Aerospace giant Boeing was awarded a $471,3 million contract action from the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center for the ‘Japanese Super Interceptor’ program.
According to the U.S. Department of Defense contract announcements, Boeing has been awarded the contract to upgrade almost a hundred Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-15J fighters to the ‘Japanese Super Interceptor’ (JSI) standard.
“The contract action provides for the design and development of an integrated suite of aircraft systems to support modification of the Japan Air Self Defense Force F-15MJ aircraft and the development, test, and delivery of four Weapon System Trainers,” said in DoD contract announcement.
Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2028.
This deal involves 100 percent Foreign Military Sales to Japan.
Japan’s government plans to convert its F-15J fighter aircraft into modern combat platforms amid Chinese and Russian threats.
In addition, earlier in November 2020, Forbes reported that the Japanese fighters will get a new advanced cockpit system with an advanced mission computer, new radar, electronic warfare capabilities and a locally-sourced datalink system that is interoperable with U.S. data sharing systems.
Also added that the basic F-15J airframes will not be zero-timed or significantly refreshed with new structure according to sources familiar with the matter. They won’t receive new engines or the fly-by-wire flight control systems found on other Advanced Eagles. They will not see any range capability increase and they won’t have the nearly 30,000 pound weapons payload capability of the EX or other Advanced Eagles.