Boeing says it has successfully launched a missile for the first time from the new conformal weapons bay designed for the company’s new F-15 fighter variant called the Silent Eagle. Boeing’s F-15E1 demonstration aircraft has been fitted with the CWB. It made its debut flight with the bay on July 8 in St. Louis. The missile firing occurred six days later at Point Mugu NAWS, Calif., according to a company release. Boeing F-15 chief test pilot Dan Draeger fired an inert AIM-120 air-to-air missile from the aircraft’s left-side CWB. “The F-15, CWB, and missile performed exactly as we predicted,” said Draeger. Boeing said the test demonstrated the CWB’s flightworthiness and ability to deploy the missile “with no adverse effect on the performance of the aircraft or the CWB itself.” The Silent Eagle features radar cross section-reduction features in addition to CWBs.
The Space Force should take bold, decisive steps—and soon—to develop the capabilities and architecture needed to support more flexible, dynamic operations in orbit and counter Chinese aggression and technological progress, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
