In modern-day air warfare, stealth is the word. Boeing’s F-15 Silent Eagle, or F-15SE, had been an ambitious plan to upgrade the able F-15 with stealth capabilities to vie with the more advanced and costly fifth generation of aircraft such as F-35 Lightning II.
First flown in 2010, the F-15SE sported several ingenious changes designed to help improve its stealth profile: conformal weapons bays, radar-absorbing materials, and a reconfigured set of stabilizers. The conformal weapons bays not only made the plane harder to spot but also allowed it to carry more missiles for increased effectiveness in the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses or SEAD operations.
Boeing engineers also structurally modified the F-15SE among others. Its twin vertical stabilizers’ 15-degree outward can’t significantly extend its range by almost 100 miles. The application of RAM provided a further reduction in the airplane’s aspect ratio. Of course, it couldn’t make this version completely stealthy.
Despite these improvements, the Silent Eagle found it hard to attract customers. It had been pitched as part of the bigger contract with South Korea but eventually lost that to the F-35, who won over the F-15SE. Saudi Arabia also placed an initial interest in buying the jet but decided to purchase the F-15C and D variants. Because of this, Silent Eagle has never been produced to this date, and its potential has never been realized.
Curiously, this was not the Silent Eagle’s last hurrah. In 2015, Israel expressed interest in buying a squadron of Silent Eagles as a hedge against Iran if that country’s nuclear accord with the West did not succeed. What Israel wanted was a platform offering long-range strike capability and enough measure of stealth to get through Iran’s air defenses in case the nuclear deal went sour.
Renewed Israeli interest created speculation that other nations, such as South Korea, Japan, and even Canada, might reevaluate Silent Eagle. South Korea was having problems with its Indigenous fighter program, the KF-X. Japan, on its part, was feeling the pressure, and the Silent Eagle might come out as a good option. Canada, too, which had pledged to junk its F-35 purchase, might show interest.
The Silent Eagle has remained one of those fascinating “what-ifs” in military aviation history, and a story reminding one of the complexity and challenge involved in the development and selling of advanced military aircraft.