With the twilights of the Tomcats and Vikings near and the Navy replacing them with the F/A-18 E/Fs, what’s the Air Force’s plan for the F-15E? I know they’re a bit newer than the Tomcat, but with the F/A-22 coming on line and F-15Cs being replaced, what’s the situation for the Strike Eagle?
well right now they aren’t going to fully replace the F-15 why scrap the whole fleet when the amount of F/A-22 Raptors is enough to fill only 1 fighter wing. the only fighter wing that will replace every single F-15 is the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley Air Force Base.
The last I have heard, the USAF is going to get 180 of the F-22 Raptor. Even if it is good enough to replace the F-15 at 2 or 3 to 1, it still isn’t enough. I think the F-15 will be around for quite awhile yet.
Darwin, O.F. [alien]
The F-15 A,B,C,D,E in the inventory will be around for a while yet. Plans r now in work on the c too keep her around till at least 2020. The E will be around a while longer, i worked on a brand new 2000 model in 2001 still smelled like a new plane.The 22 is a nice aircraft but its still cuting its teeth "and having mondo probs"and congress is still cutting in too the program funding.It wouldent suprise me if the eagle will be flying in too the 2040 mark
Plus the Dark Gray’s are purpose built strike aircraft and can carry much more of an air-to-mud load than the F/A-22. Biggest LIMFAC for the Raptor in the strike role is that it carry’s everything internally. Same problem the F-117 has. I could see it operating much like the F-117 in the precision strike (stealth) role.
As far as the Light Grays go, they’ll be around a loooong time serving in the Air Guard replacing a bunch of the older block ADF F-16’s.
Hell I remember celebrating with the Montana Air Guard back in the mid-80’s when they took the Hughes Trophy…WITH F-106’s!!!
I don’t know salbando, because I’ve seen F-15 units convert over to the F-16 because of it’s faster scramble to intercept times (5 minutes to 11.5) and the 16 is alot less costly to maintain then the Eagle but it’ll be more likely the A-D’s will hit the yard first, but for the Strike Eagles I see them being sent to the Guard when the 35 comes on line and then to the yard, and maybe the old Reserve units that have the A-10’s will pick up the Strike Fleagles too in the draw down process
72cuda - which units converted from F-15s to F-16s? I’m not “calling you out” I’m seriously curious as to which units swapped out F-15s for F-16s; I thought that most of the F-16 ADF users traded in their planes for F-16Cs. And didn’t the FL and OR ANG both convert from F-16s to F-15s? I’m a little confused curious here…
Back to the topic and my 2¢…
F-35 is 10 years away at best. Then you’ve got the UCAVs like the X-45 that are probably just as far off… Beagles will be around active bases like Seymour-Johnson, Elmendorf, Mountain Home and Lakenheath for a long while. I don’t see the F-35 being an F-15E replacement simply because it’s not a bomb truck. It can’t carry the same payload, even externally. It’s intended to replace the F-16, F/A-18A-C, Harrier and A-10. All light to medium attack aircraft. Now, if the FB-22 does enter service, then we’ll see F-15Es going to Guard units earlier. But the FB-22 is probably a decade away also.
What will end up happening is we’ll have a “silver bullet” force of F/A-22s, F-35s and B-2s kicking down the door for “legacy” aircraft like the BUFF, Beagle and Super Bug (I refuse to call it “Rhino”) to come in with heavy loads of iron. I know the F-35 is supposed to be built in large quantities but that’s what they said about the F/A-22 too.
F-15C/Ds will be around for a long while, acting in conjunction with F/A-22s and the F-15Es will be around for at least that long.
The F-15E was a great “offshoot” for McDonnell Douglas (OK, Boeing). Too bad Grumman couldn’t capitalize in the same way with the F-14. But, the F-14 is not as capable, so…
Just my [2c]
Mitch