Boeing and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) have completed demonstrations validating the operational effectiveness of the MQ-28 Ghost Bat Collaborative Combat Aircraft, according to the company.
The demonstrations, which concluded in June, were finished four months ahead of schedule. Boeing stated that the trials involved a series of RAAF-defined missions designed to show how the uncrewed platform could supplement and enhance crewed aircraft capabilities.
The company reported that the MQ-28 completed 150 flight hours and more than 20,000 hours of digital testing during Capability Demonstration 2025. The missions validated autonomous behaviours, multi-aircraft operations, deployment to RAAF Base Tindal, teaming with an E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft, and the transmission of fused data between multiple MQ-28s and a crewed platform.
Glen Ferguson, MQ-28 Global program director, was quoted in the press release as saying: “The RAAF set the task of proving the first four steps in the Air Combat chain for the MQ-28 and we have accomplished that sooner than anticipated.”
He added: “Completing this work early allows us to accelerate the next phases of development – engage and assess – with an air-to-air weapon shot planned for later this year or in early 2026. The demonstrations have proven the maturity of MQ-28’s capabilities and the utility of CCA’s and their application to the future force mix.”
According to Boeing, the validated capabilities will be incorporated into the Block 2 aircraft currently in production. These are expected to form the basis of an initial operational capability for the RAAF and allied partners.
Slightly off topic: I read that the Aussie Defence Minister (and deputy PM) has played magic money this week, invoking NATO spending rules to claim Australia are spending 2.8% of GDP on Defence instead of the 2.1% of GDP they were spending last week. Of all the NATO standards they could adopt, this is the worst. When Cameron and Osborne introduced this in the UK more than a decade ago, it heralded a massive decline in military spending from which we never recovered.
You can’t buy Ghost Bats with magic money.
No but you may be able to impress the great orange one. It’s a preemptive recalculation with the Australian PM scheduled to visit Maralago Washington in the next few weeks.
It is comparing to things like this that make me scoff at all the varied model aeroplanes that HMG tout as being so world leading game changers for HM Armed Forces.
Recalls photos of Healey posing next to Stormshroud.
RAF UAV/CCA efforts seem to less focused and spread over multiple programs or platforms. The RAAF at least has the benefit of a singular focus which helps account for the rapid development program.
Interestingly this appears to be the first official confirmation that the early Block 1 and current Block 2 Ghost Bats may be weaponised with air to air missiles. It has always been implied but the obvious lack of any weapons bays for internal carriage on an ostensibly ‘stealthy’ platform has created uncertainty.
While a lack of any renders or images with wing mounted pylons has left things deliberately vague, pylon carriage seems the only option though it would compromise whatever level of stealth the Ghost Bat may have and possibly compromise any F35s its wingman for.
So no indication of likely load out but unlikely to be more than two AMRAAMS or a couple of Stormbreaker small diameter glide bombs in the air to ground role (RAAF has 3,900 in inventory).