In the age of stealth aircraft, the F-15 continues to prove its worth. It was the F-15QA.
Introduce
In the United States, full-scale tests of the promising F-15QA fighter, intended for the Qatar Air Force, continue.
In April 2020, Boeing announced that the F-15QA, the most advanced version of the F-15 Eagle, successfully performed its first flight from the company’s plant at Lambert International Airport in St. Louis.
The flight, which lasted 90 minutes, was conducted by the Chief Test Pilot Matt Giese and implemented a precise mission checklist to test the multirole aircraft’s capabilities and to check radar and avionics. According to the company the aircraft performed as planned.
Design
During the upgrade, Boeing completely redesigned the F-15, in other words created a new fighter platform.
The fuselage of its predecessor has been redesigned, applying the latest technologies to help overcome the problems of chassis cracking and extend service life.
The F-15QAs also feature a new structural design for the wing, a major improvement that makes it stronger without compromising its aerodynamics. The entire design process of the F-15QA applies Boeing’s Full-size Determinate Assembly (FSDA) process. This new process reduces assembly time, as well as simplifies maintenance in the future.
Armament
Due to the preservation of the main components of the airframe and the power plant, the performance characteristics of the new F-15QA remain at the level of the basic F-15E / SA fighter. The complex of weapons remains the same. Qatar Air Force fighters will be able to use all missiles and bombs compatible with the F-15E, as well as new weapons being developed in the near future.
Basically, the F-15QA has transformed from its predecessor. In terms of many features, except for stealth it is a new line of fighters, approaching 5th generation.
F-15X
The recent appearance of the F-15X with many striking similarities with the F-15QA, has created skepticism among many military experts that the United States used the platform of the Qatar fighter to create a new version of the F-15 fighter jet.
Usually, it takes years to develop upgraded versions of fighters, but the arrival of the F-15X was very short, as well as very close to the time the F-15QA was introduced. It raises the question of whether both aircraft are using a common platform. In other words, Qatar spent money helping the United States create an entirely new F-15 platform.
Specifications
(Source: Wikipedia)
General characteristics
- Crew: 2 (pilot and weapon systems officer)
- Length: 63 ft 9.6 in (19.446 m)
- Wingspan: 42 ft 9.6 in (13.045 m)
- Height: 18 ft 6 in (5.64 m)
- Wing area: 608 sq ft (56.5 m2)
- Airfoil: root: NACA 64A006.6; tip: NACA 64A203[185]
- Empty weight: 31,700 lb (14,379 kg)
- Max takeoff weight: 81,000 lb (36,741 kg)
- Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 (or −229) afterburning turbofan, 14,590 lbf (64.9 kN) thrust each dry, 23,770 lbf (105.7 kN) with afterburner
Performance
- Maximum speed: 1,434 kn (1,650 mph, 2,656 km/h) / M2.5+ at high altitude
782 kn (900 mph; 1,448 km/h) / M1.2 at low altitude
- Combat range: 687 nmi (791 mi, 1,272 km)
- Ferry range: 2,100 nmi (2,400 mi, 3,900 km) with conformal fuel tanks and three external fuel tanks
- Service ceiling: 60,000 ft (18,000 m)
- g limits: +9
- Rate of climb: 50,000 ft/min (250 m/s) +
- Thrust/weight: 0.93
Armament
- Guns: 1× 20 mm (0.787 in) M61A1 Vulcan 6-barreled Gatling cannon, 500 rounds of either M-56 or PGU-28 ammunition
- Hardpoints: 2 wing pylons, fuselage pylons, bomb racks on CFTs with a capacity of 23,000 lb (10,400 kg) of external fuel and ordnance,
- Missiles:
- Bombs:
- Mark 82 bomb
- Mark 84 bomb
- GBU-15
- GBU-10 Paveway II
- GBU-12 Paveway II
- GBU-24 Paveway III
- GBU-27 Paveway III
- GBU-28 (Bunker buster)
- GBU-31 or GBU-38 {8 GBU-31s or 16 GBU-38s} (JDAM)
- GBU-54 Laser JDAM (LJDAM)
- GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB)
- B61 or B83 nuclear bomb
- CBU-87 or CBU-103 (CEM)
- CBU-89 or CBU-104 (GATOR)
- CBU-97 or CBU-105 (SFW)
- CBU-107 Passive Attack Weapon
- BLU-107 Durandal
- Others:
- up to 3× 600 US gallons (2,300 L) external drop tanks for ferry flight or extended range/loitering time
- 1x 1,800 litres (480 US gal) Super cruise drop tank.
Avionics
- Radar:
- Raytheon AN/APG-70 or AN/APG-82
- AN/ASQ-236 Radar Pod
- Targeting pods:
- Countermeasures:
- Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems AN/ALQ-131 electronic countermeasures pod
- Hazeltine AN/APX-76 or Raytheon AN/APX-119 Identify Friend/Foe (IFF) interrogator
- Magnavox AN/ALQ-128 Electronic Warfare Warning Set (EWWS) – part of Tactical Electronic Warfare Systems (TEWS)
- Loral AN/ALR-56 Radar warning receivers (RWR) – part of TEWS
- Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems ALQ-135 Internal Countermeasures System (ICS) – part of TEWS
- Marconi AN/ALE-45 Chaff/Flares dispenser system – part of TEWS
