Launching an air-to-air missile from the Australian-developed Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat would be just the start of a new phase for the Royal Australian Air Force, according to a senior officer at the Defence IQ International Fighter Conference in Rome in November.

Speaking before Boeing and the Australian government announced that a Ghost Bat had made the missile shot, the officer said the RAAF’s future could include new cruise missiles, hypersonic weapons and a new combat aircraft type with heavy payload and long range. That prospective fighter requirement, which would come after the service’s 24 Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornets and 12 EA-18G Growlers reached the ends of their lives, meshes interestingly with the tri-national Global Combat Aircraft Program.

The RAAF has its eyes on a new uncrewed aircraft program to follow the Ghost Bat, revealed the officer, who, under the rules of the conference, could be quoted but not identified.

In general, the RAAF is emphasising long-range operations. ‘We’re influencing activities at 1,000 to 2,000 miles range, to keep supply lines open,’ the speaker said. (If those were sea miles, as usually used in aviation, they convert to 1,900 to 3,700 km.)

The officer added that the budgetary picture looked favourable. ‘Unusually for us, we’ve got a stable government,’ and the defence ministry is a desired appointment ‘where it used to be a poisoned chalice. The navy is pumping up, and the air force is doing the same.’

The 72nd and, for now, final Lockheed Martin F-35 arrived late in 2024. With that fleet, the RAAF’s goal is ‘to maximise what we have’ and to extract efficiency from the global supply chain, for a type that is expected to be in service until 2065. ‘Is the F-35 the right platform for Australia? 110 percent yes. Is it harder to maintain and support than we thought it would be? 110 percent yes.’

The remark about support echoed a comment from a retired USAF commander: ‘We never really considered what a large fleet of stealth aircraft would be like.’ (The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has reported extensively on F-35 sustainment.)

The RAAF is ‘anxious to do the Tech Refresh 3 and Block 4 upgrade’ on its F-35s, all of which were delivered to the earlier TR-2 and Block 3 standard, the speaker said. So far, that upgrade package has not been defined, although the elements are designed to be retrofittable—and a footnote in a September GAO report suggest that the USAF may not upgrade its own earlier aircraft.

Also in sight for Australia’s F-35A force are new weapons. Since the conference, the US has announced approval for Australia to become the first export customer for the Lockheed Martin AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM), a highly classified counter to China’s long-range PL-15 air-to-air weapon. The first of the US weapons, costing more than US$5 million per round, is due to be delivered in 2033.

The Lockheed Martin AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM), to be integrated on the F-35 as well as the Super Hornet (first RAAF tests took place earlier this year) and P-8 Poseidon, ‘completely changes maritime strike,’ the speaker said. Unlike other anti-ship missiles, the LRASM is entirely passive as well as being stealthy, integrating target data from a radio-frequency seeker, an imaging infra-red sensor and datalink to identify and acquire a specific target and select its impact point.

Another prospective RAAF weapon that’s under development is the Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman Hypersonic Air-launched Cruise Missile (HACM). Its scramjet propulsion system uses technology explored under a long-running US–Australia program, and it will be tested in Australia.

HACM is smaller than the 3-tonne boost-glide AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (which is currently in limbo, although there are some in Congress who would like to revive it) but it’s still ‘huge’, the conference speaker said. ‘You strap the Super Hornet to the missile.’ It would offer a new capability level, he said. ‘It will water the adversary’s eyes.’

Together with the increased range requirement, the speaker suggested, use of such big weapons would create a need for a larger combat aircraft type to succeed the Super Hornet and Growler, currently expected to retire in 2040 to 2045.

The Ghost Bat, the conference was told, was on the path to an operational aircraft, but that aircraft may not be a Ghost Bat, nor even a Boeing.

‘We have not built an aircraft in Australia in 50 years, and it shows,’ the speaker admitted, saying that the program continued to be a vital learning tool. But he stressed that the full incarnation of the overarching program that covers it, Air 6015 Autonomous Collaborative Platforms, ‘is a new project that will be open to all industry partners, that will include a reference architecture that can operate across different national fleets,’ and that the goal is an aircraft that can carry multiple different payloads.

Two options were also mentioned for the lead-in fighter training role, currently performed by the BAE Hawk 127 modernised under the Lead-In Fighter Capability Assurance Program. One possibility was to acquire a high-performance aircraft with combat capability, that could both do lead-in fighter training and augment the F-35 force. The other was extending the Hawk’s lifetime with a new engine (the Honeywell F124 has been touted as a good fit and is in production) around 2032-34. Budgets would decide, the speaker said.