https://www.twz.com/air/f-15ex-fleet...r-force-budget
F-15EX Fleet To Be Cut Down To 98 Jets In New Air Force Budget
The U.S. Air Force has announced that it is looking to cut back its total planned purchases of
F-15EX Eagle IIs from 104 to 98 jets as part of the rollout of its proposed Fiscal Year 2025 budget.
The expected size of the F-15EX fleet
has fluctuated significantly over the years, but a clearer picture of the service's plans
has been steadily coming into focus. This new cut also comes despite senior service officials
regularly touting the F-15EX's capabilities and
expressing their desire to have more of these aircraft if possible.
Details about the planned F-15EX cuts first came at a media roundtable that
The War Zone and other outlets attended last Friday ahead of today's rollout of the Fiscal 2025 budget request. In the upcoming fiscal cycle, the Air Force now wants to buy 18 instead of 24 Eagle IIs.
The Pentagon's entire $850 billion proposed budget for the 2025 Fiscal Year is constrained by the provisions
of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, or FRA, which Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law last year…..
A fleet of just 98 F-15EXs is in line with what is otherwise known or has been reported about the Air Force's plans for the Eagle II to date. The Air Force
has publicly announced that three Air National Guard units – Oregon's 142nd Wing, California's 144th Fighter Wing, and Louisiana's 159th Fighter Wing – will each receive a squadron of 18 F-15EXs, or 54 jets in total.
Together with the six test jets, this leaves 38 Eagle IIs, roughly two squadrons worth, to be assigned to other units.
Plans for a dedicated F-15EX training unit
have been scrapped and Oregon's 173rd Fighter Wing, which had served as the schoolhouse unit for
the F-15C/D Eagle, is now set to help train pilots to fly the F-35A instead.
The F-15EX's training pipeline
will be blended together with the existing one for
the F-15E Strike Eagle. There have been no indications one way or the other that any F-15EXs will be set aside specifically for training.
As
The War Zone has noted in the past, conversion training on F-15EX after initial training on F-15E could potentially be done at the squadron.…