The US Air Force will add another six F-15EX Eagle II fighters to its fleet in fiscal year 2025, according to a version of the fiscal 2024 NDAA prepared by the House Armed Services Committee, part of an effort to accelerate the modernization of the force’s aging fleet of fighters.
Air Force budget documents show the service plans to request 24 Boeing-built F-15EX jets in 2025, the same request the service has made in the past two years. But the committee, chaired by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., wants to add $92 million in advance procurement funding for six more fighters, which would bring the total to 30 F-15EXs that year. That would boost advance procurement funding for the F-15EX to $320 million in 2024.
A top congressional aide said the committee’s fighter increase is to accelerate the retirement of older, legacy fighter aircraft. Over the next five years, the Air Force will retire 801 tactical fighter aircraft while buying 345 F-35s and F-15EXs. The planned buy of 48 new F-35A fighters would have the Air Force buying 78 new fighters in 2025, more than the 72 fighters per year top Air Force leaders have said is needed to modernize the fleet and reduce the average age of its fighters.
If the service does not hit that mark annually, it will reach a point where there are not enough new fighter aircraft coming into the inventory to replace older fighter aircraft like the F-15C. Thus far, the Air Force has not asked for that many fighters annually. Thus far, Congress has not approved that many. For instance, it authorized 67 new fighters in 2023: 24 F-15EXs and 43 F-35s.
Production of the F-15EX has not been smooth, though. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in June that Boeing mis-drilled windscreen installation holes on four F-15EXs, which had to be re-drilled. Unspecified supplier quality issues with a critical forward fuselage component have pushed the entire program back by at least six months. The Air Force presently has two test F-15EXs, but Boeing will start delivering the next six fighters this summer.
In all, the Air Force plans to buy 104 F-15EXs but would boost that number to 110 with the additional six fighters in the proposed NDAA. The F-15EX is a modernized variant of the fourth-generation F-15 featuring advanced avionics and improved electronic warfare capabilities.
Lawmakers have supported the F-15EX program they also have pushed for greater transparency and more details from the Air Force. As part of the fiscal 2020 defense policy bipartisan agreement, congressional authorizers emphasized the Air Force should ensure transparency with congressional defense committees and provide full reports on acquisition, logistics, and fielding strategies related to the F-15EX program.
The Air Force and Boeing have just inked the F-15EX Lot 1 contract. This lot sets the F-15EX flyaway price for the remaining six fighters to $80.5M each. The order was originally placed in 2020 for eight fighters, of which the first two jets have already been delivered for testing. The Air Force said it expects to complete Lot 1 deliveries by the end of 2023.
Boeing has also promised to keep future lots at or under $80 million per aircraft pending supply chain inflation and the addition of new capabilities, though some analysts have questioned the cost of the F-15EX against the F-35A. Most notably, in September 2022, the Air Force transitioned the F-15EX program from Middle Tier Acquisition to a Major Capability Acquisition. This shows its desire to codify the process through which the aircraft is being acquired and to make sure that it is a successful program.
As the Air Force continues to modernize its fleet, the F-15EX Eagle II is positioned to be relevant toward the goal of air superiority and also able to meet the new demands put on modern warfare.