Page 2 - F 15e News Today

The F-15 project has been spectacularly successful, which is perhaps why the US Air Force doesn't want to leave it behind.

GDC Technics would pay nearly $1.4 million under the agreement. After the lawyers’ cut, each of the roughly 230 ex-workers would get just under $4,000.

The Air Force - Navy program, called QUICKSINK, fired a precision-guided GBU-31 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) at the surface ship as part of what’s called a Joint Capability Technology Demonstration.

The Air Force has also deployed eight F-15Es to Lask, Poland and six KC-135 Stratotankers to Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

The killing blow came when the F-14s guided Air Force F-15Es as they dropped 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs to wipe out the underground bunker.

The Air Force was originally impressed by the design. So what happened?

The two prototype aircraft performed admirably in the Air Force’s tests, which ultimately concluded that the F-16XL could fly twice as far, or carry twice as large a payload, as a normal F-16. But ultimately it wasn't enough. 

US Air Force officials say the service's current seven fighter airframes are too expensive to maintain, and the plan to trim the force down to four.

The Air Force is testing a mammoth, 5,000-pound bomb designed using advanced modeling to increase its impact in reaching and destroying hardened underground facilities the likes of North Korea’s ballistic-missile and nuclear-weapons facilities.

According to The Aviationist, which cited a U.S. Air Force photo, the Strike Eagle was seen carrying six JDAMs on a single side of the aircraft, back in late February.