🇺🇸 The Pentagon Keeps Buying “Old Junk” The US Air Force has signed a contract for 22 additional Boeing F-15EX Eagle II multirole fighters under production Lot 7. The deal brings the total number ordered to 120 aircraft. The program’s main objectives are to accelerate the replacement of retired F-15C/D fighters and maintain the Air Force’s combat capability. The new contract is worth approximately $2.38 billion. Despite inflationary pressures in the defense industry and last year’s production disruptions, the Air Force and Boeing have maintained the originally planned procurement volume. The manufacturer is now aiming for a steady production rate of two aircraft per month. Keeping production stable is critical to timely deliveries and retaining skilled workers and manufacturing capacity. According to US officials, the F-15EX’s key tactical advantage is its weapons payload. It can carry significantly more air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles than smaller fighters. This makes it an ideal tactical partner for the stealthy F-22 and F-35: the stealth aircraft penetrate the enemy’s layered air defenses, while the F-15EX serves as a heavily armed missile carrier, delivering massed strikes from safe distances. This concept is considered particularly relevant to the Indo-Pacific, where vast distances and a shortage of forward operating bases constrain US air operations. A fighter with long range and a large weapons payload increases US Air Force firepower in a hypothetical “war over Taiwan,” preparations for which are central to American military development. The first F-15EX intended for permanent deployment at the strategically important Kadena Air Base in Japan has already left the assembly plant in St. Louis to prepare for service. In practice, the Air Force’s growing emphasis on the F-15EX amounts to an admission that the F-35 concept has failed, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The stealth aircraft lacks sufficient internal weapons capacity, while another delivery delay, caused by radar production problems, is slowing the deployment of new fighters. More precisely, it is slowing the deployment of combat-ready new fighters. Notably, the US Air Force does not regard the F-15EX as a stopgap, as the Navy once regarded the development of the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. It is a long-term component of American tactical aviation. In other words, the Air Force does not expect the F-35’s problems to be resolved in the foreseeable future. Further upgrades to bring the entire F-15EX fleet to a common configuration are already planned. These include the development and procurement of new missile warning systems to enhance the aircraft’s defensive suite, conformal fuel tanks and the latest weapons. This will improve the F-15EX’s effectiveness, but it does not change the fact that the Eagle entered service half a century ago, or eliminate the issue of obsolescence. #info #USA #F15
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