The Air Force plans to have the F-15EX accompany fifth-generation aircraft to benefit from their improved sensors.
A two-seat, twin-engine fighter jet, the F-15EX Eagle II is the newest and most advanced version of one of the most successful fighter jets in modern aviation.
The aircraft continues to prove its capabilities as it slowly enters operational service, giving more options to the U.S. Air Force.
About the F-15EX Eagle II
The F-15EX Eagle II is a multirole and highly capable aircraft that bridges two different aviation generations: fourth- and fifth-generations. Although such nomenclature is not official, the defense and aerospace industry uses the term “fourth-generation” to describe modern fighter aircraft without stealth capabilities and “fifth-generation” aircraft to describe stealth aircraft. Fighter jets like the F-16 Fighting Falcon, F/A-18 Super Hornet, and F-15E Strike Eagle II belong to the former category, whereas aircraft like the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II to the latter.
The Air Force plans to have the F-15EX accompany fifth-generation aircraft to benefit from their improved sensors.
“The future F-15 fleet will complement 5th generation aircraft, bringing substantial additional capacity for over-sized long-range fires, sensors, and electronic warfare capabilities to defend critical locations in highly contested areas,” the Air Force recently stated about the 4.5-generation fighter jet.
The Pentagon approved full-rate production of the EX in 2024. The Air Force has currently ordered just over 100 aircraft, with a handful already in service in Air National Guard units. The F-15EX has mainly been slated for homeland defense, but the Air Force also plans to forward deploy some squadrons to bases in the Indo-Pacific in order to counter the growing threat from China.
The latest version of the F-15 has an interesting story. The “EX” came to be after Qatar paid to develop a specialized, upgraded version of the base F-15 Eagle for its air force. The U.S. Air Force saw the capabilities of the F-15QA and decided to commission a version for its own uses: the F-15EX.
The newest version of the aircraft comes with “fly-by-wire” flight controls, dual Digital Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems, a touchscreen display, and an AN/ ALQ-250(V)1 Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System for electronic warfare, among other technologies.
This is a highly capable fighter jet that can carry tens of thousands of pounds of munitions and take on almost every adversary aircraft out there.
The Latest Chapter in the F-15’s Long History
Designed and produced by McDonnell Douglas (and now Boeing), the F-15 has been flying since the late 1970s. There have been several variants of the aircraft and nearly 1,200 total jets produced.
The F-15 platform, in all of its iterations since the 1970s, has an impressive air-to-air kill ratio of 104-0. No F-15 fighter jet has ever been shot down by an enemy aircraft or air defense system, and F-15s have shot down scores of enemy aircraft. Most of these air-to-air kills have come from the Israeli Air Force, which has been using the F-15 for decades in the conflicts in the Middle East.
The EX version of the F-15 promises to be as effective, if not more so, as its predecessors.
About the Author: Stavros Atlamazoglou
Stavros Atlamazoglou is a seasoned defense journalist specializing in special operations and a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ). He holds a BA from the Johns Hopkins University and an MA from the Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). His work has been featured in Business Insider, Sandboxx, and SOFREP.
Image: Shutterstock / Christopher Chambers.
