Boeing F-15EX / F-15QA and related variants

isayyo2 said:
Maro.Kyo said:
Mark Nankivil said:
fightingirish said:

The First F-15EX Fighter Jet Has Now Flown In Its Air Force Colors

The aircraft is slated to be one of the first two F-15EXs to be handed over to the Air Force for test work in the coming months.
www.thedrive.com
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Yep, was there though worked caused me to miss the launch which I was told was pretty darn good!

Enjoy the Day! Mark
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Uhh, wasn't EX supposed to be Strike Eagle but with single seat only? Or am I wrong? That tail structure means it is indeed EX which gets me confused...
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Back seat is still "Missionised" for anyone who wants to hop in, they haven't built single seater's lighter airframes since the 80s.
Apparently the last order of D's for the Saudi Air Force were really heavier E airframes in gray paint?
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It is my understanding that the USAF wanted single seaters but Boeing said there would be an extended lead time and it would be faster to go with the two seater. It'd be cool if we could get enough NGAD airframes so that we could eventually slide these over to mud hen squadrons to replace those as NGADs (whatever it ends up being) replaces these at F-15C squadrons. Probably won't be able to buy enough 6th gen jets but you never know...
 
^ reading about NGAD and F-15s makes me think that in the future
air forces might end up using a mix of 6th gen and 4th gen as a (hi-lo) mix.
skipping over/retiring 5th gen due to high costs
 
F119Doctor said:
On a side note, the USAF has also removed the turkey feathers from the F101 engines on the B-1B bombers, presumably for a similar durability issue.
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Totally off topic, but my SMSgt superintendent in the ERRC at Dyess was the guy who submitted that IDEA as a Staff or Tech and got the $10,000 for it.
 
A pair of Strike Eagles were used for this week strike above Syria (that would explain the brief 4min warning to the Russians):
A pair of U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets dropped seven precision-guided munitions Thursday during airstrikes on a remote compound in eastern Syria used by Iranian-backed militias.

The strikes destroyed nine buildings in a compound along the border and damaged two others, Pentagon officials confirmed on Friday.
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U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle jets used in strikes against Iran-backed militias, Pentagon says

A pair of U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets dropped seven precision-guided munitions Thursday during airstrikes on a remote compound in eastern Syria used by Iranian-backed militias.
amp.washingtontimes.com
 
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mkellytx said:
F119Doctor said:
On a side note, the USAF has also removed the turkey feathers from the F101 engines on the B-1B bombers, presumably for a similar durability issue.
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Totally off topic, but my SMSgt superintendent in the ERRC at Dyess was the guy who submitted that IDEA as a Staff or Tech and got the $10,000 for it.
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I wonder if the guy who thought of it for the F-15 got a royalty. ;)
 
TomcatViP said:
Grey Havoc said:

BAE Starts EPAWSS Jamming Suite Production For F-15EX - Breaking Defense

The Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) will let pilots to monitor, jam and deceive threats in contested airspace.
breakingdefense.com
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From the link
with flyaway unit cost estimate of $87.7 million.
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welp
thats roughly the same ballpark as the F-35A
although the 35 has like 50?% higher operating costs. but Lockmart claims to get it down to costs that are around the same as Boeing's projection for the EX.
so at which point, why not go for the 35?
 
mkellytx said:
sferrin said:
I wonder if the guy who thought of it for the F-15 got a royalty. ;)
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Don't know @sferrin, but if he was active duty then the max you could get for recommending something to save the Air Force money was $10K.
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It was a joke. IIRC the F-15 had been lacking "turkey feathers" for some time before they got rid of them on the B-1B. Just wondering if a B-1B guy got $10,000 for passing something along he saw on an Eagle. ;)
 
sferrin said:
mkellytx said:
sferrin said:
I wonder if the guy who thought of it for the F-15 got a royalty. ;)
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Don't know @sferrin, but if he was active duty then the max you could get for recommending something to save the Air Force money was $10K.
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It was a joke. IIRC the F-15 had been lacking "turkey feathers" for some time before they got rid of them on the B-1B. Just wondering if a B-1B guy got $10,000 for passing something along he saw on an Eagle. ;)
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Not a bad guess. The two closely spaced round nozzles in each B-1B nacelle probably has as much flow turbulence has the back of the F-15. I know the turkey feathers were already history when I started working F100-100/200 engines around 1981...

FYI - putting two closely spaced rectangular nozzles together has a much nicer flow field than two round nozzles. Another possible reason that the F-22 has 2D nozzles, along with thrust vectoring and signature benefits.
 
Ideally you want an aerodynamic cone there between the two round nozzles to give you a constant expansion sections as far as possible (see Flanker and Migs for example).
 
sferrin said:
It was a joke. IIRC the F-15 had been lacking "turkey feathers" for some time before they got rid of them on the B-1B. Just wondering if a B-1B guy got $10,000 for passing something along he saw on an Eagle. ;)
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The way Todd explained it to me, he was sick and tired of repairing cracked turkey feathers, he knew of the F-15 solution since he'd worked on F100's in the past. He was somewhat surprised he was the first person to fill out and file all of the paperwork for the IDEA. Just goes to show persistence is just as important as innovation.
 
TomcatViP said:
Ideally you want an aerodynamic cone there between the two round nozzles to give you a constant expansion sections as far as possible (see Flanker and Migs for example).
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That makes the engines “not closely spaced”. Placing them wider apart helps reduce the turbulence and reduces transonic drag, but increases supersonic base drag and Asymmetric single engine thrust effects - F-14, Su-27, Su-57 are examples.

Closely spaced 2D nozzles can be the best of both worlds, if properly developed.
 
The F-15 is still such a beautiful aircraft ! Nice to see "fresh" ones. On range and speed and weapon load it remains a better bargain that a F-35 ; but of course the F-35 has networked weaponry and sensors plus stealth. Clearly the new F-15s are a) to bolster airframe numbers and b) to be used on lower risk theathers of operations were stealth is less useful and c) for rapid transformation of squadrons already flying worn out F-15s. From this point of view it makes some sense, although it is also quite startling to see USAF buying again an aircraft not purchased since 2004 (!).

As for two-seat... it is a matter of the F-15E-derived export variants all around the world and all around the 2000s and 2010s ultimately outliving any single-seat F-15C straight derivative.

That "optional" second seat is quite interesting: even today, a RIO remain useful for some peculiar missions. A similar debate happened with the Rafale in France, Navy versus Air Force. The former had to sacrifice the two seat variants as it was a little marginal on CdG. The Air Force was luckier and decided a large chunk of its Rafale fleet would be two seaters to ease the pilot workload on some missions, notably strike.

At the end of the day, the F-15 already had screwed the Rafale here and there (South Korea) and now it screws the F-35 for USAF. Not bad for a 50 years old design (next year in July: 1972 !)
 
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That was quick! The f-15 was really a super fighter, it shows when it took more than 30 years to have airplanes with better performance
 
yeah it is still king of the skies. only the f-22 surpasses it as an air superiority fighter. I wonder how much f-35 tech has been added. the pilot interface is completely new and looks more akin to f-35 than previous eagle variants.
 

The Air Force’s F-15E ‘bomb truck’ can now carry 15 JDAMS - Sandboxx

The U.S. Air Force has successfully tested a new loadout for the F-15E Strike Eagle that allows the highly capable multirole fighter to carry a whopping 15 JDAMs at once, though it won't be able to leverage them all in a single sortie. Entering service more than a decade after the F-15 Eagle...
www.sandboxx.us
 
How different is the EX from the QA?

they seem to look virtually the same, down to the Turkey feathers on the engine

(interesting camo too)

EivjgzBXcAE23-O.jpg
 
Which hardpoint store is certified for what weight?
Any difference from the F-15E
?
 
Josh_TN said:
I was under the impression EX was a rebadged QA, maybe with some USAF specific avionics. Part of the justification of the purchase was no development time.
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The main difference between the F-15QA and the F-15EX is that the new USAF Eagles will include the Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS). In addition, the F-15QA runs a bespoke customer Operational Flight Program (OFP) software, whereas the F-15EX will run OFP Suite 9, which dovetails with the current F-15E Strike Eagle and F-15C standard. It’s designed to promote commonality across the F-15 community. “I can see an operator that can quickly jump from platform to platform because of the commonality between the OFPs,” says Giese.
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Source:

What It Is Like Flying The Most Advanced F-15 Eagle Ever Built

A test pilot's perspective on Qatari F-15QA trials that will pave the way to deliveries in 2021, and help the development of the USAF’s new F-15EX.
www.thedrive.com
 
Will the EX be able to carry the same nav and targeting pods under the intakes as the E models? Or indeed improved versions. And if so, could this mean a targeting pod could act as an IRST rather than rely on IRST nipples on modded fuel tanks?
 
thefrecklepuny said:
Will the EX be able to carry the same nav and targeting pods under the intakes as the E models? Or indeed improved versions. And if so, could this mean a targeting pod could act as an IRST rather than rely on IRST nipples on modded fuel tanks?
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A shame they still haven't borrowed the Japanese IRST.

F-15J-ASDF-FLIR-1.jpg
 
f-15 flanker! Is the radar different too? The radome looks different. The Japanese seem to turn their airplanes into Toyotas of the sky, they keep everything going for a long time!
 
AGS-1787 said:
f-15 flanker! Is the radar different too? The radome looks different. The Japanese seem to turn their airplanes into Toyotas of the sky, they keep everything going for a long time!
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They use US Sets.

Japan in fact maybe still have the original AN/APG-63 flying today. the F-15J-Kai program brought it to V1 standard. It remains to be seen tho whether they will develop new radar for F-15 or just get the AN/APG-82.
 
F-15EX #2 flew for the first time this past Friday at Lambert Field. Here are a few shots of it making touch and gos/missed approaches.

Also one shot of the Boeing owned TA-4J that flew chase.

Enjoy the Day! Mark
 

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