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[Exclusive] Boeing may give up offering stealthy jet Little progress made in weapons bay development By Lee Tae-hoon Industry insiders raised questions Wednesday about whether U.S. aerospace giant Boeing will fulfill its pledge to offer F-15 Silent Eagles (F-15 SEs) with an internal weapons bay and twin canted tails, two of the core technologies for stealth jets, to Seoul. A source familiar with Boeing’s plan to modify its F-15s said little progress has been made in the making of the F-15SE, especially in the development of its conformal weapons bay (CWB), which allows the aircraft to carry weapons internally. “Only...

The Boeing Company successfully launched a missile from the F-15 Silent Eagle's newly designed Conformal Weapons Bay (CWB) on July 14. Demonstration aircraft departed from Point Mugu Naval Air Weapon Station, Calif., at 5:59 p.m Pacific time, launched an inert AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missile (AMRAAM) from its left-side CWB, and returned to base at 6:52 p.m. The test demonstrated the CWB's flightworthiness and ability to deploy an AMRAAM in flight with no adverse effect on the performance of the aircraft or the CWB itself. "I've been flying F-15s for more than 20 years, but this flight...

One year ago, a nascent F-15 Silent Eagle programme needed to be rescued from what seemed like an internal crisis of confidence given away by a stray comment made by a top Boeing executive. Tom Bell, a business development director briefing reporters at the Paris air show, pronounced as "premature" a previously announced flight-test schedule to certificate the Silent Eagle's three key technologies: conformal weapons bays; an electronic warfare upgrade; and possibly canted tails. Bell's statement also contradicted a lower-ranking Boeing official, F-15 director Brad Jones, who had only a week earlier said that its first flight was planned in...

Boeing on 8 July received a license to export the F-15 Silent Eagle to South Korea and tested in flight one of the key upgrades for the stealthy new design. "It was a big week for the F-15," says Brad Jones, Boeing director for F-15 development programmes. The US Department of State awarded the license after a two-month review based on an undisclosed export policy established in May, Jones says. South Korea is expected to issue a request for proposals for the F-X3 contract in the first quarter of 2011, Jones says. The F-15SE will compete with the Lockheed Martin...

Boeing has applied for an export licence to brief South Korea on sensitive details of a stealthier version of the F-15E that is within a few months of its first flight. The US government approved an export policy in the second quarter for the F-15SE Silent Eagle after Boeing submitted details of its radar cross-section about six months earlier, says Brad Jones, Boeing programme director for F-15 development programmes. The export policy allows Boeing to request an export licence for specific customers, with South Korea as the first in queue, Jones says. The F-15SE is competing against the Lockheed Martin...

The Middle East newsline has confirmed that Saudi Arabia has advanced in negotiations to purchase a fighter jet from the United States. The Saudi leadership, in wake of receiving the first Eurofighters, has been examining the U.S.-built F-15 for a procurement contract in 2010. They said Saudi Defense Minister Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz has supported the prospect of an additional purchase of at least two squadrons of F-15s in a deal that could top $5 billion. “The assessment is that the Royal Saudi Air Force requires a platform that it is comfortable with, yet much more advanced than...

Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been examining the advanced F-15 fighter-jet. Boeing has targeted Qatar and Saudi Arabia as key clients for the F-15. Executives said a contract between Boeing and a Gulf Cooperation Council state could be signed by 2011. "We're hoping for something to happen in the 2010-11 timeframe," Boeing Defense vice president Mark Kronenberg said. In a Feb. 3 briefing at the Singapore Air Show, Boeing outlined efforts to sell the F-15 and the F/A-18 fighter-jets to GCC states. Executives said Qatar and Saudi Arabia marked the biggest opportunities for their company over the next year. Kronenberg...

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...

With radar-cross-section (RCS) trials for Boeing’s Silent Eagle semi-stealthy F-15 prototype complete, company officials are now focusing on South Korea as a possible first customer. The RCS testing took place during a two-week period last August and September, although Boeing has only just acknowledged it because of proprietary issues, says Mark Bass, vice president of F-15 programs. The company is eyeing South Korea’s forthcoming F-X3 competition for 60 fighters as the first sales opportunity for the Silent Eagle. The South Korean parliament’s recent hesitancy about investing in all-stealth aircraft “validates our approach” with the aircraft, says Bass. The company is...