Boeing’s MQ-28A Ghost Bat destroyed an aerial target with a live AIM-120 AMRAAM missile while operating as an unmanned wingman to a crewed Royal Australian Air Force aircraft, marking the first time the collaborative combat aircraft has demonstrated a weapons engagement in flight. The test took place over Australia’s Woomera Test Range, with the drone coordinated by an RAAF E-7A Wedgetail airborne early warning platform. That successful shot, combined with earlier deployment trials at a remote northern Australian base, moves the MQ-28A program from experimental technology demonstrator toward a system that could realistically enter operational service.
What the live-fire test proved at Woomera
The MQ-28A launched an AIM-120 AMRAAM against an Australian-designed and manufactured Phoenix Jet uncrewed aerial target, then engaged and destroyed the target over Woomera Test Range, according to the Australian Department of Defence. During the engagement, the Ghost Bat operated as a loyal wingman to an RAAF E-7A Wedgetail, meaning the crewed aircraft directed the drone’s sensor and weapons employment rather than the MQ-28A acting autonomously. This arrangement is central to the collaborative combat aircraft concept: a relatively low-cost unmanned platform extends the reach and firepower of expensive crewed jets without putting additional pilots at risk.
The choice of the AIM-120 AMRAAM, a radar-guided beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile already in wide allied service, signals that the MQ-28A is being designed to slot into existing weapons inventories rather than requiring new munitions. For the RAAF, that means a Ghost Bat squadron could draw from the same missile stocks as its F/A-18F Super Hornets and future F-35A Lightning IIs, simplifying logistics in a conflict. Using a proven missile also reduces technical risk: the test focused on the drone’s ability to employ a known weapon, not on debugging a new missile design at the same time.
The Phoenix Jet target used in the test was Australian-designed and manufactured, according to the Australian Department of Defence. Keeping the entire kill chain within domestic and allied control is significant for a program that depends on sensitive sensor fusion and weapons-release software. Every element, from the target drone to the telemetry collection, sits inside a security framework managed by Canberra and its partners, limiting exposure of performance data to potential adversaries.
Just as important as the missile shot itself was the command-and-control setup. The Wedgetail’s battle management system cued the Ghost Bat, demonstrating that a crewed platform can control an unmanned teammate in real time while managing other airspace tasks. This “team of systems” approach is central to how air forces expect to fight in heavily contested environments, with crewed aircraft orchestrating multiple drones that can scout, carry weapons, or act as decoys.
What the Tindal deployment added earlier in 2025
Before the live-fire milestone, the MQ-28A had already been put through a separate set of trials at RAAF Base Tindal in Australia’s Northern Territory. The aircraft was deployed to Tindal during Exercise Carlsbad, which the Australian Department of Defence described as part of 2025 test events to mature MQ-28A capabilities. Tindal sits roughly 300 kilometers south of Darwin and serves as a forward operating location for RAAF fast jets, making it a realistic proving ground for how the Ghost Bat would actually deploy alongside crewed fighters in the Indo-Pacific.
Exercise Carlsbad tested whether the MQ-28A could operate from a base far from its usual development facilities, a step that matters because any future combat drone needs to function from dispersed airfields with limited infrastructure. Demonstrating that the aircraft can be transported, assembled, launched, and recovered at a remote location like Tindal addresses one of the practical barriers between a flight-test program and a fielded capability. The trials also examined how ground crews integrate the drone into existing maintenance rhythms, fuel supply chains, and airfield operations without overloading personnel.
The fact that the RAAF ran these sorties as a named exercise, not just a manufacturer flight test, suggests the service is already weaving Ghost Bat operations into its training cycle. That approach allows pilots, mission planners, and air traffic controllers to gain experience working with an uncrewed teammate under realistic tempo and weather conditions. It also provides early feedback on issues such as deconflicting takeoffs and landings, managing datalink bandwidth, and assigning responsibilities between human crews and automated systems.
What remains uncertain about fielding timelines
The two milestones, Tindal deployment and the Woomera weapons test, represent clear technical progress, but several questions remain open. Neither the Australian Department of Defence nor Boeing has publicly confirmed a production schedule or a target date for declaring the MQ-28A operationally capable. The program is still in a test and evaluation phase, and the gap between a single successful missile shot and the kind of repeatable, all-weather weapons employment required for operational service can take years to close.
It is also unclear how many MQ-28A airframes currently exist or how many the RAAF ultimately intends to acquire. Without those numbers, the scale of any future Ghost Bat fleet and its real impact on Australian air combat power cannot be assessed. A handful of test aircraft can validate concepts, but only a larger production run would give commanders enough mass to distribute drones across multiple squadrons and bases.
The United States Air Force has been developing its own Collaborative Combat Aircraft program under a separate contract, and public statements have not yet clarified whether the MQ-28A will compete for or complement that effort. If the Ghost Bat remains primarily an Australian program, economies of scale may be more limited. If it becomes part of a broader allied ecosystem of uncrewed combat aircraft, common standards for data links, weapons, and maintenance could emerge, but that remains speculative absent official confirmation.
The weapons integration demonstrated so far covers a single missile type. Whether the MQ-28A will carry air-to-ground munitions, electronic warfare payloads, or additional sensor packages in future tests has not been confirmed by official sources. Each new payload would require its own integration and certification cycle, including flight safety assessments and weapons-separation trials. Until those steps occur, the Ghost Bat’s role is best understood as an air-to-air adjunct, not yet a fully multi-role platform.
How to read the evidence behind the milestone
Both key claims, the Tindal deployment and the Woomera live-fire event, come directly from the Australian Department of Defence rather than from Boeing or media reporting. Government releases from a program partner carry more weight than manufacturer press materials because the Defence Department has operational accountability for the aircraft’s performance claims. When the department states the target was “engaged and destroyed,” that language reflects data from range instrumentation, radar tracks, and post-mission analysis rather than marketing copy.
At the same time, official releases are carefully worded and selective. They highlight successes but rarely detail failures, anomalies, or test points that did not go as planned. Readers should note what is not said: there is no mention of the engagement envelope used in the Woomera test, the number of previous dry runs, or how much human intervention was required to complete the mission. Those omissions do not undermine the reported success, but they do limit outside understanding of how mature the system really is.
Within those constraints, the evidence supports a cautious but real conclusion: the MQ-28A has progressed beyond basic flight trials into weapons employment and expeditionary operations, two of the hardest hurdles for any new combat aircraft. The Ghost Bat is not yet a fielded capability, and key questions about numbers, roles, and timelines remain unanswered. Still, the combination of a successful live-fire shot and a remote-base deployment shows that Australia’s collaborative combat aircraft concept is moving from PowerPoint into the realm of practical, testable combat power.
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*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
