Air Force More Than Doubles F-15EX Order to 267 Jets in Sweeping Fighter Acquisition Reversal

The Pentagon’s record $1.5 trillion defense budget breaks from its “divest to invest” playbook — and the Eagle II is the centerpiece of that shift.

The U.S. Air Force plans to more than double its planned F-15EX Eagle II fleet from 129 to 267 aircraft, the Air Force announced as part of its fiscal 2027 budget request — what Pentagon officials have called the largest single-year defense spending surge in decades.

The expansion is the most significant tactical fighter procurement reversal in decades and signals a fundamental break from the previous “divest to invest” strategy, which sought to retire legacy platforms rapidly to fund next-generation technologies. The Department of War, rebranded from the Department of Defense under a September 2025 executive order, is now pursuing readiness and modernization as concurrent priorities to meet near-peer threats in the Indo-Pacific and to defend the American homeland.

The fiscal 2027 request totals $338.8 billion for the Department of the Air Force — a 38 percent year-over-year increase — anchored by a $73.3 billion procurement account that is up 60 percent over prior-year levels. The broader national security topline reaches $1.5 trillion, a 44 percent increase over fiscal 2026 levels, according to the White House. A proposed $350 billion reconciliation package — successor to the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” of 2025 — allows the Pentagon to bypass traditional appropriation hurdles for critical modernization programs.

The Air Force plans to buy 24 F-15EX fighters for $3 billion in fiscal 2027 at an approximate unit cost of $125 million, the opening installment of a multi-year surge intended to build 13 full squadrons of 21 jets each. That purchase runs alongside 38 F-35A Lightning IIs at $7.4 billion, 15 KC-46A Pegasus tankers at $3.9 billion, 23 T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainers, and $1.1 billion for Collaborative Combat Aircraft — covering at least 108 new aircraft in a single fiscal year.

An “Arithmetic Problem” in the Pacific

The primary strategic driver for the expansion is what Air Force planners characterize as an arithmetic problem in the Indo-Pacific. Stealth fighters like the F-35A are essential for penetrating anti-access/area-denial environments, but the service also requires platforms capable of delivering large salvos of long-range standoff missiles across vast oceanic distances. The F-15EX can carry up to 29,500 pounds of ordnance across 23 weapons stations — compared with the F-35A’s 18,000-pound maximum — and could eventually carry 22 air-to-air missiles under the proposed Advanced Missile and Bomb Ejection Rack system, known as AMBER. The aircraft is also slated to integrate the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile.

Under what the service calls a “Deterrence by Denial” strategy, the F-15EX is designed to work in tandem with F-35s that identify targets and relay data to the Eagle IIs operating from positions behind the forward line of engagement.

The Air Force is simultaneously positioning the F-15EX as the premier platform for homeland defense, replacing aging F-15C/D models currently flown by Air National Guard units in Florida, Oregon, California, and Louisiana. The aircraft’s AN/APG-82(V)1 active electronically scanned array radar is optimized for detecting low-flying cruise missiles and drones — threats that demand speed and magazine depth rather than stealth.

The urgency intensified following Operation Epic Fury in early 2026, when the Air Force reportedly lost F-15E Strike Eagles to enemy action over Iran, exposing the vulnerability of aging airframes in high-intensity contested environments.

Technology and Cost

At its core, the F-15EX pairs a reinforced, battle-proven airframe with the Advanced Display Core Processor II — the world’s fastest mission computer at 87 billion operations per second — and the Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System, or EPAWSS, an all-digital, 360-degree electronic warfare suite manufactured by BAE Systems. The aircraft carries a rated service life exceeding 20,000 flight hours, roughly three times the 6,000-to-8,000-hour ceiling of most modern fighters.

That longevity compounds a cost advantage. The F-15EX’s estimated cost per flight hour runs approximately $29,000 to $30,000, below the F-35A’s range of $34,000 to $42,000. In fiscal 2024, the F-35 fleet averaged a mission-capable rate of only 50 percent, well short of the Pentagon’s 65 percent target. The fiscal 2027 budget addresses this “readiness trap” by requesting $22.6 billion for weapon system sustainment — a $3 billion increase over prior levels.

Boeing and the Industrial Dimension

The program is a substantial victory for Boeing’s defense division, which posted significant losses on defense programs in 2024. Boeing plans to double monthly F-15EX production at its North St. Louis County facility from one to two aircraft by early 2027, following a 15-week strike by International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 837 that concluded in November 2025. Boeing also returned its Defense, Space & Security headquarters from Arlington, Virginia, to St. Louis to align corporate leadership directly with its primary manufacturing operations.

International demand further anchors the production line. Israel has signed an $8.6 billion contract covering 25 firm F-15IA units with an option for 25 more — a customized F-15EX variant — ensuring the St. Louis assembly line remains active well into the 2030s alongside contracts with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.

Future Fleet and Legacy Adjustments

Looking beyond the Eagle II, the fiscal 2027 budget funds the initial procurement of Collaborative Combat Aircraft at $1.1 billion, with the service planning to field at least 1,000 AI-driven autonomous wingmen. Each F-47 sixth-generation fighter could be paired with two to five of these drones. Boeing received the engineering and manufacturing development contract for the F-47 — officially designated to succeed the F-22 Raptor — in March 2025. The program carries an estimated unit cost of approximately $300 million, a combat radius exceeding 1,000 nautical miles, a maiden flight target of 2028, and an initial fleet goal of 185 to 200 aircraft. The budget also includes $6.1 billion for the B-21 Raider, split between $3.2 billion for procurement and $2.9 billion for continued research and development, with the bomber on track to enter service in 2027.

Among legacy platforms, the Air Force announced in April 2026 that A-10 Thunderbolt IIs will remain in service until 2030, although 49 of the aircraft are slated for divestment in fiscal 2027. The service also reversed course on the F-15C/D fleet, retaining 42 aircraft after previously divesting 74 units to preserve fighter inventory numbers during the transition period.

On the tanker side, the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act mandated expanding the minimum tanker inventory from 466 to 502 aircraft by 2028. The Air Force has requested 15 KC-46A Pegasus tankers for delivery in 2029 and is departing from its traditional one-for-one KC-135 Stratotanker retirement policy, planning to divest 20 KC-135s in 2027 while retaining others beyond schedule to preserve global reach. The KC-46 program continues to grapple with deficiencies in its Remote Vision System and a boom telescoping actuator redesign, with Boeing already reporting losses exceeding $7 billion on the fixed-price tanker contract.

The entire fiscal 2027 package still requires congressional approval. The record $1.5 trillion topline and the reliance on reconciliation mechanisms face scrutiny from fiscal conservatives, and future aircraft deliveries remain contingent on the appropriations process.