Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger and Boeing Australia Managing Director Amy List unveil an MQ-28 Ghost Bat drone at the Rheinmetall stand at the 2026 ILA Berlin Air Show On its pre-opening day on June 10, 2026 in Schoenefeld, Germany. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
BERLIN — Company officials with Boeing Australia and Germany’s Rheinmetall dramatically pulled back a white sheet here at the Berlin Air Show today to reveal a MQ-28 Ghost Bat, a collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) that’s already taken to the skies in Australia and hopes to do so for the German air force.
The drone was specially flown in from its home Down Under, less than three months after Boeing Australia and Rheinmetall announced their team up to offer up the unmanned craft in Germany’s quest for its own CCA, envisioned as flying alongside manned aircraft.
“At the moment, we are still in negotiations with the German government, but if they want to have the plane by 2029, my expectation is that by at least next year, we have to go into the final stage of negotiating the contract,” Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger told Breaking Defense at the air show.
As for that timeline, a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defense said they could not comment on possible procurement projects prior to pending parliamentary deliberations.
