Photo: USAF
Look all you want in the skies over America, chances are you’ll not get a glimpse of the fancy, new F-15EX Eagle ll. That’s because there are just two of them in existence so far and only go on training runs and such.
The 15EX variant of the decades-old fighter jet was inducted into service earlier this year by its present maker, Boeing, as the most advanced to date. The two made so far have already been delivered to the Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, from where pilots conducted several sorties already as they put the airplane through its paces.
None of the sorties so far were full, large-scale operational tests, as Lt. Col. Kenneth Juhl from the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center calls them.
That changed last week, when the F-15EX was deployed at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, from where it flew alongside F-15Cs and F-15Es. The exact scope of the tests was not disclosed, but the U.S. Air Force (USAF) says they will continue, and there will be both day and night missions with the planes in “defensive and offensive counter air” scenarios.
The tests are meant to show the “differences between the EX and the C model.” The new incarnation of the F-15 comes with a new digital flight control system, but also the fancy Eagle Passive Active Warning and Survivability System (EPAWSS), which is supposed to make the pilots of the aircraft truly aware of their surroundings.
As per the available info, Boeing was to make eight of these planes by the end of the year, but since it delivered the second one back in May, everything on the Eagle II front went quiet.
When fully operational and integrated, the Eagle II will join something called a streamlined fleet of aircraft, which comprises the F-35 Lightning II, F-16 Fighting Falcon, and A-10 Thunderbolt II, but also a brand new, sixth-generation aircraft that is yet to be announced.
None of the sorties so far were full, large-scale operational tests, as Lt. Col. Kenneth Juhl from the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center calls them.
That changed last week, when the F-15EX was deployed at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, from where it flew alongside F-15Cs and F-15Es. The exact scope of the tests was not disclosed, but the U.S. Air Force (USAF) says they will continue, and there will be both day and night missions with the planes in “defensive and offensive counter air” scenarios.
The tests are meant to show the “differences between the EX and the C model.” The new incarnation of the F-15 comes with a new digital flight control system, but also the fancy Eagle Passive Active Warning and Survivability System (EPAWSS), which is supposed to make the pilots of the aircraft truly aware of their surroundings.
As per the available info, Boeing was to make eight of these planes by the end of the year, but since it delivered the second one back in May, everything on the Eagle II front went quiet.
When fully operational and integrated, the Eagle II will join something called a streamlined fleet of aircraft, which comprises the F-35 Lightning II, F-16 Fighting Falcon, and A-10 Thunderbolt II, but also a brand new, sixth-generation aircraft that is yet to be announced.
Google News