MQ-28 Ghost Bat Achieves Interoperability with E-7A Wedgetail

Boeing and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) have successfully conducted a trial demonstrating the interoperability of the MQ-28 Ghost Bat loyal wingman with the E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft, according to a 16th June Boeing press release. This development marks a critical milestone in the development of collaborative combat aircraft and their integration into future air operations.

The MQ-28A Ghost Bat project received a AUD4 billion (US$2.6bn/£2.0bn) funding boost from the Australian government in April 2024 to further progress the programme with particular focus on its integration with crewed aircraft. This investment was part of a wider overall effort to enhance the capabilities of the RAAF valued between $28 billion and $33 billion (USD18.2bn – USD21.5bn/£14bn  – £16.5bn). 

The demonstration, part of the Capability Demonstration 2025 (CD25) series, saw a single operator aboard an airborne E-7A Wedgetail effectively control two in-flight MQ-28 Ghost Bat aircraft, alongside a third digital MQ-28. This capability validates a core tenet of the Ghost Bat’s operational concept: extending the reach and protective umbrella of crewed assets by acting as forward scouts or escorts.

The MQ-28 Ghost Bat is designed as an uncrewed collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) that leverages artificial intelligence to team with existing military aircraft, significantly enhancing their operational relevance, persistence, and survivability in highly contested environments. During a typical mission, a launch and recovery operator would oversee the MQ-28 as it takes flight. It would then be handed off to a crewed aircraft, such as an E-7A, F-35A, or F/A-18F, whose crew tasks it to perform missions as required. 

This could be, for example, an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance mission where the MQ-28 flies a patrol pattern over a given area, or even an air-to-air interception. This distributed control allows the Ghost Bat to perform tasks traditionally handled by fighter jets, including electronic warfare or acting as a decoy to draw fire, thereby increasing the safety and effectiveness of crewed missions. Future events in the CD25 series will further demonstrate the MQ-28’s operational effectiveness and how collaborative combat aircraft will integrate and operate with RAAF crewed assets, including teaming with F/A-18F and F-35 aircraft.

Glen Ferguson, Director MQ-28 Global Programs, highlighted the trial’s importance: “This trial demonstrates family-of-systems integration, the strength of our open systems architecture, and is a critical first step towards integrating mission partners’ software and communications systems natively into the E-7A Wedgetail.” He further emphasised that this validates a key element of the MQ-28’s concept of operations and showcases how collaborative combat aircraft can significantly expand and enhance the E-7A’s role in meeting future force requirements.

The success of this trial is a testament to a collaborative development effort, with software jointly developed and implemented by Boeing Defence Australia, Defence Science and Technology Group, and the US Air Force Research Laboratories. Adam Tsacoumangos, Director of Air Dominance Programs for Boeing’s Phantom Works, praised the joint effort, acknowledging it as an “exceptional collaborative effort across organisations from government, contractors, and global partners.”

The MQ-28 Ghost Bat: A brief development history

The MQ-28 Ghost Bat, formerly known as the Loyal Wingman, represents an attempt to significantly advance the use cases and capabilities for uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) technology. Its development has been a journey of incremental successes, building towards complex autonomous operations. It is a domestic development and the first aircraft to be built in Australia for 50 years. “The project has funded eight initial MQ-28A variants for test and evaluation, the development of mission payloads and the fundamental knowledge, skills and experience in integrated system behaviour and autonomy to operationalise collaborative combat aircraft,” the Australian Defence Forces state. 

Previous tests have progressively expanded the aircraft’s capabilities:

• First Flight (February 2021): The initial test flight in February 2021 at RAAF Base Woomera was a crucial step, proving the basic flight characteristics and control systems of the prototype. This marked it as the first military aircraft designed, manufactured, and flown in Australia in over 50 years.
• Formation Flight (Late 2021/Early 2022): Subsequent trials saw multiple Ghost Bat aircraft flying in formation, demonstrating multi-aircraft command and control capabilities vital for the “loyal wingman” concept, where uncrewed aircraft operate in close coordination with crewed platforms.
• Exercise Carlsbad (June 2025): Tested the transport of the MQ-28A to a different training range using a C-17 and deploying it there. 

It is reportedly undergoing an extensive and rigorous testing process with test flights occurring in one out of every three months and several sorties conducted per day during those tests. The current fleet is designed only for testing, rather than operational use, but a 2024 contract will see three block 2 aircraft that are designed for operational testing produced. 

Calibre comment

The Indo-Pacific theatre is defined by the enormous distances involved. Measured in a straight line from East to West, Australia is approximately 4,000 km wide. A useful point of reference is the distance between London and New York – which is around 5,500 km. This necessitates long-range capabilities and technology that can enhance the reach of existing platforms. In this case, the MQ-28A, which is thought to have a range of 3,700 km can offer significant benefits to the RAAF. It also offers increased mass, as it is expected to be integrated with the country’s F-35As, F/A-18s, and the E-7A, all of which would have good situational awareness and the ability to coordinate and control several Ghost Bats simultaneously. China’s recent exercises off the coast of Australia serve to underline the need for this type of capability, as the country is growing increasingly assertive in the Indo-Pacific, and confident in its armed forces. 

By Sam Cranny-Evans, published on 25th June, 2025. The featured image shows an MQ-28A Ghost Bat on the tarmac as an F-35A Lightning II taxis during Exercise Carlsbad at RAAF Base Tindal. Credit: LAC Ryan Howell/Australian Department of Defence.