The Defense Department on Wednesday informed Congress of the possible foreign military sale of 84 new-build Boeing multirole F-15 fighters to Saudi Arabia and the upgrade of 70 existing Saudi F-15S aircraft to the same new configuration. This deal has a total potential value of $29.4 billion, when factoring all of the associated advanced weapons, support services and equipment, and training, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency’s release. The new F-15 configuration, designated the F-15 Saudi Advanced, or F-15SA, includes the APG-63(V)3 active electronically scanned array radar. This notification comes less than two weeks after Israel signed an agreement to acquire 20 F-35 strike fighters. The F-15 deal is part of a larger arms package to the Saudis that hovers around $60 billion and includes Apache and Blackhawk helicopters. News of the proposed F-15 sale broke in August. (For more, read State Department briefing transcript.)
Air Force exercises in the Indo-Pacific may soon get even bigger and more robust, as lawmakers move to invest more than $620 million in such efforts. The bulk of that money, contained in a $150 billion reconciliation package currently making its way through Congress, is $532.6 million for earmarked for…