Australia tests MQ-28A's ability to operate in unfamiliar environment

A Boeing MQ-28A Ghost Bat on the tarmac as an F-35A Lightning II taxis during Exercise ‘Carlsbad' at RAAF Base Tindal in April 2025. (LAC Ryan Howell/Commonwealth of Australia )

The Australian Department of Defence (DoD) has said that it deployed and operated the Boeing MQ-28A Ghost Bat unmanned ‘loyal wingman' from an airbase in northern Australia to test the collaborative combat aircraft's (CCA's) ability to operate outside southern Australia's Woomera Training Area.

The deployment was conducted under Exercise ‘Carlsbad', which is a “series of test events throughout 2025 that will mature and exhibit the capabilities of the MQ-28A”, the Australian DoD said on 24 June. “[The] successful completion of this exercise has demonstrated that the MQ-28A can conduct operations from a location outside of the Woomera Training Area … which to date, has been the exclusive operating location for the MQ-28A,” the department added.

According to Wing Commander Phillip Parsons, the commander of ‘Carlsbad', the exercise “tested how to deploy and redeploy the MQ-28A and successfully operate in an unfamiliar environment”.

“The main intent of Exercise ‘Carlsbad' was to understand all the fundamental inputs to capability in relation to the MQ-28A,” he said.

The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) transported the MQ-28A from its initial location at the Australian International Air Show (Avalon 2025) at Geelong (near Melbourne) in southern Australia to RAAF Base Tindal in Australia's Northern Territory using a Boeing C-17 Globemaster, according to Wg Cdr Parsons.

“Within seven days of arriving at RAAF Base Tindal we completed a series of ground events to confirm our systems were in good working order before successfully achieving the MQ-28A's first flight outside of the Woomera Training Area,” he added.

According to Boeing, this first deployment occurred in April 2025.