Some fighter aircraft are self-renewing like a phoenix through historical windows of opportunity. The third life of the Boeing F-15 Eagle design, now more than 40 years old, began with reissued Strike versions of the F-15E Strike Eagle for Korea (F-15K), Singapore (F-15SQ), Saudi Arabia (F-15S and -SA) and most recently F-15QA Ababil for Qatar, and now continues with the F-15EX for Israel.
As the latest F-15 version, the F-15EX offers increased payload capacity, fly-by-wire controls, a digital cockpit, modernized sensors and radar systems, and electronic warfare capabilities. The US Air Force (-> current news about the US armed forces) – hampered by the protracted “coming of age” of the F-35, which is significantly weaker in terms of weapon load – has also noticed the “maturation” of its long-standing tactical Jabo flagship and is also claiming new aircraft for itself.
This resulted in around 100 F-15EXs, which have now been included in two budget proposals. On June 6 manufacturer Boeing handed over the first two aircraft (numbers 7 and 8) to the 142nd Wing of the ANG in Portland (Oregon), while the first six are at Eglin AFB (Florida) for various operational tests. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8zukqg
Israel has already received a total of 25 F-15Es since 1998, with Israeli equipment these F-15I Ra’am flew many missions in (forward) defense of Israel in the region, until recently almost 2,000 kilometers south to Yemen. And now the usual congressional approval has been officially granted in the US for Israel to acquire 50 new advanced F-15EX derivatives and an upgrade/adaptation for the existing Israeli F-15I fleet.
These aircraft are referred to as F-15IA for newly built airframes and F-15I+ for the 25 F-15I Ra’am derivatives. As things stand at present, a total of 75 F-15s would therefore be involved if the FMS (Foreign Military Sales) deal materializes and is fully executed. According to the details of the possible sale in the official press release the package worth up to 17 billion euros also includes – in addition to many weapons – 120 F110-GE-129 engines, 90 Advanced Display Core Processors II, 75 APG-82(V)1 active electronically scanning array radars and 50 AN/AAQ-13 LANTIRN navigation pods.
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