So I have always been a bit of a defense hardware junkie. Planes, ships, tanks, armored vehicles, missiles, bombs, lasers, radars, anything in the Arsenal of Democracy. I read Defense News, Defense One, Aviation Week.....
Been reading articles on the Air Force taking delivery of the first 2 new F-15's in the inventory in like 20+years. As some have discussed here on AY, the F-35 has been expensive but the costs have come down dramatically in acquisition. The cost to operate/maintain is still stubbornly high and so a couple of years ago, some in the Air Force decided to procure the latest version of the F-15 that has been selling to Israel, Qatar, the Saudi's, etc. BTW, F-15 is $25,000/flight hour and the F-35 is hovering at $35,000/flight hour.
Eglin AFB in the Florida Panhandle just took delivery of the first 2 in a batch of 8. Batch 2 and 3 will be up to 136 more of the new plane. It just got it's new name as it's obviously got an upgraded AESA radar, fire control system, and many more hardpoints to hang all kinds of steel rain on them. It's called the Eagle II. Here's a pretty cool photo with 16 air-air missiles hanging off it. The idea is that the F-35 and the F-22 penetrate deep into near-peer territory (China and or Russia) that has extremely robust anti-access/aerial denial defenses, and then let the F-15 Eagle II stand off just outside of these defensive bubbles and launch hundreds of missiles.
Now one can easily make the case that buying a new 4th generation, non-stealth F-15 that costs, upfront, exactly the same amount as a new 5th generation F-35 is not a bright idea. But for now, the new F-15 Eagle II's will be stationed in Oregon and Washington replacing 40 year old F-15Cs in a homeland defense role. In wartime they would be freeing up the under-numbered 5th gen fighters to be placed in places like Alaska (Russia), Japan, S. Korea, Guam, Australia for the Indo-China arena.
Either way, the damned thing is pretty cool looking.
Been reading articles on the Air Force taking delivery of the first 2 new F-15's in the inventory in like 20+years. As some have discussed here on AY, the F-35 has been expensive but the costs have come down dramatically in acquisition. The cost to operate/maintain is still stubbornly high and so a couple of years ago, some in the Air Force decided to procure the latest version of the F-15 that has been selling to Israel, Qatar, the Saudi's, etc. BTW, F-15 is $25,000/flight hour and the F-35 is hovering at $35,000/flight hour.
Eglin AFB in the Florida Panhandle just took delivery of the first 2 in a batch of 8. Batch 2 and 3 will be up to 136 more of the new plane. It just got it's new name as it's obviously got an upgraded AESA radar, fire control system, and many more hardpoints to hang all kinds of steel rain on them. It's called the Eagle II. Here's a pretty cool photo with 16 air-air missiles hanging off it. The idea is that the F-35 and the F-22 penetrate deep into near-peer territory (China and or Russia) that has extremely robust anti-access/aerial denial defenses, and then let the F-15 Eagle II stand off just outside of these defensive bubbles and launch hundreds of missiles.
Now one can easily make the case that buying a new 4th generation, non-stealth F-15 that costs, upfront, exactly the same amount as a new 5th generation F-35 is not a bright idea. But for now, the new F-15 Eagle II's will be stationed in Oregon and Washington replacing 40 year old F-15Cs in a homeland defense role. In wartime they would be freeing up the under-numbered 5th gen fighters to be placed in places like Alaska (Russia), Japan, S. Korea, Guam, Australia for the Indo-China arena.
Either way, the damned thing is pretty cool looking.
