Hattie Hearn, Curator, American Air Museum: “In 1977 the F-15 behind me arrived at Bitburg Air Force Base in Germany to act as NATO’s first line of defence against Soviet aggression. The Soviets' development of the MiG-25 Foxbat in the late 1960s ignited a fear in the West. While this new aircraft’s actual performance was untested, the Foxbat was perceived to be a significant threat to American air superiority. It was partly in response to this that the US began development of the F-15 Eagle – a fighter jet that has dominated the skies ever since.
Today, almost half a century later, the US Air Force is still flying F-15 Eagles in Europe. Despite the arrival of much more technologically advanced fighters, the F-15 continues to prove its value as an air-to-air dogfighter. So much so that an upgraded model – the F-15EX Eagle II – is due to begin deploying in the next few months, potentially extending the lifespan of the F-15 until the 2050s, 90 years after the first F-15 took to the skies. Despite operating in every major conflict of the last forty years and scoring more than 100 kills, an F-15 has never been downed by enemy action. So, what makes the F-15 Eagle so formidable? And are we justified in suggesting that the F-15 is the greatest fighter jet of all time?
To find the answers to these questions we have to go back to the mid-1960s and the skies over North Vietnam. It is here that the US Air Force came face to face with the limitations of its primary air superiority fighter, the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom. Tasked with escorting American strike aircraft to their targets, the burly F-4 Phantoms – like the one behind me – were paying a heavy price for their lack of manoeuvrability compared to the lightweight MiGs sent up to intercept them. By the end of the conflict, 382 F-4 Phantoms had been lost, many of them in air-to-air combat.
While the Phantom excelled in the role of long-range multi-purpose fighter-bomber, it was clear that the United States Air Force was severely lacking a fighter jet that could hold its own in a close-range dogfight. In 1965 the US launched the top-secret Project FX to set the parameters for a new fighter. By 1968, the competition had been launched to design a 30,000 pound all-weather aircraft that could escape radar and visual detection, while also carrying a fearsome armament of missiles, guns and rockets and the latest in radar technology. Its main purpose would be maintenance of air superiority.
The winning aircraft was designed by none other than McDonnell Douglas, the same company that had created the F-4 Phantom. Designed to excel in air-to-air combat, the F-15 was engineered for speed, manoeuvrability, and versatility. The airframe’s low weight-to-wing area ratio and shoulder-mounted wings allowed it to make sharp turns without losing speed. Meanwhile, its twin-engines provided unmatched thrust. In fact, the combined thrust of its engines could exceed the aircraft’s weight and drag, allowing it to accelerate vertically.
The F-15A had an impressive climb rate of 50,000 feet per minute and speeds exceeding Mach 2.5. The single canopy provided a 360-degree view out of the co*ckpit, allowing the pilot to more easily identify threats. Packed inside this innovative airframe were advanced avionics and radar systems. For weaponry, McDonnell opted for the tried and tested General Electric M61 20mm rotary cannon and the AIM-9L Sidewinder missile.
On the 16 June 1972, the first F-15A rolled out of the McDonnell Douglas production plant in St. Louis, taking its maiden flight the following month. A year later a two-seat version, the F-15B, took to the skies for the first time. The F-15 entered service in January 1976.
The F-15 behind me was one of those early Eagles to join US squadrons overseas. Veteran British test pilot Paul Millett recalls taking an F-15 on a test flight soon after it entered service.”
Paul Millet, Chief test pilot, British Aircraft Corporation: “I managed to get a flight at Bitburg with the United States Air Force and that, that's probably the highest performance aeroplane by a long way that I've ever flown. That compared with aircraft like the F-104 is a wonderful handling machine, and at slow speed you can do anything with it as well. It probably has got a few vices but in one flight, I didn't find any vices, I thought, it was a real pilot's aeroplane.”
Hattie Hearn: “The F-15's first kill came in 1979. While patrolling the northern border of Israel, Israeli Defence Force pilot Marom-Melnik shot down a Soviet-made MiG-21B. This was followed by further action throughout the Arab-Israeli conflict. Once the adversary of the F-4 Phantom in Vietnam, Soviet-made MiGs proved no match for the new F-15. By this time, the second generation of F-15s were in operation. The F-15C and two-seater D variant benefitted from several improvements, including 2,000 lbs of additional internal fuel.
The F-15 even demonstrated its ability to maintain controlled flight with just one wing following a mid-air collision in 1983. Shortly after the impact, the Israeli pilot was able to bring the crippled F-15 out of a nosedive using the aircraft’s powerful afterburners. Due to the fuel vapour that poured from the wing area, the pilot didn’t realise that his entire starboard wing had been shorn off. It wasn’t until the F-15 landed at a nearby airstrip that the extent of the damage became apparent. McDonnell Douglas even sent out representatives to the aircraft to verify the account. The conclusion was that if the F-15 flew fast enough it could remain stable, even without wings. In other words, it could become a rocket.
The F-15’s comparison with a rocket took on a new meaning in 1985. While Israeli pilots were putting F-15s through their paces in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the United States Air Force was diverting some of its F-15s to a very different mission. The anti-satellite, or ASAT, arms race began as soon as Sputnik entered orbit in 1957. Fuelled by fears of nuclear-armed satellites, the US military launched a program to design a weapons system that could shoot down military satellites. Over the years, the B-47 Stratojet, B-58 Hustler, and F-4 Phantom had all been considered as a suitable weapons platform, but none had succeeded in shooting down a satellite. Now it was the turn of the F-15. On 13th September 1985, Major Wilbert Pearson took his F-15 into a steep vertical climb to 36,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean. At 12:42pm, Pearson launched a 3,000-pound missile at a Solwind P78-1 satellite moving at 17,500 miles per hour. Located 300 miles above him, Pearson scored a direct hit, and in doing so, became the first space ace. This successful test demonstrated the potential of using modified fighter aircraft to intercept and destroy satellites in orbit.
The F-15 Eagle eventually saw combat with the US Air Force in 1990, when it faced the aircraft it had been designed to destroy, the Mig-25 Foxbat. Feared by the US for its speed, manoeuvrability and impressive armament, the Soviet-made Foxbat had forced the US to improve the specifications for the F-15 when it first debuted in the 1960s. Designed to intercept hypersonic bombers, the MiG-25 still holds the record for the fastest fighter jet of all time. And yet, in every other metric, the F-15 surpasses the once-feared Foxbat. This advantage would come to bear in 1990.
Following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990, F-15s provided the defensive umbrella for the mass build-up of combat power to the region. During Desert Storm, 120 F-15 C and D models flew over 5,900 sorties, claiming an impressive 36 of the 39 air-to-air victories by the U.S. Air Force against Iraqi forces. Within the first ten days of the war, complete air superiority had been achieved.
The First Gulf War also provided the testing ground for the newest model of F-15 – the Strike Eagle. The F-15E Strike Eagle was designed as a multi-purpose fighter, equipped to locate and destroy ground targets, as well as air-to-air opposition. To achieve this, the new aircraft had an additional crew member. Behind the pilot sat a weapons system officer, who operated the cutting-edge Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infra-Red for Night system, known as LANTRIN, to locate targets. In the Gulf, F-15Es were employed with an 11-ton payload and a Bunker Buster - a guided bomb developed to destroy strengthened underground bunkers.
This new weapons system required F-15 crews to undertake additional training. Military aircraft simulators, like this one, are used to train aircrew in target-finding and weapons delivery without the dangers of real combat flight. This F-15 Weapon System Trainer was used by the 48th Fighter Wing based at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Although the trainer was static, different scenarios were programmed into it by operators sitting in a separate unit.
By the end of the First Gulf War, the F-15E had proven its versatility as an air-to-ground fighter. Using their innovative LANTRIN targeting system, F-15s became adept at destroying Iraqi SCUD missiles at night. As a result of allied precision attacks, the number of enemy missiles launched dropped from an average of five per day in the first ten days of the war to one per day for the last thirty-three days.
The F-15 has been deployed to every major conflict that the US has been involved in since the Gulf War. F-15s served in Bosnia in 1994 and Kosovo in 1999, where they downed three Serbian MiG-29 fighters. In 2001 F-15s served in Afghanistan and were deployed on operations over Iraq from 2003. Aircrews of the 48th Fighter Wing, based at Lakenheath, were deployed in these operations. RAF Lakenheath is the largest U.S. Air Force base in the UK and the only USAFE fighter wing in Europe operating F-15s.
Outside of the US, the F-15 serves as the backbone of several air forces, including the air defence forces of Qatar, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia. The largest customer of the F-15 outside of the United States is Japan, who operate the F-15J, a special variant produced under license by Mitsubishi.
The Israeli Air Force has operated F-15s since 1977. It can lay claim to 61 of the F-15’s 102 air-to-air kills. In April 2024, U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles were involved in shooting down more than 70 Iranian drones fired at Israel. The potential sale of its latest generation of F-15 – the EX Strike Eagle II – to Israel has generated headlines as the debate rages over the moral implications of Israel’s aerial strategy.
The US is busy filling its own ranks with this new jet, which offers numerous improvements on the F-15E. The newer engines can produce a whopping 29,000 pounds of thrust apiece, 5,000 tonnes more than the F-15E’s engines.
The F-15 can fly further than other American fighter types and can carry a wider array of munitions. Its air-to-air combat credentials have ensured that the US has maintained air superiority in every conflict zone it has been deployed to. While the introduction of the multi-purpose Strike Eagle has expanded the F-15’s repertoire. Sure, it might not be as advanced as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, as cost effective as the F-16 Fight Falcon, or as stealthy as the F-22 Raptor, but the fact that the F-15 is still a vital part of the United States’ armament is itself testament to the aircraft’s design.”
