Boeing F-15SE

Balanced survivability over stealth in fighter jet

Howard Berry, Boeing’s F-X III campaign director

Length: 19.45 m Height: 5.64 m Wingspan: 13.05m Maximum speed: Mach 2.5 Payload (Internal weapon carriage): A mix of air-to-air weaponry: AIM-120, AIM-9 A multitude of air-to-ground ordnance, including precisionguided munitions, JDAM, small-diameter bomb

By Kang Seung-woo

ST. LOUIS ― Since the beginning of Korea’s Fighter Experimental (F-X) III project, all talk has been about one factor: stealth capability.

With the intention of replacing its aging fleet of F-4s and F-5s with high-tech combat aircraft, the Air Force is keen to purchase a radar-evading “fifth-generation” aircraft with the likes of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter ― although it had to overcome a series of technical hiccups earlier this year.

However, Howard Berry, Boeing’s F-X III campaign director, does not believe that customers should have to trade performance for survivability.

“The message that I want to leave you with is that it is not all about stealth. That is just one element of the survivability equation,” he said during an interview with the Korean press contingent at a Boeing factory in St. Louis, Mo., on May 15.

“While we believe that stealth is an important capability in combat, we have designed the F-15 Silent Eagle around something that we call ‘balanced survivability’ that incorporates not only stealth but also the aircraft’s radar, EW (Electronic Warfare) suite, sensor suite, aircraft speed and service ceiling.”

He added that the Silent Eagle has not sacrificed other aircraft capabilities to achieve the survivability and lethality characteristics that will be required for combat aircraft operating in the battle arena of today and the threat environment expected in the years ahead.

Boeing is vying against the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), hoping to sell its Eurofighter Tranche 3, and Lockheed Martin which is touting its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in the 8.3 trillion-won ($7.5 billion) competition.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) will announce the successful bidder that will then sell the high-end fleet of 60 multi-role fighter jets by the end of June.

The Silent Eagle is a proposed upgrade of the F-15E and F-15K Slam Eagle, another variant of the F-15E that was acquired in phases I and II of the F-X program in 2002 and 2008, respectively. According to Boeing, the Silent Eagle shares more than 85 percent of the features in the Slam Eagle.

But Berry said that there are significant advancements to the features and key systems of the Slam Eagle. They include among other things, an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, a digital electronic warfare (EW) suite, fly-by-wire flight control system and a display core processor computer, station 1 and 9 carriage capability, a cockpit, and improved radar cross section.

However, more than anything else, the Silent Eagle is buoyant about its large and diverse weapons payload.

“We bring the largest weapons payload to the F-X competition among all the competitors,” Berry said.

“Also, it has a very diverse payload and a large variety of weapons that are interoperable with U.S. forces on the peninsula. What is often lost in people is our capability to carry heavy weapons ― 3,000 pound- and 5,000 pound-class weapons in addition to 2,000 pound class and below.”

And what the Korean Air Force should keep in mind is that the F-15 can also be stealthy ― although it lacks the same low-observable characteristics of the F-35 or F-22 Raptor ― thanks to the conformal weapons bays (CWBs) on each side of the aircraft that allows it to carry weapons internally and more importantly, not give away the Silent Eagle’s position to radar.

The CWB is designed, engineered and manufactured by the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI).

“In the early days of a conflict, when air dominance has yet to be achieved, it will certainly be very important to be stealthy at some level and we believe with the introduction of the conformal weapons bay, we bring the requisite amount of stealth to operate effectively in such an environment,” the director said.

Boeing, whose F-15 was designed a full decade before stealth technology was applied to other fighters, also introduced twin vertical tails set outward at 15 degrees and had radar-absorbent material for the unveiling.

The F-X III program is the most expensive procurement deal in the nation’s history and Korea plans to take advantage of it as part of its indigenous fighter plane program, or the KF-X. In line with this, Boeing has expressed its readiness to support Korea in the realization of it KF-X program by offering a comprehensive offset package.

“We have outlined a low-risk engineering, manufacturing and development program, drawing on Boeing’s proven program management know-how and our established relationships with key aerospace industry partners around the globe to bring best-of-industry expertise and technology to help Korea take KF-X from concept to production and operations,” Berry said.

“We remain focused on fostering the growth and continuing evolution of Korea’s already world-class aerospace industry. With that in mind we have also designed a Korean industry technology advancement roadmap, which identifies steps companies will need to take and skills they must have to get to where Korea wants to be with its indigenous fighter development program.”

Despite Boeing’s renewal and readiness to commit to support the nation's KF-X project, the F-35 is still seen as a front-runner in the lucrative competition, largely because of it being widely viewed as the most credible next-generation fighter jet in the competition.

But Berry advises his competitors to talk about their platforms’ real capability that they will bring to the Korean Air Force rather than resting on a marketing strategy.

“There are a lot of talks on the market place about stealth and many of our competitors like to throw around what I would call a broad marketing term such as fifth generation,” he said.

“Rather than talk at that level, I would rather talk about what would call elements of capability, (which is) the real punch or real capability that the platform brings to the fight.”