Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute says he doesn’t think Boeing’s “stealth” F-15 proposal is aimed at getting the Air Force to buy more F-15s, which are a bit cheaper than F-22s. Rather, the target audience is foreign operators who want stealth in a high-end fighter but “can’t have” the F-22, Thompson told an audience Wednesday at a Mitchell Institute airpower forum in Washington, D.C. (see above). Boeing’s tactic is a good one in that it offers a chance for F-15 operators outside the US to upgrade equipment they already have, Thompson said. As far as Boeing trying to get the Air Force to spend money on new F-15s versus the F-22, Thompson said there’s no logic in it, since “Boeing makes one-third of the F-22.”
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.