Australia has taken a decisive step toward operationalizing manned–unmanned air combat teaming, as Boeing Australia confirmed the successful execution of a complex missile engagement exercise involving the MQ-28 Ghost Bat, the Royal Australian Air Force’s E-7A Wedgetail, and an F/A-18F Super Hornet. Conducted in December 2025 and publicly detailed in February 2026, the demonstration represents a transition from experimental autonomy flights to integrated combat mission execution within a live, networked battlespace architecture.
The exercise validated the operational premise behind Australia’s Airpower Teaming System program: that autonomous uncrewed aircraft can function not merely as adjunct surveillance assets but as active participants in the kill chain. By linking sensing, command, and weapons employment across multiple platforms, the test illustrated how distributed combat formations may redefine survivability and lethality in contested airspace.
Developed by Boeing Australia in partnership with the Australian government and the Royal Australian Air Force, the MQ-28 Ghost Bat stands as the nation’s first domestically designed and manufactured combat aircraft in more than fifty years. Its emergence reflects both sovereign industrial ambition and strategic necessity, as Canberra accelerates investment in systems capable of operating within increasingly contested Indo-Pacific threat environments.
A Defining Missile Engagement Milestone
The December 2025 event marked the first time the MQ-28 participated in a missile engagement scenario alongside frontline crewed aircraft. Operating as a forward sensor and mission support node, the uncrewed aircraft extended the detection and targeting envelope of the formation while remaining positioned beyond the highest-risk threat zones.
Within the exercise architecture, the E-7A Wedgetail functioned as the airborne command-and-control hub. Its battle management systems fused sensor inputs from across the formation, generating a coherent operational picture in real time. The F/A-18F Super Hornet, leveraging this fused data, executed the missile strike component of the mission.
Rather than concentrating sensing and engagement authority within a single aircraft, the demonstration distributed tasks across platforms. Detection, tracking, targeting validation, and weapons release were separated but digitally synchronized. This distributed kill chain approach reduces vulnerability by ensuring that the loss or disruption of one node does not collapse the entire engagement framework.
Engineering the Ghost Bat for Autonomous Combat
Physically, the MQ-28 is a jet-powered uncrewed aircraft measuring roughly 12 meters in length, with a design optimized for range, survivability, and modular adaptability. Its most distinctive structural feature lies in its reconfigurable nose section, which can be rapidly swapped to accommodate divergent mission payloads.
These modular payload configurations enable roles spanning:
- Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR)
- Electronic Warfare disruption and deception
- Communications relay in degraded networks
- Tactical combat support and targeting extension
This architecture allows mission planners to tailor each aircraft to specific operational requirements without redesigning the airframe itself. In effect, the Ghost Bat operates as a multi-role force multiplier rather than a single-purpose drone.
Autonomy as the Core Combat Enabler
While modular hardware provides flexibility, the Ghost Bat’s decisive attribute is its autonomy stack. Designed for high-independence operations, the aircraft can interpret sensor data, prioritize threats, and adjust mission parameters even when communications links are degraded or jammed.
This onboard decision-making capacity is critical in high-end warfare environments saturated with electronic attack. Traditional remotely piloted systems rely on uninterrupted control links, creating exploitable vulnerabilities. The MQ-28 mitigates this weakness through collaborative autonomy—a framework enabling the aircraft to operate semi-independently while still aligned with human commander intent.
During the missile engagement demonstration, this autonomy allowed the drone to maneuver, sense, and feed targeting data into the formation without continuous human micromanagement. The result was a seamless extension of the crewed aircraft’s situational awareness rather than an operational burden.
Wedgetail’s Command Role in Networked Warfare
The E-7A Wedgetail served as the digital nerve center of the exercise. Equipped with advanced Multi-role Electronically Scanned Array radar and battle management suites, the aircraft coordinated the information flow between crewed and uncrewed elements.
Its role extended beyond passive surveillance. Wedgetail actively managed battlespace geometry—assigning sensing sectors, validating tracks, and ensuring deconfliction between assets. In a distributed engagement model, this orchestration function becomes indispensable, preventing data overload while accelerating decision cycles.
Super Hornet as the Kinetic Strike Node
The F/A-18F Super Hornet represented the kinetic endpoint of the kill chain. By receiving targeting data relayed through the Ghost Bat and managed via Wedgetail, the fighter executed the missile engagement without needing to penetrate the most heavily defended airspace layers.
This separation between sensor and shooter illustrates a doctrinal shift. Crewed fighters no longer need to expose themselves to maximum risk to achieve weapons employment conditions. Instead, uncrewed systems can probe, map, and track threats, enabling stand-off engagements executed from comparatively safer positions.
From Technology Demonstrator to Operational Asset
The MQ-28 program has steadily progressed from prototype experimentation toward structured acquisition planning. Multiple production-representative airframes are now flying, incorporating lessons from earlier test vehicles in areas such as autonomy refinement, mission systems integration, and maintainability.
Australia has signaled sustained commitment through funding allocations and infrastructure development supporting future squadron operations. The Royal Australian Air Force has formally identified the Ghost Bat as a future force element, with initial operational capability targeted before the end of the decade.
Current planning projections place service entry around 2028, positioning Australia among the first Western nations to field an operational Collaborative Combat Aircraft capability rather than a purely experimental fleet.
Strategic Context: The Global Loyal Wingman Race
Australia’s progress unfolds amid intensifying global competition to develop manned–unmanned teaming systems. Air forces worldwide recognize that survivability in contested airspace increasingly depends on distributed force structures rather than concentrated manned formations.
The United States is advancing its Collaborative Combat Aircraft initiative, aiming to deploy autonomous drones alongside F-22, F-35, and Next Generation Air Dominance platforms. China has showcased drone formations operating with fifth-generation fighters, signaling parallel doctrinal evolution. Russia continues testing the S-70 Okhotnik-B in conjunction with the Su-57, though operational maturity remains less clear. European programs, including the UK-aligned LANCA concept and Future Combat Air System adjunct drones, further underscore the strategic momentum.
What distinguishes the MQ-28 effort is its near-term operational orientation. Rather than remaining confined to concept validation, Australia is executing realistic mission integrations using frontline aircraft and existing command networks.
Operational Doctrine and Pilot Survivability
For the Royal Australian Air Force, the Ghost Bat is not designed to replace crewed fighters but to amplify their effectiveness. Integrated formations allow pilots to command extended sensor grids, deploy decoys, or conduct electronic attack without assuming direct exposure to layered air defenses.
This approach enhances pilot survivability while expanding tactical options. Autonomous wingmen can absorb attrition risk, conduct forward reconnaissance, or trigger adversary radar emissions—revealing defensive positions for subsequent engagement.
The doctrinal shift mirrors naval distributed lethality concepts: dispersing capability across multiple nodes complicates enemy targeting while preserving combat power.
Industrial and Alliance Implications
Beyond operational value, the MQ-28 represents a milestone in Australia’s defense industrial evolution. Domestic design and manufacturing capacity reduce reliance on foreign platforms while fostering sovereign aerospace expertise.
Boeing has also positioned the Ghost Bat as an exportable system aligned with allied interoperability requirements. Its architecture is designed to integrate with U.S. and coalition command frameworks, reinforcing Australia’s role as a high-technology contributor within allied force structures.
This interoperability focus carries strategic weight in the Indo-Pacific, where coalition operations are expected to define high-end conflict scenarios.
A Glimpse of Future Air Warfare
The December 2025 missile engagement demonstration signals more than technical progress—it previews the structural transformation of aerial combat. Future air wars are likely to be fought by networked constellations of crewed and autonomous systems, each contributing sensing, decision support, electronic effects, or kinetic force.
Australia’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat sits at the leading edge of this evolution. By proving that an autonomous aircraft can participate meaningfully in a live missile engagement without disrupting command hierarchies or tactical workflows, the program has crossed a threshold from theoretical promise to credible combat capability.
As production aircraft multiply and doctrine matures, the Ghost Bat will transition from experimental partner to operational mainstay—an intelligent wingman extending the reach, survivability, and lethality of Australia’s air combat force deep into the contested skies of the twenty-first century.
