Nothing About The Bakken -- A Walk Down Memory Lane -- February 11, 2021

Back in the day, this was my primary assigned aircraft, the two-seat F-15D. Most likely the photo below is of the F-15E Strike Eagle, but doesn't matter. It's still a great photo and brings back lots of memories. That would be me, the GIB, the guy-in-back.

Welcome to my world: I had no choice -- every pilot I flew with was a whole lot braver than I was. LOL. 

The other day on the blog I mentioned that the newest model of the F-15 is now flying, and the USAF is preparing for delivery:

• F-15EX flies for first time as USAF prepares for deliveries;

I wouldn't have bothered to post this but I'm listening to music in between Bakken posts and taking a break. I happened to run across this article on the F-15EX in the April, 2020, issue of Air & Space Magazine.  And speaking of great photos, this is a pretty cool photo:

For the archives, for the grandchildren.

With regard to the F-15EX, the linked article begins:

The Boeing F-15EX will be the latest and most capable variant of an airplane that has been in uninterrupted production since its first flight in 1972. It began life as an air-superiority fighter known as the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle and later morphed into a two-seat, multi-role ground pounder dubbed the F-15E Strike Eagle. Long after the Air Force took delivery of its final F-15E in 2004, the St. Louis plant continued to build F-15s for sales to allies ranging from Israel to South Korea. Today, the wings being put together in Building 27A will be attached to an F-15QA destined for Qatar, while completed F-15SAs coming out of Building 67 are headed for Saudi Arabia. But the F-15EX will be smarter and more powerful than both.

“It’s a living, breathing, evolving platform,” says Boeing vice president for F-15 programs Prat Kumar. “The most recent avatar of F-15 is nothing like what was used 45 years ago. Frankly, it’s nothing like what the Air Force bought 15 or 20 years ago. F-15EX has a fly-by-wire flight-control system and one of the fastest, most capable mission computers in the world. It has an advanced, all-glass cockpit that can display synthesized data in a way that is useful for the warfighter. It has the most advanced radar on any fighter jet, and it carries more weapons than any other fighter.”

The Department of Defense 2020 budget request includes $1 billion to procure eight F-15EXs for the Air Force, with plans to acquire an additional 72 airplanes over the next four years to replace outdated and overworked F-15Cs and Ds that are ready to be retired. This would be a financial bonanza for Boeing, which has already landed a Navy contract for another so-called legacy aircraft, the F/A-18 Super Hornet.