Is the F-15EX A Jet Without a Mission? F-35 vs. F-15EX

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

(Washington DC) The F-35 and F-15EX are so different in so many respects that comparing them might not make sense.

Yet, the two aircraft have been analyzed in relation to one another for years, given the ongoing debates about whether it makes sense to add a 4th-generation “plus” plane in more significant numbers and reduce the size of the F-35 buy.

Just several years, debate, analysis, and even controversy likely reverberated through the halls at the Pentagon regarding the wisdom of the F-15EX, a 4th-gen ++ aircraft intended as an advanced, multi-role fighter designed to expand lethality, sensing, and targeting beyond previous variants of the aircraft. 

F-15EX vs. F-35

Like the F-35, the F-15EX does have cutting edge and highly sensitive Advanced Electronically Scanned Array radar technology as well as advanced high-speed computing, however, the aircraft is extremely different and less capable than an F-35 in a number of key respects.

Perhaps of greatest significance, the F-15EX is not stealthy. Lack of stealth is likely to prove extremely problematic in high-threat enemy territory. The most advanced and rapidly emerging Russian and Chinese-built air defenses are now much more likely to operate with an ability to detect even stealth aircraft to some degree.

This an emerging reality that continues to present something of a predicament for U.S.weapons developers seeking to preserve air supremacy against major power rivals. Russian media claims that its upgraded S-400 and S-500 air defense systems can detect and destroy stealth aircraft, may have yet to be verified in some measurable way, and there is, of course, a massive margin of difference between merely “detecting” something in some capacity and actually being able to shoot it down.

Chinese HQ-9 air defenses, reported to have appeared in areas around the South China Sea, are a fast-growing and serious threat as well.“The HQ-9 is capable of engaging multiple aircraft, including combat aircraft. It resembles the Russian S-300 system but China is assessed to have developed variants of the system with a longer range, potentially up to 230 kilometers,” a DW report writes.