The public debut of the Boeing F-15QA Advanced Eagle demonstration on Saturday at the Spirit of St. Louis Airshow in Chesterfield, MO. This amazing aircraft performed while carrying 12 air to air missiles.
The Boeing F-15EX Eagle II is an American all-weather multirole strike fighter derived from the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle. The aircraft resulted from the U.S. Department of Defense’ Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (OSD CAPE) study in 2018 to recapitalize the aging F-15C/D fleet due to inadequate numbers of F-22s, delays in the F-35 program, and maintaining diversity in the U.S. fighter industrial base through Boeing’s St. Louis division (former McDonnell Douglas).
The F-15EX is expected to replace the F-15C/D in performing homeland and air defense missions and also serve as an affordable platform for employing large stand-off weapons to augment the frontline F-22 and F-35. The first aircraft was delivered in 2021 and operational service is expected in July 2024
The F-15EX is a member of the F-15 Advanced Eagle family of aircraft, a further development of the F-15E design that began with the F-15SA (Saudi Advanced) which first flew in 2013 and continued with the F-15QA (Qatari Advanced) which first flew in 2020. The Advanced Eagle in the F-15EX configuration represents the current baseline in F-15 production.
Development
In the 2010s, the United States Air Force (USAF) was facing an incoming shortfall of its fighter fleet size in the 2020s due to deferred and downscaled modernization plans from budget cuts following the end of the Cold War in 1991, and the focus on asymmetric counterinsurgency warfare after the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks. The USAF’s procurement goal of 381 production F-22s to replace its fleet of air superiority F-15A to D fighters was curtailed to just 187 in 2009. In order to retain adequate numbers of air superiority fighters, the service planned to extend the service of 179 F-15C/Ds to the 2030s, well beyond its original retirement date. Also referred to as F-15 2040C upgrade or “Golden Eagle”, these jets would have upgraded avionics, including active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, infrared search and track (IRST), and a new electronic warfare suite called the Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS).
Some of these upgrades would be shared with the F-15E fleet, such as EPAWSS whose development contract was awarded in 2015 to Boeing and BAE Systems. However, by the mid-2010s, the F-15C/D fleet was aging beyond the point of economic sustainability, and the F-35 program was facing delays, resulting in a requirement to recapitalize the fighter shortfall as the legacy F-15s retire by the mid-2020s. Restarting F-22 production was considered cost-prohibitive due to the high non-recurring startup costs of rebuilding the production line and sourcing replacement parts vendors.
Meanwhile, Boeing had been developing upgrades for the F-15E for export customers and a substantial update to the air vehicle design resulted in the F-15 Advanced Eagle family; the F-15SA (Saudi Advanced) was the initial variant which first flew in 20 February 2013, followed by the F-15QA (Qatari Advanced) ordered in 2017.
In 2018, following a series of OSD CAPE studies indicating that a mix of fourth- and fifth-generation fighters would allow the USAF to more affordably recapitalize its fighter fleet, the USAF and Boeing began discussing the F-15X or Advanced F-15, a proposed single-seat variant based on the F-15QA to replace USAF F-15C/Ds. Eventually, both single- and two-seat variants were proposed, called F-15CX and F-15EX respectively, with identical capabilities; the USAF opted for the EX since only two-seat F-15 models remained in production, and in 2019, eight aircraft were included in the FY 2020 budget request. This would enable the use of the existing F-15 production line with minimal non-recurring startup costs to quickly bring additional fighters into service and also was a way to support Boeing’s St. Louis division in order to maintain diversity in the U.S. fighter industrial base.
The F-15EX improvements included the AESA radar, IRST, and EPAWSS from the existing F-15 upgrade programs while combining the benefits of the F-15QA such as the revised structure with a service life of 20,000 hours, new cockpit and flight controls, and the proposed AMBER (Advanced Missile and Bomb Ejector Rack) system to enable the carriage of up to 22 air-to-air missiles.
Lt. Col. Richard Turner, Commander, 40th Flight Test Squadron, and Lt. Col. Jacob Lindaman, Commander, 85th Test & Evaluation Squadron, deliver the first F-15EX to its new home station, Eglin AFB, Florida, 11 March, 2021. The 40th FLTS will take possession of EX1 and the 85th TES will own EX2 upon its arrival, coming soon. Squadron aircrews and testers will work together to complete the combined developmental and operational testing simultaneously. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. John McRell)
Although it is not expected to be as survivable against the latest air defenses as the fifth-generation F-22 and F-35, the F-15EX can supplement the former in air superiority missions by performing homeland and airbase defense, enforcing no-fly zones against limited air defenses, and deploying outsized standoff weapons in support of stealth fighters at the frontline. In July 2020, the U.S. Defense Department ordered eight F-15EXs over three years for $1.2 billion. The F-15EX made its maiden flight on 2 February 2021.
On 7 April 2021, its official name Eagle II was announced. The FY2021 defense appropriations bill funded F-15EX procurement at $1.23 billion for 12 aircraft, bringing total orders to 20 aircraft with 144 total planned. By May 2022, the USAF reduced its orders to 80. The first operational F-15EXs are not to receive conformal fuel tanks. The Air Force’s proposed budget for fiscal 2024 includes funds to buy 24 more F-15EXs, which would bring the planned fleet up to 104 aircraft.
Top Photo: An F-15EX Eagle II from the 40th Flight Test Squadron, 96th Test Wing out of Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, flies in formation during an aerial refueling operation above the skies of Northern California, May 14. The Eagle II participated in the Northern Edge 21 exercise in Alaska earlier in May. (Air Force photo by Ethan Wagner)
Sources: YouTube; Wikipedia