Old planes for expensive: why the US Air Force decided to buy almost 150 F-15EX

July 28 2020 25

The United States Air Force has signed a contract for the purchase of one and a half hundred updated F-15 aircraft over the next 10 years. Why did the Pentagon need so many fighters of the aging 4th generation and what is the F-15EX version?

The F-15 fighters, developed by McDonnell Douglas, have been in service with the US Air Force for almost half a century. Since their introduction in 1976 and for a long time, they have been the best at achieving air supremacy.

The most widespread are the single-seat F-15C and F-15D. Further modernization of the aircraft led to the appearance in the late 80s of a two-seater strike version of the F-15E Strike Eagle. The car was distinguished by good flight characteristics and a record-breaking payload in its class.

In 2018, Boeing unveiled a redesigned Strike Eagle, designated Advanced Eagle. In terms of its capabilities, the combat vehicle approached the fifth generation fighters (with the exception of Technology stealth).

As for the F-15X (later EX) fighter, the aircraft was created on the basis of the F-15 Qatar Advanced (version for Qatar) and according to the Pentagon's plans in the next 10 years it should replace the obsolete versions of the F-15C and F-15D.

The new combat vehicle has several advantages. The versatile aircraft can be used to strike both air and ground targets. At the same time, the F-15EX is considered as a "flying arsenal" capable of carrying a large number of weapons, including hypersonic missiles, and interacting with fifth generation fighters via a protected, inconspicuous radio channel.

The updated version also has a drawback. Its price turned out to be more expensive than that of the fifth generation F-35 fighter. However, the aircraft manufacturer assures that this difference will be leveled over time due to the fact that the cost of a flight hour for the F-15EX is 1,5 times cheaper. Moreover, the resource of the new F-15 will be at least 20 thousand flight hours.

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bear040

+2

28 July 2020 22: 40

The US Air Force began to understand that things were far from brilliant with the F-35, so they ordered the old, time-tested F-15s, modernizing them and introducing low-visibility technologies into them as much as possible, smoothing out some of the corners of the aircraft skin and applying special paint.
1. Natan bruk
  
  -6
  
  29 July 2020 02: 19
  
  Nonsense. With the F-35, everything is fine. How many different types of fighters are there in Russia? When, finally, the SU-57 (which in fact is not doing well) begins to enter the troops, all the rest will be abandoned? Different machines have different tasks. The same F-15 works perfectly in tandem with the F-35. And for example, the Israeli F-35s have proven themselves brilliantly, performing the assigned combat missions, and this has already happened more than once ..
  1. bear040
    
    +2
    
    31 July 2020 23: 03
    
    Everything that you have written happens only in your fantasies Svidomo.
    1. Natan bruk
      
      -3
      
      31 July 2020 23: 07
      
      I understand that you want it so much, but alas, firstly, I am not in Ukraine, and secondly, the participation of Israeli F-35s in combat operations has been officially confirmed. So, you just have fantasies.
      1. bear040
        
        +3
        
        31 July 2020 23: 09
        
        You do not understand anything, and even about the training battles conducted by the Yankees between the F-35 and F-16, you only heard what the drunken rains of the drunk Sobchak are broadcasting.
        
        Natan bruk
        
        -2
        
        31 July 2020 23: 41
        
        What does Sobchak and drunken rains have to do with it? I'm talking about what the IDF has officially stated. You, in any way, have not finished school yet, if you scribble such ridiculous answers, Understanding :)))
        
        bear040
        
        +4
        
        31 July 2020 23: 42
        
        The IDF stated a lot of things, but when it came down to it, even the antediluvian Iraqi missiles were 100% unable to intercept the vaunted Patriot air defense systems.
        
        Natan bruk
        
        -3
        
        31 July 2020 23: 50
        
        What "vaunted air defense systems?" First generation patriots in 1991? So they weren't really meant for that. Well, SCUDs were not antediluvian either. By the way, then only 1 (one) person died, and that one from a heart attack. Much water has flown under the bridge since then, and the Israeli air defense system is today one of the best in the world. And there are much more reasons to trust the IDF than, for example, the press secretary of the Russian Defense Ministry. However, graduate from school, you will learn a lot of new things.
        
        Natan bruk
        
        -2
        
        31 July 2020 23: 51
        
        And about "how it came to this" - this is the great and terrible S-300, Armor and BUKs in Syria. Did they repel many Israeli air raids?
        
        bear040
        
        +4
        
        31 July 2020 23: 55
        
        The Scud was developed and put into service in the days of Khrushchev, so this is a very antediluvian rocket. To believe the Tsakhal is not to respect yourself. Even in England they do not believe you, publishing sufficiently believable books that are far from the official fables of Israel. So the Russian Federation is not at war with you yet, and if it comes to a war with the Russian Federation, you will die without being afraid.
        
        Natan bruk
        
        -4
        
        1 August 2020 00: 02
        
        Yeah, they died in 1973 :))) Then a lot of the Soviet 200s arrived in the USSR, and Soviet pilots were forbidden to engage in battle with Israeli ones. And the official fables, they are more in Russia for schoolchildren - hurray-patriots like you. But in Israel you can't hide anything, the country is small and open. And satellite images clearly confirm who is lying there. Well, never mind, finish school, maybe in which university you go, you will look at life more realistically.
        
        bear040
        
        +4
        
        1 August 2020 00: 06
        
        Do you want to read alternative sources of information about that war? I don’t suggest the Russians, especially since not all the information that I own is in the public domain, and even if it were, with your show-off you wouldn’t believe it all. You can start with the English author Robert Jackson and his book Legendary Fighters. There, the real losses of the Israeli Air Force are voiced close to the truth, and not the fables with which Telyaviv feeds people like you. Well, it seems so to you, in fact, you have a lot of noodles on your ears.
        
        Natan bruk
        
        -3
        
        1 August 2020 00: 17
        
        In fact, you have the noodles, and I'm not a fan of alternative history. There were many losses in 1973, no one disputes. Only the mountains of weapons with which the USSR poured the Arabs did not help the Arabs, and he himself took part in that war well. To expand the school's horizons, that war ended with another defeat of the Arabs and a heavy military-political defeat of the USSR, and Israeli troops stopped 100 km from Cairo and 40 km from Damascus. Even to broaden horizons - the Americans did not fight for Israel. Never. Weapons were supplied in 1973, but certainly not more than the USSR to the Arabs, and no better than the Soviet one. Yes, young man, why are they teaching you so badly at school - not Telyaviv, but Tel Aviv. You will not enter any university with such literacy.
        
        bear040
        
        +3
        
        1 August 2020 04: 55
        
        But the mountains of weapons provided to you by NATO did not help you, and the anti-aircraft gunners and pilots from the Union washed you well with blood. By the end of the war, your Air Force practically ceased to exist, having lost up to 80% of equipment and personnel. Well, it was not the USSR army that fought there, and the Arabs have always been merchants, not soldiers, but you are not warriors either, you are usurers, not soldiers. I will write to you what you have not heard, although you will not believe all one. Yours love to remember the battle in which they killed 5 Soviet MiG-21s on dry basis. And then noodles float up, hung over your ears.
        1) At that time, the MiG-21 was already old; the MiG-23 and MiG-25 were in service.
        2) The battle was in unfavorable conditions for Soviet pilots, you had 6 times the numerical superiority and full fuel tanks, and the MiGs had been hanging in the air for a long time and spent a significant part of the fuel.
        3) The battle was not dry, you lost 1 Mirage.
        4) Before that there were two dry fights in favor of the pilots of the USSR, in the first you lost 2 Skyhawk attack aircraft, in the second fighter-bomber Fact-2.
        5) The battle of the latest F-15s against the MiG-25 ended in a draw, with a score of 2: 2. You lost a pair of F-15s, the USSR lost a pair of MiG-25s (neither Israel nor the USSR officially recognized these losses, but this is official). The battles with Soviet units of the air defense system were terrible. You managed to destroy part of the SAM systems, but yours did not return from the battle in dozens, your regiments lost 50, 60 and even 80% or more of equipment and personnel.
        
        Natan bruk
        
        -2
        
        2 August 2020 03: 56
        
        I will repeat once again that I am not a fan of alternative history, moreover that is presented by schoolchildren, all the more so - nonsense about the F-15 fights with the MiG-25, and even with a significant proviso - “they were not officially recognized”. Do you take such news not from Murzilka? Not a single F-15 was lost in battle. Yes, and also read when the deliveries of the F-15 began, and when the Yom Kippur War was. I understand that you do not go through this at school, but still .. And most importantly, I did not hear the answer to the question asked - how did it happen that the Arabs, with all-round help and with the direct participation of the USSR, again suffered a crushing defeat? It turns out, “washed with blood”, “lost 80%” and inflicted a crushing defeat? Yes, after all, schoolchildren are not good at logic :)))
        
        Sapsan136
        
        +3
        
        3 August 2020 09: 32
        
        Alternate history and alternate sources of information are two different things, so don't confuse sour with salty. So the British documentary writer and Russian officer are schoolchildren for you ?! In this case, I advise you to go through a medical commission, it looks like you have serious health problems and understanding the reality around you.
Sergey Latyshev

-3

28 July 2020 23: 54

In fact, these are all "exaggerations" of the journalist (if politically correct).
I searched.
It's just that every good Su upgrade is called a new name. All of these Su-27-30-34-35 look like twin brothers.
And to amers all these reports about peremogs are crazy, they just add letters after F-15. With the same result.
The F-15EX is a high-speed analogue of our latest Su-35, developed in 2018, generation 4 +++.
Allegedly, the filling is new, and the frame is verified ..
1. Natan bruk
  
  -4
  
  29 July 2020 02: 22
  
  Everything is correct. Many people here write, they say, "these ancient F-15s", although only a glider remained from the "that" F-15.
2. Magog
  
  +1
  
  9 September 2020 23: 35
  
  All these Su-27-30-34-35 look like twin brothers.
  
  Here in this row "33" is missing. It's also similar, especially when you move away! And the Su-34 in general, in your opinion, is a clumsy modification of the Su-27 ... What are you driving here? Before doing this, and agreeing with such judgments, read at least briefly what are the main differences between these aircraft! The Americans, for example, sell all their F - 18 models (A, B, C, D, E) to "land" countries in deck modification, not at all embarrassed that none of them is made for banal airfield operation. The same applies to the F - 35. Why should they take a steam bath, create some kind of export or unique models at the request of the buyer? When it is possible to sell to the client used devices that have served on AUG-ah, AUS-ah - and try to refuse!
  1. Sergey Latyshev
    
    -1
    
    10 September 2020 10: 13
    
    1) We put Su 33 on the list - well done, don’t worry!
    2) And nothing was said about export and about the F-35 ...
    Buy - their problem. What to worry about.
    1. Magog
      
      0
      
      10 September 2020 19: 24
      
      There is nothing to worry about the Americans - they have everything in chocolate. The excitement is that here American songs are sung louder and louder by people like you.
      1. Sergey Latyshev
        
        -1
        
        10 September 2020 20: 22
        
        Just people like you have to lie skillfully. Better not to lie at all.
        You need to know the enemy by sight, and not brag: "We'll throw our caps over," "the buck is about to fall," etc.
        
        No empire collapsed due to an external enemy. All because of the internal enemy in power ...
        
        Magog
        
        -1
        
        11 September 2020 10: 04
        
        people like you need to lie skillfully
        
        Got it! You do it "skillfully", but there are no limits to perfection. I wish you continued success!
Magog

+1

9 September 2020 22: 56

In this case, the resource of the new F-15 will be at least 20 thousand flight hours.

I looked at similar data for our aircraft, and this is what happens. We, for example, claim 6000 flight hours, or 30 years of operation. That is, an average of 200 flight hours per year. The Americans, thus, made a claim for 100 years of operation of a combat maneuverable aircraft! As the saying goes: "Either I ... or I am being fooled."
Magog

+1

11 September 2020 10: 15

As of December 2012, the U.S. Air Force F-15E fleet had an average age of 21 years and an average glider flight time. 6000 hours.

That is, the average actual flight time of this aircraft is about 300 hours per year. This is all taking into account the participation of the United States in conflicts up to 2012. The desire (or a publicity stunt?) To make the life of an airplane / glider up to 20000 hours looks like a banal American "fake". Or they are going to significantly increase their participation in conflicts in the world, and therefore such performance characteristics for the F - 15X aircraft. Only, is it possible? Such indicators are typical for other types of (non-maneuverable) aircraft.