Singapore’s F-15 fleet grows; Silent Eagle preps for flight test

AN Online ^ | 1/31/2010 | David Donald

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The design maybe 40 years old, but there is plenty of life left in the F-15 Eagle fighter. Boeing’s St. Louis factory is producing F-15Ks for South Korea and F-15SGs for Singapore, and current orders mean that the Eagle will be in production into 2012. Meanwhile, Boeing Defense, Space and Security (DSS) is maintaining the technology insertion program that has seen the F-15 remain a viable option in today’s tactical aircraft marketplace.

“We believe there’s a great market for us in the tac air business,” said Jeffrey Johnson, Boeing DSS’s vice president business development for Global Strike Systems. “We can give you a good price. We are truly combat-proven. We bring technologies today that the others hope to have in 10 years.”

This continued belief in the F-15 was justified by the type’s selection by South Korea and Singapore in the face of stiff competition from the Rafale and Typhoon. Singapore initially ordered 12 F-15SGs in late 2005, with an option for eight more that was exercised in October 2007, at which time four more were added to raise the total to 24. The first was rolled out on Nov. 3, 2008.

Deliveries began to Mountain Home U.S. Air Force Base in Idaho, where the RSAF will maintain up to 12 of the aircraft for roughly 25 years as a training detachment. The Peace Carvin V detachment was officially inaugurated on November 20 by Singapore’s deputy prime minister and defense minister, Teo Chee Hean. The detachment had been activated as the 428th Fighter Squadron of the USAF in October 2008, restoring the squadron number used previously by an RSAF F-16 training detachment at Holloman AFB (Peace Carvin III). The first F-15SGs are due to arrive in Singapore later this year, and all deliveries should be completed in 2011.

[Yo-Yo]

Deliveries began to Mountain Home U.S. Air Force Base in Idaho, where the RSAF will maintain up to 12 of the aircraft for roughly 25 years as a training detachment.

My old base! When I was there it was a training base equipped with F-111As. In the 1990s it became a Composite Wing, with F-15Es, F-16Cs KC-135s, and B-1Bs all assigned to the 366th Wing. It was supposed to be sort of a land version of an aircraft carrier, with all the different types of aircraft needed in a theater all deployed together.

Guess they gave up on the Composite Wing idea.

The F-15E is what Australia should have purchased to replace their almost fully retired F-111Cs/Gs in the maritime interdiction role, instead of F/A-18Fs. The F-15E has almost the same payload, range, and speed of the F-111.