Wing Commander Phil Parsons has become the first Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) pilot to be trained to fly the Boeing MQ-28A Ghost Bat Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA).
He is the first-non Boeing pilot to join the MQ-28A flight test program. Wing Commander Parsons, who completed his training on 13 June, has been trained to oversee launch and recovery of the aircraft, as well as monitor its progress in-flight.
"During a typical mission, a launch and recovery operator like Wing Commander Parsons would oversee the aircraft as it takes flight. It would then be handed off to a crewed aircraft, such as an E-7A, F-35A or F/A-18F, whose crew tasks it to perform, for example, an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission," said Boeing Defence Australia's MQ-28A program director, Glen Ferguson.
"The MQ-28A, while similar in many aspects of operation to other remotely piloted systems, is embracing technological advancements in how a launch and recovery operator interacts with the aircraft," he added.