The F-15EX Fighter Is Starting to ‘Scare’ America’s Enemies

Key Points – Boeing’s F-15EX Eagle II, an advanced 4.5+ generation fighter, retains relevance in modern air combat primarily through its substantial payload capacity (29,500 lbs) for standoff engagements and its potential as a command aircraft for unmanned “Loyal Wingmen” drones.

-Its two-seat configuration, coupled with modernized avionics, powerful radar, and advanced mission computing systems, facilitates this manned-unmanned teaming and enhances situational awareness.

-With an active production line enabling relatively quick delivery, the F-15EX is designed to augment the US Air Force’s stealth fighter fleet (F-22, F-35, and the future F-47), providing “mass” and leveraging its significant range and firepower.

The F-15EX Is No ‘Old’ U.S. Air Force Fighter 

The F-15EX is the latest and greatest of the F-15 offerings by Boeing, an aerospace firm since the jet was first introduced into American service in the mid-1970s.

Modern avionics, what is purportedly the world’s most powerful fighter jet radar, and a new concept of the role of fourth-generation aircraft on the modern battlefield combine on a mature and proven fighter jet.

The F-15’s origins lie in the Cold War, but despite this legacy, the U.S. Air Force aims to ensure that the newest F-15 can fill the ranks at home and abroad by bringing mass to a potential future fight. F-15EX can bolster the capabilities of other stealthier jets, or so the thinking goes.

Loyal Wingmen: Manned-Unmanned Teaming and the Future of Aerial Warfare

Loyal Wingmen have been touted as the future of war in the air: attritable, affordable, and directed by a human pilot quarterback. Lingering back behind the Loyal Wingmen is a boon to the survivability of piloted aircraft, and for a distinctly non-stealthy jet like the F-16, that arrangement would be a godsend.

Though jets like the F-16 or F-15 — both proven designs, but of the older, fourth-generation of non-stealthy aircraft — would hardly expect to go head-to-head against radically more advanced, more capable fifth and sixth-generation aircraft. Stealthy aircraft and modern air defenses would pose a significant threat even to the updated F-15EX. But Loyal Wingmen-type assets do press the scales slightly in favor of the F-15.

“Facilitated by its advanced mission computing, platform architectures, communication networks and comprehensive sensor suite, the F-15EX provides a realistic growth path to the future of manned-unmanned teaming. These foundational components, enhanced by its two-seat configuration, advanced crew station and large area display, empower the F-15EX to manage increased workloads with heightened situational awareness and control,” Boeing explains.

“Facilitating airborne battle management and joint all domain command and control, the F-15EX is provisioned to redefine air dominance and provide a dynamic and flexible option for air superiority of the future.”

While jets like the F-15, F-16, F-35, F-22, and potentially both the F-47 and the upcoming F/A-XX are all single-seat fighters, Boeing’s F-15EX features a second seat, typically reserved for the Weapon Systems Officer. That pilot naturally operates the jet’s weapon systems. However, Boeing highlights the extra space in the cockpit for its application to weapon systems, such as the Loyal Wingmen aircraft.

Buzzwords like Artificial Intelligence, stealth, or Loyal Wingman aside, the F-15, in its updated state, possesses another positive quality: immense payload capacity.

F-15EX Bringing Mass to the Fight

One of the F-15’s more remarkable aspects is its outsized payload capacity, cited by Boeing as 29,500 pounds, or around 13,300 kilograms.

Underwing pylons and points on the fuselage allow the jet to fly with 12 AMRAAMs or other “outsized weapons” or “other ordinance.” F-15s in service with the Israeli Air Force are highly maneuverable regional bombers used primarily in a strike or ground attack role.

The New and the Old in Cold Wars

Among the many factors the F-15EX has going for it, there is one in particular that is rather unique: the successor to the F-15, the F-22. While the F-22 is unarguably the superior aircraft in terms of sheer performance, there are fewer than 200 Raptors in existence today, while over a thousand F-15s have rolled off of production lines, including new F-15EX airframes today. But why?

F-22 production was severely truncated. Instead of the 700-odd F-22s the U.S. Air Force initially tossed around as a procurement target, only about 190 were built. Fast and stealthy, the jets came of age during a time when the United States had no serious geopolitical rivals. Russia was, if no longer in the painful throes of transitioning to a market economy, not the revanchist expander bearing a bruised ego it is today. North Korea hadn’t yet gone nuclear, and China, though increasingly an important economic player, was considerably less bellicose in its rhetoric and intentions towards its near abroad. Who would the Raptor fight then?

Apparently, probably nobody. Shutting down the F-22 Raptor production line and ordering just a fraction of the hundreds of jets initially envisioned, the U.S. Air Force ensured it had a lean F-22 force and that the fleet would not be able to grow in the future.

F-15EX Flies Into the Future

In an ideal situation, the F-15 would not face stealthy fifth or sixth-generation aircraft. That non-stealthy jet wouldn’t even attempt to engage the other jets directly (providing it could), let alone try to engage in a dogfight.

However, high-end Loyal Wingmen drones, in tandem with the F-15EX’s Weapon System Officer, might. In other scenarios, the F-15EX could leverage its high payload capacity to bombard distant targets with stand-off munitions. Several F-15s or more working together could make this tactic deadly.

Perhaps best of all, the F-15 production line still exists. Whether or not the F-15EX is perfect, it is the platform that can be made relatively quickly and now. And in the end, perhaps that is all that matters.

About the Author: Caleb Larson

Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.

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