On December 21, Bloomberg reported that the Pentagon was planning to set aside $1.2 billion in the 2020 defense budget to procure twelve new F-15X fighters
Recent article at Bloomberg has revealed that the USAF will request eight F-15X fighters in its budget. The service plans to buy 80 fighters over five years. That’s enough to fit out a wing of 72 aircraft, divided into three squadrons of 24 planes each, with eight spares. That’s just the five-year projection, though, and the service may buy additional fighters beyond 2025.
The U.S. Air Force will go ahead and buy brand-new F-15s even as it purchases large numbers of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Updated with the latest technology, the F-15X can carry nearly two dozen air-to-air missiles and will likely work together with stealth jets to take on fleets of enemy fighters.
The F-15X will come in two versions, a single-seat F-15CX and a twin-seat F-15EX. According to Aviation Week & Space Technology, other than crew size the two jets will be identical. Here’s a Boeing promotional video for the F-15X, also known as Advanced Eagle.
F-15X is a thoroughly modern update of the F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter first introduced in the 1970s.
Most of the updates it has are already flying in F-15s produced for other countries, with research and development already paid for by nations such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. These include strengthened airframes for increased maneuverability and airframe life span, giving the advanced fighter an even greater dogfighting capability over the original F-15 and an impressive airframe life span of 20,000 hours.
Read Details about F-15X:
- Boeing F-15X Advanced Eagle, the legacy of F-15C Eagle.
- Boeing F-15X Advanced Eagle, el legado del F-15C Eagle ( Article In Spanish)
Read Full Article: www.popularmechanics.com
