Boeing’s New Phantom Works Facility Could Coat Its Ghost Bat Jets

A couple of late-May announcements from Boeing Defense, Space & Security’s (BDS) Phantom Works division potentially add up to signal stealth coatings on its future unmanned MQ-28 Ghost Bat jet fleet.

On May 25, the company announced construction of a new Advanced Coating Center (ACC) at a St. Louis site near its headquarters. Designed to house post-assembly phases of next generation military aircraft production, the 47,500-square-foot Center is scheduled to be operational in 2025.

The same day, Boeing revealed an MQ-28 Ghost Bat in the flesh in the U.S. for the first time at its facility about 30 miles away at Mid-America St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah, Illinois. The location will also be the home of a new 300,000 square foot assembly plant for the company’s MQ-25 Stingray autonomous aerial refueller, which was displayed alongside the Ghost Bat.

Boeing rolled out the MQ-28 publicly for the first time in February at the Avalon International Airshow near Melbourne, Australia. During the show, officials told FlightGlobal that one of the experimental drones had been sent to the States for testing with the USAF.

The sites where the MQ-28 was displayed and where the new Coating Center will be built are among several new facilities run under the umbrella of Boeing’s secretive Phantom Works aircraft development unit.

Their construction is viewed as part of a push from Boeing’s Air Dominance division for participation in upcoming secretive military programs including the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of aircraft which encompasses operational use of Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCAs) like the Ghost Bat and Stingray.

The push aligns with what the company calls the Phantom Works Production System of the Future effort, which is aimed at enabling Boeing to “scale a platform-agnostic, modular and flexible digital production system across future defense programs.”

Other facilities recently opened under the multi-billion-dollar project include an advanced composite fabrication center in Mesa, Arizona, and a lab and test facility in St. Louis. Additional new facilities supporting Phantom Works are planned for the coming years Boeing has said.

The new ACC site expands Phantom Works’ already “strong footprint” in St. Louis, said Steve Nordlund, senior site executive for Boeing St. Louis. Nordlund previously served as general manager of Phantom Works. In February he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that Boeing’s recent, local hiring had an emphasis on engineers, demonstrating BDS’ drive toward developing new products and tech.

Materials technology is a significant part of the mix in new aircraft systems, exemplified by recent Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) investigation of new sensor, optics and stealth coatings as well as stimuli-responsive materials and devices suitable for integration into hybrid electronics, sensing platforms, and computing applications.

While CCAs like the MQ-28 have generally been promoted as less expensive, “attritable” platforms by the Air Force and others, there are missions including deep strike and persistent ISR where they face the same survivability challenges as manned aircraft.

The manned components of the NGAD mix will surely rely on stealth including stealth coatings, an attribute that some subset of their CCA counterparts will likely need, particularly if they’re accompanying stealthy manned fighters/bombers. Siting the CCA near a future domestic MQ-28 production line (the aircraft may also be produced in Australia) would be seem logical given the higher production volumes such comparatively low-cost aircraft would see.

BDS’ Autonomy Communications manager, Bryan Warren, declined to comment on the possibility of an MQ-28 production line at either the St. Louis or Mascoutah sites but domestic production of such aircraft is something the Pentagon would likely favor over a distant supply line from Australia.

In addition to proximity, siting MQ-28 production in the area would potentially preserve the approximately 15,800-strong workforce Boeing has in the St. Louis area, its second-largest employee base after Washington state. Concentrating the unmanned aircraft and coatings technologies together could provide lessons for both airframe designs and cost-efficient application.

If MQ-28 is among the CCAs DoD ultimately decides to acquire (along with others like Kratos’ XQ-58A Valkyrie), drones coming off the line near St. Louis could well be sprayed for stealth at the new Phantom Works ACC.