Free Republic

BEIRUT, LEBANON (1:45 P.M.) – The United States tested the new smart bomb, GBU-53 StormBreaker, using one of their modern warplanes. According to reports, the U.S. Navy’s FA-18E/F Super Hornet fighter and attack aircraft launched the GBU-53 StormBreaker all-weather bomb on a designated target. The new bomb can be used in all weather conditions, including poor visibility, Janes Defense reported last week. An RMD spokesperson told Janes that the U.S. Air Force determines the number of tests needed to validate the bomb, but did not specify when it would be available. “The USAF (US Air Force) program office, in co-ordination...

For now the F-15SA Eagles being delivered to Saudi Arabia are the most advanced Eagles, but those destined for Qatar have even more advances, such as a wide-area display in the cockpit. (photo: RSAF) Earlier this month, the Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs, HE Dr. Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah, visited the Boeing Company factory at St. Louis, Missouri, to formally inaugurate the production of F-15QA Eagle multi-role fighters that have been ordered for the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF). Although no initial delivery schedule has been announced, the 36 are due for delivery by...

Currently, the most advanced F-15 Eagles on the planet belong to the Royal Saudi Air Force which has a decades-long history with the type. In its latest iteration, known as the F-15SA, the mighty Strike Eagle has been vastly upgraded. One of the type's most prominent new features is the activation of the Eagle's long-dormant outer-wing stores stations number one and nine. This was made possible with the help of the F-15SA's new fly-by-wire flight control system. With this upgrade, the Eagle can fly with a wide array of new weapons configurations, including being able to turn into an air-to-air...

Saudi Arabia may be briefly wearing the world's most advanced Eagle crown with their new F-15SAs, but Qatar will assume that honor when the first of its 36—or possibly 72 if they execute an option for more—F-15QAs are delivered in the next couple of years. Along with a totally remodeled cockpit featuring large panel touch screen displays, Qatar's F-15s will also do away with the Strike Eagle's iconic green-glowing, wide-angle heads up display (HUD), replacing it with an innovative new design from BAE Systems. When the Strike Eagle arrived on the scene in the late 1980s, its massive HUD was...

U.S. MILITARY FACILITY IN MIDDLE EAST (Reuters) - U.S. Air Force pilot Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Renken knew that whatever happened next might escalate the war in Syria. The 40-year-old father of four was flying his F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jet in “a race track” pattern around an Iranian-made drone, which had just tried to kill U.S.-backed forces and their advisers on the ground. After the drone’s first shot failed to detonate on impact, it was positioning to strike again. So, on June 8, in what was an unprecedented move in the U.S. air war over Syria to that point, Renken...

For the first time in more than four decades, American forces have come under aerial attack after a drone released an unspecified weapon near U.S. special operators and their Syrian partners at a garrison in the town of At Tanf. The strike has huge implications for the conflict in the country, as well as the future of warfare as a whole. U.S. Army Colonel Ryan Dillon, the spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), the top American task force leading the fight against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, announced the incident in talking to the press on June...

An F-15E Strike Eagle fires multiple flares during a Combined Arms Demonstration as part of the 2015 Wings Over Wayne Air Show, May 17, 2015, at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. An aerial team of four Strike Eagles and two A-10 Warthogs joined forces to simulate taking over an airfield by eliminating enemy ground forces. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Brittain Crolley) SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- Since its maiden flight, Dec. 11, 1986, The U.S. Air Force considers the F-15E Strike Eagle to be one of the most proficient multi-role, air-to-air and air-to-ground strike fighters...

Richard Crandall started his Air Force flying career in the F-111 Aardvark, but found himself in the cockpit of the mighty F-15E Strike Eagle, the service’s newest jet, during Operation Desert Storm. Although F-15C/D Eagles were already a staple in the Royal Saudi Air Force by the time Desert Storm kicked off, the Strike Eagle would eventually find its way into the Kingdom’s aerial arsenal in the form of the F-15S. Today, Saudi Arabia flies around 70 of these jets, and soon they will receive 84 F-15SAs, the most advanced Strike Eagle derivative ever produced. Now Crandall serves as a...

“0 losses in 8 dogfights against F-15E Red Air” The U.S. Air Force F-35A fleet continues to work to declare the Lightning II IOC (initial operational capability) scheduled in the August – December timeframe. Among the activities carried out in the past weeks, a simulated deployment provided important feedbacks about the goal of demonstrating the F-35’s ability to “penetrate areas with developed air defenses, provide close air support to ground troops and be readily deployable to conflict theaters.” Seven F-35s deployed from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, to carry out a series of operational tests...

Developed to replace the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, the McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15E is a dedicated multi-role version of the F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter: named “Strike Eagle” to point out its attack capabilities, the F-15E is one of the best fighter bombers ever built. The F-15E saw action for the first time during Operation Desert Storm, the campaign aimed to free Kuwait from the Iraqi invasion: during the war the aircraft was mainly tasked to attack fixed and mobile Scud missile sites as well as Surface to Air Missile (SAM) ramps. And it was during Desert Storm that...

Qatar asked for clearance from the U.S. Government to purchase 72 F-15E Strike Eagle derivatives, but the request has been slow-rolled. Now, almost two years later and after the Iran Nuclear Agreement has been implemented, there are high hopes the deal may finally be allowed to move forward. Considering that Qatar remains a close ally of the U.S. in the region, and their fighter business has traditionally gone to European manufacturers, penning a deal for dozens of F-15 Strike Eagles seems like a no-brainer. Yet, politically, this would seem not to be the case. Aside from Israel and Saudi Arabia,...

A report from Flightglobal.com states that Israel is requesting a batch of F-15s as part of a compensation program for the U.S. making a deal with Iran over its nuclear program. According to the report, not just any F-15 was requested, but the F-15SE Silent Eagle. The F-15SE was Boeing’s attempt to compete internationally with the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter, especially for major purchasing competitions like those recently held in Korea and Japan, both of which are F-15 users. These users ended up selecting the F-35, and Israel also opted for the F-35 even though they are among the most...

The US Air Force and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) have conducted the first flight test of the jointly developed B61-12 guided nuclear bomb from a Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada. The billion-dollar weapon system couples a refurbished 1960s B61 with a tail kit assembly produced by Boeing. It has been in development since 2012 and will be the primary tactical nuclear weapon carried by US and NATO forces once it enters service in the early 2020s by consolidating the four existing variants (B61-3, -4, -7, and -10), with the exception of the powerful...

A pair of RAF Lakenheath based USAF F-15E Strike Eagles that were bristling with live bombs and air-to-air missiles, along five KC-135R tankers, flew on a secretive and grueling 12 hour mission over the Southern Mediterranean on Monday, May 25th, Memorial Day. Multiple radio interceptors and plane spotters state that four F-15E’s, callsigns ABLE 01 through 04, took off from their home base at RAF Lakenheath laden with yellow banded (live) AIM-9M sidewinders, AIM-120 AMRAAMS and no less than seven 500lb Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs). These aircraft were accompanied by five KC-135Rs tankers, callsign QUID 91 through 95, that...

When the F-15 was created, it was created to be a pure air-to-air fighter, with the philosophy of “not a pound for air-to-ground” guiding designers. So how did Israel end up turning their F-15s into deadly long-range multi-role strike aircraft well before the F-15E Strike Eagle became a reality? Here’s how. In Need Of A Game Changing Fighter Israel’s love affair with the F-15 began out of the need to procure a fighter that could trump the increasingly complex fighters that surrounding Arab states were amassing from Russian and French sources. Both the F-14 Tomcat and the F-15 Eagle were...

America’s $400 billion, top-of-the-line aircraft can’t see the battlefield all that well. Which means it’s actually worse than its predecessors at fighting today’s wars. When the Pentagon’s nearly $400 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter finally enters service next year after nearly two decades in development, it won’t be able to support troops on the ground the way older planes can today. Its sensors won’t be able to see the battlefield as well; and what video the F-35 does capture, it won’t be able to transmit to infantrymen in real time. Versions of the new single-engine stealth fighter are set to...

Boeing F-15SE Balanced survivability over stealth in fighter jet By Kang Seung-woo ST. LOUIS ― Since the beginning of Korea’s Fighter Experimental (F-X) III project, all talk has been about one factor: stealth capability. With the intention of replacing its aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s with high-tech combat aircraft, the Air Force is keen to purchase a radar-evading “fifth-generation” aircraft with the likes of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter ― although it had to overcome a series of technical hiccups earlier this year. However, Howard Berry, Boeing’s F-X III campaign director, does not believe that customers should have...

Boeing's upgraded F-15E Strike Eagle model at AFA Boeing had a very small presence at the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando. But the company did bring this model of an upgraded F-15E Strike Eagle to the show. Most immediately noticeable is that the aircraft has its two outer-wing weapons stations activated (which the F-15 always had, but aren't normally used)--something that'll be featured in Saudi Arabia's advanced F-15SA aircraft. A Boeing representative at the show said that the USAF's Strike Eagles would also eventually have those weapons stations activated. Other features noticeable on the model are the...

Lockheed Martin Completes JASSM F-15E Integration with Successful All-Up Round Flight Test (Source: Lockheed Martin; issued July 26, 2012) ORLANDO, Fla. ---- Lockheed Martin's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) recently completed F-15E platform integration with a successful all-up round (AUR) flight test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The successful AUR test marked the first time JASSM, or any missile, has been integrated onto a platform using the Universal Armament Interface (UAI). The U.S. Air Force initiated the UAI program with the goal of improving the integration cycle of new precision-guided munitions onto aircraft without changing each weapon and platform's...

Boeing, loser in Japan, eyes more fighter contests (Reuters) - Losing a big Japanese order to Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) was clearly a disappointment for Boeing Co (BA.N), but a $29.4 billion order from Saudi Arabia for F-15 fighter jets and several other competitions will keep the company in the fighter business for now. The U.S. government and Saudi Arabia are finalizing a letter of agreement on the sale of 84 Boeing F-15s, and may announce that deal soon, according to one source familiar with the discussions, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Boeing, which has rung up big...