The Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat just flew from U.S. soil for the first time — three sorties at a California Navy range that signal autonomous combat aviation has gone truly global.
Boeing and the Royal Australian Air Force flew the MQ-28 Ghost Bat autonomous combat aircraft on U.S. soil for the first time, completing three test sorties at a California naval installation — the pilotless jet’s first flights ever conducted outside Australia.
The missions were carried out at the Point Mugu Sea Range of Naval Base Ventura County. Boeing said the three sorties validated autonomous operations, rapid allied deployment capability, and payload integration, clearing what Boeing described as a critical milestone in the program’s international maturity.
“Another milestone in proving interoperability and exportability for modular, crew-risk-reducing systems,” Boeing said in a LinkedIn post marking the occasion.
Glen Ferguson, director of Boeing’s MQ-28 program, called the U.S. sorties “great to start international operations,” and said Boeing and the RAAF would continue to expand the program.
Ferguson detailed the strategic purpose behind the California campaign. “The activity at Point Mugu is part of Boeing’s ongoing flight test program to mature the MQ-28 and demonstrate operations from allied locations,” he said. “MQ-28 is using this location to further prove the maturity of the program and inform future exportability.”
Boeing did not disclose the exact dates of the three sorties. The test aircraft, an MQ-28 Block I, flew over the Pacific Ocean using the Point Mugu Sea Range, the largest over-water test range in the U.S. Department of Defense, spanning more than 36,000 square miles of Pacific Ocean airspace.
Although the California sorties mark the Ghost Bat’s first time airborne outside Australia, the aircraft has had prior exposure to U.S. territory. An early MQ-28 prototype appeared at Boeing Defense, Space & Security headquarters in St. Louis in 2023. More significantly, a formal program arrangement between Australia and the United States on collaborative combat aircraft development, signed on March 30, 2023, placed an MQ-28 at NAS Point Mugu as part of an active bilateral engagement. Under that agreement, the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy serve as collaborative partners, the U.S. Navy deployed a test and evaluation squadron to Australia to work on the aircraft, and ITAR-restricted technology — largely covering communications and weapons-related equipment — was introduced into the MQ-28.
The U.S. debut follows a rapid succession of advances in the program’s combat credentials. In December 2025, during Exercise Trial Kareela 25-4 at the Woomera Range Complex in South Australia, an MQ-28A fired an AIM-120 AMRAAM and destroyed a Phoenix jet-powered target drone — an engagement driven by only four operator commands: take off, conduct combat air patrol, commit to intercept, and clear to arm and fire. Australia’s Department of Defence described it as “one of the first times it’s been done anywhere in the world.” The weapons test was a joint effort involving the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, the Air Force Research Laboratory, and Raytheon.
Boeing’s export ambitions for the Ghost Bat have accelerated in parallel. On March 31, 2026, Boeing Australia and Rheinmetall AG announced a strategic partnership to offer the MQ-28 to the German Bundeswehr by 2029, a deal that, if finalized, would make Germany the program’s first export customer. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius had indicated Germany was considering buying the aircraft shortly before the partnership was announced. Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said the deal would “deliver integration, operation and further development from a single source while also building industrial capability in Germany and across Europe,” with revenue potential in the “three-digit millions of euros.” Australia and Japan separately agreed in September 2025 to collaborate on the program.
The aircraft’s open, modular architecture has been a deliberate design choice for the export market. Ferguson, speaking at the Singapore Airshow, told prospective customers that “they can adopt their own sensors if they wish, and they can apply their own weapons without needing to have to involve us at the levels you might expect on a normal crewed platform.”
Australia currently has 18 MQ-28s under contract — eight Block I test aircraft, nine Block IIs, and the first Block III. The Block II is nearing final assembly, and the forthcoming Block III will carry internal weapon bays with a wingspan extended from approximately 6 meters to 7.3 meters. In December 2025, the Australian Government awarded Boeing Defence Australia an AUD $754 million contract covering additional Block II aircraft and the first Block III. The government has invested more than AUD $1 billion in the program to date. Boeing plans to begin rate production of operational MQ-28s in Australia within two years, and Canberra targets a combat-ready Ghost Bat by 2028.
The MQ-28, originally developed under the name Boeing Airpower Teaming System, is the first military combat aircraft designed, engineered, and manufactured in Australia in more than 50 years. The program involves more than 200 Australian companies. Primary flight test and weapon systems integration activities continue at RAAF Base Woomera in South Australia.
Key Takeaways
- Boeing and the RAAF confirmed three MQ-28 Ghost Bat sorties at Naval Base Ventura County’s Point Mugu Sea Range — the aircraft’s first flights outside Australia, announced May 27, 2026.
- The missions validated autonomous operations, allied deployment, and payload integration at a U.S. Navy facility under a formal U.S.–Australia collaboration agreement signed in March 2023.
- In December 2025, the Ghost Bat destroyed a target drone using just four operator commands — a live-fire first conducted with U.S. and Australian forces jointly.
- Australia has 18 Ghost Bats under contract and targets combat-ready capability by 2028; Boeing plans rate production within two years.
- Germany is positioned as the program’s first export customer under a March 2026 Boeing-Rheinmetall partnership; Japan has also agreed to collaborate on the program.