A pal of mine who flies the 737NG in Korea wrote to me after my post above to say that they were on FAA rules and their AFM allowed F15 landings. So it seems to be that FAA AFMs allow it but JAA AFMs don’t, the question is why the difference?
The usual reason for extra permissions, eg 10 min take-off thrust or 15kt tailwind landing etc, is because an operator has requested it after the initial certification. Boeing has then certified it and either sold it to them as an AFM supplement or incorporated it into the body of the next AFM. I suspect what happened here is that an operator on the FAA AFM wanted to operate into hot & high airfields (eg Ulaanbator, La Paz), Boeing approved it and put it in the FAA AFM. Since no JAA operators had made the request they saved their money and left the JAA AFM alone, maybe hoping that they can sell the AFM change to anybody that asks for the appropriate fee. Or am I being too cynical?