【By Observer Net, Mountain Cat】According to the U.S. "Air and Space Force Magazine," the U.S. Air Force plans to retain some F-15C/D aircraft, continuing to use them for homeland air defense missions for at least four years. This plan was revealed in the "Long-Term Fighter Force Structure" report submitted by the U.S. Air Force to Congress. The retirement of the last batch of F-15C/D will be delayed from the original 2026 to 2030.
The 2025 fiscal year defense authorization bill by the U.S. Congress mandated that the U.S. Air Force explain its "long-term fighter requirements" and implementation plans. The Air Force submitted this report in August this year, and the outside world first learned about this news through the "Inside Defense" website on October 30. The charts included in the report show that the U.S. Air Force plans to retain 42 (two squadrons) F-15C/D as part of its operational aircraft inventory before 2028, and the remaining 21 (one squadron) will be retained until 2030, after which the classic "Eagle" aircraft (the A/B and C/D models before the F-15E) will be completely retired.
The chart in the report shows the change in the structure of the U.S. Air Force aircraft, with the orange part representing the F-15C/D.
This contrasts sharply with the previous plan in the U.S. Air Force's recent budget application, which aimed to "phase out the F-15C/D inventory" in the 2026 fiscal year. A military official said that before fully retiring the F-15C/D in the 2031 fiscal year and replacing them with the F-15EX, the last 21 F-15C/D will be stationed at the Fresno location of the California Air National Guard's 144th Fighter Wing. He also stated that the U.S. Air Force's Air Combat Command is actively managing to ensure that the so-called "Platinum Eagle" F-15C/D, referring to the aircraft that have been assessed to have long-term service potential and best readiness status, continue to serve until the final moment.
(Photo: An F-15C of the U.S. Air National Guard)
The report states that the retirement of the F-15C/D fleet is "nearly complete." Even though the U.S. military plans to equip the active forces and the Air National Guard with new F-15EXs in the coming years, the remaining "Platinum Eagles" can still meet the airspace control operational needs until 2030. Such operational tasks require aircraft to be ready to take off at any time, intercept and identify unknown aerial targets or hostile aircraft entering the U.S. Air Defense Identification Zone, and be able to shoot them down if they are confirmed to be a threat. A pilot who has previously performed similar tasks said that such missions do not require particularly complex maneuvering overload flight capabilities, and speed is more important to quickly reach the position where missiles can be fired. More than 75% of the aircraft in the currently retiring F-15C/D fleet are limited in flight performance, including flight speed and maximum available overload, due to structural fatigue of the airframe.
In the early 21st century, the U.S. Air Force had planned to replace most of the heavy fighter aircraft fleet with the F-22, but due to well-known procurement cuts, the F-15C/D had to continue to carry out air superiority missions for a long time. In recent years, the F-15C/D deployed overseas, such as the units at RAF Lakenheath in the UK and Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, have been successively withdrawn to the mainland. These are aircraft that have been upgraded with active phased array radar and are relatively modern. The aircraft at RAF Lakenheath have been replaced by the F-35, while Kadena Air Base continues to rotate deployments of F-22, F-16, and F-35 aircraft after the withdrawal of the F-15, and will continue to permanently deploy these aircraft once the F-15EX becomes operational. This former pilot said that the remaining F-15s can still perform their assigned tasks, and unless there is a large-scale national conflict, they will not be redeployed from their current locations.
December 1, 2022, an F-15C takes off from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, returning to the U.S. mainland.
The report also mentioned that the total number of fighter aircraft required by the U.S. Air Force, calculated according to the new "operational aircraft inventory," is 1,558. Compared to the traditional "main mission aircraft inventory," it better reflects the actual number, which is about 15% less than the former. These missing numbers include spare inventories and loss reserves. The phenomenon of "taking from one wall to build another" within the F-15C/D fleet is becoming increasingly severe, as some parts have encountered the problem of "disappearing commercial sources." Due to the rapid actual retirement of the F-15C/D, the U.S. Air Force has further accelerated the procurement of the F-15EX, listing it as an urgent priority. Additionally, the U.S. Air Force stated that the F-15E "Strike Eagle" fleet will also continue to serve into the 2030s.
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Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7569564701466575398/
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