Boeing Positions F-15EX For ABMS, Digital Century Series

WASHINGTON: Boeing is in discussions with the Air Force about how the F-15EX might serve as a test bed  for the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS), the service’s key contribution to underpin all-domain operations. The company also believes the new F-15 may become a future node in the system. On top of that, Boeing thinks it could serve as an “enabler” for the emerging Digital Century Series.

Boeing was awarded a 10-year indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (ID/IQ) contract Monday for the F-15EX with a ceiling of almost $22.9 billion. It also include 15 years of performance support.

While the Air Force has yet to determine the ultimate size of the buy, the minimum number of aircraft under the contract is 144 and the maximum is 200 — with a flyaway unit cost estimate of $87.7 million, an Air Force spokesman said in an email yesterday to clarify the terms.

“Given its open mission system architecture and the computing infrastructure on the jet, it can easily be a node in the ABMS architecture, and that’s something we are exploring with Air Force,” Boeing Vice President and F-15 program manager Prat Kumar told reporters today. “It can integrate with the cloud and it can be a node at the edge of the battlespace. So it’s a pretty interesting platform to be integrated in the ABMS concept.”

The fact that the F-15EX program is using digital engineering, along with open mission system and agile software development — including the use of “containerized environments” that allow rapid upgrades — also makes it a candidate for testing out concepts and components for the Digital Century Series, Kumar elaborated.

“It also is a pathfinder for the Digital Century Series concept that Dr. Roper is talking about where we can rapidly evolve, new platforms using digital engineering methodology. It also increases the supply base choices, and therefore keeps the industry in a pretty healthy competition for the foreseeable future. So this is a very exciting way to build a jet,” Kumar said.

As Breaking D readers know, the Digital Century Series is a major effort by Air Force acquisition head Will Roper to launch a new way of buying high-tech fighters, where fleets are swapped out with improved models every 15 years or so — an effort he hopes to also serve as a lever for staving off further shrinkage of the aerospace industrial base.

The F-15EX will replace the fleet of aging F-15C and F-15B fighters — a plan that has caused friction with supporters of buying more fifth-generation F-35As.

The first delivery order was included in the Boeing contract: $1.2 billion for up to eight aircraft and support, the spokesman said. The first two aircraft were included directly in Monday’s award; the remaining six are included as priced options.

Meanwhile, the Air Force on June 30 awarded a $101.4 million contract to General Electric for the first batch of 19 F-15EX engines — enough to equip the first eight planes (two engines each) and provide a couple of spares.

Kumar explained that the first six F-15EX planes will be used as test vehicles and later shifted into an operational role. The first two are slated to be flying by the first quarter of 2021. He also noted that over the future years defense plan (FYDP) the Air Force budget plans to buy 76 more.

US Buy May Tip Israeli Balance

The US contract award may also be the deciding factor in Israel’s dithering on whether to plonk down hard cash to buy the F-15EX and upgrade the avionics on its current fleet of F-15I jets to the newer model, or to first spend its dwindling funds on buying 25 more stealthy F-35s from prime contractor Lockheed Martin, a senior Israeli source told Breaking D.

“The selection, and the fact that the production line and all the technical infrastructure that is supporting the F-15EX will be in place for many years, makes the IAF’s decision to procure new F-15s and perform a massive upgrade of the existing fleet easier,” the source said.

Israel’s air force wants both planes — 25 F-15EX models and 25 more F-35s — to be able to perform in highly contested airspace. The IAF decision was based on the assumption that in future combat scenarios, targets will be protected by very advanced air defense systems. This will require a a first wave of stealthy F-35 jets to neutralize the air defense systems and then the “trucks” with heavy loads of very advanced weapon systems, some that already are in development by the Israel Defense Forces, to clean up.

The problem, however, is that the COVID-19 pandemic is weighing heavily on the Israeli government budget, which has yet to be set for the coming year.

If Israel does finally pull the trigger on the F-15EX, the plan would be to operate the fleet in tandem with upgraded F-15I models. If both efforts are approved in the budget, Israeli sources said, the idea is that the prototypes for both models would be built in St. Louis and manufacturing then turned over to an Israeli company, with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Elbit Systems the two major contenders.