The American F-15 EX is a new super interceptor fighter jet that is designed to patrol some of the world’s most disputed air space in the south China Sea and Eastern Europe. In fact NATO scrambled jets 570 times more than once per day in 2022 to respond to Russian aircraft. And Japan is forced to scramble F-15’s every time China violates their airspace. The number of Chinese airspace incursions has jumped up from 96 in 2010 to 675 in 2019. But critics have been quick to point out the F-15 is ancient. It was originally manufactured in 1976 and is headed into retirement. Many are questioning the logic of investing millions of dollars into upgrading the F-15 into the EX. Because it seems like a step backwards in this modern fancy era of stealth technology. But the truth is it’s not that simple. The new F-15 will have some weapons and flight capabilities that modern stealth aircraft lack. Fire an aim 9 sidewider at the like button and lets get started. Written by: Chris Cappy & Justin TaylorEdited by: Michael MichaelidesIn producing the F-15EX we admittedly took the long scenic route. So the way it happened was during the early 2000s the F22 was supposed to replace the aging F15 but it’s program’s budget was slashed by 75%. This led to only 195 aircraft purchased which is a third of what the US air force originally wanted. In 2009 The F-22 production lines were completely shut down and are impossible to restart. This forced the air force to keep the old F15 past its expiration date in order to maintain a fleet size large enough to respond to air space violations in Europe and the pacific at the same time.So in order to solve for the lack of F-22s the United States Air Force decided to order 104 of the new upgraded F-15EX multirole fighter, marking the first order of F-15s in over 20 years. Earlier this year, the United States Air Force announced that after two years of extensive testing and study, their latest upgrades to the F-15 platform dubbed the EX had actually ‘smashed a new record’ in terms of capabilities and expectations. What this means is that it is able to perform as both a fighter and bomber except at a much lower cost than the F35. Now according to Boeing the new plans will extend the service life of the aircraft well into the 2030s, which would make it the longest serving fighter aircraft in American history. Unsurprisingly like all decisions involving the military industrial complex it was met with a bunch of support and criticism from political leaders and internet forums trolls. But To be fair you can understand where they are coming from. The sticker price on a new F-15EX will run you about $80 million, while the most recent batches of F-35As cost only slightly less at $78 million, leading many to rightfully question why the government has decided to spend more money on an old aircraft originally built in 1976 with zero stealth capabilities. I think a lot of it comes down to its interceptor and escort abilities.