Pictures of C-141B 64-0649 being towed out of AMARC
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A row of F-15A Eagles on AMARC's Area 27 on the Recalmation side of the base. The F-15 nearest the camera is 77-0139, named 'Raw Power' from the
445th FLTS at Edwards AFB, CA. This aircraft arrived at AMARC on 10-DEC-04. The next two are from the 125th Fighter Wing, Florida ANG, both of which
arrived in November 2004. The last two are from the 131st Fighter Wing, Missouri ANG, these arrived in September 2004. They now join the many other
F-15's in Area 27 which have been resident for more than ten years.
The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle has been a familiar sight at AMARC since the early 1990's.
From July 1991 to the end of 1995 115 F-15A's and 10 F-15B's (the two seat version of the A) were retired
to AMARC as a result of the drawdown of US military resources at that time and the introduction of the more modern/advanced F-15C/D
models into the active duty Air Force fighter squadrons. Many of the F-15A/B aircraft which were previously operated by these squadrons were transfered
to a number Air National Guard units to replace the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms they were operating up until that time.
Before these events, in 1983, McDonnell Douglas and the Air Force agreed on the development of two Multistage Improvement Programs (MSIP) for the F-15, named 'MSIP I' and 'MSIP II'. These programs were
designed to upgrade the F-15 in most areas including radar and avionics, improved countermeasures, armament (including the AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range AAM (AMRAAM),
the modern follow-on to the Sparrow missile), engines and stronger landing gear.
Due to the projected costs of MSIP I, which was aimed at the F-15A/B, it was cancelled
but the MSIP II program, developed for the F-15C/D fleet, proceeded. A number of F-15A/Bs were provided with a subset of the MSIP II upgrades including such items as
the stronger landing gear of the F-15C/D, F100-PW-220E engines, and improved Raytheon AN/APG-63(V)1 radar. However, a large number of the F-15A/Bs were deemed to not
be suitable for the upgrades and were retired from service.
Some of those retired F-15's went to museums, some became gate guards, but the vast majority were sent to AMARC. At their time of retirement some of these aircraft were only 15 years old, a
relatively young age compared with some of the types that have retired to AMARC over the years. Nowadays all of these early AMARC F-15 examples are stored in the reclamation areas of the base, yielding spare parts
which are introduced back into the active Air Force and Air National Guard inventories.
F-15 Eagle Replacement
The development and introduction of the F/A-22 Raptor (which is the chosen successor to the F-15) into the Air Force has been a lengthy and expensive exercise which
has experienced it's fair share of contracting, testing and funding issues. In December 2002 a procurement decision was taken which greatly affected the pace at which the Raptor will replace the F-15 Eagle.
As a result it was not known whether or not the Air Force would experience a shortage of fighters, this made the job of retaining and maintaining a capable F-15 fleet a top priority.
F-15's have become increasingly time consuming to maintain. They are now inspected every 10 to 20 hours on the parts which are seen as having the most failures and the
engines are also thoroughly inspected more often and for longer. To help improve this situation there has been a program carried out over the last few years to
upgrade the F-15A/B engines to the maintenance friendly "Dash 220E" standards. The resulting improvement in diagnostics gathering has greatly increased safety and fleet readiness and
is saving the Air Force many millions of dollars per year in reduced maintenance requirements.
It is not just the F-15A/B fleet which is providing a challenge to maintain, the F-15C fleet have been hard used over its lifetime and is also showing its age.
Several have experienced in-flight catastrophic failures. In April 2002 an F-15C from the 46th Test Wing, flying a high-speed missile test mission out of Eglin AFB, FL.,
disintegrated over the Gulf of Mexico. Since then the F-15 has been saddled with speed restrictions to prevent a repeat of that type of accident.
The F-15 Eagle fleet is rapidly approaching the time when they should be retired. The Air Force have ruled out a service life extension program (SLEP) due to
the estimated costs of $5 billion to extend their service life by 10 years. Instead more money has been allocated to providing more in the way of spare parts
and this has been successful in providing higher readiness rates.
F-15's will continue to arrive at AMARC in the short to medium term as they are replaced by F/A-22 Raptors and as a result of aircraft running out of hours.
However, it is expected that a number of the lowest-mileage F-15s will be retained through until the early 2020's and to a time when they will be nearly 40 years old.
AMARC Database:
McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle Specifications:
Engines
Manufacturer
..............
Pratt and Whitney
Number/Model
..............
Two F100-PW-100, 220 or 229 turbofan engines with afterburners.
Max. Power
..............
(C/D Models) 23,450 pounds each engine
Performance
Maximum Speed
..............
1,875 mph (Mach 2.5 plus).
Maximum Altitude
..............
65,000 feet (19,812 meters)
Maximum Range
..............
3,450 miles (3,000 nautical miles) ferry range with conformal fuel tanks and three external fuel tanks.
Crew
A/C Models
..............
One
B/D/E Models
..............
Two
Dimensions, External
Wing Span
..............
42.8 feet (13 meters)
Length
..............
63.8 feet (19.44 meters)
Height
..............
18.5 feet (5.6 meters)
Weights
Max. Takeoff Weight
..............
(C/D models) 68,000 pounds (30,844 kilograms).
Armament
One internally mounted M-61A1 20mm 20-mm, six-barrel cannon with 940 rounds of ammunition; four AIM-9L/M Sidewinder and four AIM-7F/M Sparrow air-to-air missiles, or eight AIM-120 AMRAAMs, carried externally.
