FIA 2026: Boeing pitches Ghost Bat as mature answer to growing CCA demand

Collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) emerged as one of the dominant themes of Farnborough International Airshow 2026, with Boeing arguing that demand for the uncrewed systems could outstrip what any single manufacturer is able to supply, as BAE Systems and Anduril Industries moved to strengthen their own positions in the field.

Tim Flood, international business development and strategy leader for Boeing Defense, Space & Security, and Glen Ferguson, director of the MQ-28 Ghost Bat programme, addressed journalists at a Boeing media briefing on 21 July. Flood identified urgency, capability and sovereignty as the three attributes now driving CCA procurement, pointing to the war in Ukraine and rising NATO defence spending as the backdrop to that urgency.

Asked whether the current wave of announcements represented the ideal moment to capitalise on demand as the CCA market became increasingly crowded, Ferguson said demand across the Western world was likely to be so substantial that it could not be met by one supplier alone.

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Ghost Bat’s case for maturity

Ferguson set out the drone’s development timeline with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), beginning nine years ago before the MQ-28’s first flight took place in February 2021. The current prototype fleet has accumulated more than 200 sorties and over 25,000 hours of digital testing, with Ferguson arguing that the digital-first approach removed the need for extensive further flight testing once operational and weapons models had been validated in simulation.

Two milestones from the past 13 months were presented as evidence of that maturity. In June 2025, an MQ-28 tracked and combat-identified two fighter jets and posted a weapons-quality track back to the network after receiving a single instruction to sanitise the airspace, Ferguson said. Then in December 2025, an MQ-28 autonomously fired an AMRAAM missile at an airborne target using cueing data relayed via an E-7 Wedgetail, after an F/A-18F Super Hornet had designated the target, which Ferguson described as a complete engagement chain achieved without any element being simulated.

Boeing also highlighted a deployment to Rota, an island north of Guam in the Mariana Islands, where an MQ-28 flew around nine sorties over five to six days alongside F-35s and F-15EXs and was refuelled by a C-130, according to Ferguson. He said the aircraft was turned around in 19 minutes on one occasion.

Boeing used the briefing to confirm two new industrial partners for the MQ-28 programme, one of which was Eaton which is supplying the aircraft’s internal weapons bay launcher. This followed Boeing’s confirmation last month at ILA Berlin that Rheinmetall, Rohde & Schwarz, Diehl Aerospace and Hensoldt had joined a German industry team pursuing a Luftwaffe CCA requirement.

Ferguson also said Boeing is working with MBDA to prepare for a Meteor missile firing from the MQ-28, following an earlier public announcement by Australia’s defence industry minister, though he gave no timeline for the test.

An increasingly competitive market

The Boeing briefing came as competition in the CCA sphere intensified elsewhere at the show. BAE Systems unveiled what it described as the UK’s first uncrewed autonomous CCA, a prototype named Brontanax, developed by its FalconWorks team at Warton, Lancashire. The company said the aircraft, similar in size to a Hawk, is intended to operate alongside Typhoon and be controlled by a pilot or mission commander from range, with ground-based testing to begin at Warton ahead of UK flight trials.

Air Mshl Sir Harv Smyth, RAF Chief of the Air Staff, said a Brontanax prototype was expected to fly next year.

Separately, Anduril Industries launched Thunder, a hybrid-electric tiltrotor pitched as a loyal wingman for the Boeing-built Apache attack helicopter.

The announcements point to a CCA market that is rapidly expanding. With the Ghost Bat claimed by Boeing to be the most mature system in service anywhere, the pressure at Farnborough International Airshow 2026 was less about which single design would dominate than about whether enough capacity exists to meet the scale of demand at all.

Shephard’s Farnborough International Airshow coverage is sponsored by MBDA

Related Programmes in Defence Insight

F-15EX [USA]

Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) [Germany]

Related Equipment in Defence Insight

MQ-28A Ghost Bat

Meteor

Hawk