Boeing announced last week that it has delivered the newest upgrade to the Air Force’s F-15E mission training centers at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., and RAF Lakenheath in Britain. The upgrade, Suite 5, brings the realistic, high-fidelity simulators used in these centers to the same configuration as the actual F-15E cockpits, including the ability to deploy the small diameter bomb, the company said. Boeing also said it delivered a four-ship F-15E training system to Mountain Home in March and expects to deliver a four-ship system to the Seymour Johnson MTC this month. In August, the F-15E MTCs are scheduled to join the US military’s distributed mission operations network that allows aircrews in one location to train with pilots dispersed at other worldwide sites.
As Air Force leaders consider concepts of operations for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, sustainment in the field—and easing that support by using standard parts and limiting variants—should be a key consideration, according to a new study from AFA's Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies.