I've been waiting for this one. I wonder how it compares to what we have. I don't know enough about lasers to make any assessment.
US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.
- Thread starter tphuang
- Start date
Problem is numbers. They need to replace 200 f15e and over 400 f15d with something. Over 800 F-16 will need to be replaced too.
Numbers of F-15ex to be build are fluctuating, it was 144 two years ago, gone done at 98 in mar 2024.
F-35a could do some replacement but it have an 8000 hour airframe while F-15ex is designed for 20 000 hours. Not sure if it even fill the f-15 shoes. With more than 1500 f-35 for the airforce are planned, it will be hard to fill the gap. F-22, A-10 are filling the slot for the need to be replaced too.
Some say they can extend F-35a life to 24 000 hours but i'm not convinced. They have reported cracking on bulkheads at the end of service life of testing planes and very fast degradation with the use of the 25mm gun.
Minor correction:
F-15D are two-seat trainers and I think they don't even fly them anymore. Only less than 100 were built.
The only F-15s I believe in service for USAF are the Cs and Es. The Cs will get replaced by the EX and it seems they are gearing up to buy more based on the article and these tests.
It makes sense. F-35 is not really air superiority platform and they can't build anymore F-22. Their 6th gen won't be ready and in service for maybe another 10 years so only option for air superiority is more 4th gen F-15s.
My bad was talking about the C model. Look like I miss the last year of retirement too. Not a lot of them left. They are scrambling F-35a for interceptions ??? I think they were very bad at that because of damage to the airframe from the lack of ground warm-up. Japan got some problems with them because of that. Afterburner heat damages and some heat spikes in electronics.
Damn, they need a lot of F-15ex to fill the gap asap.
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