Boeing Defence Australia’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat, a production representative test aircraft, prepares for a taxi test during Exercise Valiant Shield 2026 in the Northern Mariana Islands, June 21, 2026.
U.S. Air Force / Senior Airman Adrien Tran
FARNBOROUGH, UK—The first robot wingman to fly with U.S. aircraft in a major multi-national exercise wasn’t among the ones that the Air Force picked for initial-production contracts last month. Instead, it was the MQ-28 Ghost Bat, which is being developed by Boeing for the Australian Royal Air Force—and a company exec hinted that its CCA could have more exercises in its future.The Ghost Bat, which made its airshow debut this week here in England, flew last month alongside U.S. and allied forces in Valiant Shield, a large training exercise in the Pacific’s Northern Mariana Islands. On Tuesday, Glen Ferguson, Boeing Defense Australia’s MQ-28 global programs director, told reporters on Tuesday that was the “first step” in integrating CCAs into the force. More opportunities are likely on the horizon, he said.“As far as next steps, there’s not too many exercises these days that are single-country exercises, and Valiant Shield wasn’t,” Ferguson said. “Things like Talisman Saber next year— 40,000 people turning up to Australia across the Pacific and Indo region, they’re the opportunities to go and do that. I think you’ll see us, in the Australian Air Force in particular, applying these assets into those exercises as operational capabilities to test and develop their tactics.”Two years ago, the Air Force dropped Boeing from the running for the first increment of its CCA program, which in June issued contracts to Anduril and General Atomics instead. Late last year, the service started giving money to companies to develop a second iteration of CCAs. It’s not publicly known whether Boeing is among them, and Ferguson declined to comment on increment two.
