Defense One reports, “The Navy’s drone tanker, the MQ-25A Stingray, is cleared for low-rate initial production—just weeks after a production-ready model took its first flight. “MQ-25 reached Milestone C, which is huge because now we have inflight refueling that is unmanned…it’s a great capability,” Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said at the end of an hourslong Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday.”
Full Story (Defense One)
Tag: Navy
US Space Force to Take Over Operations of Navy, Army Satellites
Space News reports that in October, the US Space Force “will begin to take over the operation of 11 Navy narrowband communications satellites. It also will absorb Army units that currently operate military communications payloads, a Space Force official said June 23.” The transition “will create a more integrated U.S. military satcom enterprise which for decades has ‘largely been a loose federation,’ said Col. Matthew Holston, commander of Space Delta 8.” In addition to the 11 narrowband communication satellites coming from the Navy, Space Delta 8 also “will absorb three Navy satellite control antennas and ground control stations at Prospect Harbor, Maine; Laguna Peak, California; and Finegayan, Guam.”
Full Story (Space News)