Video: Boeing unveils the "stealthy" F-15 Silent Eagle

It's still not quite a fifth-generation fighter, but it's not intended to be. For instance, the F-15SE is not going to slip stealthily into defended airspace and wipe out a surface-to-air missile battery. That's still the job of the all-aspect stealthy F-22 or B-2.

Boeing optimized the F-15SE to reduce the aircraft's head-on radar cross section. That's not going to fool a ground-based SAM radar, but it will make it harder for an enemy fighter entering the merge to lock-on to your aircraft with a radar-guided missile.


But the project raises a number of very interesting questions.

First, Boeing says the F-15SE can match the frontal-aspect stealth performance of the export version of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The precise level stealth allowed to be exported to foreign countries is still to be determined by the US authorities who govern technology transfer rules. Will international F-35 customers be disappointed if they find out a fourth-generation fighter can match their fight-generation fighter's head-on performance?

Second, Boeing says they're not offering the F-15SE to the US Air Force, but could the single-largest F-15 customer in the world be tempted? Obviously, the USAF is committed to buying a fifth-generation-only fleet of F-22s and F-35s, but if costs, schedule delays or performance problems start mounting, could the service be driven to "settle" for improved F-15s?