Skip navigation Create 9+ Avatar image F-15N | the forgotten 'Sea Eagle' Australian Military Aviation History Australian Military Aviation History 188K subscribers Join Subscribe 3K Share Ask 98,075 views Aug 26, 2026 ✪ Members first on August 25, 2026 Made possible by our members—this is what keeps the channel independent and ongoing ✔ Merch & Members ► https://peacemaker.net.au What if the F-15 Eagle had gone to sea? In the early 1970s, McDonnell Douglas proposed a carrier-based version of the F-15 for the US Navy. Known as the F-15N, it promised extraordinary speed, a lighter airframe, and more advanced avionics. But adapting the Eagle for carrier operations meant solving one major problem: how to give it the fleet-defence capability of the F-14 Tomcat. This is the story of the F-15N: the carrier modifications it would have required, the efforts to integrate the AIM-54 Phoenix missile, and the remarkable F-15N-PHX concept, which could have carried up to six Phoenix missiles. So why did the Navy ultimately walk away from an aircraft that looked so promising on paper? CONTENT 00:00 Intro 01:23 Background 06:47 Development 07:49 Advantages 19:20 Additions to the 15N 11:20 Upgrades 14:50 Conclusion
