The F-15 Silent Eagle

[OVERLORD_CHRIS]

 ST. LOUIS, March 17, 2009 -- The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today in St. Louis unveiled the F-15 Silent Eagle (F-15SE), a new F-15 configuration designed to meet the future needs of international customers.

"The F-15 Silent Eagle is designed to meet our international customers' anticipated need for cost-effective stealth technologies, as well as for large and diverse weapons payloads," said Mark Bass, F-15 Program vice president for Boeing. "The innovative Silent Eagle is a balanced, affordable approach designed to meet future survivability needs."

Improvements in stealth include coatings and treatments on the aircraft. With the added advantage of redesigned conformal fuel tanks (CFTs) that allow for internal weapons carriage, the Silent Eagle becomes a very attractive fighter for Boeing's international customers.

Depending on the specific mission, the customer can use the CFTs that are designed for internal carriage or change back to the traditional CFTs for optimum fuel capacity and external weapons carriage. The Silent Eagle will be able to internally carry air-to-air missiles such as the AIM-9 and AIM-120 and air-to-ground weapons such as the Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and Small Diameter Bomb (SDB). The standard weapons load used on current versions of the F-15 is available with the traditional CFTs installed.

The aircraft's canted vertical tails improve aerodynamic efficiency, provide lift, and reduce airframe weight. Another aerodynamic improvement is the Digital Flight Control System, which improves the aircraft's reliability and reduces airframe weight.

Survivability improvements include a BAES Digital Electronic Warfare System (DEWS) working in concert with the Raytheon Advanced Electronic Scanning Array (AESA) radar.

Boeing has completed a conceptual prototype of the CFT internal-carriage concept, and plans to flight-test a prototype by the first quarter of 2010, including a live missile launch.

The design, development, and test of this internal carriage system are available as a collaborative project with an international aerospace partner.

2 Photos here.
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/200 ... 7a_nr.html

Neat Idea, looks like it only holds 4 missiles internally though.  

[Mictheslik]

It's a bit of a gimmick really......the F15 will never be stealthy.....it has ridiculously large wings that will always show up. These modifications are attempts to get foreign nations to waste some of their budget on more F15s, the purpose of which they don't need.....

oh well....

.mic

[specter177]

But it can be stealthier. Like a Eurofighter or Rafael.

[machineman9]

But it can be stealthier. Like a Eurofighter or Rafael.

I'm guessing you meant Rafale...

Rafael came up with bad google pictures... Bad ones indeed.


Isn't the F15 coming out of service? So is this, as Mic put it, just for other countries to buy as it is still a pretty great aircraft, but now with one more reason to get it.

[OVERLORD_CHRIS]

No just the USAF tried to retire all there F-15C's for F-22's, but when the budget got cut they wanted to get rid of the oldest F-15's but now that is no the case. But the F-15 line is still going strong based off the stronger F-15E frame.

The F-15K has the same derived motors as the F-22, and most of the avionics also.

[specter177]

But it can be stealthier. Like a Eurofighter or Rafael.

I'm guessing you meant Rafale...

Rafael came up with bad google pictures... Bad ones indeed.


Isn't the F15 coming out of service? So is this, as Mic put it, just for other countries to buy as it is still a pretty great aircraft, but now with one more reason to get it.

Yea, sorry, that's what I meant.

[Anxyous]

Cool, but nothing like an F-15C... though the F-22A is my alltime favourite plane