Boeing's plan to make the F-15 a 'stealth' fighter 

The F-15EX ended up with most of the upgrades that the F-15SE had...Conformal fuel tanks, Fly by wire, RAM coatings, the F-35's AESA radar, upgraded electronic warfare suite. It still would have been cool to have F-15's with the canted tails, internal weapons,etc.

100:0 kill ratio can't be faulted. It may be much older and cheaper than the F-22 or 35, but it's still an incredible aircraft. Stealth, would make it even more formidable in that role.

I loved the Strike Eagle. I spent 6 1/2 years working on them.

As an Englishman, it makes me extremely proud that a fellow Countryman had such a large amount of influence on the amazing F-117 Nighthawk. 🇬🇧🇺🇸✌✌

Radar cross section is highly dependent on direction of the transmit and received antennas AND frequency of the signal. RAM coatings are most effective at absorbing short wavelength signals from targeting radars and radar guided missiles (which simply doesn't have the space for the large antennas needed for longer wavelength signal) on top of this, long wavelength signal require correspondingly larger radar elements to achieve the same resolution. So search radar often operate using longer wavelengths which is harder to design aircraft to be stealthy, but targeting radars typically operate at much shorter wavelengths, so the AA missiles may have a harder time locking on until the range is much closer.

I wonder why the F-15EX Eagle II didn't incorporate the canted vertical tails... would've helped with reduced Radar Cross-Section (and it looks sexy).

Stealth aircrafts are designed as stealth from the beginning from the inside out, stealth is not only about the shape and surface of the plane, it is also about its internal structure! The F-15 was not designed as a stealth plane so it would be very difficult and expensive to make it one!

The idea of fighting a modern war with stealth missiles and aircraft is terrifying to a Surface to Air radar technician like me. Detecting threats as far away as possible is paramount to shooting down threats. With those threats incoming at multiples of the speed of sound there is almost no time to shoot down anti ship missiles. We routinely would deal with those threats a hundred miles away and would always shoot two missiles for each threat. Now that math does not work anymore. The next fleet action between near peer nations is going to be crazy. The ships will have to fight the battle themselves because no system with humans in it will be able to keep up. This was already known in the 1990’s but today with hypersonic missiles the ship will have to be in automatic 24/7 during wartime operations. That’s going to make a lot of friendly pilots nervous. Make sure your IFF is working brother!

I’ve loved the Eagle like for a long time and it’s great to see she’s still in service

Having ran PARs on F-16s and the 117, the F-16 barely registered even on a PAR scope back in the 1990s. It was almost as hard to see as the 117. The regular approach radar might see a small blip occasionally that was smaller than a little flock of birds. That's not to say I know a thing about radar systems, because I don't. I'm sure there are much more sensitive as well as different systems than an airbase's ATC system.

Great video. Boeing really took the time to make the silent eagle concept a viable one, but customer preferences and competing technology make for a different bird. Perhaps a hybrid or faux stealth , still effective if using the right tactics.

The F-15 design development began during the Vietnam, but It did not "dog fight" in Vietnam as the war was over when the first deliveries were made to the Air force.

If the ES is the same as the EX, I would love to see it come back... The fact Israel had one wing sheared off, and it still flew, it was awesome.

At an airshow i got to sit my rear end in a F-15 i was astounded! How I felt at ease in an F-15 cockpit! It fit perfect. I was one happy trooper thinking of the honor of doing so.God bless the air force.Thankyou. A patriot American.

Excellent video. From the scope of information to the pace of the narration. Keep up the great work, Sandbox.

Considering the basic F-15 airframe is one of the most durable ever flown. IE the time one flew back missing a wing and more. I really think the F-15 could get a complete undress and redress. Kind of like putting a kit car body on. If they could make an adequate wing design and layout and outer shell the standard airframe could be kept up to the wing pylons. Could basically make it look like the f22 and f35 had a child

The eagle is just beautiful. Perfect proportions at any angle

The Foxbat wasn’t even a fighter jet. It was an interceptor, designed to intercept and shoot down bombers. It had a top speed of Mach 3, and a ceiling of well over 100,000 ft! It was a beast, the world record holder, but it couldn’t dog fight.

Great video, super interesting. Oh the wayward F-22 program. You should look at the concepts they were developing on Ward Carrols site for the F-14s to try and keep them in production.

Whether or not it actually has a purpose to exist, the F-15SE is probably one of the prettiest Eagle variants I've seen proposed.

BRILLIANT plane development, and a solid video.

Generally, the ROK just loves shiny new things. 😊

Wish the Silent Eagle was built! It looked amazing, it would have been amazing!! The F-15 EX is still cool though.

I would love to see the future of this fighter. This baby has a ton of capabilities

Love your videos, brings back many memories of testing those conformal tanks at Langley back in 83 I loved the Eagle, Damn good channel

Hats off to the Yanks, the F-15 has been, and is a superlative aircraft. RESPECT from the UK.

'... shot gun with a silencer' good analogy!

Makes you wonder what could have been if the Navy had been able to upgrade the F14 in the same way the USAF was able to upgrade the F15. The USN would likely still be flying F14s today. Instead of the few upgrades to the F14D platform, it would have been adopted en masse with newer SuperTomcats coming next as legacy systems were phased out. Instead of the SuperHornet, less maintenance intensive new SuperTomcats would be handling the ground attack missions as was intended from the start. Lots of people think of the F14 as air superiority and high speed interception, but it was built with ground strike capabilities in mind and they were simply never used until later on. Originally, Grumman wanted to sell the F14 to the Marines as well for its Close Air Support capabilities. The F14 had a panel in it that the RIO generally ignored until well into the 1990s. The Bombcats even proved themselves in Iraq in 2003 where they dropped more than 50k lbs of ordnance and served as Fwd Air Control for the F15Es. Truthfully, all the A and B models should have been updated to F14Ds with the better GE F110 engines and new SuperTomcats could have gotten the even better F110-129 engines with thrust vectoring. Coupled with airframe updates, more fuel and modular components, the SuperTomcat would have been a fearsome adversary. Relieved of its big heavy Phoenix missiles and equipped with AMRAAMs, it could have carried even more ordnance and/or fuel for even longer range and loiter time. Totally sucks that the Navy is stuck with the far less capable Hornets.

You need to use this intro instrumental for all your videos! It fits the intro action shots soo good. And it kinda reminds me of some of the music from subnautica

We had Top Gun about the F 14, Iron Eagle about the F 16, Independence Day about the F/A 18. How come no movie about one of the best Air Superiority Fighter Ever.

Make no mistake, the F15 still has a role to play around the globe. Upgrading t's capabilities and reworking fuselages will extend this role for many year/decades to come.

All it needs now is an obstacle free canopy and 360 thrust vectoring and all of a sudden, you'll have something really capable.

I am a big fan of the F-15 Eagle. However, in my humble opinion, it is being expected to do too much in the face of the clearly changing world of stealth and advanced aircraft. Perhaps it has been the intelligence related to the Raptor being sold to and/or stolen by China which forced the Gen 5 fighter into its early production retirement and brought about the constant and, at some point, vain upgrades to the extremely successful F-15 as a stop gap measure until a genuine and revolutionary 6th generational plus (or perhaps even a 7th generation) platform can be developed. Sadly, a nation that is being crushed by a national debt, (which many economists believe to be closer to $45 TRILLION DOLLARS), cannot help but create tremendous obstacles for the same “American taxpayer gouging” techniques which have been implemented for decades by so many government contractors. Honest research and development are one thing while stealing is another. After all, let us never forget that we, the American taxpayers, are ultimately paying the lion’s share of the bills. But it does seem that the approach for the development of American military aircraft is somewhat all over the ballpark. Hopefully, the NGAD will soon enter serial production and the security surrounding its technology will be clamped down tightly. Again, the F-15 is a fantastic aircraft which has over delivered in so many ways. But age and technological advances ultimately catch up.

Excellent clarification on signature values & internet sources. ATF numbers were Level IV, TS SAR, during DEM/VAL and I'm confident that security wasn't relaxed any. Good report 👍

U.S. military fighter aircraft in the Vietnam war were designed to be able to take just one hit in the hydraulic system and still be able to fly (but not necessarily land) which caused many pilots to bail out over enemy territory if more than one hydraulic system hit was taken, e.g Navy pilot John McCain ejection and capture. As a result, the USAF required that the design of the F-15 be able to take two hits anywhere in the hydraulic system and still be able fly (again not necessarily land). This requirement caused MCAIR to come up with many hydraulic system innovations that have been used in the F-18 and some in the F-22.

A radial reflection abated as uses on the proposed F-32 inlet would work well in suppressing radar returns from the engine front faces.

Along with the F14, my favourite fighter jet.

Well done, thank you for producing and posting

I think the next block for the EX should be similar to the F 22 in maneuverability with 2D thrust vectoring and enhanced steath basically merge the two platforms

We should make a Hybrid F15. F15EX and F15SE.

"Robocop with a shotgun" yeah I like that image. Personally I prefer the "missile truck" variation to haul arms into the general area, guided by telemetry from F35's out in front.

I like that the F15s are making great bomb haulers for the F35, it continues air superiority just as great

F-15 be like please let me die with a perfect record

This F-15 is becoming the A-10 Warthog. Cheap, solid, deadly.

Always perfect! Thanks alex!

The F-15 EX Strike Eagle is the most powerful, fastest fourth generation strike fighter with more fuel tanks for longer range and incredible missle payload. DD. 🇺🇸

“Anytime a mission called for less stealth and more hate” 🤣🤣🤣

I think if you look at the F-22 and f-15 side by side you'll see a lot of similarities in the design. My 2cents, the f-22 is the upgraded stealth version of the f-15 and the f-35 is the upgraded stealth version of the f-16.

Immensely intriguing! Thank you for the look at this dual view: one of history, the other of a look to the near future.

at ft Sill in Oklahoma they had a big air show and a bare bone f-15 took off and literally as soon as the tires left the ground he went straight vertical and climbed 1000ft..was one of the most bada$$ displays of ferocious raw power i've ever seen.. I still have yet to find a video of another jet doing the same take off I saw. None of them immediately go vertical..it's always a few seconds after or low fly by into vertical climb. if anyone knows a video to check out let me know..I so wish to witness it again lol.. I also just love that almost black looking paint job version

I don’t know how many times Boeing gonna make it the best, its still a beast, please dont spoil it in the process.

I am happy to see this! We need the silent eagle but a bad ass one

Don't forget now the f-15 EX is a 4.5 gen aircraft ! This was due to the upgrade massive upgrade! Avionics and dataLink. I was there when they unveiled it. That was the jump from 4.0 to 4.5 Gen. Definitely going to save this one. Wish you a happy Thanksgiving and I'm sure you're going to be grinding out another. So in the meantime, I wish you well on your journey. May it bring you much love and laughter and all that you desire. God bless 🕊️

Well researched. I learned quite a bit.

Think of this, when you had to electronically jam a radar to get the radar signature the f15 was an insane airplane . It was completely lethal. With its new skin, i can only imagine.

I’ve heard of one former F-22 pilot who said when running Russian intercepts in Alaska The Russians roll and show the weapons it has underneath. The F-22 pilot said on such a mission you want the enemy to see the intercept and break off. Also if a dogfight did ensue he felt that his gun was fully holstered and the other guy already has his gun drawn and starting to aim. In that situation the other guy will get off the first shot much quicker.

Shotgun with a silencer is pretty badass in “no country for old men” though

As a kid I had many scale models of the F15 but none of them captured the beauty of this aircraft in flight.

IF the F-15SE were significantly less expensive than F-35 to procure and maintain, it absolutely would have a place in many air forces. However, considering that: Saab Gripen is a thoroughly modern 4.5gen fighter designed from the ground-up to be less-expensive to fly and maintain, and is a newer, stealthier design than F-15 which incoporates much of F-15s upgrades as standard equipment, and that F-35 (a thoroughly modern 5gen designed from the ground up to be a stealth fighter with MUMT capabilities and future-proofed for DE weapons) costs slightly less than Gripen to purchase (but more to maintain), and that F-15SE would have to compete not just with F-35 and Gripen, but also F-18, F-16, Eurofighter, Rafale, and MiG-35 and Su-35 (for neutral states), it would have to be ridiculously cheap to procure and maintain. Which, I suspect, it's not; American military hardware, while renown for all its advanced design and capabilities, is nonetheless notorious for being maintenance-heavy, regardless of whether that gear is a $1,500 rifle or an $80,000,000 aircraft. New-block F-15Es apparently are more expensive than Block 14 F-35s, something which flies in the face of production economics and economics of scale (although af.mil lists F-15 at ~$29mUSD per, but that's Fiscal Year 1998 dollar values, translates to ~$54mUSD 2023, but that number assuredly doesn't take other factors into consideration). F-16 runs anywhere from $30-70mUSD depending on how it's outfitted and additional contractual considerations like training, spare parts, amount of technology transfer, ordnance, and more). While not on the same scale of F-16s production numbers (4,604 F-16s! or for that matter, F-35, of which currently there are 968 in service vs. 1198 F-15s), both time and numbers *should* make F-15 significantly less expensive than its competition, assuming maintenance is also less expensive (which I also suspect it's not). While there are a lot of them, F-15 has been in production for 50 years and a lot of those airframes are pretty old; service life extension programs aren't cheap, and they can only do so much to revive an old airframe before you run into the F-15 of Theseus conundrum/sunk cost; at what point do you just invest in a new aircraft?

F-14 ultimate version is the F-14D. It uses GE F110 which improved version is installed in the F-15EX. F-15EX is lighter and more agile. It is second to none in combined attack capabilities.

Okay, I retract the Cranked Arrow F-16 as a simpler replacement. The F-16 is a design nightmare that literally requires a computer to fly. The cranked arrow design was one that is a legit upgrade to the original F-16.

With those divergent ruders high AOA is welcome. More clearance for catapulting during some amount of rolling - by the way, are all fighters stopping to roll when the handle is released/at catapulting?

Maybe they could give the Wild Weasel F16 a thrust vector capability of, say, 3, 5, or 10 degrees. I don't know if it would work, but they might check it out.

*What they need are stealth ANTI-RADAR MISSILES to take out all the radar beams, an easy target as long as it does not see a missile coming for it thus making the enemy turn off the radar for a few minutes.*

Great vid just curious have u done one on the Super Tomcat 21 yet

The only battle tested, undefeated fighter.

By the time you have completed those changes, it’s no longer an F-15. It’s an F-22. 🦅

Air superiority. What it was designed for. Fits right into our force mixture.

The SE is a semi-stealh platform, not fully steath. those 90 degree angle top wings are what makes them appear on radar normally, slanting them those make it less visible on radar but it's still a huge air frame. If you want to use it to it's max performance you'll have to only use the internal bays. That's not really worth mass producing it because the E & EX took the F-15 from an air to air platform to a multirole fighter. Long range stand off weapons kind of make the stealth idea not necessary. Stealth missiles like the Storm Shadow kind of make stealth platforms not necessarily for everything.

👍👍🇺🇸 The F 15 is never lost in a dogfight

By giving it a rebirth, this invincible beast deserves the immortality status.

Doesn't matter what I say, the F14 is my pick for best overall interceptors of all time. That is sadly gone, but the F15 can hold 15 missiles and imagine it as a high altitude firing platform using F35 data...that's like a Russian 400 system...at 60,000 feet. Long story short, if you have 6 long range a2a, 4 harms and 5 120s, armaments 60000 feet up, just incredible capabilities.

Hopefully sooner than later..!

This will take the advantage of the multiple hard points in the fighter

100-0 baby...still undisputed the F15-Egle is..A fighter plane for the ages..looks bad-ass to boot too..It will still be with us a 100yrs into the future..Classique jet fighter.

The Radar-absorbing-material (RAM) is just a Carnauba car-wax. Not only does it have stealth capabilities, but the planes look extra detailed in the driveway.

I didn't hear any mention of the flight hours frame lifetime of the F-35 versus the F-15SE and F-15EX?

that's odd, how the hell is it that boeing's going to do that, when the f-15 is a mcdonnell-douglas creation ?

The f15ex makes a great asset to the f35 because the f15 can carry a amazing weapon load and not only that the f35 can target and lunch weapons from the f15ex 🤠👍🏼

"A big grain of salt." More like a huge boulder of rock salt.

I wonder if any of these developments are included in the F-15EX

You make the F15 stealth you've got a beast of epic capabilities.

How about implementing the stealth mods of the F-15SE to the F-15EX making it the F-15SEX?

Uma máquina elegante e espectacular! Á frente no seu tempo! Não tem adversários á altura. Ainda bem que os reconverteram. Era uma pena retirarem do activo estes excelentes aviões.

They should have pressed in with this! Seeing how it can be back configured to use conformal fuel tanks and external hard points it would have been good to have it be even more multi role than it was before. Going up against ragtag forces with some air defense systems, this would probably get the job done. Russians reinvent their Su27 platform constantly to save cost by using an already excellent design. The F-15 has done this too, it just get extra letter designations, not a whole number change.

The issue with the F-15 Silent Eagle is that underneath it's still a fourth-gen fighter and can't go head to head in a dogfight lacking directional thrust and supercruise. Also, the F-22, the stealth coating will have to be reapplied after so many flights. F-22 pilots limited their flight time with the F-22 by flying F-15. At this point, Boeing isn't reliable with many quality issues. The ugly F-32, Starliner, and 737 Max to name a few. Finally, the infamous lunch box was found in the electronics bay after passing QA inspection and shipping to the customer. Boeing profits from cost overruns and overcharging.

The F15 is such an iconic fighter jet. I firmly believe it's service life will stand the test of time.

Stealth can be defeated with conventional radars and tactics, plus the cost to develop stealth countermeasures is a fraction of stealth aircraft cost and development

10:31 that explanation only explained how tilting the tail stabilizers reduced radar return. It did not explain how tilting them so little increased lift.

Amazing and informative. Nice job

Your Best Video by far!

+SandboxxUs *Boeing had the right idea for the last - and potentially the greatest - of the F-15 Series.* With splayed tailfins and rudders plus a new generation of FAST Pack to hide the attack stores, Silent Eagle would present a radar cross-section in the 1 m² ballpark for those air arms that need more stores capacity than the Lockheed Martin F-35 Series can haul. Only thing needed is a cooler (in MIL power) engine than the General Electric F110; enough mass flow for supercruise in MIL means need for the coaxial afterburner (with separate nozzle rings for fan and core exhausts) in fewer parts of the envelope. With Lockheed Martin developing a superlaser for destroying missiles (and packaging it in a pod for centerline mounting on tactical planes), Boeing can install one in each FAST Pack.

If slightly canting the vertical fins has such a significant effect on lift and fuel consumption why hasn't that gotten retrofitting to all f15s?

Time to recreate the F-14 with semi stealth & modern electronic, maybe make it a Saber/SabreCat.

The Mig25 is NOT a "sub par competitor". Such a description shows a lack of aviation knowledge. The Foxbat was designed in anticipation of Mach 3 B-70s, and would have been a worthy interceptor of that bomber. It was never intended to be an air superiority fighter as the Eagle was.

I was told by someone that the B-21 was at least 2 Generations ahead of the B-2

Still love the plane, spent 6 years flying it just awesome

With F-22 flight data, and all of it's previous development data. It won't be a hassle to evolve the F-15 as a Stealth Aircraft Platform either built from ground up or just a major modification to its RCS related parts. As example the Exhaust Thrust Vectoring Nozzle for F-15 ady developed from F-15MTD (NASA) variant, that would have ease the process of introducing low observable IR heat signature if Lockheed or Boeing began to improve the 2D Nozzle RCS and reduce heat dissipations it produces.

Love this CHANNEL and videos because I love Military avation and Military Aviation Aircraft as well. This is why I got here plus TOPGUN MAVERICK BROUGHT ME HERE TO.

Lots of Tbolt love in this vid! SHOCK EM'!