Page 5 - F 15 Eagle News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Ukraine wants western missiles and u.s. jets. >> translator: i'm talking about nato-integrated air defense systems, an f-15 eagle. >> reporter: for andre, the battle for the skies over ukraine is personal. both his mother and his wife are helping in the effort to fend off the russians, he says, and that he too is willing to sacrifice. >> translator: everyone's afraid of being killed. it's one thing to die with honor, another thing is to die without honor. >> reporter: the u.s. has said ukraine's air force remains largely intact and combat-ready. the battle for the skies another area where this...

The U.S. Air Force fighters will work closely with NATO allies on the alliance's eastern flank. 

The Eagle may not be as technologically advanced as its fifth-generation stablemates, the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but what it lacks in stealth the F-15 makes up for in classic Cold War-style: with incredible engineering and good old fashioned brute force. 

Caught up in plans to revamp the aging fleet of airplanes it uses, the U.S. Air Force still has to rely on decades-old machines to conduct its business. One of these machines is the four decades-old F-15C Eagle.

The F-111 was one of the earliest joint-service aircraft, meant to fulfill both the U.S. Air Force’s requirement for a swing wing strike bomber and the U.S. Navy’s requirement for a long-range interceptor.