WASHINGTON — The Air Force would get six more F-15EX Eagle II fighters in fiscal 2025 under the House Armed Services Committee’s proposed version of the fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.
If enacted, the proposal could boost the Air Force’s effort to purchase more recent fighters to modernize its fleet.
The service’s budget documents show it plans to request 24 Boeing-made F-15EX jets in 2025, the identical amount as in 2023 and 2024. However the chairman’s markup of the draft NDAA, released Monday evening, includes a further $92 million upfront procurement funding to purchase six more of those fighters in 2025.
That might bring the service’s total Eagle II buy to 30, and convey advance procurement funding for the F-15EX to $320 million in 2024.
The committee, chaired by Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., moved to extend the Air Force’s fighter purchases to hurry up the pace at which it’s replacing older, retiring fighters, a senior congressional aide told Defense News. The service plans to retire 801 tactical fighter aircraft over the following five years while bringing on 345 recent F-35s and F-15EXs.
When combined with the Air Force’s plan to purchase 48 recent F-35A fighters — the service’s expected standard annual purchase going forward for the following few years — the increased variety of F-15EX purchases would mean the service would get 78 recent fighters in 2025.
That might be greater than the 72 fighters top Air Force leaders often say need bought on annually to each modernize the fleet and lower fighters’ average age.
If the service can’t buy that many annually, top generals warn, it won’t have enough recent fighters to interchange aging and retiring fighters akin to the F-15C.
For years, the Air Force continuously didn’t ask for that many fighters in its budget requests, nor did lawmakers approve those amounts. In 2023, for instance, Congress approved a complete of 67 recent fighters for the Air Force, 24 F-15EXs and 43 F-35s.
That modified in 2024, when the Air Force asked for the total 72 fighters it says it needs. Lt. Gen. Richard Moore, deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, said in April that he believed the service would ask for 72 fighters again in the long run.
But mistakes and quality issues on the F-15EX’s production line have caused this system to slide no less than six months. The Government Accountability Office said in a report released in June that Boeing mis-drilled windscreen installation holes on 4 F-15EXs, and the holes will must be redrilled.
GAO also highlighted other unspecified supplier quality problems on a critical forward fuselage component needed to make sure the F-15EX’s safety of flight.
The Air Force currently has two test F-15EXs. Boeing was originally scheduled to begin delivering the primary of six more F-15EXs in December 2022 before the production problems caused delays. It’s unclear when the deliveries of the most recent batch will happen, but it surely could begin later this summer.
The Air Force plans to purchase 104 F-15EXs in all, but when the extra six within the proposed NDAA turn into a reality, it will have the effect of accelerating this system of record to 110.
The new edition of the fourth-generation F-15 fighter is upgraded with advanced avionics and higher electronic warfare capabilities.
Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.