The MQ-28 will join the flight operations of Exercise Valiant Shield 2026 to refine tactics, techniques, and procedures, and evaluate its contribution as a force multiplier.
The Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) announced that the MQ-28 Ghost Bat will take part in the ongoing Exercise Valiant Shield 2026. The aircraft is expected to fly together with crewed fighter platforms, providing an opportunity to refine tactics, techniques, and procedures during a variety of missions, including defensive and offensive counter air missions.
Among the goals of the deployment is the analysis of the aircraft’s contribution as a force multiplier that extends the reach, awareness, and survivability of crewed platforms in contested environments, explains PACAF. It is unclear if the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) will be directly controlled by the crews of fighter jets or operators on other platforms.
The press release noted that the MQ-28 involved is a production representative test aircraft. The photos show it is also equipped with an Infra-Red Search and Track (IRST) system, with the caption identifying the deployment location as Rota, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
“The future of airpower is a partnership between our greatest assets: our skilled warfighters and the technology that empowers them,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Daniel Pesich, Experimental Operations Unit collaborative combat aircraft detachment officer in charge. “By advancing human-machine teaming, we are increasing our power projection while building a more resilient, capable, and lethal joint force.”
This new milestone follows the first flights of the MQ-28 in the U.S., which Boeing announced in May 2026. So far, the uncrewed aircraft completed three operational flight tests on the Point Mugu Sea Range at U.S. Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, California, validating autonomous operations and demonstrating rapid deployment and sustained operations from an allied location.
“The Department of the Air Force remains steadfast in its commitment to the ethical development of these systems, ensuring that a human remains in the loop for all critical decisions,” said PACAF in the latest press release. “These platforms are designed to increase sortie generation with less strain on maintenance and personnel, which ultimately makes our entire force more lethal.”
Valiant Shield
Valiant Shield is a biennial, multinational, joint exercise focused on integrating the joint force in a multi-domain environment. The exercise brings together forces from the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Space Force, alongside regional allies and partners, to train across a vast geographic area in the Pacific.
First established in 2006, Valiant Shield has evolved into one of the largest and most sophisticated military exercises in the Pacific. This reflects the growing emphasis on joint and combined operations in response to an increasingly contested security environment.
“Valiant Shield demonstrates our enduring commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” Adm. Steve Koehler, commander of U.S. Pacific Fleet. “Exercising advanced multidomain capabilities with our allies ensures we continue to seamlessly innovate and operate together, project combat power together and prevail over any challenge – together.”
The exercise typically features a wide range of assets, including fighter aircraft, bombers, aerial refueling tankers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, naval surface combatants, submarines, amphibious forces, and advanced command-and-control systems. “This routine training fosters real-world proficiency in sustaining joint forces through detecting, locating, tracking, and engaging units at sea, in the air, on land, and in cyberspace in response to a range of mission areas,” explains PACAF.
The MQ-28 Ghost Bat – Boeing Airpower Teaming System
Designed by Boeing Defence Australia for the RAAF as a multirole system capable of operating together with crewed aircraft, the Ghost Bat was initially known as the Boeing Airpower Teaming System (ATS). The development started in 2013, with the prototype unveiled for the first time during the 2019 edition of the Australian Airshow and the maiden flight on Feb. 27, 2021, at the Woomera Range Complex in Southern Australia.
The multirole unmanned platform has a 1.5 cubic meter nose that can hold interchangeable payloads for ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance), aerial radar surveillance, EW/ELINT sensors and other attack munitions. The aircraft has been described as a next-generation Loyal Wingman, whose development involved 55 Australian companies and, as of Feb. 2024, had received $600 million in funding.
According to Boeing, the Ghost Bat employs “AI (Artificial Intelligence) to work as a smart team with existing military aircraft to complement and extend airborne missions.” The size of a small, light-weight class fighter, with side air intakes, cranked-kite wings and canted V-tails, the MQ-28 can fly for nearly 3,200 km and “fly independently” with its AI.
Renders from Boeing have shown the Ghost Bat flying with support and special mission aircraft like the E-7A Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft and the F-15EX. According to Ferguson, “during a typical mission, a launch and recovery operator […] would oversee the aircraft as it takes flight.”
“It would then be handed off to a crewed aircraft, such as an E-7A, F-35A or F/A-18F, whose crew tasks it to perform, for example, an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission,” added Ferguson while explaining the concept of operations. The MUM-T (Manned Unmanned Teaming) might not necessarily take place in close formation, but it could work even with the aircraft very far apart over dozens of kilometers, depending on mission requirements.
The heavily stealth-oriented design has also been shown in renderings with three different nose sections, with one integrating an IRST (Infrared Search and Track) sensor. Based on their appearance, the other two could possibly be meant for ISR and EW/ELINT roles, the latter involving locating, jamming or overwhelming adversary ground radars.
The MQ-28 could also serve in an escort role for high-value support assets like the E-7A AEW&C aircraft or KC-30 aerial refuelers. It is however not known if the unmanned aircraft is viewed as an attritable system used for enhancing manned platforms’ survivability. Following the mission’s completion, “the aircraft would be handed back to the launch and recovery operator to oversee landing, deceleration and complete stop of the vehicle,” Ferguson said.
The uncrewed aircraft reached some important milestones in the last year. Among these was the June 2025 test which saw an E-7 Wedgetail controlling two MQ-28s in a mission against a simulated airborne target.
In December 2025, Boeing disclosed the first live-fire test of the MQ-28 with an AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). On that occasion, the aircraft teamed up with an E-7 Wedgetail and an F/A-18F Super Hornet of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
The RAAF described it as “a demonstration of a Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) employing an air-to-air weapon against an aerial target in an operationally relevant scenario.” It is likely the Ghost Bat acted as an off-board weapons release platform, leveraging sensor, detection, control and guidance data from the crewed platforms.
In May 2026, Boeing disclosed that the MQ-28 Ghost Bat is now flying in the U.S., in what has been defined as the first flights abroad. Previously the aircraft flew only in Australia, where the MQ-28 was developed and built by Boeing Australia.
So far, the uncrewed aircraft completed three operational flight tests on the Point Mugu Sea Range at U.S. Naval Base Ventura County, Point Mugu, California. The company did not disclose when these flights were conducted.
However, it was already known that at least one MQ-28 was at NAS Ventura County, as the aircraft was clearly visible in a video released after the U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to the installation in December 2025. It is possible, however, that two aircraft are currently there as two different aircraft can be seen in the December 2025 and May 2026 videos.
