why America's enemies still fear the f-15 Eagle for nearly three decades the f-15 Eagle fighter
was considered the undisputed king of the skies until the debut of its replacement the f-22 Raptor
the f-15 was the US Air Force's frontline air superiority fighter even today a modernized eagle
is still considered a formidable opponent and manufacturer boeing has proposed updated versions
that could keep the airframe flying for the better part of a century the f-15 traces its roots to the
air war in Vietnam and the inauspicious showing of American Air Force and Navy fighters versus their
North Korean counterparts large powerful American fighters designed to tackle both air-to-air and
air-to-ground missions we're performing poorly against their smaller less powerful but less
maneuverable North Vietnamese counterparts the 13 to 1 kill ratio American Flyers enjoy
it in the Korean War dropped to an abysmal 1 and a half to one kill ratio in Vietnam
contemporary fighters such as the f-14 phantom had been designed with the assumption that
the air-to-air missile had rendered dogfights obsolete and with them the need for superiority
maneuverability and a gun for air combat the US Air Force decided it needed a dedicated air
superiority fighter one that combined two powerful engines a powerful radar a large
number of missiles and a gun above all it had to be maneuverable enough to win a dogfight the
US Air Force issued a request for proposals for the new at backs fighter in 1966 and no
fewer than six companies submitted competing paper designs no prototypes were built the Air Service
selected McDonnell Douglas now a part of Boeing in 1969 ordering 107 full-scale development planes
the f-15 was a formidable aircraft early versions were powered by two pratt & whitney p100 pw100
afterburning turbofan engines producing 14,500 pounds of static thrust 23500 with afterburners
this gave the aircraft a thrust to weight ratio of greater than one making it so powerful that
it was the first fighter to exceed the speed of sound in vertical flight the f-15 had so
much thrust it could climb to 65,000 feet in just 122 seconds in a horizontal flight the f-15 could
reach speeds of mach 2.5 and cruise at speeds of mach 0.9 the eagles en apg-63 nose mounted radar
was the most advanced of its day a solid state radar with lookdown shoot-down capability and a
range of up to 200 miles this allowed the f-15 to pick out low-flying enemies on radar against the
clutter generated by the ground the radar was also the first to incorporate a programmable
system processor which allowed moderate upgrades to be done via software and not intrusive hardware
updates the eagle was originally armed with four radar guided aim-7 Sparrow missiles for long
range engagements and 4 aim-9 sidewinder infrared guided missiles for short-range engagements in the
air war over Vietnam USAF fc4 phantoms lacking a dedicated gun missed several opportunities
to down enemy aircraft this was remedied in the f-15 by equipping the plane with an m61
Vulcan 20 millimeter Gatling gun the f-15 was also designed with long-range in mind carrying
three 600-pound fuel tanks the f-15 had a range of 3,000 miles making it possible to fly from
the continental United States to Europe without stopping or midair refueling this would make it
possible to quickly reinforce NATO air defenses in case of a crisis in Europe and later would
permit the Air Force to quickly dispatch at 15 s to Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm
the first f15 prototypes flew in 1972 and cereal production began in 1973 the plane rapidly began
to populate both the US Air Force and friendly air forces including Israel Japan and Saudi
Arabia the f-15s first air-to-air kill was on June 27 1979 when Israeli Air Force ace Moshe
Melnik shot down a Syrian Air Force mig-21 in his f-15 a Melnick would eventually down four
aircraft from f15 a's and f-15cs for a career total of 11 enemy fighters shot down Melnick's
kill was the start of a remarkable string of 104 consecutive air-to-air victories for the
f-15 with not a single Eagle lost israeli Saudi and American f-15s were responsible
for this impressive streak Israeli kills included were recorded between 1979 and 1982 and included
Syrian mig-25 Foxbat interceptors May 21 and mig-23 fighters and a number of ground attack
and strike aircraft during the 1991 Gulf War the American and Saudi tally included Iraqi mig-29
fulcrum fighters Mirage f1 fighters and even a 276 candid medium transport one f-15e strike deal
even scored an air-to-air kill against an Iraqi mi-24 attack helicopter with a laser-guided bomb
the f-15a was eventually replaced in production by the f-15c which included a newer and a PG 70
synthetic aperture radar and newer f100 PW 220 engines the latest program nicknamed
Golden Eagle stress tests at fifteen seas for wear and tear and 178 of the planes in the best
physical condition with the least received new apg-63 v 3 active electronically scanned
array radars and the joint helmet mounted cueing system allowing rapid transit acquisition with
infrared guided missiles in the late 1980s the f-15e was developed to supplement and
eventually replace the f-111 fighter bomber as a penetrating high-speed tactical strike
aircraft designed to strike deep behind enemy lines in a NATO Warsaw Pact war in
Europe the II model added conformal fuel tanks to increase range and a heavy bomb payload the
apg-63 radar and a lantern forward strike infrared and laser targeting pod with the
retirement of the f-111 the f-15e Strike Eagle is now the USAF's main tactical fighter bomber
the USAF bought its last f15 in 2001 but foreign sales of kept Boeing's production line humming
cents the company is twice in recent years trying to again attract the interest of the
Air Force first with these semi stealthy silent eagle in 2010 in 2016 Boeing again
introduced a new f15 Eagle 2040 see Eagle 2040 see is designed to carry up to 16 aim-120 deep
Amram radar guided missiles more than four times the original number the talon hateful datalink
would allow the upgraded design to network with the f-22 Raptor one concept of operation would
have these stealthy but relatively short on firepower f-22 flying among and in the
aircraft passing on targeting information to an eagle 2040 see acting as a flying missile banner
today the usaf's still employs around 177 upgraded f-16c and two-seater d models at approximately 224
f-15e Strike Eagles f-15s are deployed in forward bases in both Europe and Asia most
notably at RAF Lakenheath in the UK and Contino air force base on the Japanese island of Okinawa
Japanese f-15js also operate from okinawa and were allegedly involved in an aerial encounter in June
2016 involving Chinese su-30 flanker fighters f-15s are currently deployed at Incirlik Air
Base Turkey where they're participating in the air war against Islamic state in a world still
dominated by fourth-generation fighters the f-15 is an ageing but still formidable fighter
the lack of sufficient numbers of f-22 Raptors to replace the eagle has delayed the fighters
retirement and it now trains to complement the f-22 on the battlefield the lack of a current
viable replacement means it will be at least until the early 2030s before the remaining C
and E models are retired the f-15 airframe and all its flavors will almost certainly spend an
impressive half-century in active service a first for a front-line US Air Force fighter
you