Boeing’s Ghost Bat Loyal Wingman Drone Spotted in US
Boeing revealed that its MQ-28 Ghost Bat is
hanging out stateside in a first public look at the drone on US
soil, months after the Air Force said it wanted to conduct flight test
experiments with the loyal wingman platform.
Originally made for the Royal Australian Air
Force, Breaking Defense previously
reported in
September that the US Air Force was “getting ready” to take
possession of the drone for the service’s own testing purposes. It’s
unclear whether that testing has actually begun, though the drone’s
arrival at Boeing’s Phantom Works facility here outside St. Louis,
which is adjacent to Scott Air Force Base, suggests that testing could begin
soon if it has not already begun.
Krystle Carr, Boeing’s director of autonomous
collaborative platforms, acknowledged the drone had arrived
for testing, but didn’t say when or for whom. She declined to
elaborate, and Boeing officials referred all further
questions to the Air Force. A spokesperson for the service did
not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The MQ-28 Ghost Bat is Boeing’s first unmanned
system designed and developed in Australia, making for a curious case of an American
company developing tech abroad and then exporting it back home.
According to a Boeing fact sheet, the Ghost Bat is 38 feet long, can fly “more
than” 2,000 nautical miles (2,300 miles) and “uses artificial intelligence to
fly independently or in support of crewed aircraft.”
The Air Force is interested in the Ghost Bat to
study how drones can pair with fighter jets in combat as the service looks to
field an initial fleet of 1,000 uncrewed collaborative
combat aircraft (CCAs)
that can fly alongside fighter jets in battle. Air Force officials
say the class of drones will provide an “affordable mass” to augment the
capabilities of current fighters by filling roles like missile trucks, and
conducting electronic attack and surveillance.
Should Ghost Bat tests go well, Boeing would
hardly be alone in the race for CCA contracts. Last week, the Air Force’s
acquisition czar said that he expects as many as 30 vendors could soon be in the running to build the
Air Force’s CCA fleet, with a similar number already active in fielding
the platform’s underlying mission systems and autonomy technologies.
Asked whether Boeing formally planned to offer the
MQ-28 for the CCA program, Pete Kunz, vice president and general manager for
Boeing’s Phantom Works team, said it depends on the Air Force’s requirements,
which haven’t yet been released, and whether the Ghost Bat can meet them. “We
haven’t really had insight into where they’re heading yet,” he said. (Like
other media, Breaking Defense accepted accommodations from Boeing for the
visit.)
The Air Force is asking for $392 million in fiscal
2024 to formally kick off its CCA program.
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