The U.S. Air Power’s first operational F-15EX Eagle II fighters won’t be geared up with conformal gasoline tanks, or CFTs, based on a newly launched Pentagon report. A scarcity of CFTs will considerably cut back the F-15EX’s vary, which has been a serious promoting level for the kind prior to now.
Point out of the CFT resolution was included in the newest annual report from the Pentagon’s Workplace of the Director of Operational Check and Analysis, or DOT&E, which was launched yesterday. The total report supplies an outline of check and analysis actions pursuant to various main packages in the course of the 2022 Fiscal Yr, which ended on September 30 of final 12 months.
“Following the preliminary portion of Section 1 testing, the Air Power’s Air Fight Command clarified that the plane configuration for the primary operational F-15EX items won’t embrace conformal gasoline tanks (CFT),” based on the brand new DOT&E report. “Whereas the preliminary Section 1 testing was achieved with CFTs, it’s seemingly that the check knowledge produced will nonetheless be consultant of the manufacturing plane geared up with two exterior tanks, as now deliberate.”
The report doesn’t say why Air Fight Command (ACC) selected this configuration for the primary operational items to be geared up with F-15EX. The Struggle Zone has reached out for extra data. Two exterior underwing drop tanks are a part of the usual loadout for the Air Power’s present fleet of F-15C Eagle fighters, no less than a portion of which the Eagle IIs are slated to exchange.
At current, the Air Power has two F-15EXs, each geared up with CFTs. The Air Power is using one for developmental testing, whereas it’s utilizing the opposite for simultaneous operational check and analysis work.
“The dearth of CFTs will restrict the variety of exterior pods and air-to-ground weapons the F-15EX will have the ability to make use of,” the DOT&E’s newest annual report provides. “Till CFTs are procured and provisioned, F-15EX’s air-to-ground capabilities will likely be very restricted.”
Nonetheless, air-to-ground operations are a decidedly secondary concern for the F-15EX, no less than primarily based on the anticipated mission units that the Air Power has laid for the Eagle II thus far. “Units geared up with the F-15EX will present offensive counter-air, cruise-missile protection, and defensive counter-air capabilities, together with escort of high-value airborne property,” DOT&E’s report notes.
What isn’t talked about particularly within the report is {that a} lack of CFTs could have impacts on the F-15EX in its air-to-air fight roles, as effectively. Every one in every of these tanks can carry round 750 gallons of further gasoline, in comparison with the 600-gallon exterior drop tanks that the Air Power’s F-15Cs at the moment depend on. Whereas F-15EX’s actual gasoline capability isn’t instantly unclear, primarily based on accessible knowledge for the F-15E, a pair of CFTs ought to almost double how a lot gasoline it could actually carry internally.
On high of that, the drop tanks make the jets a lot draggier, additional lowering their gasoline economic system and, in consequence, vary. If required, F-15EXs might nonetheless carry these drop tanks, along with a powerful loadout of weapons and different shops, additional growing their unrefueled attain.
As an illustration, one loadout choice for the F-15EX is 2 CFTs, two 600-gallon drop tanks, and 12 AIM-120 Superior Medium-Vary Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM). This can also be made attainable by two further underwing weapon stations on the Eagle II, referred to as Stations 1 and 9, that aren’t discovered on the F-15C or F-15E. That is made attainable by a complicated “fly-by-wire” flight management system that was first seen on Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA Superior Eagles after which additionally featured on the F-15QA variant for Qatar. The F-15EX is derived from the F-15QA.
As well as, these attributes have additionally been cited particularly as why the non-stealthy Eagle II is a helpful complement to the smaller, shorter-legged fight jets, particularly fifth-generation stealth fighters like the F-22 Raptor. The Struggle Zone was the primary to report in-depth on the F-15EX, which was identified initially simply because the F-15X, in-depth and has usually highlighted the advantages of getting this functionality combine.
It’s price noting that CFTs do have an effect on the general pace and maneuverability of F-15s fitted with them. Whereas that is additionally true of drop tanks, they are often jettisoned in flight to supply a direct increase in efficiency on this regard, CFTs can not. The Struggle Zone has talked to F-15C/D pilots which have famous they like the flexibility to immediately optimize the jet for air-to-air fight and CFTs can not provide that, though their efficiency penalty isn’t extremely detrimental.
A restricted variety of Air Power F-15C/Ds did fly with CFTs in the course of the twilight of the Chilly Struggle and its fast aftermath. These CFT-equipped eagles primarily flew from bases in Alaska and Iceland the place they usually performed long-range patrols and quick-reaction alert (QRA) missions.
There had been a proposal extra just lately so as to add CFTs to these jets on a wider-scale foundation, however this plan was dropped as soon as it grew to become clear the F-15C/D can be retired.
The Air Nationwide Guard (ANG) had argued that “conformal gasoline tanks (CFT) and extra weapons stations” on its current F-15Cs would “successfully enhance the fight radius, loiter time, and firepower crucial to gathering offensive mass with a view to obtain air dominance.”
Units inside the ANG at the moment are anticipated to be the primary customers of the F-15EX. The Air Power has beforehand stated that the Oregon ANG’s 173rd Fighter Wing will likely be the primary unit geared up with new Eagle IIs, beginning in Fiscal Yr 2024, and can act because the Formal Coaching Unit for the kind. The 142nd Fighter Wing, additionally a part of the Oregon ANG, is then slated to turn out to be the primary operational unit with these jets within the 2025 Fiscal Yr.
For these items, that are typically tasked to carry out shorter coaching missions or homeland protection sorties the place tanker assist is kind of assured, the CFTs could not essentially be seen as being well worth the tradeoffs in efficiency. However not having them might nonetheless be a serious loss for missions in opposition to peer state adversaries and different contingencies overseas. CFTs might additionally introduce new upkeep and logistics necessities. This would come with simply the added effort and time wanted to put in and ‘drop’ them for numerous causes, equivalent to to realize entry to parts of the airframe which might be obscured when they’re fitted.
All this being stated, there may be in fact all the time the chance that CFTs could possibly be added to F-15EXs after they enter operational service, or no less than distributed to items for set up as required.
On the identical time, DOT&E’s disclosure of ACC’s resolution to nix CFTs on no less than the preliminary batch of operational F-15EXs comes amid rising uncertainty surrounding your entire program. The Air Power revealed final 12 months its Eagle II acquisition plans had dramatically shrunk, with the whole anticipated purchases dropping from at least 144 of those jets down to only 80.
Because it stands now, by the tip of the 2023 Fiscal Yr, the service expects to obtain six extra Eagle IIs and has one other 24 of the jets on order.
“Annually the division reassesses its procurement plan and contains an up to date quantity within the price range. I will not have any further data till the [Fiscal Year 2024 President’s Budget proposal] is launched,” Air Power Spokesperson Ann Stefanek advised The Struggle Zone earlier this week in response to questions on whether or not the F-15EX acquisition plans could have modified once more since final 12 months. The President’s Price range proposal for the 2024 Fiscal Yr, which incorporates the proposed protection price range for that fiscal cycle, ought to come out someday this spring.
All advised, it very a lot stays to be seen how the Air Power will proceed with any eventual plans to combine CFTs onto some or all of its F-15EXs, or not, and with the Eagle II program as a complete.
