Air Force Budget Revives Hopes for a Bigger F-15EX Fleet
Key Points and Summary
-The U.S. Air Force is signaling a renewed commitment to the F-15EX Eagle II, with the fiscal year 2026 budget requesting funds for an additional 21 aircraft.
-This move revives hopes that the service will acquire its original goal of 144 fighters.
-The program’s future had been in doubt, with planned procurement numbers slashed due to budget constraints and the need to fund next-generation programs like the F-47.
-This budgetary U-turn suggests the Air Force continues to see value in the cost-effective “4.5+ generation” fighter as a bridge to the future.
Air Force Budget Revives Hopes for Renewed F-15EX Eagle II Procurement
The U.S. Air Force’s fiscal year 2026 budget request includes funding for an additional 21 F-15EX aircraft – signaling a return to plans to acquire a total of 144 of the fighters established in 2019.
The latest budget request reveals the extent to which the Trump administration plans to equip the Air Force with the latest hardware while pressing ahead with next-generation programs like the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) and the Navy’s F/A-XX programs.
What the Air Force Will Look Like
According to the FY26 budget request, the Air Force is requesting $24.8 billion in total for aircraft procurements, with $2.5 billion earmarked for continued F-15EX procurement.
The news suggests that the Air Force could be returning to plans to field even more of the fifth-generation fighter in the coming years.
It remains unclear, however, exactly how many will be procured in total before next-generation platforms can be fielded in significant numbers.
In June, the Air Force clarified that the budget request would bring the total procurement figure to 129 – just shy of the 144 goal established six years ago.
“The FY26 PB requests 21 F-15EX aircraft. The currently planned total for F-15EX is 129 aircraft. The total includes F-15EX funding within the draft Reconciliation bill,” an Air Force official confirmed in response to a question posed by The War Zone.
The Changing Numbers
Procurement figures for the F-15EX have varied over the years.
In May 2022, service budget documents confirmed a planned reduction to just 80 aircraft.
By March 2024, the service further capped its procurement plans at 98 jets, citing fiscal constraints imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act and broader budgetary issues.
At the time, Maj. Gen. Michael Greiner, the Air Force’s deputy assistant secretary for budget, confirmed that the service had been forced to make “difficult decisions” to balance priorities between maintaining legacy platforms, the F-35A, and the NGAD program.
The reductions exposed a very real budgetary strain within the Air Force, where investments in next-generation programs are competing with the ongoing need to sustain legacy systems that still demand steady funding for maintenance, upgrades, and operational readiness.
What Is the F-15EX Eagle II?
Best described as an upgraded fourth-generation (or 4.5+) fighter, the F-15EX has been touted as a cost effective solution for the Air Force as next-generation platforms are prepared to enter operational service in large numbers in the 2030s.
F-15 Fighter at US Air Force Museum National Security Journal Photo. Taken on 7/19/2025 in Dayton, Ohio.
The F-15EX received a glowing review earlier this year in a Pentagon report – the fiscal year 2024 annual report from the Director of Operational Test & Evaluation – that suggested it could compete with fifth-generation aircraft.
“The F-15EX is operationally effective in all its air superiority roles, including defensive and offensive counter-air against surrogate fifth-generation adversary aircraft, as well as basic air-to-ground capability against the tested threats. The F-15EX was able to detect and track all threats at advantageous ranges, use onboard and off-board systems to identify them, and deliver weapons while surviving,” the report explained.
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