December 9 marked a significant day in the history of Australian military aviation with a locally designed and built combat jet aircraft downing a target with an AIM-120 AMRAAM beyond visual range missile. The first missile launch is an important event in the development of a new class of aircraft – but even more so when the platform is a semi-autonomous, AI-enabled, uncrewed platform.
The test took place at the Woomera range and involved a combination of crewed aircraft – two Super Hornets and a Wedgetail E-7 AEW & C as the command platform – an MQ-28A and an Australian designed and built Phoenix jet powered target uninhabited airborne vehicle (UAV). It has been described as a realistic beyond visual range combat scenario with a Super Hornet tracking the Phoenix, relaying that data to the Wedgetail, which in turn relayed the information to the MQ-28A that, in turn, made the decision autonomously about when to fire the AMRAAM.
The successful test was the catalyst for the government announcing a further funding tranche of $1.4 billion to Boeing Defence Australia for a further seven MQ-28As. Six of these will be for Block 2 jets and one Block 3 – this latter configuration will probably be the design for mass production before the end of the decade. The first Block 2 aircraft is undergoing ground tests and will fly early in 2026.
This is an excerpt from APDR. To read the full article, click here.
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Hey,
Has anyone actually seen the drone that ghostbat took down. There would have been footage of the event 🤷♂️
I’m not sure there would be footage. It was a BVR engagement using an AIM-120.
Hi Warwick,
There isn’t any publicly available footage of the take down some before, during and after photos on the official ADF media site here https://images.defence.gov.au/assets/Home/Search?Query=ghost+bat&Type=Simple