Rolls-Royce’s Tiffany Bowman Discusses Powering the MQ-25A Stingray | Rolls-Royce

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Rolls-Royce is the industry leader of propulsion systems for unmanned High Altitude, Long Endurance military aircraft. We’ve established a strong history powering platforms like the U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk and U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton.

The U.S. Navy’s MQ-25A Stingray is the latest platform to be powered by Rolls-Royce, with the proven AE 3007 engine. The Stingray will significantly extend the range of tactical fighters, enabling aircraft carriers to operate further from hostile shores thereby staying outside the range of land-based anti-ship threats. This keeps our service members safer and directly supports the National Defense Strategy’s focus on sustaining credible maritime domain security and awareness capabilities.

The MQ-25A recently completed its first flight and continues working towards carrier integration. We caught up with Senior Vice President, AE 1107/3007 Programs Tiffany Bowman to discuss this important milestone, the company’s ongoing support for the program and the capabilities of the AE 3007 engine.

Q: Can you talk about Rolls-Royce’s role on the MQ-25A and why the AE 3007 is the right solution?

Rolls-Royce is the sole propulsion provider for the MQ-25A. Every Stingray will be powered by our AE 3007 engine. Safe, reliable propulsion is foundational to everything the aircraft is designed to do — it is what keeps an unmanned aircraft in the air, performing its mission, and returning to the carrier safely. The propulsion system is not a commodity on a program like this. It is mission-critical, and the safety, performance and reliability standards we apply to it reflect that responsibility.

Q: What makes Rolls-Royce uniquely qualified for a program like MQ-25A?

Rolls-Royce has demonstrated the ability to deliver safe, reliable propulsion for the most demanding unmanned missions in the U.S. Services inventory. The AE 3007 powers both the Global Hawk for the U.S. Air Force and Triton for the U.S. Navy — single-engine aircraft that operate at extreme altitudes and durations where reliability is an absolute prerequisite; there is no option to land if the engine has a problem. That experience — designing and sustaining propulsion for unmanned platforms where safety margins cannot be compromised — is directly transferable to the MQ-25A. We did not arrive at this program as a new entrant. We earned our position here.

Q: The MQ-25A is an unmanned aircraft. Does removing the pilot from the equation change how Rolls-Royce thinks about safety?

In some ways it raises the bar. With an unmanned system, the engine must perform reliably in the absence of an onboard crew. There is no pilot in the cockpit to manage a propulsion issue manually. The pilots on the ground in the Unmanned Carrier Aviation Mission Control System will be monitoring the engine’s performance and will have ability to respond to in-flight engine anomalies.

That reality reinforces why we invest so heavily in the safety and reliability of the AE 3007 — the engine has to be right the first time, every time. At the same time, the unmanned nature of the MQ-25A is itself a safety benefit: this aircraft protects the lives of naval aviators by removing them from the refueling mission entirely. That is a dimension of safety we are genuinely proud to contribute to.

Q: What does success look like for Rolls-Royce specifically on first flight?

For Rolls-Royce, success means the engine operates safely and reliably within its designed thrust and fuel consumption parameters. Safety in flight test is never assumed — it is verified through exhaustive pre-flight testing, analysis, and systems checks. The 72 million flight hours behind this engine give us a high degree of confidence, but we approach every new milestone with the same rigor we would apply to a first-ever system.

Q: The MQ-25A is described as a steppingstone to a broader unmanned carrier air wing future. What is Rolls-Royce's longer-term role?

Rolls-Royce is committed to being a long-term propulsion partner as the Navy evolves toward a more autonomous and collaborative carrier air wing. We have a strong history powering aircraft that operate on carriers, such as the V-22, F-35B and Advanced Hawkeye. We are leveraging that experience and building critical institutional knowledge with the MQ-25A — about what safe, reliable unmanned propulsion requires in a carrier environment, how to minimize the maintenance footprint at sea, and how to sustain operational readiness on a flight deck. Safety is not just a design requirement for these systems; it is an operational requirement. The lessons the Navy and Rolls-Royce are learning together on MQ-25A are likely to shape what comes next.

Q: Where is this engine made? What kinds of investments have you made in production facilities and workforce to ensure on-time delivery?

Rolls-Royce manufactures all of our AE engines in Indianapolis, Indiana, where we have invested more than $1 billion over the past decade to build one of the most advanced engine test and manufacturing facilities in the country. When we talk about the safety, performance and reliability of the AE 3007 engine powering the MQ-25A, that record is built here by our American workforce. We support approximately 3,500 direct employees and more than 6,000 supply chain jobs in Indiana, contributing about $1.6 billion in local economic impact in 2024. We also partner with Purdue University through a $75 million, 10-year alliance. Rolls-Royce continues to invest in the people, technologies, and communities that shape American capability — standing as a trusted, reliable partner for the U.S. military and supporting faster delivery to the warfighter.

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