The U.S. Air Force on Tuesday unveiled a nearly $166 billion budget request for fiscal 2020 includes plans to buy eight new F-15EX fighter aircraft to replace ageing F-15C/D fleet.
According to the budget request, it will cost $80 million per airframe, but that cost will rise to ~$125 million for each of the eight jets “to set up the line” and account for non-recurring engineering costs in the first year of procurement.
Total deal will be worth more than $1.1 billion and covers production of eight brand-new F-15EX fourth-plus generation fighters.
The F-15EX, commonly known as Strike Eagle on Steroids, is the latest version of the world famous F-15 Eagle fighter jet. The new fighter would be equipped with better avionics and radars and would carry more than two dozen air-to-air missiles.
Is expected that the F-15EX flight hour is also set to be affordable, coming in at “well below” the F-35A. The newest Eagle would cost about $27,000 per hour to fly—again, well below the $45,000 an hour to fly the F-35A. Finally, According to the current information, the F-15EX will have a whopping 20,000-hour service life, enabling it to serve for decades. By comparison, the original F-15 was built to serve only 5,000 hours.