hi everyone you're watching the us military channel today we want to show you why america's
enemies still fear the f-15 eagle the eagle has been exported to israel japan and saudi arabia
the f-15 was originally envisioned as a pure air superiority aircraft its design included
a secondary ground attack capability that was largely unused the aircraft design proved flexible
enough that an all-weather strike derivative the f-15e strike eagle an improved and enhanced
version which was later developed entered service in 1989 and has been exported to several nations
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 were performing
poorly against their smaller less powerful but more maneuverable north vietnamese counterparts
the 13-1 kill ratio american flyers enjoyed in the korean war dropped to an abysmal 1.5 to 1 kill
ratio in vietnam contemporary fighters such as the f-4 phantom had been designed under 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 u.s 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 air
force issued a request for proposals for the new fx 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 and whitney f-100 pw100 after burning
turbofan engines producing 14 and 500 pounds of static thrust 23 and 500 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 horizontal flight the f-15 could
reach speeds of mach 2.5 and cruise at speeds of mach 0.9 the eagles an apg-63 nose mounted radar
was the most advanced of its day a solid state radar with look down 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 f4c 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 internal 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 three thousand miles making it possible to fly from
the continental united states to europe without stopping or mid-air 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 f-15s to saudi arabia during operation desert storm
the first f-15 prototypes flew in 1972 and serial production began in 1973
the plane rapidly began to populate both the u.s 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 mash melnick shot down a syrian air force mc21 in his f-15a melnick would eventually down
four aircrafts from f-15as and f-15cs for a career total of 11 enemy fighters shot down
menlik's kill was the state 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 were recorded between 1979 and 1982 and included syrian mig-25
foxbat interceptors make 21 and mig-23 fighters and a number of ground attack and strike aircraft
during the 1991 gulf war the american and saudi italia included iraqi mig-29 fulcrum
fighters mirage f-1 fighters and even an i-176 candid medium transport one f-15e strike eagle
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 an apg-70
synthetic aperture radar and newer f-100 pw220 engines the latest program nicknamed golden eagle
stress tests f-15cs for wear and tear and 178 of the planes in the best physical condition
with the least receive new apg-63v3 active electronically scanned array radars and the joint
helmet mounted cueing system allowing rapid target 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 or warsaw pact war in europe the e-model added conformal fuel tanks to increase range
with a heavy bomb payload the apg-63 radar and a lantern forward-looking 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 f-15 in 2001 but foreign sales have kept
boeing's production line humming since the company has twice in recent years try to again attract
the interest of the air force first with semi-stealthy silent eagle in 2010 in 2016
boeing again introduced a new f-15 eagle 2040 c eagle 2040 c is designed to carry up to 16
aim 120 d amram radar guided missiles more than four times the original number the talon hate data
link would allow the upgraded design to network with the f-22 raptor one concept of operation
would have the stealthy but relatively short on firepower f-22 flying among enemy aircraft
passing on targeting information to an eagle 2040 c acting as a flying missile battery today the
usaf still employs around 177 upgraded f-15c and two-seater d-models and 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 cadena 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-15es are currently deployed at incarlik
air base turkey where they are participating in the air war against islamic state in a world still
dominated by fourth generation fighters the f-15 is an aging 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 in all its flavors will almost certainly
spend an impressive half century in active service a first for a frontline u.s air force fighter
you