On Monday, April 1st, the American magazine Politico reported, citing sources in Congress, that the administration of President Joe Biden is considering selling up to 50 Boeing F-15EX Eagle II multirole aircraft to Israel, along with precision guided air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles.
F-15EX Eagle II / Photo: USAF
The Biden administration is considering selling up to 50 new F-15 fighter jets to Israel, along with 30 advanced medium-range air-to-air AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles and a number of JDAM guidance kits, which convert “dumb” bombs into precision-guided munitions – reported a congressional advisor and individuals familiar with the discussions, who wished to remain anonymous.
The decision is still awaiting approval from the Department of State, which, through the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), will publish detailed information about the proposed package requested by Israel and its estimated maximum value. Nonetheless, according to anonymous officials, it is expected to amount to up to $18 billion. The proposal was supposed to be submitted to the relevant committees of Congress earlier this February.
Earlier, on March 29th of this year, The Washington Post reported that the Biden administration has already approved a package consisting of 25 F-35I Adir multirole aircraft, 1800 general-purpose Mark 84 bombs weighing 909 kg (2000 pounds), and 500 general-purpose Mark 82 bombs weighing 227 kg (500 pounds). However, there is currently no official notification from the Department of State.
Washington provides $3.8 billion annually in military aid to Israel from the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program funds. The fund serves as a tool for implementing the U.S. defense policy of QME (Qualitative Military Edge) since 2008, ensuring support for the Jewish state in maintaining technological superiority in the Middle East region.
In recent months, the United States has been supplying Israel with ammunition to replenish stocks depleted during clashes with Hamas in Gaza, but some Democrats and Arab-American groups have criticized the Biden administration’s support for Israel and called for a halt to military aid.
Recently, Congress approved packages for Israel containing 155mm high-explosive artillery rounds M107 and M795, 120mm tank ammunition M830A1 HEAT-MP-T, as well as multi-purpose armored vehicles JLTV (Joint Light Tactical Vehicle) (for the latter, delivery has been confirmed to have commenced). These are largely funded by the USA.
New F-15s for Israel
As reported by the defense industry portal Breaking Defense on January 19, 2023, and subsequently by The Jerusalem Post on January 21, 2023, the Israeli government was said to have applied for the opportunity to purchase 25 F-15EX Eagle II aircraft, which would be designated as F-15IA (Israel Advanced) with the possibility of increasing the order to 50 (they also applied for the modernization of 25 F-15I Ra’am). Israel’s interest in the latest variant of the F-15 dates back to November 2018.
The F-15EX Eagle II has a payload capacity of 13,381 kg (carrying up to 12 missiles of various-classes), being powered by two General Electric F110-GE-129 turbofan engines (previously, American F-15s were powered by Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 engines), and the cockpit houses the Advanced Display Core Processor II (ADCPII) mission computer, which has been tested since 2016. The computer is capable of performing 87 billion operations per second. The aircraft is also equipped with a new digital electronic warfare system called EPAWSS (Eagle Passive/Active Warning and Survivability System).
So far, the only user of the F-15EX Eagle II is the United States Air Force (USAF), with 6 out of 12 aircraft of the test batch already built. In the current fiscal year, 18 aircraft will be ordered (instead of the originally planned 24), reducing the previous plans from 104 to 98 units (initially, up to 144 aircraft were planned to be acquired).
The first export user will be Indonesia, which on August 21, 2023, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the purchase of 24 units. it will be designated as F-15IDN in the Indonesian Air Force (Tentara Nasional Indonesia-Angkatan Udara, TNI-AU).
During last year’s MSPO 2023 in Kielce, a representative of Boeing informed the MILMAG Magazine Editorial Team about an offer involving the F-15EX Eagle II aircraft submitted to Poland.