Corrective lenses for Eagles

The F-15 Eagle is a venerable air superiority fighter with an honorable record: over 100 splashes to none. However, it remains a relic of the Cold War with at least some underpinnings to match, such as mechanically-steered radar. Fresh tech to the rescue!

The Air Force this year deployed F-15C Golden Eagle warplanes with new active electronically scanned arrays (AESA) that can track more targets with precision and can guide several missiles at once. AESA’s digital beams, which replace radar that turns mechanically, are agile enough to spot cruise missiles and enable the F-15C to shoot them down with air-to-air missiles. (The Air Force is now testing a system that enables the F-15Cs, built in the late 1970s, to shoot down ballistic missiles as well.) The radar upgrade will also change dogfighting strategies. Although engineers designed the targeting radars of the F-22 Raptor stealth airplane to be hard to detect, there is always a chance other crafts’ sensors could spot the Raptor’s electromagnetic emissions. To guarantee a Raptor can shoot and remain unseen, an F-15C can do the targeting for it, using AESA to track an opposing airplane from outside the enemy’s radar range while the Raptor closes in for the kill. The F-15C then beams the targeting data to the Raptor, which takes the shot with a heat-seeking missile.