At the Dubai Airshow on 17 November 2025, Boeing presented a clear, export-ready vision of manned-unmanned teaming built around the twin-seat F-15EX Eagle II and the MQ-28 Ghost Bat. The company no longer talks about loyal wingmen in the abstract; it now shows the F-15EX as the airborne quarterback of a networked family of systems, with the back-seat weapon systems officer directing multiple unmanned aircraft in real time while the pilot flies and survives.
The briefing slides place the F-15EX at the centre of a triangular data-link web, orchestrating several Collaborative Combat Aircraft. The concept is structured around four pillars: the crew can task and retask drones on the fly (collaborative), a resilient network ties together different classes of unmanned platforms (connected), the formation as a whole senses, decides and strikes more effectively than any single aircraft (capable), and robust command logic preserves safety and rules of engagement (provisioned). The two-seat cockpit, massive payload, surplus electrical power, cooling capacity and open-mission-systems architecture make the Eagle II uniquely able to host the advanced data links and AI decision tools required to manage a swarm.
Its primary partner in this construct is the MQ-28 Ghost Bat. First flown in 2021, the Australian-developed drone has now flown more than 100 test sorties and completed a series of RAAF demonstrations in 2025. It is weeks away from its first live AIM-120 shot, the step that will move it from technology demonstrator to operationally credible weapon system. With a modular nose bay, very long legs and a unit cost estimated at roughly one-tenth that of a crewed fighter, the Ghost Bat is designed from the outset to act as a forward sensor, jammer or extra missile magazine under the control of a manned platform such as the F-15EX.
The briefing came one day after the U.S. Air Force revealed that an F-22 pilot had directly controlled a General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger in flight over Nevada, proving that stealth fighters can themselves lead small unmanned teams deep inside contested airspace. Boeing’s F-15EX/MQ-28 pairing offers a complementary, higher-capacity alternative: a non-stealth but heavily loaded controller that can stand slightly further back and direct larger numbers of attritable assets forward. Between them, the two demonstrations show that future air forces will mix stealth and non-stealth quarterbacks with different CCAs according to the threat and the mission.
For customers, the combination is immediately attractive. The F-15EX is in full-rate production, with 104 aircraft already on contract for the U.S. Air Force and another $3.1 billion requested for FY2026; it is cleared for export to multiple allies. The Ghost Bat, although still funded primarily by Australia (around A$1 billion committed for the first 13 airframes), is explicitly an international programme and can be acquired separately or integrated later. Nations that cannot or will not buy large fifth-generation fleets can therefore field credible networked airpower quickly: buy proven F-15EXs today as the backbone, then add Ghost Bats or compatible drones tomorrow.
Operationally, the model lets air forces probe enemy defences with low-cost forward assets, distribute risk, sustain presence and preserve their scarce pilots and high-value jets. For adversaries, it changes the calculus entirely: killing the manned fighter is no longer enough when the formation’s sensors and weapons may be dispersed across several autonomous platforms operating ahead or off-axis.
Boeing’s Dubai presentation turned a slideware concept into a funded, production-ready, soon-to-be-armed reality. By pairing the high-capacity, two-seat F-15EX with the rapidly maturing MQ-28 Ghost Bat, the company has given air forces a practical, near-term template for generating mass, resilience and reach in peer conflict—one that uses existing production lines, allied investment and budgets already approved. The decisive edge in the next era of air warfare will belong not to the single best fighter, but to the force that can most effectively orchestrate diverse crewed and uncrewed systems as a single, adaptive, survivable whole.
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