Boeing unveiled significant payload and range upgrades for the MQ-28 Ghost Bat uncrewed aircraft at the ILA Berlin Air Show on June 10, 2026, while simultaneously expanding its German industry team to target the Luftwaffe’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) requirement.

In a pair of press releases issued during the event, the manufacturer detailed enhancements that increase the aircraft’s carrying capacity by 2,000 pounds and announced that Diehl Defence and Rohde & Schwarz have joined Rheinmetall in the Ghost Bat Germany industry team. The combined announcements position the Australian-developed platform as a mature contender for Germany’s goal of fielding a CCA by 2029.

Upgraded payload and combat capabilities

The newly revealed MQ-28 configuration features an increased wingspan that allows the aircraft to carry an additional 2,000 pounds of fuel, stores, and mission payloads. The upgraded design includes two internal weapons stations, each capable of holding one AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) or two Small Diameter Bombs (SDB). The aircraft is also provisioned with three external weapons stations.

Boeing also announced the integration of Beyond Line of Sight (BLOS) communication links. This upgrade enables the MQ-28 to operate at unlimited standoff distances while controlled from a crewed aircraft, ground station, or naval vessel.

Glen Ferguson, MQ-28 Global Program Director at Boeing, stated in the press release that the additional capacity allows operators to balance payload and endurance for specific missions.

“These features, developed in partnership with the Royal Australian Air Force, will be progressively released to the fleet through a spiral upgrade program, and are available to interested allied countries,” Ferguson said.

Expanding the German industrial base

To support its bid for the Luftwaffe CCA contract, Boeing is building a localized supply and integration chain. Diehl Defence and Rohde & Schwarz will join Rheinmetall, which announced its strategic partnership with Boeing in March 2026.

Amy List, Vice President and Managing Director of Boeing Defence Australia, noted in a company statement that the expanded team will collaborate on development, testing, delivery, and support to ensure the platform meets German customization requirements.

Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger stated that his company is taking responsibility for the seamless integration of the autonomous combat drone into the Bundeswehr’s systems. According to reporting by Breaking Defense, Papperger also addressed the procurement timeline during the air show.

Papperger told Breaking Defense that while negotiations with the German government are ongoing, meeting the 2029 delivery target will require entering the final stage of contract negotiations by 2027.

AirPro News analysis

We view Boeing’s dual announcements at ILA Berlin as a highly targeted strategy to overcome European preference for domestic defense products. By offering a platform that has already flown extensively with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Boeing is presenting a lower-risk path to meeting the Luftwaffe’s aggressive 2029 CCA fielding deadline compared to clean-sheet European designs.

The addition of Diehl Defence and Rohde & Schwarz is a necessary industrial offset play. Integrating established German defense contractors ensures that a significant portion of the program’s economic and technological benefits remain within the country. This localized approach, combined with the newly announced payload and BLOS capabilities, directly addresses the operational and political requirements of the German Ministry of Defense.

Sources: Boeing Newsroom

On June 9, 2026, California-based startup Swarm Aero announced the selection of Honeywell Aerospace’s legacy TPE331 turboprop engine to power its forthcoming Group 5 Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS). The integration of a commercially proven powerplant aims to bypass the payload and range limitations of current battery technology for large-scale autonomous defense platforms.

In a press release issued Tuesday, Swarm Aero confirmed that Honeywell has already supplied the initial propulsion systems under the contract. The partnership pairs a next-generation autonomous swarm platform with an engine originally certified in 1965, a strategy designed to reduce technical risk and accelerate production timelines for military applications.

Bridging legacy propulsion and autonomous systems

The Honeywell TPE331 brings extensive operational history to the new UAS program. Since its initial certification, Honeywell has delivered 13,000 TPE331 engines, accumulating 122 million flight hours across the commercial, agricultural, and military aviation sectors.

Swarm Aero Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Peter Kalogiannis noted the deep relationship required between aircraft and engine manufacturers, stating the company sought a partner that viewed them as more than just a customer.

“The TPE331 is a proven, cost-effective, high-performance engine with an extraordinary legacy, and we’re proud to build our aircraft around it,” Kalogiannis said.

Matt Milas, President of Defense and Space at Honeywell Aerospace, emphasized that the defense landscape is shifting toward distributed and autonomous operations where production scale is critical. He noted that pairing proven systems with new platforms allows the industry to field capabilities faster and more affordably.

Scaling production for Group 5 UAS operations

According to defense publication BriefGlance, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) defines Group 5 UAS as the largest category of military unmanned systems, encompassing aircraft weighing more than 1,320 pounds (600 kilograms) and typically operating above 18,000 feet. Platforms in this category require significant payload capacity and endurance, operational requirements that current battery technologies cannot support at scale.

To support the anticipated production volume, Swarm Aero recently opened an 80,000-square-foot Advanced Manufacturing Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The company, headquartered in Oxnard, California, also recently closed a $35 million Series A funding round led by Two Sigma Ventures and Silent Ventures. This brings Swarm Aero’s total raised capital to $59 million since its founding in 2022.

Oliver Palmer, Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Founder of Swarm Aero, stated the company is focused on building an ecosystem capable of producing and operating aircraft at scale, shifting the focus from individual aircraft to the capabilities of the swarm.

AirPro News analysis

We view Swarm Aero’s selection of the TPE331 as a pragmatic approach to defense procurement. By utilizing a commercial off-the-shelf powerplant with a mature global supply chain, the company avoids the lengthy and expensive development cycles associated with clean-sheet engine designs. This strategy aligns with current DoD initiatives aimed at fielding autonomous mass rapidly. The reliance on a turboprop rather than electric propulsion acknowledges the current physical limits of battery energy density for heavy, long-endurance Group 5 platforms.

Sources: Swarm Aero

This article summarizes reporting by Reuters by Andreas Rinke and Tim Hepher, with additional reporting from Euractiv, The Guardian, Kyiv Independent, and Defense News.

France and Germany have abandoned the core manned fighter jet element of the €100 billion Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program, following an unresolvable industrial dispute between Dassault Aviation and Airbus SE. The decision, finalized by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a summit in Montenegro and announced on June 8, 2026, marks a significant fracture in European defense procurement strategy.

Launched in 2017, the FCAS initiative was intended to produce a sixth-generation replacement for the French Dassault Rafale and the Eurofighter Typhoon operated by Germany and Spain by 2040. According to Reuters, the collapse of the central New Generation Fighter (NGF) component represents a major setback for efforts to integrate European military capacity amid heightened regional security demands.

Industrial deadlock between Dassault and Airbus

The cancellation stems from months of friction between the primary aerospace contractors. Reporting from The Guardian indicates that Dassault Aviation insisted on maintaining a definitive lead partner status to safeguard its intellectual property rights. Conversely, Airbus resisted an arrangement that would relegate the company to a subcontractor role.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), noted the imbalance in expectations. According to the Kyiv Independent, the MEP stated that the French industry demanded a dominant leadership role while expecting Germany to simply tag along. She added that joint defense projects can only succeed on an equal footing.

Shifting strategic requirements and surviving components

Beyond corporate disagreements, the two nations have faced diverging military requirements. Defense News reported that Chancellor Merz recently questioned the strategic necessity of developing a manned sixth-generation fighter for the German Air Force.

Despite scrapping the manned aircraft, Paris and Berlin intend to salvage other elements of the program. An unnamed German government official told The Guardian that the nations will continue developing the integrated data network, known as the combat cloud, along with associated drone systems under the FCAS designation. The Élysée Palace maintained a diplomatic stance, with Euractiv quoting a statement affirming that Franco-German cooperation remains essential for both nations and their European allies in the defense sector.

AirPro News analysis

We view the retention of the FCAS name for the surviving drone and network components as a political face-saving measure that masks a profound industrial failure. The inability of Airbus and Dassault to reconcile their workshare demands highlights the persistent structural challenges of pan-European defense procurement, where national industrial interests frequently override collective military goals. As Douglas Barrie, Senior Fellow for Military Aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), told Reuters, the collapse of the core fighter program sends poor signals to both Washington and Moscow regarding European defense cohesion. Without a joint sixth-generation fighter, Germany and France may now be forced to pursue independent, and likely more expensive, procurement paths to replace their aging fleets by 2040.

Sources: Reuters