The two onyx-colored aircraft took off within a minute of each other, disappearing over an expanse of red desert stippled with low shrubbery.
No human was on either plane as they carved a path through the boundless desert sky on Friday as part of a preprogrammed mission. The pilot was on the ground, hundreds of miles away in a nondescript shack, and ready to take control should the need arise.
The aircraft were MQ-28A Ghost Bats, 38-foot-long military drones that function as robot wingmen of sorts. Australia is investing heavily to develop and produce these so-called collaborative combat aircraft, which will help the country defend its shores at a time when military threats are encroaching ever closer and wiping out what was once its strongest bulwark against potential conflict: distance.
Australia has invested about $650 million so far in a partnership with Boeing to develop the drones, which will be the first to be designed and manufactured in Australia in more than half a century. It is a tidal shift for the close American ally, which after decades of relying on the United States for its military equipment is trying to jump start its defense industry, one that had atrophied since the end of the Cold War.
In Beijing this week, China showcased several “loyal wingman”-type drones, signaling that it too was investing heavily in unmanned systems. The U.S. Air Force is also developing collaborative combat aircraft, which are designed to fly alongside piloted fighter jets to amplify air capacity at a fraction of the cost and with reduced human risk.
“We’re seeing the biggest conventional arms race since World War II,” said Pat Conroy, Australia’s minister for defense industry. “China is massively modernizing its conventional and nuclear armed forces.”
Mr. Conroy was showcasing the aircraft this week at the Woomera test range in the remote outback of South Australia, a vast area larger than Pennsylvania with a long history of secretive weapons testing by Britain, Australia and the United States. When it is not in use for military tests, cattle and sheep graze on the sparse stretch of land, which has been referred to as Australia’s Area 51.
Australia has a history of quickly ramping up a defense industry from very little. During World War II, it scaled up production of arms and munitions to supply allied troops and began manufacturing aircraft. But without the scale or industrial base of other countries, the last plane to be developed and produced in Australia was around the time of the Vietnam War.
The dawn of artificial intelligence is giving Australia a chance to be competitive in defense manufacturing, Mr. Conroy said. Boeing has broken ground on factories in Toowoomba, in Queensland State, to produce the Ghost Bat, which the country is aiming to eventually export. The U.S. Navy may be among interested buyers, according to news reports.
About 70 percent of the Ghost Bat’s components will be made in Australia, Boeing officials said. They said each one would be about a tenth of the cost of a manned fighter jet like the F-35.
“You need to pay to have self reliance to some extent, you need to be strategic about it,” Mr. Conroy said.
Named after a small but feisty local animal with sharp teeth and a strong jaw that can subdue birds and other vertebrates similar to itself in size, the Ghost Bat has a range of about 2,300 miles, nearly the width of Australia.
Malcolm Davis, a defense analyst for the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said the global interest in collaborative combat aircraft was a sign of countries bracing for protracted conflicts between major powers. The war in Ukraine has realigned thinking for countries including Australia about their readiness for the types of conflicts that may emerge, he said.
“If this is being produced in Australia, in a crisis, we can keep on producing them,” he said. “If we rely on the U.S., we’re in the back of the queue.”
Despite the emphasis on sovereign capabilities produced on its soil, the production with Boeing is also furthering ties with the United States at a time of uncertainty from Washington on its approach to alliances, said Stephan Fruehling, professor of strategic and defense studies at the Australian National University.
Australia has begun producing artillery shells and guided missiles in partnership with American companies in recent years, and is carrying out maintenance on U.S. nuclear-powered submarines under the 2021 landmark defense pact with the United States and Britain known as AUKUS.
Those efforts have continued despite anxiety over the future of the agreement, which the Pentagon has said is under review for whether it is “aligned with the president’s America First agenda.”
“There’s certainly a more transactional approach from the White House,” Mr. Fruehling said. “The instinct will be to double down on defense industrial integration, to be a net contributor than a drain on the U.S.”
Victoria Kim is the Australia correspondent for The New York Times, based in Sydney, covering Australia, New Zealand and the broader Pacific region.
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