July 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the F-15 Hawk Heavy Fighter's first flight, taking off from Edwards Air Force Base in California as the first fourth-generation fighter deployed by Western Air Forces. The fighter was developed as a successor to the Vietnam War-era F-4D/E Mirage, and its specifications changed significantly during development, in part due to the new threat posed by the Soviet MiG-25 Foxbat heavy interceptor, which flew eight years earlier in 1964. The Foxbat was significantly larger, longer-ranged than previous aircraft designed for air-to-air combat, and proved almost impeccable to F-4 attacks.
The F-15 entered service just three years after its first flight in 1975 and was one of four U.S. fourth-generation fighters developed during the Cold War. Although much more capable than the light F-16 and F-18 that followed, the Eagle was much smaller than the F-14 developed for the U.S. Navy, and its overall capabilities were not as small as the F-14 F-15, which did not receive range and use of air-to-air missiles with active radar guidance until the 1990s. The F-15's procurement and operating costs, while unprecedented for Air Force fighter jets, are still well below the F-14, allowing it to be deployed in large numbers and exported to Japan, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.
The F-15 is the oldest fighter still in production in the world today, followed by the F-16, which is larger, lighter and cheaper. Although the F-15 program met its ambitious performance requirements and operating costs were still well below the F-14, they were still too high to make the fighter a mainstay of the U.S. Air Force like the F-4. This led to demand for the F-16, which joined the fleet three years later from 1978.
The F-15's only heavyweight fighter involved was the MiG-25 it was designed to defeat, although the F-15 managed to defeat it in the last air battle piloted by Iraqi pilots in 1991. However, with the exception of the MiG-25 and F-14, the F-15 provided a comfortable advantage over a variety of threats during its first five years in service and until the early 1980s, when the Soviet Union began to introduce its own fourth-generation fighter jets.
These include the MiG-25's more formidable successor, the MiG-31, which was the first in the world to be equipped with a phased array radar and boasted the ability to engage at ranges well above the Armostrant limit and even shoot down cruise missiles in flight, and the Su-27 Flanker F-15, designed specifically for this situation. The Su-27 is widely regarded as the most capable fighter of any air force deployed during the Cold War, and in U.S. testing of the F-15 after the end of the conflict, it proved to easily surpass the American Hawk.
Despite significant progress in foreign fighter programs and investments in the development of a successor to the Eagle that could better cope with the Su-27 from the late 1970s, the F-15 remained central to the U.S. Air Force, restoring its 2018 rank. Despite its age, the aircraft will prioritize receiving the latest post-Cold War technology — the first aircraft to integrate phased array radar and active radar-guided missiles in the Air Force in 2000 and 1991, respectively.
Since the 1970s, these fighters have been significantly enhanced, with new variants being easier to maintain, gaining super-cruise capabilities, and boasting entirely new sensors and avionics. The F-15 is today considered the most capable air superiority fighter in the Western world — a title it never held during the Cold War — not only because of its modernization, but also because of the F-14's retirement and the F-22 program,000 designed to provide a fifth-generation alternative.
The F-22 project never surpassed the basic F-22A fuselage, reduced production by 75 percent, and received orders to terminate manufacturing less than four years after service. Its huge operating costs and extensive performance issues impose further limits and ensure that the F-15 it intends to replace will continue to be in production for decades. The F-22 project never surpassed the basic F-22A fuselage, reduced production by 75 percent, and received orders to terminate manufacturing less than four years after service.
Its huge operating costs and extensive performance issues impose further limits and ensure that the F-15 it intends to replace will continue to be in production for decades. The F-22 project never surpassed the basic F-22A fuselage, reduced production by 75 percent, and received orders to terminate manufacturing less than four years after service. Its huge operating costs and extensive performance issues impose further limits and ensure that the F-15 it intends to replace will continue to be in production for decades.
The clearest sign of the F-22 program's failure is that, despite the fact that only a fraction of the originally planned fuselage was produced, the Air Force announced in May 2021 that it planned to retire relatively new aircraft while continuing to buy new F-15s, and even some Cold War-era F-15Cs still in service. The F-22's failure eventually made the F-15 the only Western heavyweight fighter in production, and the lack of upgrades to the F-22 fleet ensured that the newer F-15 enjoyed considerable performance advantages, particularly in avionics, sensors, and network-centric warfare capabilities.
The F-15 is expected to be in service in the U.S. Air Force for much longer than any other Cold War-era fighter or F-22. While its ability to confront enemy fifth-generation fighters such as the Chinese J-20 remains questionable, the constant upgrades to the design ensure that the Eagle will be able to compete with rival fourth-generation fighters such as the J-16 or russian Su-30.
As the air force's only fighter jet ordered for years, in addition to the F-35A, the sharp cut in F-35 orders in 2022 and the increase in F-15 orders are apparently through the redistribution of funds for the stealth fighter program, which is already in service, which is just the latest sign of the Pentagon's favorable view of the Eagles — and the very troublesome state of the F-35 program.