Washington has identified the next location that will host Boeing’s F-15EX Eagle II fighter jet.
Selfridge Air National Guard Base outside Detroit will receive 21 of the new multi-role fighters, replacing the ageing Fairchild Republic A-10 ground-attack jets currently assigned to the site.
President Donald Trump made the announcement on 29 April during a visit to Selfridge marking the first 100 days of his second term in the White House.
“I’m proud to announce that very soon we will replace the retiring A-10 Warthogs with 21 brand new F-15 Eagles,” Trump said.
The president made the announcement flanked by two A-10s of the 107th Fighter Squadron, emblazoned with his name on the fuselage where the pilot and crew chief would normally be listed.
Trump described the incoming fighters as “the best in the world”, saying their presence “will keep Selfridge at the cutting edge of northern American air power”.
Selfridge is home to 18 A-10s, which most recently deployed to the Middle East in 2024 to support Washington’s campaign to counter the Islamic State terrorist group in Syria. Those aircraft are set to be retired in the coming years.
The Detroit base is the fourth location within the domestic USA to be confirmed as a home station for the growing F-15EX fleet, and the fifth site overall. Selfridge is also set to receive new Boeing KC-46 tankers, as the US Air Force (USAF) continues building out its fleet of the 767-derived type.
Portland Air National Guard base in Oregon received the first operationally configured Eagle IIs in 2024, with a total of 18 jets expected.
A naval air station reserve base in New Orleans and another Air National Guard base in Fresno, California have also been selected to host F-15EX squadrons.
Active duty aviators at the USA’s highly-strategic Kadena air base on the Japanese island of Okinawa are set to receive 36 new-build F-15EX fighters in the coming years, as production of the revamped Cold War air superiority fighter ramps up.
Boeing previously delivered six test-configured F-15EXs to the USAF for evaluation and flight trials with the service’s 96th Test Wing at Eglin AFB in Florida.
Operational jets are now rolling off Boeing’s production line in St. Louis, Missouri, as the airframer works toward a stated goal of assembling the twin-engined Eagle IIs at a rate of two aircraft monthly.
”We are ramping up production capacity to meet anticipated demand for the F-15EX and plan to double its capacity to 24 aircraft per year starting in 2026,” Boeing tells FlightGlobal.
The office of Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer says F-15EXs will start arriving at Selfridge sometime in fiscal year 2028, which begins in October 2027.
The Pentagon’s fleet target for the redesigned F-15 has fluctuated significantly in recent years, originally starting at 104 jets, before being cut to as few as 80. The number had risen again to 98 examples and settled there under President Joe Biden, but now appears set to change again.
A proposed spending plan jointly released by both houses of the US Congress includes some $3 billion in new funding to increase F-15EX production by an unspecified amount.
That package has not yet received formal legislative approval.
