MASCOUTAH, Ill.—Boeing [BA] is conducting a test program in the U.S. with a mostly secret unmanned aircraft being developed with Australia’s air force, marking the first time the stealthy loyal wingman combat system has been brought to the country, company officials said on Thursday.
The MQ-28 Ghost Bat is being developed by Boeing’s Phantom Works, the Australia-based unit of Boeing’s Defense, Space & Security segment, and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) for Australian forces and integrates artificial intelligence and autonomy to operate collaboratively with manned aircraft, and by itself.
Phantom Works officials declined to discuss the MQ-28 test program planned in the U.S. and whether the U.S. Air Force would be testing the aircraft. Boeing hosted reporters at its defense headquarters in St. Louis and a facility in nearby Illinois.
Krystle Carr, director of the new Autonomous Collaborative Platforms Group within Phantom Works, said the aircraft was shipped to the U.S. in partnership with the RAAF “to do a number of different types of testing.” She added that “it’s a great opportunity for everyone to learn on what platform of this kind of capability can do and how we can partner together to advance that.”
The Autonomous Collaborative Platforms Group was stood up to help meet the needs of its U.S. and international customers who are looking for “autonomous platforms that can go out and do various sets of missions” such as aerial refueling, logistics, reconnaissance, and weapons deployment, she said.
The MQ-28 will provide Boeing with opportunities to learn how autonomous platforms collaborate with other aircraft such as flying in formation and doing it safely, Carr said.
“So, we’ll learn capability from this, we’ll be able to port that into any of the future platform capabilities that we’ll bring forward with an eye towards reuse, with an eye towards constant learning and constant growth,” she said.
Australia is developing Ghost Bat for its Loyal Wingman program that hopes to marry uncrewed aircraft that can fly autonomously with manned aircraft for human-machine teaming in combat. The U.S. Air Force is also beginning a similar program it calls Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA).
Boeing officials declined to say whether the MQ-28 would be offered for the CCA effort.
“It depends on the requirements,” Pete Kunz, vice president and general manager of Phantom Works, told reporters. He added, “So, we haven’t really had insight into where they’re headed yet.”
The officials also declined to say how many MQ-28 airframes have been built.
Boeing displayed the MQ-28 in front of its MQ-25 T1 Stingray aerial refueling tanker inside a hangar at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport, which is about 25 miles east of St. Louis in Illinois. The airport is where Boeing has conducted 36 flight-tests of the prototype tanker, which has accumulated more than 120 hours in the air and has refueled the Navy’s F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and F-35C fighters, and the Navy’s E-2D tactical airborne early warning aircraft.
The two unmanned aircraft share “some base common technology sets or tool sets” including “some of the core architectural elements and development chains for things like guidance navigation control algorithms,” Kunz said. “The greatest knowledge transfer comes from our people. So, we move people between programs and they bring their experiences and their learnings as really the best way we have teaching ourselves.”
Phantom Works develops advanced, sensitive technologies for Boeing’s defense business.