By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
The U.S. Air Force F-15EX has blasted onto the scene in recent years as a highly advanced “4th-generation-plus” type of aircraft intended to pick up key missions less suitable for a stealthy 5th-gen F-35.
However, while essentially a 4th-generation airframe, the U.S. Air Force and Boeing have for many years been building upon extensive upgrades to the 1980s-era F-15, which hosts upgrades that 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.
F-15EX: Technological Enhancements
The technological enhancements built into the F-15EX 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 generation weapons.
The thinking, as explained by developers, is to engineer a highly capable aircraft able to pick up key high-risk missions that 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 that arguably may require the U.S. and its allies to “mass” larger formations of networking F-35s and new 6th-generation aircraft.
In recent years, Boeing developers have said that the F-15EXs Advanced Display Corps Processor performs 87-billion computing functions per second. This and other F-15EX attributes, however, may not compensate for a clear lack of stealth.
The lack of stealth suggests that the F-15EX could indeed be quite vulnerable to now highly advanced Russian and Chinese air defenses.
Russian S-400 and S-500 air-defense systems are claimed by the Russian press to operate with an ability to find and destroy stealth aircraft.
This may or may not actually be true, as establishing an “engagement” track on 5th-generation stealth fighters is much harder than simply “detecting” that something is in the area.
However, Russian air defenses, and possibly Chinese HQ-9s, are believed to operate on a wider range of frequencies, detect aircraft at higher altitudes and use digital networking and processing to connect otherwise disparate threat detection nodes to one another.
As for its many attributes, the F-15EX may reportedly fire hypersonic weapons, hit speeds of Mach 2.5 and operate with one of the fastest computer processors ever to exist in combat aircraft. Therefore, the actual extent to which the F-15EX could actually rival or challenge the Chinese J-20 or Russian Su-57 may not be fully known, it does appear possible the new “4th-gen-plus” aircraft might be well positioned to destroy Russian and Chinese 4th generation fighters, of which there are many.
Staff Sgt. Dave Smith and Senior Airman John Pusieski from the 58th Operational Support Squadron, 58th Fighter Wing, peform last-minute checks and arm practice bombs on an F-15E Eagle aircraft from the 461st Fighter Squadron.
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.
Author Expertise and Experience
Kris Osborn is the Military Editor of 19 FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
