How the US is changing outdated planes to the fourth-generation F-15EX fighter Military experts believe that the US Air Force should abandon the purchase of fourth-generation F-15EX fighters, which are considered analogues of Russian fifth-generation Su-57 combat aircraft.
About what the F-15EX is and whether its purchase will be a strategic mistake - in the material of the military observer "Gazeta.Ru" by Mikhail Khodarenka.
"The US Air Force should abandon the F-15EX if they do not buy significantly more than the planned 80 aircraft, which is an unjustified reduction from the 144 fighters they once wanted to purchase," writes the author of The Drive, Tyler Rogoway.
In his opinion, the maintenance of a small fleet of unique aircraft is much more expensive than a fleet of the same number of more widespread models. Rogovey believes that creating a fleet of 80 F-15EX units does not make any sense.
Recall that on July 13, 2020, Boeing Corporation was issued a framework contract of $22.89 billion for the purchase of 144 F-15EX aircraft, with the continuation of purchases of this type of aircraft until at least fiscal year 2030. Later, there were reports that the US Air Force plans to purchase 200 F-15EX fighters in total.
Then, it seems, these plans were significantly adjusted, which was reflected in the publication of The Drive.
The US Air Force plans to decommission 421 obsolete combat aircraft by 2026, replacing them with 304 new fighters. The savings gained from operating a smaller fleet of combat aircraft will be used to purchase new aircraft systems, such as the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter at the end of this decade, and the new MR-X multi-purpose fighter in the 2030s.
In accordance with the forward-looking defense plan (FYDP) for the coming years, which ends in fiscal year 2026, the US Air Force will receive 84 new F-15EX fighters and 220 F-35A fighters, which will lead to a net reduction in the fighter fleet by 117 aircraft over a five-year period. The reduction will be the largest since the "CAF Redux" or reduction in the number of combat aircraft in the early 2010s, when the US Air Force reduced its number by about 250 combat aircraft.
Apparently, the publication in The Drive to a certain extent reflects the struggle of opinions in the US leadership about the combat and numerical strength of the country's Air Force in the foreseeable future.
What is the F-15EX
To begin with, it should be noted that the Boeing F-15EX Advanced Eagle multifunctional fighter, strictly speaking, is not an analogue of the Russian Su-57. The F-15EX is considered by many experts to be the best fighter of the fourth generation. And the domestic Su-57 aircraft is still positioned as a multifunctional fifth-generation fighter.
The Boeing F-15EX is based on a modification of the F-15 Advanced fighter created for Qatar and Saudi Arabia. These are F-15QA (Qatar Advanced) and F-15SA (Saudi Advanced). It comes with a number of upgrades missing from the aging U.S. Air Force F-15C/D fleet.
According to the head of the F-15EX program in the US Air Force, Colonel Sean Dorey, a large amount of weapons, the concept of the "digital highway" and the open architecture of the F-15EX will make this aircraft a key element of the American fleet of tactical fighters and complement the combat capabilities of fifth-generation fighters.
The latest EX version of the outstanding (without much exaggeration) F-15 fighter is supplied to the US Air Force with advanced avionics, including the Eagle Passive/Active Warning and Survivability System, a digital cockpit, a more advanced onboard computer with an ADCP-II (Advanced Display Core Processor) processor from Honeywell and an advanced electro-remote flight control system. The new computer is capable of processing data from various onboard fighter systems in several streams and displaying information on multifunctional displays. This increases the accuracy of weapons guidance. In addition, the new system has a longer operating time for error than current F-15 computers with single-core processors. The ADCP-II is considered the fastest on-board computer in the world.
The F-15EX is also equipped with a modern Raytheon AN/APG-82 radar with an active phased array antenna (AFAR).
The first F-15EX aircraft of the US Air Force was received from Boeing Corporation in March 2021. Initial plans suggested that the second batch of these fighters should be delivered in fiscal year 2024 to the Air National Guard Base (ANGB) Kingsley Field in Oregon, which will also serve as a training ground for F-15EX flights. The third batch is expected to be delivered to Portland ANGB in Oregon in fiscal year 2025.
A similar contract marked the return of the US Air Force to the purchase of fourth-generation fighters 15 years after the termination of their deliveries.
The last F-15E fighter was delivered to the US Air Force in 2001, and the last Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter was delivered in 2005.
The F-15EX will be capable of carrying up to 22 guided air-to-air missiles or "hypersonic weapons up to 22 feet long and weighing up to 7,000 pounds." The aircraft will be equipped with so-called conformal tanks. Although it should be noted that in January of this year, the same edition of The Drive reported that the first combat-ready F-15EX will not receive fuel tanks of this type, increasing the flight range, which was considered the main advantage of this type of aircraft.
Today, about 700 F-35s of different versions have been purchased. Therefore, the upgraded F-15 and F/A-18 are most correctly considered not as an alternative to the fifth generation, but as an addition to it.
In particular, the cost of the F-15EX aircraft and its spare parts is approximately $90 million. At the same time, the operating and maintenance costs of the F-35 exceed the operating and maintenance costs of fourth-generation aircraft such as the F-15.
The second argument in favor of buying new fourth-generation aircraft is that the US national defense strategy establishes the need for both inconspicuous tactical aircraft capable of penetrating disputed areas of airspace and aircraft with a large payload capable of launching aircraft weapons from a standoff distance.
It is believed that it is the F-15EX that has this advantage. Of all the fighters of the US Air Force, it can carry the largest payload.
On February 28, 2021, the US government officially authorized Boeing Corporation to offer the F-15EX fighter as a candidate for an endless tender for the purchase of 144 new fighters for the Indian Air Force.
It is also worth recalling that the distance between Moscow and, for example, Kharkiv in a straight line is only 647 km. And the radius of combat use of multifunctional fighters of the F-15EX type is more than 1,500 km. That is, missile and bomb strikes hypothetically can be inflicted on Russian facilities stationed far, far beyond the Volga.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.Mikhail Khodarenok
