November/December 2020 13T
HE U.S. AIR FORCE HAS OFFICIALLY
gone back to the future, placing an order
in July for eight F-15EX fighters. The
Boeing-built jets are the first of what could
be as many as 144 new fighters to supple-
ment older models of the F-15, which took
to the skies in 1972 and has maintained
an astonishing string of 104 air-to-air kills and
zero losses. The F-15 may have seemed destined
to collect dust with other Cold War relics, but the
twin-engine aerial powerhouse has proven too
capable to retire.
McDonnell Douglas built the F-15 from hard
lessons learned from the Vietnam War, when fight-
ers like the F-4 Phantom were designed with the
assumption that the increased range allotted by
air-to-air missiles had rendered dogfighting obso-
lete. P-51 Mustang and F-86 Sabre pilots left the
Korean War with an impressive 13:1 kill ratio; in
Vietnam, however, F-4 pilots, who lacked guns for
close-range air combat and the maneuverability
found in smaller, more nimble fighters, managed
an abysmal 1.5:1 kill ratio.
The Air Force needed a dedicated air superior-
ity fighter—extremely fast, with powerful radar, a
large complement of air-to-air missiles, and a gun
that could be used for close-range fighting with
other jets—to ensure their pilots would survive the
next conf lict. The service also required a thrust-
to-weight ratio of 1:1 and exceptional speed and
maneuverability to keep up with the Soviet Union’s
MiG-25, which could f ly at Mach 2.8.
The first F-15 prototype packed two Pratt &
Whitney F100-PW-100 afterburning turbofan
engines that could unleash a whopping 23,
pounds of thrust with afterburners; it was so pow-
erful, it could break the speed of sound while f lying
straight up. With a top speed of Mach 2.5 and an
advanced AN/APG-63 nose-mounted radar, the
F-15 could spot even low-f lying enemy planes at a
range of up to 200 miles. It could also carry three
600-pound external fuel tanks that gave it a range
of 3,000 miles—no aerial refueling needed.
The fighter scored its first air-to-air kill in 1979,
when an Israeli Air Force F-15A shot down a Syrian
MiG-21. Over the coming years, Israeli, Saudi, and
American pilots would add to the F-15’s win streak.
By 1986, the fighter had proven so capable that the
decision was eventually made to field another new
variant of the platform: the F-15E Strike Eagle.While other F-15s were built to dominate air-to-air
engagements, the F-15E leveraged the jet’s range,
speed, and ordnance to become one of America’s
most capable long-range precision-strike aircrafts.
By the 1990s, the Air Force needed a new air
superiority fighter that could avoid detection as
air defense systems continued to mature. Enter
the F-15’s stealthier successor: the F-22 Raptor.
However, America’s gradual shift toward counter-
insurgency and antiterrorism operations in
uncontested airspace ultimately halted those plans;
when the U.S. Department of Defense decided to
end production of the F-22 in 2009, it guaranteed
the F-15’s continued dominance.
Now, the Air Force is once again purchasing new
F-15s, after buying its last Strike Eagle in 2004.
While one might question prolonging the lifespan
of a fourth-generation fighter in an era of stealthy
fifth-gens, the F-15EX still has the ability to carry a
payload of 12 air-to-air missiles or 15 air-to-ground
weapons—at least four times more than the F-
can while maintaining stealth—and an integrated
electronic warfare suite. While it isn’t as capable in
highly contested airspace as an F-35 or F-22, what it
lacks in tact it makes up for in power.
In the future, the Air Force intends to network
stealth jets like the F-35 to missile-laden platforms
like the F-15EX through a secure data-link. This
link would allow the transmission of targeting data
from forward stealth fighters to F-15EXs following
behind, making it possible for the F-15 to engage
targets from greater distances. With new F-15s
rolling off the assembly line and into the Air Force’s
hangars, it seems clear that this powerful fighter
born out of Vietnam’s dogfights will continue to
serve for decades to come.THE F- 15 MAY HAVE SEEMED^
DESTINED TO COLLECT^ DUST^
WITH OTHER COLD WAR^ RELICS,
BUT THE TWIN-ENGINE^ AERIAL^
POWERHOUSE^ HAS^ PROVEN^ TOO^
CAPABLE TO RETIRE.