F-15EX aircraft are seen arriving at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. on March 11.
The unveiling and naming ceremony for the F-15EX Eagle II aircraft
The newest F-15EX will be called the Eagle II, U.S. Air Force acquisition chief Duke Richardson announced Wednesday during an official unveiling and naming ceremony at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. The newest F-15EX will be called the Eagle II.
According to Defense News and The Aviationist, the U.S. Air Force intends to procure at least 144 F-15EXs to replace F-15C/Ds that are an average of 37 years old. The Air National Guard’s F-15C/D fleet will be replaced by F-15EX or F-35A aircraft.
The F-15EX has a series of upgrades over the older F-15C Eagle and F-15E Strike Eagle, including a telemetry flight control system, a digital cockpit, and two additional weapons seats. The F-15E Strike Eagle has received a series of upgrades over the F-15E Strike Eagle, including a telemetry flight control system, digital cockpit, two additional weapons pylons and the Eagle Passive/Active Warning and Survivability System (EPAWSS), as well as a more advanced ADCP-II mission computer built by Honeywell.
Boeing F-15EX fighter
The most important of these, Richardson said, is that the F-15EX has an open architecture hub that allows the U.S. Air Force to quickly update its fighters and add new capabilities. Since the U.S. developed many new systems when building the F-15 for customers such as Qatar or Shah Alam, the Air Force was able to adopt them directly, skipping a long development period. Boeing went from contract to delivery of the first F-15EX in about less than nine months, Richardson noted.
The F-15EX first flew Feb. 2 at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in Missouri, and Boeing delivered the Air Force’s first Eagle II just one month later, on March 10. The first Eagle II was delivered just one month later, on March 10.
The second batch of F-15EX will be delivered to Kingsley Field Air National Guard Base in Oregon by fiscal year 2024, where it will serve as a training ground for the F-15EX. The third batch will be delivered to Portland ANGB in Oregon by fiscal year 2025, and the 142nd Flight Wing at the base will be the first to fly the aircraft.
In addition, the contract states that the U.S. Air Force can choose to procure up to 200 F-15EX for a total of up to $23 billion (nearly $654 billion).
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