Perhaps Boeing Defence Australia’s MQ-28A Ghost Bat has a soft spot for the Avalon Airshow, because it was at this very event that it made its debut in 2019! Since that time, the programme has made substantive progress, achieving its maiden flight on 27 February 2021, and the first systems could enter RAAF service in 2024/25.
Demonstrating the progress made, Boeing had a flight-capable testbed on display at Avalon Airshow 2023. It is also understood that one of these unmanned aircraft is currently in the USA for tests with the US Air Force, although neither Boeing Defence Australia nor the RAAF would confirm this is so.
In May 2022, the government promised that seven additional MQ-28A UAVs would be procured for the RAAF at a cost of AUD454 million (USD319.3 million). This is on top of three aircraft already funded in March 2021, and three used as test-beds by Boeing defence Australia.
The Ghost Bat is a loyal wingman, and it is Australia’s first domestically produced military combat aircraft in more than 50 years. The name comes from a native species of bat that likes to detect and hunt prey in packs.
Measuring 11.7m long, it was engineered and manufactured at Wellcamp Airport in Toowoomba, Queensland. In fact, 70+% of the aircraft comes from domestic sources.
The MQ-28A has a range of 3,700km and possesses an internal payload bay. The plan is that loyal wingmen would work alongside manned aircraft like the F-35A and F/A-18 Super Hornet, gathering data, jamming enemy radars and communications, and even launching attacks on targets.
Australia plans that the MQ-28A will be interoperable with allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region. In fact, US Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall commented: ‘The gamble that I’m making in the tech air case is that we’re going to go ahead with uncrewed combat aircraft. We’re going to use technologies that are coming out of programmes like the Australian Loyal Wingman programme and others, and we’re going to integrate those into our operational capability, and that it’ll be the first time we’ve done that.’
Given the sensitivity of US technology, it is no small matter for the Ghost Bat’s makers to get permission for the UAV to link fully and digitally with the F-35 fighter.
Boeing Defence Australia refers to the platform by the name Airpower Teaming System. It has been conducting a testing regime using a digital twin of the actual aircraft. In this way, its creator has successfully demonstrated multiple payloads, semiautonomous behaviours and crewed-uncrewed teaming in a digital environment.
It is informative that the RAAF’s unmanned programme has proceeded well, whereas the army’s effort to obtain MQ-9B Sky Guardians was terminated, ostensibly for budgetary reasons. Export prospects remain very much part of Boeing Defence Australia’s ambitions for the MQ-28A, although the RAAF as launch customer remains the primary focus.
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