Never underestimate the dog fighting capability of an F-15. Many have, and didn't live to tell about it.

Kind of crazy, I was a crew chief on F 15A's back in 1979, and to think they're still flying while I get fat, old, and cranky is pretty darn amazing! It was always a super fighter and can still hold its own against damned near anything our enemies put up against her. Built to fight where others fear to fly! Proud to have been an Eagle Keeper!

People miss one big thing. Why has the F-15 Eagle been so successful. Yes, it's design, but mostly, the engines it uses. Power is one of the most important things that made the F-15 so great. It had serious push. The F-15C single seat, had two Pratt and Whitney F100 engines, which each produced 23,750lb of thrust in full afterburner. That was incredible. But since then, the engines have been upgraded to GE-F110 engines which each produce 29,500 lbs of thrust. Yes, the airframe of the F-15EX Eagle II is heavier than the standard F-15C, but 59,000lb of thrust, wow! If you can move fast, turn tight, and touch your enemy from a long way away, that is great, but the F-15 can dogfight in close as well. It turns tight, it rocks and rolls like a mother%$#@! It reached Mach 3 in recent top speed tests. Confirmed. Take that MIG-25/31. Long live the F-15 Eagle.

The 15 now is like the offensive line for your 35. The 15 is the ONLY fighter to have over 100 tko to 0 losses. American true power house.😊

The F-15 could be considered a missle itself. The Fat Electrician did a good video about it.

Think of it this way - you have a group of f15ex flying safely in friendly airspace, then a couple f35s loitering in hostile airspace in stealth configuration. Those f35s have an amazing sensor suite that can pick up all sorts of targets and relay that target info to the F15s via datalink, who can then just let loose without even needing to use their own instruments or risk their own planes. It's pretty fascinating stuff really!

It's literally meant to hang out behind the F35's/F22's and dump missiles at targets the stealth aircraft acquire. It enables this without the use of bombers. So its more and more a fighter-bomber

Oh and it just got a 25% power increase....and it was already a beast with the old engines.

I saw the F15EX and F35 together, as a sniper team. The 35 is the spotter and the F15 is the trigger puller.

I think especially with the F15ex they're taking the most successful airframe in history and bringing it up to the modern age

Hello from America and we always thank our service men and women for their service so thank you for serving England, our cloeset ally

If the older version shot down a satellite, this just may shoot down Venus.

Bro I listened to a F15E pilot who flew in formation with an EX. He’s said the EX pulled away from him like he was hitched. It’s one fast bird.

The F-15 is still undefeated in the air 104-0. Do not underestimate the platform.

That was Nellis AFB, NV. You can see downtown Las Vegas from the flightline.

It is an F-15 Eagle that is modified and updated to modern standards of todays military but even better.

Edwards Airforce Base out in California The biggest advantage is the communication between F35 to the F15. F35 paints it and the f15 fires while outside the enemy's radar.

My dad used to fly F15Es as a kid I remember getting to go on the runway and see them close up with him, they are freaking beasts! Also miss hanging out in the officers hangout while he did paperwork😊 This of course before 9/11 and hightened security.

The F-35 B is for the Marine Corps, since their carriers support short takeoff & vertical landing. The F-35 C is the naval variant, which has larger wing/tail surfaces & reinforced gear to deal with the trauma of a carrier landing.

Thing is, the science of aeronautics hasn't changed much since 1972. And the F-15 turned out to be a top-notch design. So replacing its guts with current/bleeding edge tech is a sound approach. Stealth is awesome, but there's a tool for every job.

We also don’t need to work too hard on 6th gen fighters yet since 5th gen fighters aren’t being fielded yet anywhere else. A few nations have them in extremely small numbers, but there aren’t enough of them to even challenge the F22 and F35.

Can't wait for America to roleplay Super Earth from Helldivers and add "Super" on every new tech they come up with.

To summarize as a missile truck, the US is designing a new missile call the AIM-260 which has considerable range over the AIM-120. The 260 will have datalink capabilities so that aircraft such as E-3 sentries or larger awacs aircraft can guid the missiles once launched from the F-15. Given this capability a typical 4 ship of F-15s can launch these standoff missiles and head home while the AWACS guides them in from outside of enemy firing range with its massive radar.

The F-15EX will not only have a higher payload capacity with more hard points, and completely upgraded avionics, radar, and electrical systems, but it will have upgraded engines that are more fuel efficient and have more thrust.

There's a old saying, if hammer doesn't work, get a bigger hammer.

It's got two new updated engines that increased top speed to almost 3 mach.

The weights important because you can’t just add more missiles, you’ll bend the airframe. That’s why they’ve redesigned the internal structure, so you can practically attach those hard points to carry those missiles

F-35 was not iterated, the 3 variants were part of the initial design plan. It was a "Joint" Strike Fighter, and the idea was that it would share as many commonality across the platforms as possible to reduce costs, logistical train, and training.

I heard from an Air Force buddy of mine that the concept here is, take an F-35 or an F-22 and have it be the squadron commander plane, and it identifies all the targets from an invisible location while F-15EXs will engage, and while the enemy is tied up with the outrageous firepower, the F-22/F-35 in charge can then engage from an ambush perspective. That would become the standard fighter squadron of the US. It's like pairing a sniper unit with your demolition/breaching team

Man you gotta love the Airforce, Honestly as a guy who complains about my taxes I don’t complain about the military, we could actually spend more on it and i wouldn’t complain

That photo is not only rendered, but the engines are the old F-100's; look at the nozzles.

The F-15ex is designed as a "intercepter/ dogfighter", the F-35 is designed as a strike aircraft.

It might be old, but do not underestimate it. The F-15 has sealed its reputation as an air superiority fighter. It absolutely dominates.

When the element of stealth is gone, the F15-EXs is going to be your choice. If the F35 and F22 are your spec-op surgical strike team, the F15ex is like a ranger battalion rolling heavy.

The F15 has an air to air kill ratio of 104-0 lol. There are still plenty of non stealth fighters out there for the Eagle II to take down. This is also the fastest jet in the active arsenal. I crewed these for my entire USAF career. Best 4th Gen fighter by a large margin.

The F15 is a unbeatable interceptor created to counter simular Soviet aircraft. A supremely powerful dog fighter with a undefeated combat record. An Israeli F15 had a wing shot off and still flew back to its base.

Check out the F15’s win/loss record. It’s still the “king of the skies”.

the main advantage for this variant of the f15 is interoperability between f35 and legacy platforms. In other words, the f22's or f35's fly in close to enemy formations remaining undetected and lock on to enemy aircraft. The f15's remain over the horizon and fire their entire payload of missiles at the f22's or f35's which take control and guide them on to their targets while the f15s rearm and refuel.

By working in tandem with an F-35/ F-22 a very large "superiority" bubble is created between the threat you see and the threat you don't, creating confusion within the ranks of the enemy. Remember, the F-15 has never lost a fight (104-0).

It’s not just about carrying more, it’s also about increasing the amount of different types of munitions.

They took a strike eagle and turned it into a missile bus. Wave 1, Stealth F-35 destroys all anti aircraft missile defenses and overcomes scrambled enemy combatants. Wave 2, Strike Eagle II kills everything else unopposed. It's part of a brutal 1, 2, punch strategy.

The f15 doesn't have to be stealthy it can hang back while f35s can fly in , ping all the targets and the info sent to f15s can just unload and kill everything before its even in detection distance. While f35 is just flying around basically the same as a spec forces lazing targets. The f35 and f15s are info connected

You got it backwards… stealth fighters aren’t made for dog fighting… they’re made to penetrate contested air space undetected… the F-15 is a dog fighter, in air space where we’ve already gained the upper hand… or defending the homeland where stealth isn’t necessary.

The insane shit is that if it somehow did get into a dog fight with a 22 or 35 it probably would win.

I think it's meant to go where a dog fight wouldn't be as likely to just missile the hell out of air defense, ground troops, etc.

That was Nellis AFB in Vegas. I worked on the Strike Eagle and it is a lot more formidable than you think. The aircraft can carry a total load of 81,000 lbs or 36,740.98 Kilograms of fuel, ordinance and personnel.

The only thing missing from the F-15 EX is vectored thrust. This will change the game tremendously in a dogfight.

Seen a video about future air combat, and when you mentioned "missile truck" I remember in that video a new stealth B1B Lancer had missile racks in it's bomb bay and to cover the F22 it ripple fired missiles into a squadron of MIGS.

I'm an American and we love big O truck ❤ and F 15s 😊

The reason they keep making iterations of the F15 is because it is the best fighter ever made. And still no other fighter in the world can touch it.

I definitely recommend Sandboxx videos, if u really want to know details on American aircrafts.

Tech has come a long way in 50 years. They have been retrofitting the original F-15 but the airframe is old. It just became necessary to do a full ground up redesign rather than another retrofit.

its a whole upgrade system... new radar, more hard points, more data fusion based technology. it isnt just a missile truck. it actually beat a number of stealth aircraft at red flag and joint exercises

My goodness! Imagine what can be achieved with one F-35, Two F-22's, two F-15EX & four F-18's out together!

The F-15 is the epitome of old man strength X1000!

The thing people forget is with the US Military new sensor and other technological upgrades, the F-15 can get targeting data from F-35s and F-22s, so while it is visible to the enemy, the planes actually acquiring the target are practically invisible.

The F-15, shoots down whatevers up, and blows up whatevers down. In the early 80s, when I served, had the Eagle (air to air) and the Strike Eagle (air to ground).

If you have two F15 ex in the air that 3 times more missles than 2 F35's in the air. Not to mention bigger weapons can be carried by the F15 , it also said to be a long range fight behind the F35

The F-15 has never lost in an aerial encounter.

I don't think this is their big surprise. They have something brewing up and we're gonna be at aww...

Was at Luke AFB in the 70's when this was coming up, they manufactured this aircraft with more interior room than it needed so later on upgrades could be added, they did this right .

Up to date avionics to include radar, payload capacity, external fuel tanks are just a few upgrades. Newer aircraft alone is a huge bonus

That’s absolutely one amazing and well thought out weapons platform. It has the best of the best in avionics and sensors and can even detect stealth aircraft at a distance of 100 miles away.

The design of this system to my understanding is to use F-35's near the battlefield to use their massive electronics and target acquisition systems to mark targets and feed location data to the F-15 EX, the F-15EX then delivers hell from beyond anything else's engagement range. The F-15 passes weapon control on to the F-35's once the payload is within range. The EX is basically an extended weapons bay for the forward operating F-35's. It's literally a giant missile truck that can bounce around and deliver unhealthcare.

The F-15's record of 104 kills to 0 losses should ease any doubts you have of its capabilities.

The less obvious improvements between iterations of these aircraft are usually engine upgrades, more powerful radar, internal ECM, better avionics, smarter fly by wire algorithms, more powerful flight computers, bigger internal fuel tanks (or the addition of external conformal fuel tanks, like the F-15E has) and in this case, a modern "glass cockpit" -meaning touchscreen MFDs (multi function displays) that streamline and better communicate information to the pilot. TL;DR mostly internal electronic upgrades.

When they do an upgrade like this, it's not just about increased weapons payload. Avionics, radar (detection and avoidance), engines, the whole jet gets an upgrade. You can't just slap on more weapons. You need more power and lift to be able to carry them. Upgraded targeting radars to effectively use the new weapons. Upgraded avionics to maximize efficiency in flight with the increased payload etc.

I think another perspective is that in a major war, the goal will be for stealth F-22s and F35s to achieve air supremacy, as well as eliminate ground 'SAMs'. Once they've achieved that, stealth becomes far less of a requirement, and F-15E2s can then continue any other air-to-ground missions, with much larger payloads. Stealth aircraft can then be saved for when needed for specific missions, as well as minimizing wear and tear on these aircraft.

In a dog fight the F-15 would absolutely wipe the floor with the F-35 but the F-35 was not designed for dogfighting. It was designed to take out its targets before the dogfight could even take place

That was Nellis AFB, NV at the end. I was a F-15 C crew chief in the early 2000's. Been there. They have a big multi nation exercise called Red Flag there every year. Hence the foreign jets.

Carrying more weapons is like a force multiplier and it's upgraded.

I'd imagine the biggest upgrades would be with the sensors, more robust network encryption for secure comms, modernized cockpit, more powerful engines, latest radar + a new powerful flight computer to make it all work flawlessly. The fact is that with the rapid advancement of technology, "Stealth" is becoming obsolete day by day so the battle space has reverted back to the 80's. Sweden has taken this approach as well due to the fact that "Stealth" tech was never in their budget, so they improved everything else.

The F35 can lead the way on a mission and the F15s can stay back and launch a boatload of missiles from a safe distance. The f35 can then leave having never fired a shot and never being detected. The f15 can carry so many missiles because it does not have to hold them internally like all stealth planes. Also once air superiority is won would you want a fleet of stealth planes that cost a fortune to fly over the battlefield or f15s which have more range, can carry 5 times the payload, and cost a fraction of the price to maintain and fly. This is why different types of jets are needed. Stealthy F22s and F35s are perfect for early air superiority and taking out air defenses. Then the F15s come in to wipe up everything else.

I'd agree that it's important to test the software now rather than trying to do it on the latest and greatest in the middle of a conflict when you REALLY need it to work the first time reliably, and putting it on a proven airframe helps to reduce the variables that can go wrong. I'm not only saying this because my family has a history with the F-15 in general (my dad worked on them during the late 70's and 80's), but also as a software tester (video game, but the same concept applies).

The F-15ex is a direct upgrade to the F-15c, faster, heavier armed, better radars, sensors, longer range, better flight hours to maintenance, its simply made to continue the job of the F-15.

As I understand it, this goes beyond being a missile truck. There are new Fly-By-Wire systems onboard that allow it to do maneuvers that were reserved for the F-22 demo team so it is incredibly maneuverable. The increased capacity will also allow it to carry air-launched cruise missiles upwards to and including hypersonic missiles. This thing truly is scary in its own right.

The F-15 Eagle is essentially the perfect air frame. It's able to do just about everything you'd want. So, continuing to iterate on the design makes sense, versus the expense of creating an entirely new aircraft. The F-35 project was born with the intent to replace the F-16, but after spending $1 trillion (not joking!!) and going a decade past its assigned delivery date (again, not joking!!), it can't do what the F-16 can, much less replace it. It's capable in certain roles, but it's pretty limited and definitely does not meet the brief for which it was originally designed. It's the advanced avionics, electronic warfare capabilities, and stealth design that make it special, not the air frame itself. Close in, the F-35 is easily beaten by air frames like the F-15, F-16, F-18, and F-22. Essentially, the F-35 was more of a replacement for the F-117, role for role, when ironically that was the design impetus for the F-22, which is likely the most deadly aircraft in the air. In the end, putting more advanced tech in the F-15, thus creating the F-15EX Super Eagle, just makes this outstanding air frame even more lethal. It's not just about how much it can carry. It's extremely fast, and if you get on the wrong end of one close in it'll brutally end your day.

In addition to carrying more missles, the improvements come from being able to engage and fire upon more multiple targets simultaneously, making each aircraft force multiplied.

That was Nellis AFB (Las Vegas NV) towards the end of the video. Home of the F15 & F22 !!

12 AMRAAMs?!…That’s more than half the enemy teams in war thunder 😂😂😂

The airframe has also been upgraded and fortified over the years. This is a much better fighter jet than where the F-15 began.

The idea being that an F22 or F35 will be the sensors, and the F15EX is the shooter. That way they don't compromise their LO by opening weapons bay doors, and the EX's stay back out of the fight. The new AIM-260 is intended to be used with this tactic.

I'm guess that the cost of this plane will be substantially cheaper than the Raptor and the F-35. Your basically doubling your aircraft for half the price and getting more firepower in the air. It does make sense. Kind of like the Sherman tank in WWII. Not the best tank, but overwhelmed in quantity.

Long time ago when I was a kid I saw in a magazine the new iteration of the F-15 which I think was the f-15C could have been the new E model but it "shoots down whatever is up and blows up whatever is down." Was the motto.

the stealth jets act as pointman, operating within enemy radar space, they can uplink to the missiles fired from f15exs from a safe space to engage targets. range of missiles and f15ex were also improved for this doctrine.

F-35 can stealthily and passively direct the targeting of missiles released from an F-15EX which can act as a missile truck at a safer distance from the point of contact. F-15EX can mag-dump the kitchen sink and run back to reload.

It was already a undefeated fighter with 104 kills and 0 losses in air to air combat. All this just made it deadlier.

The biggest thing is the air frame is great.. zero air to air loses.. but after 30 years the frames develop stress fractures. So the f15ex is an even better aircraft in same but brand new air frame. Upgrades on everything else

There is a video with pilots reacting to it and talking about it performing maneuvers that would normally require thrust vectoring

The F-15 is one of the best if not the best dog fighter.

what they are doing with the new f15 is take an existing and proven air platform and upgrade it to more modern tech and refine the design its much easier to integrate into the air force. pilots are already familiar with the aircraft and can quickly learn the new improvements instead of a whole new aircraft.

So to answer your question as to why we have made the ex is because the f15 had a 104-0 kill death ratio Having it have a stealth coating to help it and more missles to destroy with means it could do more than an f22 and hold more than the 16 and 35

The Air Force wanted to begin retiring F-22 by 2030, in 2022 the AF wanted to retire 20 old F 22 already but Congress blocked that until 2026. So the next gen fighter could be revealed in the next few years.

The original idea is the Raven would penetrate and designate a slew of targets. The F-15EX [plural] follow behind - acting as a missile launch platform - and fires on the mass of targets the Raven has designated.

missle tech is just as important as stealth capabilities. the bigger the payload of advanced missles the more dangerous a fighter can be. Like you said it’s a balance, but being a dog fight with 50% more aim rams will give the fighter more peace of mind

These f-35s are the front line type of aircraft. They use drones and the computer to lock onto targets and find them. These eagles with their arsenal can use the f35 platform to find targets with the f35 never being detected. Practically increases the offensive range. One reason for these to be involved in modern fighting. It’s a weapons platform.

The f15 isnt a stealth design its a "fuck you im faster" design

This video didn’t really hammer home the main value of the new F-15. It discussed both the 15 and 35, but didn’t mention how they will work in tandem. The 35 has immensely powerful electronics and stealth, so it can be out ahead of the 15 and identify targets further out still. It can relay all that to the 15 and essentially be the eyes for the 15’s missiles. The 15 will launch them, but the missiles will be executing whatever the 35 is feeding it through data links. It’s about merging 5th gen stealth and tech with 4th gen power.

my grandpa was one of the original test pilots for the eagle

THE jet that beats gravity in submission 🤣😂🤣