TWZ’s Jamie Hunter recently caught up with Robert Novotny, Boeing’s executive director for F-15EX business development, who provided the latest on the U.S. Air Force’s newest fighter, the Eagle II, which was recently the subject of high praise in the latest annual report from the Office of the Director, Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E).
Right now, Boeing is preparing to start to deliver Lot 2 of the Air Force’s F-15EX order, and the first aircraft in this batch — tail number 9 — flew earlier this month. Meanwhile, delivery of the eight Lot 1A and 1B jets was completed in June 2024, with six of those aircraft going to developmental testing at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, and two for the type’s first operational unit, the 142nd Wing of the Oregon Air National Guard in Portland, Oregon.
As Novotny discusses in the video, some of those Eglin F-15EXs recently took part in the latest edition of the Bamboo Eagle exercise off the California coast, which you can read about here. The large-force exercise series has quickly become one of the most important for the U.S. military, as well as key allies, and has a clear eye on preparing for a future coalition fight in the Pacific with China — a potential conflict in which the F-15EX would very likely play an important role.
Novotny also alludes to teaming with unmanned aircraft and the F-15EX’s ability to carry outsized weapons, which is something else that TWZ has looked at in detail in the past, as well as its current installation of the Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System, or EPAWSS, which you can read more about here.
Finally, there are some very interesting items on Novotny’s ‘wish list’ for future F-15EX capabilities, namely smart expendables, a towed decoy, and enhancements to the infrared search and track sensor available to it.
The video below, shot at the Air Force Association’s 2025 Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colorado, last week, gives us the full view on where the F-15EX program is at right now.
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com