F-15EX Takes Flight

Husky_Khan said:
Boeing won the 23 billion dollar contract in which 76 F-15X's will replace aging F-15C/D's rapidly running out of airframe hours.

www.thedrive.com

The Air Force’s New F-15EX Eagle Just Took To The Sky For The First Time (Updated)

The flight comes nearly 50 years after the F-15A first flew. This latest Eagle iteration is set to replace the USAF's F-15C/D fleet, and maybe more.
www.thedrive.com www.thedrive.com
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This makes no sense. Why not just replace them with F-22s or F-35s? These improved F-15s look like maybe they could be a good export model. But we need more F-22s.
 
F-22 line has been closed for years now. Given that many people in Congress and DoD didn't want a restart of F-22 production, I'd say that the line isn't in condition of being restarted, even if the order came.
 
gral said:
F-22 line has been closed for years now. Given that many people in Congress and DoD didn't want a restart of F-22 production, I'd say that the line isn't in condition of being restarted, even if the order came.
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How quickly could the production line be brought back into service?
 
LordSunhawk said:
Tooling was destroyed in 2009, so it is not possible to bring the F-22 back into production at any reasonable price.
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Da fuck...what....why!? Didn't ever occur to them that we might need more in the future?
 
Spartan303 said:
Da fuck...what....why!? Didn't ever occur to them that we might need more in the future?
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Like I said, people in Congress and DoD didn't want any more of them. Remember, the JSF program was used to close down F-22 procurement(as in "the JSF can do everything the F-22 does better and cheaper" - that it was a lie didn't matter; many of those who knowingly went along with it were getting ready to act shocked when it became evident to all it was a lie, and then use that as an excuse to cancel JSF).
 
The main reason why the EX is being procured is eight fold. First its designed to last for 20,000 flight hours(which is 2.5 times that of the F-35) and have a decently low operating cost indeed it should be decently cheaper to operate as compared to the C/D currently in service. This makes it ideal for the air policing job of the ANG among other things. Second unlike the aircraft its replacing it can do the air to ground job very efficiently indeed it has the two seats of the Strike Eagle for this very reason. Third with the ability to carry up to 22 air to air missiles(of which up to 20 can be long and medium ranged ones) it can function as a flying magazine for F-35s and F-22s in the air to air role. Fourth it's highly likely that some will be procured to replace the Strike Eagles in addition to the C/Ds. Fifth it helps preserve the industrial base and indeed when combined with foreign orders enables the F-15 line to have a decent rate of production. Sixth transitioning a base and unit from the F-15 C/D to the F-35 would take a fair bit of time and money as compared to giving them the EX. Seventh it enables the airforce to maintain a decent mix of high/low aircraft. Lastly due to various foreign orders effectively paying for the R@D developing the thing cost the taxpayer and Boeing virtually nothing and took very little time a non trivial thing in defense procurement. I mean seriously it was ordered less than 2 years ago and the first bird has already taken flight.
 
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I am gonna say something extremely unpopular. Maybe just Maybe the US Government should just make certain Vehicles and weapon systems in house. Set up a DOD weapons manufacturing division. Hire the best and brightest engineers and give them a mandate to design the combat, logistical and support equipment of the future. We can outsource any extra production to civilian firms if needed but we keep everything else in house. Because the current system is only making Defense contractors criminally rich.

I use to work for a defense contractor years ago. I you knew how much they intentionally cheat the DOD you would be pissed.
 
Sailor.X said:
I am gonna say something extremely unpopular. Maybe just Maybe the US Government should just make certain Vehicles and weapon systems in house. Set up a DOD weapons manufacturing division. Hire the best and brightest engineers and give them a mandate to design the combat, logistical and support equipment of the future. We can outsource any extra production to civilian firms if needed but we keep everything else in house. Because the current system is only making Defense contractors criminally rich.

I use to work for a defense contractor years ago. I you knew how much they intentionally cheat the DOD you would be pissed.
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Pass it up the food chain
 
Sailor.X said:
Maybe just Maybe the US Government should just make certain Vehicles and weapon systems in house. Set up a DOD weapons manufacturing division.
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Navy used to do that in the Naval yards, but the defense contractors made sure Congress gradually took that role for them. Politicians first responsibility is to their financial backers and defense contractors can pay well. And Pentagon will not raise the voice against this, because all too many of it's leading lights already have well paid advisory roles in sight.
 
And negating the massive contracts/profits to the military-industrial complex? In the US ? are you mad / a communist?
LOL.
 
Spartan303 said:
This makes no sense. Why not just replace them with F-22s or F-35s? These improved F-15s look like maybe they could be a good export model. But we need more F-22s.
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Can't make more F-22's right away. The production line was closed, suppliers have moved on to doing other things, given enough money and time you could cobble together a new one, but even then the end product by necessity would be an alternate model F-22 with a number of parts different from old models, and if you get that, may aswell do a full on modernization, which would be a good idea anyway. Hence probably waiting for the next fighter plane for any shoring up numbers with new one (possibly Navy's F\A-18 replacement), and advanced F-15 models could be one of the interim solutions.
Sailor.X said:
I am gonna say something extremely unpopular. Maybe just Maybe the US Government should just make certain Vehicles and weapon systems in house. Set up a DOD weapons manufacturing division. Hire the best and brightest engineers and give them a mandate to design the combat, logistical and support equipment of the future. We can outsource any extra production to civilian firms if needed but we keep everything else in house. Because the current system is only making Defense contractors criminally rich.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F/A-XX_Program
I use to work for a defense contractor years ago. I you knew how much they intentionally cheat the DOD you would be pissed.
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Won't fix the problem at all. Just move it to the government level. Which is going to be even worse. There are countries that work like this and we know it doesn't work well.
 
I'm kind of surprised that they aren't using the engines and thrust vectoring buckets from the F-22.
 
Knowledgeispower said:
Also the tooling of the F-22 wasn't destroyed the problem is that the costs of reopening the line at this point would be enough to buy you an aircraft carrier and a couple Burkes and take at least 3 years
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Or a modernized Battleship flotilla! :sneaky:😁

*runs out of thread*
 
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