GE Aviation has been awarded a contract by The Boeing Company to supply a stores management solution for the MQ-25 unmanned aerial refueling program.

"This system provides the operational support to help accomplish aerial refueling missions," said Alan Caslavka, president of Avionics Systems for GE Aviation. "The system entails a comprehensive safety architecture for a wide variety of stores and refueling systems, making it a key system enabler for virtually any platform, manned or unmanned."

GE Aviation has been providing mission/stores management solutions to a wide variety of military aerial platforms for more than 40 years. GE has delivered more than 4,500 systems to numerous fixed- and rotary-wing military aircraft operators worldwide. This system is designed according to safety and cybersecurity standards to accommodate current and future precision stores.

"The MQ-25 program is vital because it will help the U.S. Navy extend the range of the carrier air wing, and Boeing and our industry team are all-in on delivering this capability," said Dave Bujold, Boeing's MQ-25 program director. "The work we're doing is also foundational for the future of Boeing - where we're building autonomous systems from seabed to space."

The MQ-25 is the U.S. Navy's first operational carrier-based unmanned aircraft and is designed to provide a much-needed refueling capability. The contract supports Boeing's engineering and manufacturing development program to provide four MQ-25 aircraft to the U.S. Navy for Initial Operational Capability by 2024.