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Boeing Is Pitching the US a New F-15, Using Its Super Hornet Game Plan The company convinced the Trump administration to buy advanced F/A-18 jets. Can it do the same with the the F-15? FARNBOROUGH, UK — Boeing is quietly pitching the U.S. Air Force a new F-15 fighter jet using the same business strategy that convinced the Trump administration to buy more Super Hornet warplanes for the Navy. Dubbed the F-15X, the new variant of the venerable jet offers more modern flight controls, cockpit displays, and radar, according to military and industry sources with knowledge of the plan. The...

On October 25, a strange craft was seen — in broad daylight — flying amid the heavy traffic of the United States’ air corridors above the state of Oregon. Pilots radioed in reports of an aircraft flying outside registered flight plans. It was not responding to radio calls. It had no collision-avoidance transponders. But it was always just outside clear sight. On the ground, air traffic control was also seeing strange things. Its radar was intermittently tracking an unregistered object moving at unusually high speeds. It was cause for real concern. After all, 9/11 showed the potential havoc aircraft flying...

Taipei, Feb. 13 (CNA) Taiwan's Air Force sidestepped speculation Tuesday that it is looking to purchase F-15 or F-18 fighter aircraft from the U.S., saying only that plans to bolster defense capabilities will depend on present combat needs and perceived future threats. On Sunday, Taiwanese news website Up Media reported that the Air Force is planning to purchase the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet to strengthen its defense capabilities and counter China's Russia-made Sukhoi Su-30 fighter aircraft. The report said Taiwan and the U.S. have had preliminary discussions about the purchase, and retired models such...

The Hawker Hunter (top) and F-15SG. (Photo: Mindef) SINGAPORE: Back in the day, a bombing run with the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s (RSAF) earliest fighter jet, the Hawker Hunter, meant first completing a math exercise. Before setting off, pilots would bury themselves in charts and tables, manually calculating the perfect trajectory for the bomb drop. They must consider the day’s wind and humidity, then figure out how high the aircraft should fly and how much it will drift. Once airborne, they intentionally aim off target and release the bomb. “One degree off your dive angle and the bomb will...

An Israeli Air Force F-15 on an exercise. Ilan Assayag The Israel Air Force is to decide in a few months between purchasing a third squadron of F-35 fighter jets or the F-15I, which, while less advanced, has other advantages. The acquisition requires the approval of the General Staff and a ministerial committee, but the recommendation of the air force generally carries the day. IAF Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, who reportedly is leaning toward the F-15, is to submit a recommendation in May. Israel and the United States agreed last year on the purchase of 50 F-35 fighters, two...

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German Defence Ministry said on Monday that the European fighter jet was the leading candidate to replace its Tornado jets, which it wants to start phasing out in 2025. The ministry’s position appears to contradict that of the German air force, whose chief indicated last month that he preferred Lockheed Martin’s F-35, which meets the military’s requirements of stealth and long-distance operational capabilities. In a letter to a Greens lawmaker who had inquired about the deliberations, the ministry said the F-35 and Boeing’s F-15 and F-18 fighters were secondary options. “The indicated view of the inspector...

In an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative, Boeing President Bertrand-Marc (Marc) Allen said the manufacturing of F15 aircraft wings and other military aircraft parts would take place inside Saudi Arabia. “We need to get you out to our al-Salam subsidiary here in the Kingdom. We’re building wings for F-15s, we’re building fuselage parts. We are doing massive conversions where we’re taking older F-15s and converting them to brand new F-15SAs,” Allen told Al Arabiya’s Maya Jureidini during an exclusive interview from Riyadh. “All of this (are) pretty advanced manufacturing, a lot of...

An Air Force Sergeant in America has proposed to 'the love of his life' on the wing of an F-15 fighter jet. Video captured the moment at the Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, US, when Sgt. Charles Fairchild got down on one knee on top of the tactical combat aircraft. It happened seconds after his girlfriend of two years, Amber Neeb, took a taxi like ride in the jet with a pilot, moving at an approximate 93 km/h - F-15's can fly up to speeds of 3000 km/h. Sgt. Fairchild has been serving in the Air Force...

America tests 'the most dangerous nuclear bomb ever produced': F-15 drops $1trillion super-nuke that has an adjustable yield and is more accurate than ever An F-15E from Nellis Air Force Base dropped an inert version of the B61-12 over Nevada desert earlier this month after its first test in MarchB61-12 gravity bombs, without a nuclear warhead, were dropped from F-15E fighter jets at Tonopah Test Range in Nevada on August 8 The mock bomb landed in a dry lake bed at the Tonopah Test RangeScientists will spend months analyzing the data gathered from the testB61-12 consolidates and replaces older...

On July 26, 2017, U.S. Air Force commandos in the United Kingdom practiced deploying to an austere airfield to quickly refuel and rearm F-15C fighters. It was the first time that Air Force special operators and their MC-130 transports had teamed up with F-15C fighters at a so-called “Forward Arming and Refueling Point,” or FARP. The exercise, which the Air Force dubbed “Rapid Eagle,” expands on the similar “Rapid Raptor” concept involving F-22 stealth fighters — and could help the flying branch sustain combat sorties during some future war with, say, Russia. Rapid Eagle involved three separate wings — the...

Qatar has finally moved forward with a long-standing plan to buy advanced fighter jets from the United States. This comes amid a massive spat between the small country and Saudi Arabia that has spiraled into a huge political crisis throughout the Middle East and beyond. On June 14, 2017, Bloomberg News reported that the Qataris would sign a $12 billion deal to buy up to 36 F-15QA fighter jets from Boeing. The country’s Ministry of Defense later announced it had reached an agreement, which followed a meeting between Minister of State for Defense Affairs Dr. Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah...

F-15 production is secure through 2019, and planned updates will keep the U.S. Air Force flying the multi-role F-15E Strike Eagle version into the 2040s, Boeing reports. The manufacturer also has a case to make for extending the life of the F-15C/D air superiority version of the 1970s-vintage fighter, which faces a shorter time horizon. “The last time we delivered a Strike Eagle to the U.S. Air Force was in the mid-2000s,” Steve Parker, Boeing vice president for F-15 programs, told reporters visiting the company’s St. Louis-area manufacturing facility May 17. “Right now, over the last couple-year period, is the...

Exactly 40 years ago, on May 20, 1977, the prototype of Russia's legendary Su-27 fourth generation fighter aircraft, Т-10-1, made its first flight. Sputnik reviews the history of development and modernization of the aircraft to show that it is still second to none in close air combat and is far from becoming out of date. Russia's Su-27 rightly serves as a symbol of Russia's defense industry of the second part of the 20th century, on a par with the T-72 tank and Kalashnikov assault rifle. In this particular aircraft, the USSR implemented all of the most advanced technologies of the...

The U.S. Air Force is still mulling over whether to retire its fleet of F-15C/D Eagle fighter jets and re-equip those units with F-16C/D Vipers. At the same time, the service is looking to move ahead with an extensive F-16 overhaul, which could help tip the scales in favor of those aircraft. On April 12, 2017, Lockheed Martin, the company that makes the Vipers, announced the Air Force had decided to move ahead with a Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) for a portion of its existing fleet. The project would give each of the modified jets approximately 4,000 extra flight...

Israel is likely to buy a squadron of Boeing's upgraded F-15s and must choose between Sikorsky-Lockheed Martin's CH-53 K helicopters or Boeing's CH-47 Chinook. The IDF is preparing for two major deals with the US, including the procurement of aircraft designed to renew its stock of warplanes and transportation helicopters. It has been decided to purchase two air force squadrons, following the establishment of a squadron of F-35 Adir fighters, the world's most advanced stealth aircraft. The IDF received its first F-35s in December. Most of the money for the procurement will come from $3.33 billion US aid money allocated...

A pair of Air Force F-15s, under the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command, intercepted an unresponsive general aviation aircraft near the Palm Beach, Fla., area at approximately 7 p.m. EST. The intercept required the Air Force F-15s from Homestead Air National Guard Base to travel at supersonic speeds, a sound noticed by area residents, to get to the general aviation aircraft where they were able to establish communications. The intent of military intercepts is to have the identified aircraft re-establish communications with local FAA air traffic controllers and instruct the pilot to follow air traffic controllers’ instructions to...

Boeing and Lockheed Martin are battling for billions of dollars in orders from Israel for fighter jets. The first two F-35 Adir Stealth warplanes delivered a month ago to the Israeli air force have already performed astonishingly in a few flights in Israeli skies. Their advanced systems are being studied by the pilots and technical crews ahead of the arrival of 38 more F-35s in the coming years. The air force, Ministry of Defense, and US arms companies are now preparing for the next deal, which is also projected to total several billion dollars. The type of planes to be...

In a backseat ride over New Hampshire, the Eagle shows why it’s still lethal, yet increasingly expensive. WESTFIELD, Massachusetts — The F-15C Eagle weighs about 16 tons, but with nearly 47,000 pounds of thrust pushing it down the runway it feels more like 16 ounces. In a just seconds, the plane passes 100 miles per hour, then twice that. It hops off the ground but the pilot, Maj. Jay “Fat” Talbert keeps it level, fifty feet up, and pours on more speed. “Here come the G’s,” Talbert warns his passenger in the back seat. Then he pulls back the stick....

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, a Dynamic Duo symbolized U.S. military airpower. The Air Force had its powerful F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter. But the Navy had the sophisticated swing-wing F-14 Tomcat, glamorized by the movie Top Gun. Yet had events worked out differently, the aircraft that Tom Cruise flew could have been an… F-15 Eagle? For a time, the Navy actually considered a carrier version of the F-15. The F-15N, or "Sea Eagle" as it was unofficially dubbed, was proposed by McDonnell Douglas in 1971, according to author Dennis Jenkins in his "McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle: Supreme Heavy-Weight...

US and Israeli diplomats announced the largest military assistance package in US history on 14 September in a $38 billion, 10-year package that will deliver an assortment of American-designed weapon systems, including Lockheed Martin F-35 and Boeing F-15 fighters to Tel Aviv. The agreement, which takes effect on 1 October 2018, pledges $38 billion to Israel over the next decade, including $33 billion in foreign military financing funds and $5 billion for missile defense, US national security advisor Susan Rice said. In a surprise move, Rice added to the F-15E to the mix of weapon systems on the agenda for...