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The Silent Eagle’s CWBs could be removed and replaced with standard Strike Eagle conformal fuel tanks when the mission called for less stealth and more hate, trading four additional weapons stations and 1,500 gallons of added fuel for the Silent Eagle’s discretion. One important inclusion, as reported by the now-legendary aviation reporter Steve Trimble all the way back in 2012, was the Raytheon AGM-88 high-speed anti-radiation missile (HARM) commonly leveraged by Wild Weasel aircraft hunting for enemy radar systems, making the Silent Eagle a viable and even potent option for SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) operations. These conformal weapons bays were rated to carry AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, JDAM satellite-guided bombs, and Small Diameter Bombs, among others. It’s ready to use, in service right now.”

It’s an air superiority, multi-role, air to ground aircraft we can deliver in 2015. “It goes farther, it carries more, it fights at 50,000 feet, it shoots missiles at Mach 1.5 to 1.8. “It’s the fastest fighter out there,” Jones said. and its allies, it was time to give it a serious injection of 21st-century technology that would make it a viable competitor for nations who were unsure about going all-in on an expensive new stealth fighter. If Boeing wanted to continue selling its Cold War powerhouse to the U.S. We’re now moving into multi-spectral areas.” Radar cross section is just in the X-band. These guys will fly these airplanes for 30-plus years and technology will stealth. A Korean general basically said, ‘We have to have stealth but can we live with the tradeoffs?’” Jones recounted in 2011. “This started when we were at a conference in Korea in 2008. Then, in 2008, Boeing’s Director for F-15 Development Programs, Brad Jones, met with a Korean general who gave him an idea he believed could renew interest in the aging fighter warhorse. In fact, the F-15E would beat out the unusual and extremely promising delta-winged F-16XL for a shot at service.īoeing’s prototype X-32 with Lockheed Martin’s prototype X-35 (DoD photo) arsenal were incorporated, from the Eagle’s familiar AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles to America’s latest variable-yield B61-12 nuclear bombs, making the new Strike Eagle a competitor for best multi-role strike fighter of its century as well. Hardpoints for practically every air-to-ground munition in the U.S. In 1986, the next iteration Eagle, dubbed the F-15E, added new conformal fuel tanks along the aircraft’s fuselage to carry an additional 750 gallons on each side, adorned with short pylons that can carry external munitions without the increased drag created by conventional weapons racks. But with the Foxbat now understood to be a subpar competitor, America’s F-15 graduated from its perceived underdog status to becoming the most dominant air superiority fighter of its century.

The F-15 had been invented to serve as a silver bullet against a monster Soviet fighter with seemingly no peers on the world’s stage. Of course, a few years later, America would get their hands on one and come to learn that the MiG-25 wasn’t actually all that capable-or scary-at all. That high thrust-to-weight ratio coupled with a low weight-to-wing area also allows for a high degree of maneuverability, making for what the Air Force hoped would be a superior combination of traits when compared to the Soviet powerhouse MiG-25. It could fly at speeds in excess of Mach 2.5, thanks to a pair of powerful Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 after-burning turbofans that actually produce more thrust than the aircraft’s drag and weight combine to, making the F-15 so powerful that it can actually accelerate while flying straight up. Within just five years, America’s new F-15 Eagle would enter service.