F-15EX Eagle II: $2.38B Deal for 22 More Jets

On 29 September 2026 the U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing a $2.38 billion Lot 7 contract for 22 F-15EX Eagle II fighters, closing the deal hours before an October 1 fiscal-year deadline that would have cut unspent reconciliation funds. Stars and Stripes reported the award as timed to protect buying power from the 2026 reconciliation package nicknamed the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Boeing said the Lot 7 buy brings aircraft under Air Force contract to 120; the service has raised long-term F-15EX plans into the mid-260s as it retires aging F-15C and F-15D aircraft. The same day brought separate Navy news on Boeing’s F/A-XX win—that award is background only; this explainer stays on the Eagle II.

What Lot 7 buys—and why the deadline mattered

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Fighters and Advanced Aircraft Directorate announced the Lot 7 award from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on 29 September. Brig. Gen. Timothy Helfrich, Portfolio Acquisition Executive for that directorate, said the deal reflects a “disciplined approach to executing available resources” while balancing production realities, including effects of a 2025 production disruption and inflation across the defense industrial base. Col. Jonathan Varoli, F-15 System Program Manager, framed the outcome as strengthening the program and supporting the future fighter force.

Air & Space Forces Magazine reports that Lot 7 funding mixed about $115 million from the 2026 budget with roughly $2.8 billion from the prior year’s reconciliation act, and that unspent reconciliation dollars faced an 8.3 percent cut after October 1. At $2.38 billion for 22 airframes, the magazine calculates an average of about $108 million per jet—engines from GE Aerospace are bought separately. Boeing’s release says the company is delivering Lot 3 aircraft through the rest of the year and is working with the Air Force and the Department of War to raise output toward two F-15EXs per month.

Key specs and numbers

Item	Detail	Source
Role	Multirole heavy fighter; replace aging F-15C/D in Air Force and Air National Guard units	AFLCMC; Stars and Stripes
Maker / engines	Boeing; GE Aerospace engines purchased separately by USAF	Boeing; Air & Space Forces
Speed / ceiling	Mach 2.5; 50,000 ft (15,240 m)	Boeing F-15EX page; Stripes
Payload / MTOW	29,500 lb (about 13,300 kg) payload; 81,000 lb max takeoff weight	Boeing
Sensors / EW	APG-82(V)1 AESA radar; Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS)	Air & Space Forces
Air-to-air load	Up to 12 AMRAAMs (or mix); wingtip Stations 1 and 9 vs eight missiles on earlier F-15s	Boeing; AFMC 2022 test notes
Lot 7 price	$2.38B for 22 jets (~$108M airframe average, engines excluded)	Air & Space Forces
Under contract / planned	120 sold (Lots 1–7); long-term buy cited as 267 (Stripes) or 269 (ASFM)	Boeing; Stripes; ASFM

How the Eagle II differs from F-15C/D—and from the F-35

AFLCMC describes the F-15EX as a modern multirole heavy fighter that builds on the F-15 design with advanced avionics, large-area displays, a digital backbone and enhanced survivability, intended to replace F-15C and F-15D aircraft while remaining upgradeable. Air & Space Forces Magazine lists digital fly-by-wire controls, an all-glass touch-screen cockpit, the APG-82 AESA radar and EPAWSS as the core upgrades that lead some analysts to call it a “4.5 generation” fighter. Boeing’s product page adds open mission systems architecture, networking for manned-unmanned teaming, and a published service life above 20,000 hours.

The Eagle II is not a stealth-first design like the F-35. Analysis labeled as such: its value proposition is volume of fire, range and speed from existing F-15 basing and logistics, while fifth-generation jets emphasize low observability and sensor fusion for first-day access. Boeing markets up to 12 AMRAAMs and a 29,500-pound payload for “affordable massed effects” at long range; the Air Force Materiel Command previously reported successful AIM-120 and AIM-9X shots from the new wingtip stations that raise air-to-air capacity from eight missiles on earlier Eagles to twelve. In an Indo-Pacific contingency, that magazine depth could matter alongside stealth aircraft—not as a substitute for them.

Why it matters

Lot 7 keeps the St. Louis production line funded through a fiscal cliff that would have shaved reconciliation buying power. More important for force planners: contracting 120 of a planned mid-260s fleet is still far short of full replacement for the legacy Eagle force, and Air & Space Forces notes the service and Boeing are still working to rebaseline the larger program. Peer competition with China is the explicit backdrop for Pacific fighter capacity; Taiwan Strait air and maritime pressure—tracked elsewhere on this site—makes dual-track buying of stealth bombers and high-payload fourth-generation-plus fighters a deliberate hedge, not a single-platform bet.

What to watch: whether Boeing actually sustains two jets per month; how many Lot 7 and later aircraft go to active-duty versus Guard units (Oregon ANG already flies EX jets, per Stripes photography credits); and whether the 267–269 program of record survives future budgets.

Takeaway: the Air Force spent $2.38 billion at the fiscal-year wire to keep buying a high-payload Eagle II while it still argues over how large the eventual fleet should be.

Related coverage

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• SM-6: Navy’s $24.4B Deal to Rebuild Fleet Magazines

Sources

• Stars and Stripes, Air Force buys 22 more F-15EX jets at budget deadline, 1 October 2026.
• Boeing, Boeing secures order for 22 more F-15EX fighters, 29 September 2026.
• Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Department of the Air Force awards F-15EX Lot 7 contract for 22 aircraft, 29 September 2026.
• Air & Space Forces Magazine, Air Force Inks Deal for 22 More Boeing F-15EX Fighters, 29 September 2026.
• Boeing, F-15EX product specifications (Mach 2.5, payload, dimensions).