Catalog
KQ-26Ctheateroptionally attritable
Cistern
Range is a weapon. Cistern pulls tanking off Super Hornets and offload-starved USAF wings, then doubles as a flying mesh node. If the raid is worth a tanker, you spend it.
Dwg KQ-26C-001Rev A · Unclassified concept
Length15.8 m
Span22.4 m
Height4.0 m
Cistern
KQ-26C
Meridian design bureau
Conceptual · not a program of record
- Unit cost
- $38.0M
- Combat radius
- 1,500 nm
- Endurance
- 10 h
- Speed
- 480 kt
- Ceiling
- 40,000 ft
- Payload
- 9000 kg
- FY26 buy
- 12
- Rate / year
- 24
Launch / recover
Launch. Carrier catapult / conventional runway
Recover. Carrier trap / autoland
C2. Carrier air wing or land tanker cell; autonomous join-up
Why it is better
- Does not wait until 2029 to take tanking off fighters
- Land-based variant for USAF Indo-Pacific tanker gap
- Can pose as a tanker (decoy) or die as a gateway — optionally attritable C2
- Relative-nav boom/drogue join-up works in GNSS-denied airspace
Nav (GNSS optional)
- vision-inertial
- relative nav to receiver
- GNSS-optional
Sense
- passive ESM
- IRST for receiver join-up
- tactical datalink suite
Effect
- 8,200 kg offload
- communications gateway
- expendable decoy tanker mode
Against the public program
MQ-25A Stingray
Public. LRIP Lot 1 awarded 14 Sep 2026 — 3 tails, deliveries 2029; 14,000 lb / 500 nm; 67 operational
Gap. First operational tails in 2029; Super Hornets still tanking; no land-based analog
Meridian. Carrier AND land basing, 18,000 lb-class offload, mesh gateway, first 12 in FY26 test-ops