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Citat:Holmes said it would cost about $1 million per F-15C to buy the longeron and other modifications needed to keep the fleet safe to fly out into the late 2020s, and “I think that is probably a good deal,” but a hefty upgrade permitting the type to serve into the 2040s and beyond “may not be.”
In an interview with Air Force Magazine, Boeing F-15 Vice President Stephen Parker said an overall SLEP cost of $40 million per F-15C, quoted previously by Holmes and others, was a “worst-case” scenario representing the cost of taking the F-15 essentially to a zero-time aircraft. This restoration would practically rebuild the airframe from scratch, making it capable of serving to 2045. USAF requested the information and Boeing provided it, but such a proposal is not currently under consideration, Parker said.
Can They Carry On?
Before embarking on a SLEP, the Air Force needed to answer a basic question: Can the jets carry on? The F-15 and F-16 initially were warranted for service lives of 9,000 and 8,000 flying hours, respectively, and both fleets have aircraft technically past their original life expectancy. After nonstop combat deployments for the last 26 years, the jets are tired.
Lockheed Martin was tasked to put a representative F-16 Block 50 through a Full Scale Durability test to see how many more flight hours it could sustain and establish whether a SLEP would be cost-effective in terms of additional years of life. The jet was rigged with cables and bars that incessantly pushed, pulled, flexed, and bent it to simulate, on the ground, the forces it would endure through more years of heavy maneuvering. (See “New Life for Old Fighters,” February 2011.) This torture test was finally called off after 27,713 simulated flight hours, showing that the F-16 could theoretically last beyond the 2030s.
The goal was to demonstrate that the F-16 could serve to 12,000 hours, and the result “gives us good confidence that we are likely even to be able to extend beyond 12,000 at some point,” said Lockheed Martin’s Susan Ouzts, vice president for the F-16 and F-2 fighter programs. The jet is similar enough to the Block 40 and 52 models that the test was considered valid for all. Fighters fly about 300 hours per year, so with the additional 4,000 hours, the F-16 fleet could safely fly a minimum of another 13 years or so—and probably much more. The test was completed near the end of 2015.
Boeing is still conducting a durability test on the F-15. The fleet is at about the 10,000-hour mark, and the test is aimed at certifying it can reach 15,000 hours.
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