In 2012, lethality and strike requirements were diluted in order to create an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR)-oriented aircraft that could be developed quickly to conduct low-intensity counter-terrorism missions.

[2] The Pentagon apparently made this program change to address the Navy's expected fighter shortfall by directing funds to buy more F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and accelerate purchases of the F-35C.

It also addresses the carriers' need for an organic refueling aircraft, proposed for the UCLASS since 2014, freeing up the 20–30 percent of Super Hornets performing the mission in a more capable and cost effective manner than modifying the F-35, V-22 Osprey, and E-2D Hawkeye, or returning the retired S-3 Viking to service.

[9] The Navy released the final MQ-25 Stingray request for proposals in October 2017 to Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and General Atomics.

[14] Northrop Grumman announced on 25 October 2017 that it was withdrawing its X-47B from the MQ-25 competition, saying the company would have been unable to execute the program under the terms of the service's request for proposals.

[15] The company's departure signaled to some analysts that the Navy's requirements could favor wing-body-tail designs, not the flying wings thought to be proposed by Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin.

The mission lasted about 4.5 hours with the two aircraft performing numerous dry or wet connects for more than 10 minutes and 325 pounds of fuel transferred in total.

[26][27][28] The Navy established VUQ-10 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, as the Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) for the MQ-25 on 1 October 2022.