Even Though It's Old, This One of the Deadliest US Fighter Jets Ever in The World

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Even Though It's Old, This One of the Deadliest US Fighter Jets Ever in The World

This one of the deadliest u.s fighter jets ever might be old but it can still kill. For nearly three decades the F-15 eagle fighter was considered the undisputed king of the skies. Until the debut of its replacement the F-22 raptor, the F-15 was the u.s air force's front-line air superiority fighter. Even today a modernized eagle is still considered a formidable opponent and manufacturer boeing has proposed updated versions that could keep the airframe flying for the better part of a century.

 large powerful american fighters designed to tackle both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions were performing poorly against their smaller, less powerful but more maneuverable north vietnamese counterparts. contemporary fighters such as the f4 phantom had been designed under the assumption that the air-to-air missile had rendered dogfights obsolete and with them the need for superiority maneuverability in a gun for air combat.

The us air force decided it needed a dedicated air superiority fighter, one that combined two powerful engines a powerful radar, a large number of missiles and a gun. Above all it had to be maneuverable enough to win a dogfight. The F-15 was a formidable aircraft early versions were powered by two pratt and whitney F-100 PW-100 afterburning turbofan engines producing 14,500 pounds of static thrust, 23,500 with afterburners.

This gave the aircraft a thrust to weight ratio of greater than one making it so powerful that it was the first fighter to exceed the speed of sound in vertical flight. The F-15 had so much thrust it could climb to 65,000 feet in just 122 seconds. In horizontal flight the F-15 could reach speeds of mach 2.5 and cruise at speeds of mach 0.9. The eagles and APG-63 nose mounted radar was the most advanced of its day, a solid state radar with look down, shoot down capability in a range of up to 200 miles.

 this allowed the f-15 to pick out low-flying enemies on radar against the clutter generated by the ground. the eagle was originally armed with four radar-guided aim seven sparrow missiles for long-range engagements and four aim nine sidewinder infrared guided missiles for short range engagements. in the air war over vietnam usaff 4c phantoms lacking a dedicated gun missed several opportunities to down enemy aircraft. this was remedied in the f-15 by equipping the plane with an internal m-61 vulcan 20 millimeter gatling gun.

The F-15 was also designed with long range in mind. Carrying three six hundred pound fuel tanks the F-15 had a range of three thousand miles making it possible to fly from the continental united states to europe without stopping or mid-air refueling. The first F-15 prototypes flew in 1972 and serial production began in 1973. The plane rapidly began to populate both the u.s air force and friendly air forces including Israel, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

The USAF bought its last F-15 in 2001 but foreign sales have kept boeing's production line humming since. The company has twice in recent years tried to again attract the interest of the air force, first with the semi stealthy silent eagle in 2010. In 2016 boeing again introduced a new F-15, eagle 2040C. Eagle 2040C is designed to carry up to 16 aim 120 dd rom radar guided missiles more than four times the original number.

The talon hate data link would allow the upgraded design to network with the F-22 raptor. One concept of operation would have the stealthy but relatively short on firepower, F-22 flying among enemy aircraft, passing on targeting information to eagle 2040 c acting as a flying missile battery. In a world still dominated by fourth generation fighters the F-15 is an aging but still formidable fighter.

The lack of sufficient numbers of F-22 raptors to replace the eagle has delayed the fighter's retirement and it now trains to complement the F-22 on the battlefield. The lack of a current viable replacement means it will be at least until the early 2030s before the remaining C and E models are retired. The F-15 airframe in all its flavors will almost certainly spend an impressive half century in active service, a first for a front-line u.s air force fighter.


 
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