{"id":70970,"date":"2026-08-12T10:35:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T10:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/70970\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T10:35:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T10:35:12","slug":"boeing-rheinmetall-offer-mq-28-ghost-bat-for-germanys-combat-aircraft-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/70970\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing, Rheinmetall Offer MQ-28 Ghost Bat for Germany\u2019s Combat Aircraft Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Rheinmetall and Boeing are pitching<\/a> the MQ-28 Ghost Bat<\/a> as a ready-made option for Germany\u2019s Collaborative Combat Aircraft<\/a> (CCA) program.<\/p>\n

The companies say the Australian-developed unmanned aircraft could help Germany establish a CCA capability without waiting for the lengthy development of an entirely new platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rheinmetall<\/a> would serve as the system integrator for the MQ-28 in Germany, overseeing its integration into German military systems and adapting the aircraft to national requirements. Boeing<\/a> would provide the Ghost Bat and continue developing its capabilities, including air-to-ground functions.<\/p>\n

The two companies said the aircraft has already progressed through flight testing and multinational exercises, including the US military\u2019s Valiant Shield exercise<\/a>. They argue that this maturity could allow Germany to focus sooner on integrating its own sensors, weapons, and mission software.<\/p>\n

Boeing also points to the MQ-28\u2019s modular architecture as a way to adapt the aircraft to new missions. It could also provide Germany with a way to develop tactics, training, force structures, and manned-unmanned teaming procedures while the country works toward longer-term CCA capabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the goal is to achieve such a capability by 2029, this work must begin today with the development of tactics, training, definition of force structure and the integration of sovereign technologies,\u201d Boeing\u2019s MQ-28 global director Glen Ferguson said.<\/p>\n

Defense Firms Bid for Germany\u2019s CCA<\/p>\n

Boeing and Rheinmetall are not the only companies positioning an existing aircraft for Germany\u2019s CCA requirement.<\/p>\n

In June, INTEC Group agreed to support<\/a> General Atomics Aeronautical Systems as it competes to supply Gambit aircraft to Germany<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier, in July 2025, Airbus Defence and Space teamed up with US defense firm Kratos<\/a> to offer the XQ-58A Valkyrie<\/a> to the German Air Force, with deliveries proposed from 2029.<\/p>\n

The XQ-58A, which has been in development since 2019, is designed to operate autonomously or alongside crewed aircraft while carrying kinetic and non-kinetic payloads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rheinmetall and Boeing are pitching the MQ-28 Ghost Bat as a ready-made option for Germany\u2019s Collaborative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1000,52661,5,52662,770],"class_list":["post-70970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-germany","tag-boeing","tag-collaborative-combat-aircraft","tag-germany","tag-ghost-bat","tag-rheinmetall"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}