The following piece first appeared on Warrior Maven, a Military Content Group member website.

 

100 Aerial combat kills. Zero losses… This fact tells much of the story of the US Air Force’s F-15 Eagle, which continues to surge into the future with new electronic warfare (EW) capabilities, networking technologies, paradigm-changing high-speed computing, and an F-15 EX II 4th-generation “plus” variant moving further into production.

The upgraded F-15 EX jet, first delivered to the Air Force several years ago, introduced a sphere of next-gen types of technical applications to include advanced EW, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, ultra-high-speed computer processing, as well as a number of additional adaptations intended to support future combat operations.

The aircraft’s new Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System is now entering formal production, according to several recent news reports in The Aviationist and Breaking Defense.

While considered a massively upgraded fourth-gen aircraft balancing itself on an interesting boundary between 4th- and 5th-gen aircraft, the F-15EX is, of course, slightly less stealthy than full 5th-gen platforms such as the F-22 and F-35. However, there are a number of not-yet-seen innovations built into the F-15EX with the aim of making it an impactful asset should it be needed for major power warfare.

There are many elements to this, based in large measure on the broad recognition that the 1980s-era aircraft is, essentially, an entirely different jet than it was decades ago. Elements of the basic airframe structure are similar.

However, the F-15EX is now engineered with a new generation of technologies intended to reshape its tactical significance when it comes to high-end warfare. Many of the innovations woven into the F-15EX also build upon previous upgrade efforts taken up by Boeing to extend the aircraft into the 2040s and beyond.