The MQ-28 will join flight operations in exercise Valiant Shield 2026 to improve tactics, techniques and procedures and evaluate its contribution as a force multiplier.
Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) announced that the MQ-28 Ghost Bat will participate in the ongoing Valiant Shield 2026 exercise. The aircraft is expected to fly alongside manned fighter platforms, providing opportunities to improve tactics, techniques and procedures during a variety of missions, including defensive and offensive anti-aircraft missions.
Among the goals of the deployment is to analyze the aircraft’s contribution as a force multiplier that extends the reach, awareness and survivability of crewed platforms in contested environments, PACAF explains. It is unclear whether the Cooperative Combat Aircraft (CCA) will be directly controlled by fighter aircrews or operators of other platforms.
The press release noted that the MQ-28 involved was a production flagship test aircraft. The photo shows it is also equipped with an Infra-Red Search and Track (IRST) system, with a caption indicating its deployment location is Rotime, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
“The future of air power is a partnership between our greatest assets: our skilled warfighters and the technologies that empower them,” said Maj. Daniel Pesich, director of the U.S. Air Force Experimental Operations Force Cooperative Combat Aircraft Detachment. “By advancing human-machine teaming, we are increasing power projection while building a more resilient, capable and lethal joint force.”
This new milestone follows the first flight of the U.S. MQ-28, which Boeing announced in May 2026. To date, the unmanned aerial vehicle has completed three operational flight tests in Point Mugu waters off Ventura County, U.S. Naval Station Point Mugu, California, validating autonomous operations and demonstrating rapid deployment and sustained operations over joint force locations.
“The Department of the Air Force maintains an unwavering commitment to the ethical development of these systems, ensuring that humans make all critical decisions,” PACAF said in its latest press release. “This platform is designed to increase sortie generation while reducing maintenance and manpower burdens, ultimately making our overall force more lethal.”
brave shield
Valiant Shield is a biennial multinational joint exercise focused on integrating joint forces in a multi-domain environment. This exercise brings together the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Army, and Space Force along with regional allies and partners to train across a vast area of the Pacific.
First established in 2006, Valiant Shield has developed into one of the largest and most sophisticated military exercises in the Pacific. This reflects the growing importance on joint and combined operations in response to an increasingly competitive security environment.
“The Valiant Shield demonstrates our continued commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Admiral Steve Koehler, Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet. “By unleashing advanced multi-domain capabilities with our allies, we can continue to innovate and collaborate seamlessly, project warfighting power together, and overcome all challenges together.”
The exercise typically involves a wide range of assets, including fighters, bombers, aerial refueling tankers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, Navy surface combatants, submarines, amphibious forces, and advanced command and control systems. “This routine training fosters real-world capabilities to sustain the joint force by detecting, locating, tracking, and engaging forces at sea, in the air, on the ground, and in cyberspace in response to a variety of mission areas,” PACAF explains.
MQ-28 Ghost Bat – Boeing Air Power Teaming System
Designed by Boeing Defense Australia for the RAAF as a multi-role system capable of operating with crewed aircraft, the Ghost Bat was initially known as the Boeing Airpower Teaming System (ATS). Development began in 2013, and the prototype was first unveiled at the 2019 Australian Airshow, with its maiden flight taking place at the Woomera Range Complex in southern Australia on February 27, 2021.
The multipurpose unmanned platform has a 1.5 cubic meter nose that can accommodate interchangeable payloads for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), airborne radar surveillance, EW/ELINT sensors and other attack munitions. The aircraft has been described as the next-generation Loyal Wingman, with 55 Australian companies involved in its development and, as of February 2024, receiving $600 million in funding.
According to Boeing, the Ghost Bat “utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to collaborate as a smart team with existing military aircraft to complement and expand its airborne mission.” The size of a compact, lightweight fighter jet with side air intakes, cranked kite wings and a slanted V-shaped tail, the MQ-28 can fly nearly 2,000 miles (3,200 km) and can “fly independently” through AI.
Boeing’s renderings showed the Ghost Bat flying with support and special mission aircraft such as the E-7A Wedgetail AEW&C aircraft and the F-15EX. According to Ferguson, “During a typical mission, launch and recovery operators (…) supervise the aircraft while it is in flight.”
Explaining the operational concept, Ferguson added, “It is then handed over to a crewed aircraft, such as an E-7A, F-35A, or F/A-18F, where the crew performs intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.” Manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) does not necessarily have to be conducted in close formation, but can operate even when the aircraft are tens of kilometers or more apart, depending on mission requirements.
The stealth-oriented design has also been seen in the renders, which feature three nose sections with integrated Infrared Search and Track (IRST) sensors. Depending on their appearance, the other two could imply ISR and EW/ELINT roles, the latter being concerned with locating, jamming or overwhelming enemy ground radars.
The MQ-28 can also serve as an escort for high-value support assets such as E-7A AEW&C aircraft or KC-30 tankers. However, it is not known whether unmanned aerial vehicles are considered vulnerable systems used to improve the survivability of manned platforms. After the mission is complete, “the aircraft will be returned to the launch and recovery operator to oversee the landing, deceleration and complete stopping of the vehicle,” Ferguson said.
Unmanned aerial vehicles have reached several important milestones in the past year. Among them was a June 2025 test that saw an E-7 Wedgetail control two MQ-28s on a mission against simulated aerial targets.
In December 2025, Boeing unveiled the first live-fire test of the MQ-28 equipped with the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). At the time, the aircraft teamed with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)’s E-7 Wedgetail and F/A-18F Super Hornet.
The RAAF described it as “a demonstration of Cooperative Combat Aircraft (CCA) using air-to-air weapons against aerial targets in an operationally relevant scenario.” The Ghost Bat likely served as an offboard weapons release platform, leveraging sensors, detection, control and guidance data from the crewed platform.
In May 2026, Boeing revealed that the MQ-28 Ghost Bat is currently flying what is defined as its first overseas flight in the United States. Previously, the aircraft only flew in Australia, where the MQ-28 was developed and built by Boeing Australia.
To date, the drone has completed three operational flight tests in the Point Mugu Sea Range off U.S. Naval Station Ventura County at Point Mugu, California. The company did not disclose when these flights were conducted.
However, it is already known that at least one MQ-28 was at NAS Ventura County, as the aircraft was clearly visible in a video released after its installation by U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in December 2025. However, since two different aircraft can be seen in the videos from December 2025 and May 2026, it is possible that two aircraft are there now.
