The U.S. Air Force plans to more than double its F-15EX Eagle II fleet to 267 aircraft, up from the previously planned 129, as part of the fiscal 2027 budget request rolled out this week.
The revised plan calls for 24 additional Eagle IIs next year at a cost of roughly $3 billion, according to the service’s fiscal 2027 budget request.
“This will complete building existing F-15EX units and then begin to recapitalize the aging F-15E fleet,” an Air Force spokesperson told Military Times.
The service’s future fighter force “will be comprised of a mix of 4th, 5th and next-gen fighters,” the spokesperson added. “Fighter readiness will be maintained by modernizing older, but still capable, F-16s, F-15s, and F-22s to the maximum extent possible within fiscal realities. Additionally, the USAF will field F-15EXs, Block four F-35s, and F-47s.”
Air & Space Forces Magazine was first to report on the new F-15EX acquisition goal.
Service officials framed the Boeing-built fighter as a complement to, rather than competitor with, Lockheed Martin’s F-35A.
“There are fundamental differences in what we’re looking for in a platform like the F-15EX, as compared to other advanced fifth-generation and sixth-generation fighters,” an Air Force official told reporters at an April 21 Pentagon briefing, citing the jet’s weapons-rail capacity and “its role in the Pacific theater.”
The F-15EX can carry up to 12 air-to-air missiles, more than any current U.S. fighter, along with larger external standoff munitions, capabilities the Air Force has tied to homeland cruise missile defense and long-range Pacific strike profiles.
Its non-stealth design keeps it out of contested penetration missions reserved for the F-35A and Boeing’s F-47, still in development.
Additionally, the spokesperson noted, “While crewed fighters will remain the core of USAF combat power, uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft will provide additive combat capabilities and cost-effective capacities.”
The Air Force has not publicly specified when it expects to reach the 267 F-15EX target. At current procurement rates of roughly two dozen jets per year, the timeframe would extend into the mid-2030s.
The increased F-15EX purchase plan arrives as the roughly 215-aircraft Strike Eagle fleet absorbs recent combat losses. Four F-15Es have been lost in Operation Epic Fury, three to Kuwaiti friendly fire on March 2, and a fourth shot down over southern Iran by a shoulder-fired missile on April 3.
The Air Force had already proposed retiring 20 older-engine F-15Es in FY27, and F-15E squadrons have been rotated through CENTCOM throughout Operation Epic Fury.
Congress, which has repeatedly blocked F-15E retirements and approved F-15EX funding in recent budget cycles, will have the final say on the 267-aircraft target.
Source:
www.defensenews.com