ExecutiveGov reports that The Boeing Company “will provide a maximum of 144 F-15EX Eagle II jets to support the Air Force’s efforts to increase the F-15 fleet’s readiness capacity and replace the F-15C/D variants, the service said Wednesday.” The jet was unveiled Wednesday by Lt. Gen. Duke Richardson, military deputy for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. The “first formal training unit for F-15EX will operate under the 173rd Fighter Wing at the Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base in Oregon by 2024.”
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Tag: F-15EX
US Air Force Officially Accepts First Boeing F-15EX
FlightGlobal reports that on Wednesday, the US Air Force officially accepted the first F-15EX fighter at The Boeing Company’s St. Louis production facility. The Air Force’s “choice to acquire the F-15EX is controversial as the fourth-generation fighter lacks the low radar cross-section of the service’s former favourite jet, the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter.” The Air Force “justified its decision by pointing to the F-15EX’s lower operating costs and the ease with which units flying the F-15C/D can transition into the upgraded variant.” The service “also says it intends to field large, long-range hypersonic missiles on the jet.” The service “plans to acquire 144 examples of the combat aircraft to replace its aging fleet of McDonnell Douglas F-15C/D models, which it says on average are 37 years old and reaching the end of useful life.”
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F-15EX Fires Missile for the First Time in Test
Air Force Times reports that the F-15EX Eagle II on Friday successfully fired “an AIM-120D missile at a BQM-167 target drone over the Gulf of Mexico.” The F-15EX, “which was taking part in an air-to-air weapons system evaluation program known as Combat Archer, found the drone with its sensors, tracked it and fired the missile at it.”
Full Story (Air Force Times)