The F-15EX Eagle II: How and Why the F-15 Got Unbelievably Good 

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By the time the F-15EX is retired, ideally, the first warp-powered Starships will be coming online.

By the time it's retired...the B-52 will be getting another upgrade. Grandpa BUFF will never die

The people saying all aircraft need to be stealth are still thinking like it's the 90's. Our military is heavily networked. You don't need a stealth plane that can internally carry 22 AMRAMs to maintain stealth. You need something that can stealthily locate and identify a target and provide telemetry for a firing solution that your "missile truck" can then use to fire from what would normally be an absurd distance to try to get a firing solution. 35 is eyes, 15EX is the fist in this scenario and at a fraction of the cost and with no meaningful increase in logistics and maintenance. 15EX is a great idea. You can still use the 22s and 35s as needed but it's worth remembering that in a situation where something is externally mounted on one of those planes, it's not stealthy anymore. 22s and 35s have teeth, just not very many of them. A good missile truck is the solution.

104 and 0 look out below took out a satellite just for show

It's designed to work hand in hand with the F-35. The F-35 is a flying computer able to now share it's data with the F-15EX. The F-15EX can carry up to 20 LRAAM's that once fired can be handed off to the F-35 for final targeting if needed. Another scenario is the F-35 cleans out the AA missile defense leaving a hole the F-15EX can exploit with it's massive bomb loads.

Most countries would dream about having an Air Force with a squadron or two with F-15EX's or comparable fighters. The fact that the United States are planning on equipping national guards in each states, rather than the Air Force itself, with the F-15EXs shows just how much firepower the United States has in terms of air power.

I work on a military base which has housed and worked with the 15s for years. I have seen these EX in person and watched as they stress them. It is impressive.

Another couple of issues showed up over the past 10 years. Russia, China,and other countries were routinely encroaching upon US airspace. We would send up an F-35 or maybe even an F-22 and the encounter gave the other country the ability to test their radar and other detection systems. Also, the F-35 was not capable of carrying some of the newest and largest missiles and bombs, and the F-22 was not an ideal choice because external weapons nearly negated the stealth capability. So, the logical thing was to modernize the F-15, thereby saving money by not having to develop a new platform, speeding up the procurement process,and helping save hours on our stealth fighters. Also, they had an issue with a Russian fighter that we dispatched an F-22 to intercept. The Russians couldn't see it until the last minute, and they had a closer than comfortable encounter. With the F-15EX, the adversary can see it but will also know it carries a big stick. Hopefully, this acts a deterrent against stupidly staged theatrics.

With the United State's focus on Stealth across the board, imagine the terror of knowing US aircraft are operating in the area and that you actually SAW one on radar. That means it doesn't care if you see it, which is in and of itself, terrifying.

16:33 The F-15 is a second wave aircraft. It follows the stealth bombers in and cleans up anything in the air and the systems left on the ground. 22-24 hard points is a lot of clean up ability.

RU-vid showing me this the second it drops. Hell yeah

My Father worked at McDonnell Douglas and on the F-15 from the beginning. In the early 80s he worked on the F-15 in Saudi Arabia, laying the groundwork for the SA version that became the EX. He would be very proud that the plane he started working on in the late 1960s will be around until 2100. Wow.

You just know that Keeps loves to have our beloved, bald, Englishman Simon plugging them as a sponsor. They literally troll him with each ad copy and the darned commercial spot is just as entertaining as the content (which is chef's kiss exquisite). We love our bald Simon, and Keeps should write some ad copy to slowly expose Simon's hair journey throughout life. The trolling would be next level and we would watch it all!

and these things are LOUD. They take off from Portland, and you can hear them from inside other commercial planes, or across town inside offices. Everyone knows when some pilot somewhere in the northwest did something they weren't supposed to, cause when these eagles deploy, there's no attempt to hide it. It's pretty surreal to see them go full vertical over the river and disappear into the clouds just as the sound wave hits.

F15 has always been my favorite aircraft. The new EX is honestly the most dangerous thing in the air

16:19 It's worth to mention that not only this article by Episkopos was made before we saw the S-400 abysmal performance against Ukraine's aged Mig-29 and SU-25 fleet (who's still operating to this day with most airframe losses being by Iskander missiles against airfields instead of S-300 and S-400), but also Episkopos is also a massive tankie. So that idea that the F-15EX would be vulnerable to S-400s might have to be taken with a grain of salt You gotta listen to both sides, but mentioning his assessment of an american plane is like asking what Ronald Reagan thinks about the Soviet Union.

With the AIM-174B having just been deployed on the Super Hornet, it won't be long before the F-15 (all variants) will get it too. Having an air to air missile with a stupid long range, that is datalink capable so even AWACS can direct it, is scary in it's own right. But having a pack of blistering fast "bomb trucks", strapping 12 of them each, is the stuff nightmares are made of for any adversary. All the new added maneuverability of the EX is all fine and dandy, but it's the new long range ESA radar and the new long range missiles that makes this fast a plane with this much carrying capacity a concept that will be useful for a long time. Putting warheads on foreheads is the bread and butter of war. And the F-15EX is specifically for that. Having sneaky squirrels do pin point strikes is essential for opening up the corridors, but when it is open, and it's time to lay down the law, blowing shit to kingdom come, left, right and center, as cheaply, quickly and effectively as possible is what you call the F-15s for.

Long story short: Russia tells everyone they have a super advanced fictional super jet, we designed a jet to beat it, and then found out Russia lied, and their jet actually sucks. We now have an actual super jet, then decide 20 years later we should probably have jet that can beat our own super jet. Fast forward another 30 years, and Russia is banging on about a whole new fictional super jet. We look at it, and decide it’s such a disappointment, that we can just modify a 50 year old jet because the 30 year old jet is still overkill, and we’d rather have a cheaper option for most scenarios.

I fell in love with this plane the first time I read about it. I see the possibility of it also featuring an unmanned version, and perhaps mini-me versions in the form of wingman drones. Not knocking the F-16, F-22 or the F-35. I see them as all part of a team, and perhaps may be required one day to defend our own shores from increasingly dangerous adversaries.

The 104-0 kill ratio says the F-15 is already unbelievably good. The F-15EX upgrade just makes it better.

The F35 paints the targets, the Eagle II manages additional drones and launches its onboard ordinance from beyond effective hostile engagement range at 1/2 the price of F35s. And it Seal Team 6's anything that isn't itself stealth.

Don't forget the thrust to weight ratio that is greater than 1. This allows the Eagle to take off vertically is needed.

A decade ago I spent a few years building F-15SA’s on the assembly line in St. Louis (you can even see my old work station @ 6:43), I can say the pride taken in the quality of work there is incredible. I can’t speak for the guys building commercial aircraft in the northwest, but the military aircraft operations in STL are second to none. Ten years later I have changed career paths and grown a lot professionally, but I still have dreams about working on that line.

I first saw an f15 when i was about 5 or 6, it was in front of our family van... we went to visit my uncle and cousins down at norfolk. It was taxi'ing down the main drag to get onto his part of the base. Have a family video of it

14:14 The forward fuselage changes were made to minimize complexity and expedite production at higher rates…not because there was any problem with the existing design.

F-1SEX Let's go!

This just goes to show how great of a design the original 1970’s F-15 was. What an absolute masterpiece of aeronautical engineering and design.

My favorite 9G jet. Always loved the Eagle. Something about two big honkin engines, a 50’000ft/min ROC with a 60,000’ msl service ceiling, and a MMO of M2.5. Got to love it.

In the mid 70s I would go with friends to the "public viewing area" at the St Louis airport just to watch the new F15s practice vertical "viking" takeoffs. A near vertical attack using full afterburners. It was a truly awesome (and rather deafening) display. At that time the F15 was the only fighter aircraft that could pull it off.

The 60s designers of F15, F16 and F18 certainly have produced dominant masterpieces. Maybe thankful to various flops in the Soviet / PLAAF arsenals. Need to watch out, though, for the Western World’s adversaries being able to get their acts together by producing shock greats like the equivalence of Zeros or MIG 15s in the coming years.

The F-15 has been my favorite jet fighter since I was a kid. I love the way it looks. It's performance has never been anything to scoff at and it's battlefield record is tried and true. Learning that it is getting a second lease on life with upgrades that take it far into the future as the reliable workhorse that it is is wonderful. Thanks!

I remember seeing an active service US F-15 pilot talk about the tactics they where developing to use with this and the F-22 and F-35. It was scary.

F-15 first jet to shoot down a satellite, shot down a helicopter with a bomb, first jet to lose a wing in training and still land, overall undefeated since 1988...

I am a big fan of the F-15EX, thanks for covering it Simon!

The problem with the critic hating the f15EX not being stealth forget that in war stealth is very limited along with its maintanence issue to its usage as the war progresses mass volume become high in demand as war of attrition and loitering hours start to become demanding and a plane fast with a supported logistics and carry capacity is far more valuable then the expensive high maintenance plane

Thanks for pointing out that the F-15 can come in as a second wave behind stealthy aircraft. We saw the effectiveness of this in Operation Desert Storm.

I still recall reading the article in Popular Science introducing the F15. Most notably that it could accelerate while in a vertical climb. But that was 50 years ago! Imagine if the US were still using WWI airplanes in WWII. And that's only about 20 years out of date, not 50.

The F-15EX is a fast missile truck. Some of the newer missiles under development allow one aircraft to haul the missile into the sky and launch it while another (stealthier) aircraft guides it toward the target, without the stealthier aircraft having to haul external stores or pop open its internal stores. The F-15EX is also capable of hauling large quantities of laser-guided bombs, including longer-range glide bombs, able to be guided on target in similar fashion. The F-22 or F-35 will be able to pick the targets, the F-15EX will haul the munitions (so the other aircraft don't have to compromise their stealth) and the combination will splash the targets. The upgraded B-52J is also a bomb truck, capable of hauling munitions for such joint operations (plus being able to haul / target / launch cruise missiles). The F-15 has always been faster and better-climbing than the F-16, but the F-16 was more nimble 'cuz fly-by-wire; the F-15 A, B, C, D and E were all mechanical controls, not fly-by-wire. The F-15EX is fly-by-wire; the F-16's only remaining advantages over the F-15EX are being smaller and cheaper to operate. GE has been working on making the exhaust nozzles capable of vectored thrust. Some of the newer Sukhoi and MiG fighters have this, and the F-22 has always had 2D vectored thrust (pitch and roll). If the F-15EX can be upgraded, down the road, to 3D vectored thrust (pitch, roll and yaw) ... it still won't be stealthy but it will be a much better dancer, possibly able to out-dance an F-22.

Love the video Simon. Where I’m from, the only military aircraft we have is the F-15 Eagle. Now we are getting the F-15EX at our Air National Guard bases. This video helped further understand the new aircraft. Hope the Air Force will keep it around for a long time

I’ve always been an F-15 fan. Enough like the F-14, faster than a rocket, and nothing like the F-16. Perfect.

People that complain don't understand that the F-15EX can get data from the F-35 to fire missiles from almost 100 miles away as a missile truck. 22 air to air missiles!!! Yeah.

2100! That would mean the F15 will have a service life longer than we HAVE HAD FLIGHT at this point. Fixed-wing powered flight for the pedantics. The Wright Flyer took off in 1903, the F15 Eagle entered service 73 years later in 1976, and this current model will be in service until 2100?! 124 YEARS OF SERVICE. We've had fixed-wing powered flight for 121 years at this point. Amazing. Those engineers that originally designed the F15 airframe were far, far beyond their time, and the engineers that have continued to improve it are no less amazing.

How the Australian airforce could not fathom the F15 as the choice platform to replace the F111 was always beyond me. Now with the F15 EX taking the Eagle to a whole new level I am in love with it all over again.

My hometown Air National Guard, the 142nd Fighter Squadron, based in Portland OR has gotten the first shipments of the EX. It’s been super cool to see them in person. Beautiful airplanes

The Eagle reigns supreme!!!!!!! The GOAT air superiority platform.

:08. I thought it was pretty cool seeing this jet. This is one of the jets that I actually worked on when I was at Langley. I have been in that jet and worked on the outside of it. I have been in the cockpit, testing the weapon systems on it and troubleshooting the weapon systems when they were not working correctly. This jet is from the 71st fighter squadron for which I was assigned to. You can tell it is from the 71st because it has a red stripe on the tail, a blue one is for the 94th and a yellow stripe is for the 27th. We had three squadrons of F-15’s at Langley. They wereC and D models.

I got to see this plane make its debut public appearance at St. Louis, this year and man… it’s crazy to watch an F-15 fly like an F-22. There was a Raptor at that show and my friend and I were comparing the two performances. Impressive engineering!

One thing about the F-15 a lot of people don’t know is there is a switch in it called the Vmax switch, which is safety wired with copper wire that can be easily broken. The Vmax switch gives it a big boost of power in case it needs to evade another plane or a weapon coming towards it. The downfall is it uses so much fuel that it needs to land very shortly after the use. I personally have never heard of it being used. And if I’m not mistaken, the engines have to be inspected after use of of the switch. It dumps an incredible amount of fuel into the engines and can cause problems, which is why they have to be inspected after the use. BTW when you see blue painted bands on the weapons that means they are inert. Live weapons will have yellow, brown and or red bands on them.

Let us not forget this plane is the alt mode of Starscream

Pretty fancy bomb and missile truck

I was an aircraft refueler in the early 70's, stationed at Edwards AFB in the Mojave in southern California. I was lucky enough to be able to stand by and watch some of the flight testing of the Eagle. It was simply incredible. The rate of climb alone put it years ahead of anything else at the time. From a dead stop on the runway to out of sight in seconds! Just an amazing piece of aviation technology!

Great video here Simon. For my part...having been in USAF fighter maintenance for 22 years as a Crew Chief on Eagles for 19 years and A-10's for 3. The services are finding out that adding stealth capabilities to an airframe multiplies the amount of maintenance hours per flight hour by an insane amount. A stealthy aircraft is just a paperweight with wheels and wings if you can't get it working. Any high performance vehicle needs a lot of care and maintenance and adding a 'low observable' system to the aircraft just adds several layers just to get into the airframe to do any maintenance and then those layers need to be re-added to make the aircraft stealthy again. On the tactics side of things, a radar scope with no returns/targets on it because everybody is stealthy to some degree makes you pay far more attention to little momentary returns that might pop up. If you have a radar screen that has a bunch of returns on it that you know are out to get you as well as some you can't see, tends to 'buddy the waters' a bit.

There was initially suppose to be two models of the Eagle II: The one seater "X" and the two seater "EX". But since Boeing can only make two seaters, they made it so that the "EX" can be operated by a single pilot.

This is fantastic news for Hasbro/Takara! Skywarp, Thundercracker, Starscream and the rest of the Seekers can keep that Earthrise mould forever(!)...

The main takeaway is the role of the F15Ex II will be a very fast heavy weapons truck. in Boeing's words it serves as a long-range standoff weapons system that is also capable of penetrating and surviving in highly contested environments. Here is a scenario to help you imagine its role: The F15ex II flies low and fast to avoid radar as part of a formation made up of different fighters performing different roles. The stealth fighters make the first move. The enemy air defense assets light up their radars and start shooting their missiles, the 15ex II will lock onto everything it can see and send a large volley of missiles. A Boeing EA-18G Growler will then immediately turn on its 5 jamming pods to help sheild all planes in the formation from the enemy's volley of incoming missiles. The F15Ex II has its own jammers giving it an extra level of protection, which will be handy given it just made itself target number one. Once the long-range air defense is taken out, the F15ex II may even have some left over missiles or bombs to join the other planes in attacking the main objective.

16:09, the F-15 EX doesn’t need to play a frontline role unless the Air Force already has air superiority/dominance over a given area. It’s there to sit in the back and be a missile truck for the F-35, and anything else stealth/surveillance that can provide it with targeting information. It doesn’t need to be stealthy.

I am sooo hooked on the Simon Whistler vids I am starting have a bit of a British accent, fer the luvuf bangers 'n' mash...

Always loved this fighter! It's a beast!

I'm proud to be a USAF brat and an Oregonian. The southern Oregonian base of the 40th FTS (the first unit to receive the F-15 EX) is located at Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls, which is near my home. The sound of freedom is often heard overhead. 'Merica!!!! 🇺🇲

They sound incredible! we received 1 a few weeks ago here at PDX and it took off in the #2 slot of 4.... They look great but sound even better!

the EX is truly beatiful beyond comprehension. If only we could actually mass produce the damn things.

16:30 I would like to propose why this defense expert is wrong. The idea is that the air frame itself has to be stealth. Look into the reaper proposed pod, and what it can do. Electronic warfare, isn't just about jamming, current American technology can in fact create spoofing, and more interestingly in the case of this aircraft, target multiple radars trying to find it, and make it look like it is not there. This is essentially by creating an equal but opposite frequency signal that cancels out that which is trying to find the weapon system. As such, it might be possible to create F-15 EX that are in fact stealth

The cool thing about the f15 is its thrust to weight ratio is 1 to 1.5. Which means it can go up until it runs out of oxygen and once flying can fly missing its wings. Although only one wing has been missing in a fire fight and returned. Yes an f15 has lost a wing and flown home.

Another issue is that Lockheed has already maxed out their production lines making F-35s. There's only so many F-35s that can be made per year. So another plane needs to make up the difference. That's the F-15EX. Not every battle needs stealth either

Sandboxx published a video yesterday about a pod that is under development that can be mounted on an MQ9 that can turn a non stealth aircraft into a stealth one. Coupling the Eagle II with that pod may be a game changer.

I worked on F-15 A,B,C and D models at Nelllis AFB as an environmental control systems tech cross trained into crew chief. It was the most sierra hotel aircraft in the world then and with the introduction of the EX it will STILL be the most sierra hotel aircraft in the world.

Great video. Not sure it needs to be a two seater, but glad to see the F-15 get a second life.

I've been excited about this fighter for a while. Thanks for the video

The greatest fighter design of all time. Can perform all missions, in all weather, day and night. Robust airframe, powerful engines, great turning radius, high service ceiling, fastest fighter, and payload capacity is unrivaled. The only thing it can’t do is land on a carrier and do VTOL. The F14 Tomcat fans will say that this exception is what makes the F14 the greatest ever, but the F14 also lacks the F15‘s combat resume, can’t perform ground attack, doesn’t have the same payload or speed, and can’t best it in any other category except with its cool variable sweep wing which turns it into a delta wing interceptor.

F-15 go vroom

The F-15 will be remembered as the greatest fighter ever built. Its more rocket than jet, it can carry its weight in ordinance and its thrust to weight and lift to drag ratios are both greater than 1 so it could fly without wings. It’s already happened in like 96. Feel free to google because I’ve already been called a liar. Lol

Good script, Good presentation, Good job Simon! Thank you, sir, Keep it up!

God I love America.

Complaining about stealth falling to understand that it's not meant to hide. It's meant to be feared

Great work! Really enjoy your videos.

correct me if im wrong but i think it was confirmed by officials that speed figure of 2.5 mach is the max possible speed in level flight with a clean loadout and 2.9 was a miscommunication. Possibly not the max speed but structural limits of the airframe itself at some specific altitude? not that it matters since there is barely any point in flying at such speeds to begin with.

thanks President Trump 🇺🇲

I worked on some of these F15s in this video! It's so cool to finally see the Eagle in the limelight on Megaprojects! The best fighter ever!

Nice take on this aircraft. Sounds like a win win to me. Mahalo for sharing

From 2007-2009 I was stationed at Lakenheath AFB. While there I loaded munitions and maintained the weapons systems on F-15E Strike Eagle.

Stealth is horrifically expensive and not every mission requires it. In fact, in wartime, most wouldn't. Stealth would be used to take out threats to the non-stealth aircraft and be followed by large numbers of them establishing air dominance.

Love that Keeps sponsors your channel. That's some brilliant counter-intuitive marketing!

A certain red, (off)white, and blue F-15 will be very happy to hear this

exactly as I have read in the comments below...It's another finger to the whole hand....not the complete fist. But to me, the F-15EX is like that middle finger of the fist, whereas the F-35 is the pointer finger, and the F-22 is the thumb

I was at Luke AFB when they first brought the F-15s there. Amazing fighter!

Oh Simon.. You absolute f*&king bald LEGEND! Love your stuff!

Your best and most relevant video to date.

😂 love it how Simon is peddling Keeps so that less man join our bald master race 😂

Ever since I was a kid I was enamored by the F-15. Last year I saw an F-22 doing aerial maneuvers and I was absolutely blown away by its capabilities. I went home and started Googling the F-22 to learn more. That's how I learned they F-15EX was coming out and I quickly forgot about the F-22. Hello my old friend

I love how Keeps continues to sponsor Simon’s channels.

I think the F15 Eagle is becoming like the B52 bomber. It's a perfect platform to do the day to day work of air superiority. It will do the grunt work, kept safe from by specialized work of F22s and F35s and other state of the art super expensive systems. I'm really impressed with the potential. The world has very few generation 5 planes. The F15 EX is going to be superior to 97% of the world's fighter aircraft. I can see it getting a lot of use as a super fast, super maneuverable light bomber. The amount of punch and the level of performance is brilliant.

The new F-15: "Yea you can see me, I don't care. I dare you to try and do something about it." That alone is terrifying

15:55 The Eagle II does have a radar-absorbent coating to help reduce RCS.

Lack of stealth isn't really an issue when it comes to resolving the biggest problem the EX is needed for- training. In order to train the next few generations of pilots, the Air Force needed a platform that had all the modern bells and whistles, but didn't cost an arm and a leg like Gen 5 fighters. Even if it does go to war, it's not going to replace the F35, so for stealthy missions they can go in and take out radar and A-A defenses, leaving the way open for the EX to do workhorse sorties or defend airspace.

20:41 Somebody has been playing Ace Combat 7. 😂

70 percent of the Eagle II contains the original design. McDonnell Douglas hit a home run with this plane.

A guy I work with was once a crew chief for a base that flew f15s and the heaviest he’s ever gotten one up was 96,000lbs. Idk how he did that but color me impressed.

6:10 "A hydridized approach to Air Superiority" Wait, you mean every Aircraft doesn't have to be the absolute best and cost the most dollars? Like every soldier isn't a Green Beret? SHOCKING!

Its just so beautiful bird.