The F-15EX, designated EX3, is predicted to be delivered quickly, forward of the choice for the complete fee manufacturing.

After greater than two years after the kind’s first flight, Boeing flew for the primary time the third F-15EX Eagle II, which can also be the primary to be constructed within the last operational configuration. The plane flew solely with its primer paint and a small serial quantity (20-0003) on its twin tails, and can obtain its last colours and insignias earlier than the supply to the U.S. Air Power.

The Eagle II just lately accomplished the Integrated Test & Evaluation (IT&E) Phase I, throughout which the F-15EX participated in 19 Massive Power Train occasions the place it built-in with fifth technology plane, recorded the longest Air-to-Air Missile employment, and validated the primary F-15EX employment of the longest non-nuclear Air-to-Floor munition launch within the stock.

#F15EX completes structural and vibration testing – actually shaking up the plane – to simulate flight circumstances and confirm that the airframe and its techniques will reply appropriately. Subsequent up ➡️ flight checks. pic.twitter.com/PjEgzrGFFt

— Boeing Protection (@BoeingDefense) October 26, 2023

The info is presently being analyzed by the Air Power Operational Check and Analysis Heart and Workplace of the Secretary of Protection Director of Operational Check and Analysis and can inform the subsequent step of the programme, the full rate production phase. The choice is predicted to be introduced by the tip of the 12 months, in keeping with the Air Power.

Six F-15EXs are anticipated to be delivered between the tip of the fourth quarter of fiscal 12 months 2023 and the primary quarter of fiscal 12 months 2024, in keeping with Donn Yates, govt director at Boeing Air Power Fighters and Trainers Enterprise Improvement. 4 of those plane will join EX-1 and EX-2 at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, whereas the final two are anticipated to Kingsley Discipline in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Nevertheless, the plan to ascertain there the Formal Coaching Unit for the F-15EX is being reconsidered, because the Air Power is evaluating Kingsley Discipline’s infrastructure and airspace suitability for an F-35 FTU. Ought to the plan undergo, the F-15 coaching shall be taken over by Seymour Johnson Air Power Base, North Carolina, which is already home of the F-15E Strike Eagle FTU. The plans for the 142nd Wing at Portland Air Nationwide Guard Base changing into the primary operational F-15EX unit in fiscal 2025 are nonetheless in place.

This isn’t the one plan that’s altering, because the Air Power is now planning to amass solely 104 F-15EX fighters as a substitute of the preliminary 144. The unit value for the 104 plane will be $93.95 million per plane in then-year {dollars}, with a decline of 5.24% from the 2020 baseline program, in keeping with Air Power acquisition reviews. Initially, Boeing estimated a unit value of $80 million per aircraft.

An extra discount of the numbers would trigger one other enhance within the prices, as it’s occurring for the EPAWSS. The AN/ALQ-250 Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) digital warfare and digital surveillance system, which shall be normal situation on the F-15EX, is being retrofitted on a lot of F-15Es, nevertheless with the variety of plane modified being lower, the unit value of the system went up and just lately resulted in a in a Nunn-McCurdy breach.

Thanks once more to Jerry McGrath for the images he despatched us and ensure to follow him on Instagram for extra!

Stefano D’Urso is a contract journalist and contributor to TheAviationist primarily based in Lecce, Italy. A graduate in Industral Engineering he is additionally learning to realize a Grasp Diploma in Aerospace Engineering. Digital Warfare, Loitering Munitions and OSINT methods utilized to the world of army operations and present conflicts are amongst his areas of experience.