PUBLISHED on August 16, 2025, 10:41 AM EDT – Key Points and Summary: The F-15EX Eagle II is emerging as a major success, with the U.S. Air Force expanding its planned procurement from 98 to 129 aircraft in the latest budget proposal.
-This decision comes at the direct expense of the F-35 program, which saw its numbers cut.
U.S. Air Force F-15 Fighter. Image by National Security Journal.
-The F-15EX, a modernized version of the legendary fighter, is also gaining significant traction on the international market, with orders from Israel and Indonesia and interest from other key allies.
-Despite not being a stealth aircraft, its advanced self-protection suite, massive payload, and lower operating costs make it a desirable and formidable asset.
The F-15EX Eagle II Fighter Is No Joke
WARSAW, POLAND: Once derided by its competitors as “too old, too expensive, too big for the stealth era, etc,” the F-15EX Eagle II is turning into the Energizer Bunny of fighter aircraft.
The Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal features a number of changes in procurement priorities that this long-serving twin-engine fighter is benefiting from.
Programs—like the E-7 radar platform that would replace the E-3 AWACS—have some problems. Still, the F-15EX Eagle II fighter being delivered to the USAF is in the opposite situation in that it is being ordered in ever-greater numbers.
The aircraft has had some ups and downs in recent years. But now the planned procurement for its type will increase from a fleet of 98 aircraft to 129.
Next fiscal year’s budget has programmed $3 billion for the most modern and advanced version of what was first designed as what became known as 4th-generation fighters. The 129 to be procured figure is now officially a program of record. The increase in the buy for this aircraft comes about two months after US President Donald Trump made his surprise announcement that the Michigan Air National Guard, which will retire its A-10 Warthogs, will be reequipped with the F-15EX.
According to current US Air Force (USAF) planning, Portland, Fresno, New Orleans, and two squadrons at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, will all be receiving the F-15EX. Given the expanded squadron size now being 21 aircraft, these plus the Michigan unit would create a USAF fleet of 126. It would then leave three more aircraft for weapons testing and other evaluation tasks.
F-15EX Eagle II: It is Not Just the USAF Orders
According to company representatives, Boeing is expecting the USAF and the Trump administration to put ever more resources into the F-15EX. The aircraft has few technical obstacles in its design, and it passed all of its test flights and other validations with flying colors.
There are concerns about survivability as it is not stealthy. Still, it does possess one of the most advanced ever self-protection suites, the BAE Systems Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS).
With the F/A-18E/F going out of production, the F-15EX will, before long, be the only aircraft being built on the company’s fighter production line in St. Louis. That slack will eventually be taken up once the company moves into high gear with the development of the F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance fighter.
But the USAF is not the only customer for the F-15EX aircraft either. The Israeli Air Force’s (IAF) fleet of F-15s is in the later stages of its service life and is in need of eventual replacement. As of 2024, the IAF had 50 of a version of the aircraft, the F-15IA, on order.
Qatar was one of the first buyers of the EX, which is designated the F-15QA in their configuration. So far, 33 of the 48 aircraft they have ordered have been delivered. Saudi Arabia already has 84 previous model F-15SAs in inventory and has been in discussions with Boeing to purchase another 54. There has also been some planning for Saudi Arabia to join the supply chain for the program.
Other nations contemplating a purchase of the aircraft include existing users Singapore, South Korea, and Japan. Indonesia has signed for 24 of the aircraft, which is designated F-15IDN in the version offered to Jakarta.
Poland has also considered an order of 32 jets to supplement its fleet of F-16s, F-35s on order, and South Korean-built FA-50s.
Winners and Losers
Quite often, when the USAF decides to make a dramatic plus-up to a program that is funding that has to come from somewhere else, as in someone else’s program, in the case of the jump in F-15EX orders, their good fortune comes at the expense of the F-35 program.
The F-35’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, has seen the F-35 procurement numbers drop, with the DoD planning to only procure 47 out of an original planned 74. Other funds for the F-35 are going into the Block 4 upgrade initiative and for sustaining existing aircraft already in service. Again, these activities are being supported with budget resources that were originally programmed for buying more aircraft.
It is not necessarily a given that the F-15EX orders will continue to increase and that those orders will always be at the expense of the F-35.
However, it is a fact that some countries view the prospect of a large aircraft capable of carrying a significant amount of ordnance and operating at long ranges as a better fit for their requirements compared to a smaller, stealthy jet.
About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson
Reuben F. Johnson has thirty-six years of experience analyzing and reporting on foreign weapons systems, defense technologies, and international arms export policy. Johnson is the Director of Research at the Casimir Pulaski Foundation. He is also a survivor of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He worked for years in the American defense industry as a foreign technology analyst and later as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Departments of the Navy and Air Force, and the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia. In 2022-2023, he won two awards in a row for his defense reporting. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and a master’s degree from Miami University in Ohio, specializing in Soviet and Russian studies. He lives in Warsaw.
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