Air Force grounds entire fleet of F-15s

[unhappycamper]

Air Force grounds entire fleet of F-15s
By Peter Spiegel
Los Angeles Times / November 6, 2007

WASHINGTON - The US Air Force has grounded its entire fleet of F-15s, the service's premier fighter aircraft, after one of the planes disintegrated over eastern Missouri during a training mission, raising the possibility of a fatal flaw in the aging fighters' fuselage that could keep it out of the skies for months.

General T. Michael "Buzz" Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff, ordered the grounding Saturday after initial reports showed that the Missouri Air National Guard fighter plane broke apart Friday in midair during a simulated dogfight.

Although the 688 F-15s in the Air Force's arsenal gradually are being replaced by a new generation of aircraft - the F-22 - they remain the nation's most sophisticated front-line fighters. US officials said the F-15s are used heavily for protecting the continental United States from terrorist attack, as well as for combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lieutenant General Gary L. North, the Air Force officer in charge of military aircraft in the Middle East, issued a statement yesterday saying he would be able to fill the gap with other fighters and bombers. But another Air Force official said the F-15 grounding will have a "significant impact" on operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"They will clearly have to work hard to pick up the slack," the official said.

The health of the F-15 fleet has long been a concern for Air Force brass, who repeatedly have warned that the two-engine fighter had exceeded its expected life span and was straining under the workload imposed by the counterterrorism duty.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/11/06/air_force_grounds_entire_fleet_of_f_15s/

[Eagle_Eye]

1. Radar Wars?

What was that resent post about Radar Wars?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=259x6277

Putting new radars on 20 year old fighters that have structural problems might not be an economical idea.

[unhappycamper]

2. In all honesty, they have a bit of a problem.

Replacement jets are $100,000,000+. The F-22 costs about $329,000,000 & they are already in the shop for corrosion repairs. The Air Force noted that they aren't getting anymore F-22s or C-17s in 2009.

And now the entire F-15 fleet is grounded. It puts the "overwhelming superiority" talking point in jeopardy.