Israel’s New F-15 Fighters Could Be Flying Into the Next Century: 20,000 Hour Service Lives Let Them Long Outlast F-35s

The approval of the sale of up to 50 new F-15IA Eagle fighter aircraft to Israel, which was announced by the U.S. State Department on August 14, is expected to pave the way to large scale orders for the new aircraft at a value of up to $18.8 billion. The acquisition of new F-15s has been in discussion in Israel for well over a decade, with the urgency of such purchases compared to that of acquiring F-35A fifth generation fighters which have competed with the older F-15s for funding. Although the Israeli Defence Ministry prioritised the placing of orders for 75 F-35As, the last 25 of which were ordered on June 4 under a $3 billion contract, F-15 acquisitions were long expected to follow. In contrast to the F-35, which is by far the newest and most modern class of fighter in the Western world, the F-15 is the oldest fighter class still in production anywhere in the world today. Nevertheless, the fighter remains by far the longest ranged fielded by any Western country, and boasts a much larger radar and weapons carrying capacity than the F-35, with the F-15IA variant integrating similarly advanced avionics and making high use of composite materials.

The F-15IA is a close derivative of the F-15EX currently on order for the U.S. Air Force, which was in turn closely based on the F-15QA that had its development financed by a $12 billion Qatari order placed in 2017. One of the most outstanding features of these aircraft is that the airframes were designed to be extremely durable with unprecedented longevity, allowing them to operate for 20,000 hours before requiring life extension or retirement. To place this in perspective, both the F-35A and the older Cold War era F-15A/B and F-15C/D models that Israel operations have service lives 60 percent shorter at just 8000 hours. Despite Israel’s older F-15s having flown long past their intended service lives, with the country being the sole remaining operator of the F-15A/B early production models that were retired decades ago elsewhere in the world, the country has continued to operate the aircraft through extensive life extension efforts. This has been done at a considerable cost, as airframes become much more costly and maintenance intensive to fly as they age. 

Israel first began operating the F-15A/B variant in 1977, which makes it the oldest foreign operator of the Eagle anywhere in the world. With these aircraft still in service today, albeit using obsolete Cold War era radars and missiles, the fact that their lives have been extended to serve for close to half a century has significant implications for projections of the longevity of the F-15IA fleet. With the F-15IA able to fly for 250 percent as long, there remains a very significant possibility that the fleet will serve for over 70 years and into the next century. The fact that F-15IA deliveries are not expected to begin until near the end of the decade, and are only expected to be completed in the 2030s, only further increases this possibility. The tremendous service life of new F-15s was notably considered a leading factor that led the U.S. Air Force to place orders for the aircraft, despite their acquisition costs being higher than new F-35s, and in spite of a prior plan to cease all acquisitions of pre-fifth generation fighters, with the ability to fly for 20,000 hours rather than just 8,000 making the aircraft highly cost effective. Much like in the U.S. Air Force, the much lower operational costs of new F-15s compared to Cold War era models means that replacing older F-15s with newer ones can also effectively pay for itself over the service life of the aircraft.