Originally Posted by
ORAC
That'll the operational aircraft with 90K hours behind it then? No doubt that is one of the reasons for wanting to retire the F-15C, got to find the money from somewhere.
Retirement of F-15C is tied to extensively upgrading AND service life extending F-16Cs. However, this is only cost effective if the highest cost option to extend the service life of F-15Cs is chosen. Current already underway (and funded) programs to upgrade the F-15C fuselage longeron, upgrade the radar, upgrade the primary computer, and several other upgrades will be MUCH cheaper than upgrading and SLEPing the F-16Cs. And this ignores the greater range, payload, endurance, and speed of the F-15 over the F-16.
But in my mind the important thing is that USAF has finally well and truly bought into the idea that an all stealth fleet of F-22s and F-35s is not a good idea, nor is it affordable. USAF has come around to the Navy idea of a mixed fleet of legacy aircraft (Super Hornet) and F-35. The question is will the USAF F-35s be mixed with SLEPed F-16s or F-15s? My bet is that they'll ultimately go with the F-15. But who knows?