Boeing's MQ-28 Ghost Bat Collaborative Combat Aircraft on display at the Farnborough Air Show. (Breaking Defense)
FARNBOROUGH — Boeing is considering plans to build MQ-28 Ghost Bat production facilities in more countries, as it steps up a major push to secure international orders of the drone wingman from foreign leaders who increasingly prioritize weapons that can be built within the secure confines of their own borders.
“I think we’d rather have many smaller factories building them, localized for countries to meet their own local needs than having one mega factory,” said Glen Ferguson, MQ-28 global program director, during a press briefing on Tuesday.
Ferguson said the US giant has not locked down future production plans for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), but he added that the idea of a “mega factory somewhere that builds thousands is probably not the best answer.”
“Most countries will want their own sovereign capability,” Ferguson said, “because these things you need to regenerate, you need to be able to build at rate, and you need to be able to build them when you’re in a supply chain denied environment.”
