By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
(Washington D.C.) Would an ability to fire hypersonic weapons, detect long-range threats with advanced radar, operate with unprecedented computer processing speed and carry a large weapons payload enable the new Air Force F-15EX aircraft to compensate for its lack of stealth in a major high-end fight?
F-15EX
This seems to be the central question of great relevance to the Air Force’s arriving F-15EX, a “4th-generation plus” type of modified aircraft engineered with a wide range of potentially paradigm-changing upgrades and enhancements. The F-15 EX can, for example, enter combat with a massive and highly lethal payload, something which might allow the aircraft to function as a follow-on “weapons truck” once forward operating, stealthy 5th-gen aircraft have established air superiority. In fact, Air Force officials cited in a recent article in the EurAsian Times, say the new variant of the F-15EX is now breaking weapons payload and delivery records by demonstrating an ability to operate with 12 air-to-air missiles. The news report says the F-15EX can ultimately carry 13.6 tons of payload.
In recent years, the US Air Force F-13EX has blasted onto the scene in recent years as this kind of highly advanced “4th-generation plus” type of aircraft intended to pick up key missions perhaps less suitable for a stealthy 5th-gen F-35. However, while essentially a 4th-generation airframe, the US Air Force and Boeing have for many years been building upon extensive upgrades to the 1980s-era F-15, improvements which massively improve the performance, technological capacity and combat ability of the airplane. At the same time, some have questioned the utility and strategic rationale behind building the F-15EX given that part of the intent was budget-driven, meaning it represented an effort to decrease modernization expenses in part generated by Pentagon plans for a large 5th-generation and 6th-generation fleet. The Air Force is now acquiring a number of F-15EX aircraft, however the actual number or planned fleet size may remain somewhat in flux.
Video Above: Air Force 6th-Gen Stealth Fighters Control Attack Drones
An interesting recent essay in 19FortyFive cites that the F-15 recently broke records in terms of “quantity of tonnage” it is able to carry into war, something which could arguably introduce a “weapons-truck” kind of attack aircraft to support forward operating 5th-generation aircraft.
The technological enhancements built into the F-13EX arguably make it much more effective than any existing 4th-generation aircraft as it is engineered with a new suite of electronic warfare, AESA(Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar, high-speed computer processing and even an ability to fire new generations of weapons. The thinking, as explained by developers, is to engineer a highly capable aircraft able to pick up key high-risk missions which may not necessarily require a 5th or 6th-generation plane. Some have questioned the wisdom of building a non-stealthy F-15EX, given that major adversaries are likely to soon operate with threatening levels of 5th-generation stealth aircraft. It may not be clear just how many J-20s the Chinese will have in the future, and Russia is now building a relatively small number of Su-57s thus far, the 5th-generation air threat posed by both Russia and China is quite significant as something which arguably may requires the US and its allies to “mass” larger formations of networking F-35s and new 6th-generation aircraft.