SAR also detailed some of the specific factors that contributed to cost and schedule variance. These include that the aircraft design was “intentionally paused to optimize weight and strength,” quality issues were identified during the build process while corrective actions and process improvements have been implemented, redesign of the lightning protection solution was implemented into the aircraft design, and the COVID-19 pandemic impacted multiple Boeing suppliers.
The Navy plans to procure 76 total MQ-25s, including four engineering development models and three system demonstration test articles.