Where Are F-15EX Eagle II Fighter Jets Built And Who Makes Them?

Though military aircraft are designed to serve a range of roles, from troop and equipment transport to air-to-ground assaults and surveillance duties, all of these duties become harder to perform without hard-fought air superiority. In this regard, the backbone of an air force may be considered to be the deadliest fighter jets. The U.S. Air Force's iconic F-15 family dates back to the late 1960s, and they're formidable examples of just that.

The original F-15 was designed by McDonnell Douglas in 1969, with the Air Force clamoring for a potent fighter model that could rival the MiG-25 Foxbat, a fearsome new Soviet fighter jet. It seems clear that this was the right aircraft for the job, and the right company to develop it. In 1997, Capt. David R. King and Donald S. Massey wrote in Maquette University's "History of the F-15 Program: A Silver Anniversary First Flight Remembrance" that the F-15 project was "one of the most successful aircraft development and procurement programs in Air Force history." 

1997 was also the year of McDonnell-Douglas' merging with Boeing. As such, the legacy F-15 and some variants were developed by the former, while sophisticated modern variants like the F-15EX Eagle II are designed under the Boeing banner. To learn more about this formidable aircraft, we'll see where it's manufactured and who develops it.

In April 2021, the official unveiling and naming ceremony for the F-15EX took place. The setting was Eglin Air Force Base in Okaloosa County, Florida At the event, the Air Force made it very clear that this breakthrough model was a Boeing creation. As Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for the Acquisition, Technology Logistics Military Deputy Lt. Gen. Duke Richardson put it in a Boeing press release, "We aggressively worked with Boeing to accelerate the delivery of two F-15EX aircraft from the normal 39-month lead time to just nine months after contract award."

The first F-15EX model made its flight debut that February, and Boeing boasted the aircraft's potential. The company's F-15 program manager and vice president Prat Kumar said in a release, "Our workforce is excited to build a modern fighter aircraft for the U.S. Air Force," highlighting key aspects of the new model that set it apart from prior members of the advanced F-15 family. These include the Eagle Passive/Active Warning and Survivability System, a fully-featured and highly sophisticated electronic warfare suite developed by BAE Systems (also made for the F-15E Strike Eagle).

Boeing lists the F-15EX among its extensive and varied defense portfolio, which includes such military mainstays as the iconic mainstay that is the B-52 bomber, the training aircraft T-7A Red Hawk, the C-H47 Chinook helicopter, and the legendary Air Force One itself.  

The F-15, in short, is a model that has proven, and continues to be, highly desirable. It has evolved in countless ways since the first iteration, from the improvements in maximum takeoff weight and fuel capacity that the F-15C (pictured here) and D variants represented to the APG-82 AESA radar and 29,500 lb weapon payload boost of the EX Eagle II. In another sense, though, the F-15 really hasn't come very far at all. Original manufacturer McDonnell Douglas developed the F-15A at its facility in Missouri's St. Louis, where its headquarters were also found.

Decades later, now under the Boeing banner, the F-15EX Eagle II continues to be developed in the area. Boeing has a heavy presence in Missouri, with an F-15 facility in the north of Saint Louis county. This facility is at the heart of the construction of the model.

When the Oregon Air National Guard received Boeing's very first configured and prepared EX Eagle II, it made the journey to the Portland Air National Guard Base from its birthplace, the St. Louis facility.

Aside from the factory where the EX Eagle II is built, the region is also home to some other Boeing facilities that are of vital importance to the development of the wider F-15 family. The former GKN Aerospace St. Louis was purchased by Boeing in April 2024, to continue developing components for the broader F-15 program as well as for the F/A-18 Hornet project.

With a history spanning over fifty years, the broader F-15 family has carved itself a fearsome reputation as one of the most formidable and popular fighter jets in the world. Some U.S. allies have a surprising amount of F-15s in their military inventories, and modernization programs are keeping some of those models that came before the F-15EX fighting fit. In November 2024, Defense News reported that South Korea's F-15K jets (of which it has a fleet of 59) were being prepared to be outfitted with advanced new equipment including AN/AAR-57s, new radar technology and more, a project slated to cost a cool $6.2 billion.

That same month, Israel acquired a deal for a total of 24 F-15EX Eagle IIs (Israel's variant is known as the F-15IA), at a cost of $5.2 billion.  The National Interest reported the Israeli Ministry of Defense said through "the integration of state-of-the-art Israeli technologies," the aircraft "will enable the Israeli Air Force to maintain its strategic superiority in addressing current and future challenges in the Middle East."

It's certainly possible, then, for legacy models to continue to excel. Nonetheless, the EX Eagle II was designed to, where possible and over time, displace those older models. The Oregon Air National Guard wing that was the very first to receive the new model saw it as a potential upgrade to its long-serving fleet of F-15C Eagles. The dominance of the F-15 family continues.