U.S. Tests Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat Loyal Wingman With F-35 and F-15EX Fighters in Indo-Pacific Drill
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Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat operated with U.S. Air Force and allied aircraft during Exercise Valiant Shield 2026, marking its first known integration into a major U.S.-led multinational exercise in the Indo-Pacific. Boeing disclosed the June flights on July 7, 2026, underscoring how the Australian-developed Collaborative Combat Aircraft is moving from testing toward operational teaming with crewed combat platforms.
The aircraft flew alongside F-35, F-15EX, E-3, E-2D, EA-18G, RC-135, and HC-130 aircraft, giving U.S. forces data on deployment, sustainment, and agile combat employment. The activity highlights the growing role of autonomous systems in extending combat reach, strengthening survivability, and supporting distributed air operations across the Pacific.
Related topic: U.S. Air Force Orders $80.5M Titan MS Counter-Drone Systems to Protect Strategic Nuclear Bases.
Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat flies with U.S. and allied aircraft during Exercise Valiant Shield 2026, marking the first integration of a Collaborative Combat Aircraft into a multinational joint exercise in the Indo-Pacific (Picture source: Boeing).
The Ghost Bat is relevant because its design addresses a specific force-structure problem: the U.S. and allied air forces need more sensors, more missile carriers, more decoys, and more survivable forward nodes than can be generated by crewed fighters alone. Boeing lists the MQ-28 at 11.7 meters in length, 7.3 meters in wingspan, 2.0 meters in height, about 3,175 kilograms in weight, with a range above 2,000 nautical miles, fighter-compatible speed up to Mach 0.9, and an operating ceiling above 40,000 feet. Those figures place it below a conventional fighter in size and payload, but within the performance band required to fly alongside fourth- and fifth-generation combat aircraft over long Indo-Pacific distances. Its modular nose, open-system architecture, and missionized payload approach are intended to allow changes in sensors, electronic-warfare equipment, communications packages, or weapons-related mission systems without redesigning the whole aircraft.
The armament question is no longer theoretical. On December 9, 2025, Boeing and the Royal Australian Air Force announced that an MQ-28 had fired a Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM during a force-integrated air-to-air engagement at the Woomera Test Range in South Australia. In that event, the Ghost Bat operated with an RAAF E-7A Wedgetail and F/A-18F Super Hornet against a fighter-class Phoenix Jet uncrewed aerial target; the aircraft launched from separate locations, an E-7A operator took custodianship of the MQ-28, the Super Hornet provided target data, and the MQ-28 repositioned before receiving authorization to engage. The Australian Department of Defence later confirmed that the live weapon was an AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile and that the MQ-28 destroyed the aerial target while operating as a loyal wingman to the E-7A.
The AIM-120 integration is important because it gives the MQ-28 a role beyond sensing. The U.S. Air Force fact sheet describes AMRAAM as an air-to-air tactical missile with active radar terminal guidance, inertial midcourse guidance, a blast-fragmentation warhead, 3.66-meter length, 17.78-centimeter diameter, 150.75-kilogram launch weight, and a stated range above 20 miles, while RTX describes the missile as using inertial guidance, midcourse updates, and an onboard active radar seeker. In operational terms, this means a Ghost Bat can be used as a forward shooter cued by another aircraft, or as a missile-carrying node that complicates an adversary’s assessment of where the actual threat is located. The tactical value is not simply that an uncrewed aircraft can carry a missile; it is that the aircraft can receive data, adjust geometry, remain under human authorization, and contribute to a beyond-visual-range engagement without requiring a pilot to occupy the same risk position.
For readers following the MQ-28 Block 3 internal weapons-bay configuration, the Valiant Shield flights add an operational layer to the weapons-integration story. Internal carriage of AIM-120-class missiles or small precision weapons would matter because external stores increase drag and radar signature, while internal carriage supports survivability and range management. A CCA carrying two air-to-air missiles does not replace an F-35A, F-15EX or F/A-18F; it changes formation geometry by allowing those crewed aircraft to distribute sensors and weapons across a wider area. A Ghost Bat positioned forward, laterally, or below the main fighter formation could support counter-air screening, electronic deception, remote sensing, or a missile shot launched from a different axis than the crewed aircraft. That is the tactical basis for the CCA concept, and it explains why the U.S. Air Force placed the aircraft in an exercise involving fighters, airborne early warning, electronic attack, and intelligence aircraft rather than in a narrow demonstration flight.
The strategic milestone is that Valiant Shield tested deployment behavior, not only flight performance. The Indo-Pacific imposes a geography problem before it imposes an air-combat problem: bases are far apart, tanker demand is high, airfields are exposed to missile attack, and sortie generation depends on maintenance, spare parts, communications access, and runway availability. A CCA that cannot be deployed, turned around, linked into command networks, and deconflicted with crewed aircraft has limited military value, even if it performs well in a test range. By operating from Rota during a biennial U.S. Indo-Pacific Command exercise focused on detecting, locating, tracking and engaging targets across multiple domains, the MQ-28 gave U.S. and allied planners evidence on logistics, airspace control, communications, maintenance procedures and human-machine teaming under exercise conditions.
The broader CCA strategy is also a procurement and software strategy. On June 17, 2026, the U.S. Air Force announced contracts for CCA Increment 1 air vehicles, including FQ-42 from General Atomics and FQ-44 from Anduril, and separate mission-autonomy software contracts involving Anduril, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Collins Aerospace and Shield AI. The Air Force stated that it intends to procure more than 150 combat-capable CCAs by the end of the decade and approximately 1,000 over time, using the government-owned Autonomy Government Reference Architecture to separate autonomy software from aircraft hardware. That approach is strategically important because future air combat will require software updates, new autonomy behaviors, new sensors, and changed engagement rules faster than traditional aircraft modification cycles normally allow.
For Australia, the MQ-28 is also an industrial and alliance project. The Australian government announced approximately A$1.4 billion in December 2025 to transition the Ghost Bat toward an operational warfighting capability, including six operational Block 2 aircraft and an enhanced Block 3 prototype; Boeing separately said it had received an AUD$754 million contract under AIR6015 to deliver, develop, and support a third tranche of MQ-28 aircraft over three years. The program supports more than 440 jobs and more than 200 Australian suppliers, with 70 percent of program expenditure directed to Australian industry, according to Australian government and Boeing statements. For Washington, this means the CCA ecosystem is not limited to U.S. suppliers. For Canberra, it means the first Australian-designed military aircraft in more than 50 years is being tested inside the operational architecture of its principal ally, which is a more demanding benchmark than a national demonstration program.
The practical conclusion is that the MQ-28’s Valiant Shield participation should be read less as a public demonstration and more as an early operational assessment of a new force-design model. The aircraft must still prove reliability, sustainment cost, autonomy behavior, weapons carriage, command resilience, and performance in contested communications environments. However, its combination of long range, fighter-compatible speed, modular payload design, AMRAAM integration, and deployment with U.S. and allied forces makes it one of the clearest current examples of how CCAs could alter the air order of battle. The issue is not whether uncrewed combat aircraft will replace crewed fighters; the issue is how many sensors, weapons, and decision nodes a commander can distribute forward without increasing pilot exposure at the same rate.
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Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.
Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.
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Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat operated with U.S. Air Force and allied aircraft during Exercise Valiant Shield 2026, marking its first known integration into a major U.S.-led multinational exercise in the Indo-Pacific. Boeing disclosed the June flights on July 7, 2026, underscoring how the Australian-developed Collaborative Combat Aircraft is moving from testing toward operational teaming with crewed combat platforms.
The aircraft flew alongside F-35, F-15EX, E-3, E-2D, EA-18G, RC-135, and HC-130 aircraft, giving U.S. forces data on deployment, sustainment, and agile combat employment. The activity highlights the growing role of autonomous systems in extending combat reach, strengthening survivability, and supporting distributed air operations across the Pacific.
Related topic: U.S. Air Force Orders $80.5M Titan MS Counter-Drone Systems to Protect Strategic Nuclear Bases.
Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat flies with U.S. and allied aircraft during Exercise Valiant Shield 2026, marking the first integration of a Collaborative Combat Aircraft into a multinational joint exercise in the Indo-Pacific (Picture source: Boeing).
The Ghost Bat is relevant because its design addresses a specific force-structure problem: the U.S. and allied air forces need more sensors, more missile carriers, more decoys, and more survivable forward nodes than can be generated by crewed fighters alone. Boeing lists the MQ-28 at 11.7 meters in length, 7.3 meters in wingspan, 2.0 meters in height, about 3,175 kilograms in weight, with a range above 2,000 nautical miles, fighter-compatible speed up to Mach 0.9, and an operating ceiling above 40,000 feet. Those figures place it below a conventional fighter in size and payload, but within the performance band required to fly alongside fourth- and fifth-generation combat aircraft over long Indo-Pacific distances. Its modular nose, open-system architecture, and missionized payload approach are intended to allow changes in sensors, electronic-warfare equipment, communications packages, or weapons-related mission systems without redesigning the whole aircraft.
The armament question is no longer theoretical. On December 9, 2025, Boeing and the Royal Australian Air Force announced that an MQ-28 had fired a Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM during a force-integrated air-to-air engagement at the Woomera Test Range in South Australia. In that event, the Ghost Bat operated with an RAAF E-7A Wedgetail and F/A-18F Super Hornet against a fighter-class Phoenix Jet uncrewed aerial target; the aircraft launched from separate locations, an E-7A operator took custodianship of the MQ-28, the Super Hornet provided target data, and the MQ-28 repositioned before receiving authorization to engage. The Australian Department of Defence later confirmed that the live weapon was an AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile and that the MQ-28 destroyed the aerial target while operating as a loyal wingman to the E-7A.
The AIM-120 integration is important because it gives the MQ-28 a role beyond sensing. The U.S. Air Force fact sheet describes AMRAAM as an air-to-air tactical missile with active radar terminal guidance, inertial midcourse guidance, a blast-fragmentation warhead, 3.66-meter length, 17.78-centimeter diameter, 150.75-kilogram launch weight, and a stated range above 20 miles, while RTX describes the missile as using inertial guidance, midcourse updates, and an onboard active radar seeker. In operational terms, this means a Ghost Bat can be used as a forward shooter cued by another aircraft, or as a missile-carrying node that complicates an adversary’s assessment of where the actual threat is located. The tactical value is not simply that an uncrewed aircraft can carry a missile; it is that the aircraft can receive data, adjust geometry, remain under human authorization, and contribute to a beyond-visual-range engagement without requiring a pilot to occupy the same risk position.
For readers following the MQ-28 Block 3 internal weapons-bay configuration, the Valiant Shield flights add an operational layer to the weapons-integration story. Internal carriage of AIM-120-class missiles or small precision weapons would matter because external stores increase drag and radar signature, while internal carriage supports survivability and range management. A CCA carrying two air-to-air missiles does not replace an F-35A, F-15EX or F/A-18F; it changes formation geometry by allowing those crewed aircraft to distribute sensors and weapons across a wider area. A Ghost Bat positioned forward, laterally, or below the main fighter formation could support counter-air screening, electronic deception, remote sensing, or a missile shot launched from a different axis than the crewed aircraft. That is the tactical basis for the CCA concept, and it explains why the U.S. Air Force placed the aircraft in an exercise involving fighters, airborne early warning, electronic attack, and intelligence aircraft rather than in a narrow demonstration flight.
The strategic milestone is that Valiant Shield tested deployment behavior, not only flight performance. The Indo-Pacific imposes a geography problem before it imposes an air-combat problem: bases are far apart, tanker demand is high, airfields are exposed to missile attack, and sortie generation depends on maintenance, spare parts, communications access, and runway availability. A CCA that cannot be deployed, turned around, linked into command networks, and deconflicted with crewed aircraft has limited military value, even if it performs well in a test range. By operating from Rota during a biennial U.S. Indo-Pacific Command exercise focused on detecting, locating, tracking and engaging targets across multiple domains, the MQ-28 gave U.S. and allied planners evidence on logistics, airspace control, communications, maintenance procedures and human-machine teaming under exercise conditions.
The broader CCA strategy is also a procurement and software strategy. On June 17, 2026, the U.S. Air Force announced contracts for CCA Increment 1 air vehicles, including FQ-42 from General Atomics and FQ-44 from Anduril, and separate mission-autonomy software contracts involving Anduril, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Collins Aerospace and Shield AI. The Air Force stated that it intends to procure more than 150 combat-capable CCAs by the end of the decade and approximately 1,000 over time, using the government-owned Autonomy Government Reference Architecture to separate autonomy software from aircraft hardware. That approach is strategically important because future air combat will require software updates, new autonomy behaviors, new sensors, and changed engagement rules faster than traditional aircraft modification cycles normally allow.
For Australia, the MQ-28 is also an industrial and alliance project. The Australian government announced approximately A$1.4 billion in December 2025 to transition the Ghost Bat toward an operational warfighting capability, including six operational Block 2 aircraft and an enhanced Block 3 prototype; Boeing separately said it had received an AUD$754 million contract under AIR6015 to deliver, develop, and support a third tranche of MQ-28 aircraft over three years. The program supports more than 440 jobs and more than 200 Australian suppliers, with 70 percent of program expenditure directed to Australian industry, according to Australian government and Boeing statements. For Washington, this means the CCA ecosystem is not limited to U.S. suppliers. For Canberra, it means the first Australian-designed military aircraft in more than 50 years is being tested inside the operational architecture of its principal ally, which is a more demanding benchmark than a national demonstration program.
The practical conclusion is that the MQ-28’s Valiant Shield participation should be read less as a public demonstration and more as an early operational assessment of a new force-design model. The aircraft must still prove reliability, sustainment cost, autonomy behavior, weapons carriage, command resilience, and performance in contested communications environments. However, its combination of long range, fighter-compatible speed, modular payload design, AMRAAM integration, and deployment with U.S. and allied forces makes it one of the clearest current examples of how CCAs could alter the air order of battle. The issue is not whether uncrewed combat aircraft will replace crewed fighters; the issue is how many sensors, weapons, and decision nodes a commander can distribute forward without increasing pilot exposure at the same rate.
Explore More Defense News
• Land Defense News
• Naval Defense News
• Defense Aerospace News
Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst.
Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.
