HENSOLDT joins Boeing’s German MQ-28 Ghost Bat Industry Team
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed at Farnborough Air Show. HENSOLDT to provide platform-independent technology and integration support.
HENSOLDT and Boeing signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Farnborough International Air Show, formalising HENSOLDT’s participation in Boeing’s German MQ-28 Ghost Bat industry team. HENSOLDT joins Rheinmetall, Diehl Defence and Rohde & Schwarz in supporting Boeing’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) offering for the German Air Force.
Dietmar Thelen, Head of HENSOLDT´s Multi-Domain Solutions Division, said: “Joining Boeing’s Industry Team Germany is a logical next step for HENSOLDT. The MQ-28 Ghost Bat is a highly capable platform, and our contribution goes well beyond sensors. We bring mission system integration, decades of in-service support expertise, and the ability to anchor national key technologies within a solution that will be supported by the German defence ecosystem. This is exactly what it means to be a platform-independent partner."
The MoU reflects HENSOLDT's broader strategic approach as a platform-independent technology partner: HENSOLDT will provide options for critical sensor suites, mission-system elements and integration services. Drawing on decades of experience in sustainment and lifecycle support – from entry into service to operations – HENSOLDT will help ensure that the Luftwaffe can deploy the MQ-28 Ghost Bat with full operational readiness in the German ecosystem, if selected by the German Armed Forces.
“With HENSOLDT, we are bringing another strong German industrial partner on board our MQ-28 Ghost Bat team,” said Dr. Michael Haidinger, President of Boeing Germany. “HENSOLDT´s expertise in the fields of sensor technology and mission system integration significantly strengthens our team, enabling us to bring a sovereign German CCA solution to the Luftwaffe.”
The MoU reinforces the Boeing-led Industry Team’s commitment to deliver an MQ-28 system with embedded German sovereign capabilities. Together with Rheinmetall, Diehl Defence, Rohde & Schwarz and HENSOLDT, the team will integrate German technologies, industrial capacity and sustainment arrangements to deliver a locally supported Collaborative Combat Aircraft to the German Air Force.
Press contact
Ulrich-Joachim Müller
Our company
HENSOLDT is a leading European high-tech company in the defence and security industry, based in Taufkirchen near Munich. The company develops sensor solutions, electronics and software for the air, land, sea, cyber and space domain, helping armed forces worldwide to detect threats early and make informed operational decisions.
Building on decades of experience in mission-critical sensor technology, HENSOLDT combines radar, optronics, electronics and cyber expertise with data-driven software and artificial intelligence. The aim is to integrate and analyse sensor data from different platforms and domains and merge it into a reliable situational picture.
HENSOLDT has thus evolved from a traditional sensor supplier to a new-generation system integrator – a ‘neo-system house’ that enables networked, Software-Defined Defence capabilities and supports information superiority in missions.
In the 2025 financial year, HENSOLDT achieved a turnover of €2.46 billion with around 9,500 employees. The company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in the MDAX.
About Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat
Developed by Boeing in Australia, the MQ-28 Ghost Bat is the world’s most mature CCA, ready to deliver air-to-ground capability to Germany by 2029. It has been purposely designed to support the integration of third-party sovereign capability and conceived to be modular and adaptable to meet evolving capability needs – both in terms of mission systems and sovereign industrial requirements. The MQ-28 has delivered operationally relevant capabilities for the Royal Australian Air Force, most recently autonomously engaging and destroying an airborne target and completing its first international joint exercise at Valiant Shield.
Press contact Boeing:
Roger Gilles, Head of Communications Germany, Central & Eastern Europe
roger.gilles@boeing.com