{"id":33455,"date":"2023-06-05T11:50:53","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T18:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=33455"},"modified":"2023-06-06T08:33:48","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T15:33:48","slug":"air-minded-what-are-we-calling-it-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=33455","title":{"rendered":"Air-Minded: What Are We Calling It, Again?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"351328650_605981994632462_5023796388463152792_n\"<\/a>The F-15EX Eagle II … aka<\/em> the Phoenix?<\/p>\n

I’m not sure what’s up with this Phoenix Driver patch. Patrick van Dam, who lives near the former Soesterberg Air Base in the Netherlands and is a frequent contributor to F-15 Eagle groups and forums on social media, says Boeing, back in 2019, asked him to redesign the classic Eagle Driver patch for the F-15 Eagle’s replacement, the F-15EX, and this is the result. He says the new patch has been approved by Boeing and is currently being worn by F-15EX pilots of the 40th Flight Test Squadron and the 85th Test & Evaluation Squadron at Eglin AFB, operators of the only two F-15EX aircraft so far delivered to the U.S. Air Force.<\/p>\n

The original F-15 is officially named the Eagle, and that’s what its pilots call it. The F-15EX has an official name as well: the Eagle II. I’ve never heard it called the Phoenix, but wouldn’t be surprised to learn that’s what pilots are starting to call it. I mean, rising from the ashes of its predecessor and all? It fits. If so, the F-15EX Eagle II will join the F-16 Fighting Falcon, which everyone calls the Viper, on the list of fighters with two names \u2014 the official one and the one everyone actually uses.<\/p>\n

\"9262\"<\/a>By the way, this is the classic Eagle Driver patch referred to above. I wore it when I flew the jet, and personally quite like both it and Mr. van Dam’s redesign.<\/p>\n

As for the F-15EX itself, the Eagle II-slash-Phoenix, I’m less excited about it than I once was<\/a><\/strong>. Ten days ago, the USAF announced that new EX pilots will be trained at Seymour-Johnson AFB alongside pilots and WSOs learning to fly the two-seat air-to-ground F-15E Strike Eagle (unofficially called the Mudhen). This tells me the USAF is no longer eyeing the F-15EX as a replacement for soon-to-be retired air-to-air Eagles, but rather as an updated Mudhen, which itself is nearing retirement age. The Mudhen bubbas at SJ will treat the EX as an addition to the existing F-15E fleet and that’s what it’ll quickly become.<\/p>\n

The pessimist in me predicts the new F-15EX aircraft will be folded into existing F-15E squadrons and primarily tasked with the air-to-ground mission, with air-to-air secondary, and that the Air National Guard air superiority F-15 Eagle units slated to receive F-15EX aircraft over the next couple of years will, if they ever get them, also change their primary mission to air-to-ground. Wanna bet?<\/p>\n

Okay, I know, not everyone reading this knows the difference between the Eagle, Strike Eagle, and Eagle II. Here’s all three in a single photo:<\/p>\n

\"F-15s-over-Eglin.jpg<\/a>
USAF photo by TSgt John Raven<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The closest jet is an F-15C Eagle. It’s the last-produced version of the original mid-1970s Eagle. About 150 Eagles remain in service and are long past their planned sell-by dates. The Eagle is a single-seater, its mission to shoot down enemy aircraft in aerial combat.<\/p>\n

The middle jet is an F-15E Strike Eagle, introduced in the late 1980s. It’s operated by a two-person crew, a pilot in front and a weapons system operator in back. It’s classified as a multi-role strike fighter, its primary mission to deliver bombs and smart munitions against ground targets. You’ll sometimes hear Eagles called “light greys,” Strike Eagles “dark greys.”<\/p>\n

The farthest jet is the new F-15EX Eagle II, an upgraded Strike Eagle with air-to-air and air-to-ground improvements not yet invented when the E model was designed. It can do anything the Eagle can do. It can do anything the Strike Eagle can do. The USAF initially said the EX would replace the F-15 Eagle and fly its assigned air superiority mission, operated by a single pilot up front with an empty back seat. But as I speculate above, those plans may change. Why have a back seat if you’re not going to use it, right?<\/p>\n

But hey, the Phoenix? I like it … don’t know if it’ll stick, though.<\/p>\n

\u2014 back to the Air-Minded Index<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m not sure what’s up with this Phoenix Driver patch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1960,3,14],"tags":[4298,4299,4297],"class_list":["post-33455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-air-minded","category-flying","category-military","tag-f15c","tag-f15e","tag-f15ex"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33455"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33469,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33455\/revisions\/33469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}