Dick Banholzer, Boeing’s director of business development for USAF fighter, bomber, and weapons programs, is still shopping around a upgraded F-15E+ for the Air Force, despite the Air Force’s insistence that only a fifth generation fighter force will do. “Currently, it’s not on the Air Force’s list,” Banholzer admitted during a Tuesday briefing at AFA’s Air & Space conference in Washington. But, ordering more “Super Eagles” in the event of a delay on the Joint Strike Fighter may be economical—coming in at approximately $59 million a pop. Leveraging an experienced production line along with new electronic warfare capabilities and improved sensor suites, the F-15E+ would effectively be a “fourth generation plus” aircraft that would be ideal for follow-on threat environments such as operating in Iraq or Afghanistan, said Banholzer. “We’re trying to counter the perception that this is an old airplane,” he explained, adding, “This is not your dad’s Oldsmobile.”
F-35As from the Vermont Air National Guard have deployed to Puerto Rico in recent days, continuing a major buildup of U.S. Air Force assets in Latin America aimed at combating drug trafficking and pressuring the regime of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
