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earlier this month the u.s air force literally dropped a giant curtain to reveal its latest
fighter jet the f-15ex eagle ii the ceremony at eglin air force base in florida marked the
official debut of the twin-engine aircraft complete with puffs of fog to set the scene
despite some complaints about the jet's uncreative new name the boeing maid fighter deserves a close
look brand new aircraft models don't often enter service and when they do they fly for decades
this model f15 is the latest in a long line of aircraft with similar names dating back to the
1970s so it can be hard to know precisely what is new about this grey wing machine
here's everything you might want to know about the f-15 ex eagle 2 and its metal
ancestors plus what one pilot says is the craft's key weakness in 21st century battles
the history of the f-15 eagle the eagle is a child of the 1960s and 1970s
and it had a straightforward purpose to excel at air-to-air fighting
it comes from this unique historical moment says michael hankins a curator with the national air
and space museum who is writing a book on both the f-15 and f-16 he pegs its genesis in 1964.
there's a faction of folks within the air force anyway that have this idea that the
traditional fighter mission focusing on air-to-air combat has not been adequately paid attention to
the eagle grew out of that single purpose mission
the catchphrase became not a pound for air-to-ground hankins says meaning the
plane wouldn't be equipped for dropping bombs it was all about air-to-air fighting
it's a simple idea create a flying hammer not an airborne swiss army knife
the plane flew for the first time in the early 1970s and hankins says that in the decades since
it has executed its mission superbly it's got an incredible reputation he notes you can't deny that
the f-15 is one of the best air-to-air fighters in history and i think it's one of the most iconic
the f-15ex the newest eagle the latest version of the eagle officially called the eagle 2
is what will carry aviators into that life or death contest
the c and d model f-15s are getting old so this is what will replace them
pilots will now have a high definition color touch screen that measures 19 by 10 inches
a secondary screen is in the back seat for use if the rear spot is occupied
although the plane will probably be occupied by just a single person most of the time
the eagle 2 is now completely fly-by-wire too instead of those previous gen pulleys and cables
the plane now digitally interprets how the pilot moves the controls and then electronic signals
talk to the rest of the aircraft pilots sometimes say that with this kind of aircraft human aviators
are just voting they vote by moving the stick to tell the plane what they'd like it to do while
the flight control computer figures the rest out the plane also has what's known as an open mission
system backbone says major aaron ashkenazi a pilot with the air force who has been flying the f-15ex
that makes the aircraft more modular engineers can plug software code into it for a new sensor
or weapon for example and that system is isolated from our safety of flight
finally the eagle 2 is similar to what boeing has already been making for foreign customers
the f-15sa for saudi arabia and the qa for qatar the air force says it may
purchase as many as 144 of them there's one big thing the f-15 eagle 2 can't do
on the outside the aircraft has a decades-old design and that means there's one thing it's not
stealthy fifth generation fighter jets like the f-35 are designed to evade enemy radar
the f-15 ex or any other eagle is as loud and obvious as a football player and for that reason
heather penny who flew vipers for a decade call sign lucky is critical of the purchase
the context behind the purchase she says has roots in two issues one is that it's expensive
for the air force to continually maintain fleets of dated jets the average age of an air force
fighter nowadays is about 30 years old she says she notes that the f-16 she flew dates to 1985
and it's still kicking around the other concern is the air force's desire to diversify its base away
from just lockheed martin made jets like the f-35 the eagle 2 is made by boeing she argues
that a modern fighter jet should have a triad of capabilities stealth information systems presented
to the pilot in a manageable way and the ability to conduct electronic warfare and jam an enemy
you cannot put this aircraft in the battle space because it's missing one of those legs penny says
it's a big shiny metal object predictably some f-15 pilots disagree with that assessment
ashkenazi who is flying the f-15 ex now notes that the platform can carry
a larger weapons payload than the f-35 for example it can hold a dozen amra missiles
he also points out that the eagle makes a good distraction when paired with a stealth fighter
the same way a magician might pull your eyes towards something shiny to keep you from noticing
a sneaky move the eagle could fly with an f-22 or f-35 for example and the adversary's eyes
would be on the eagle it allows my 5th gen and 6th gen partners to go in undetected ashkenazi notes
camp the former eagle pilot agrees
simply being seen can be a deterrence our task is to clear the skies he says we don't have to
shoot one missile we have to put fear in the enemy's eyes and have them turn away and go home
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