Air Force Delays F-15EX Deliveries to Kadena, Continues Rotational Deployments

The Air Force has delayed delivery of permanently stationed F-15EX Eagle II fighters to Kadena Air Base in Japan.

An Air Force spokesperson confirmed the delay to Air & Space Forces Magazine. Stars and Stripes first reported the move.

The spokesperson said the Air Force expects to provide an updated schedule in the spring. The previous plan had been for the 18th Wing at Kadena to get its F-15EXs between March and June.

The cause of the delay is a lengthy strike at contractor Boeing’s St. Louis, Mo., plant from August to November 2025, the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“The Air Force will continue to support the Kadena mission with rotational forces until the 15EXs arrive,” she wrote.

Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The delay extends what has been a yearslong process to swap out the fighters at Kadena, a keystone base on the island of Okinawa, which, at about 450 miles, is the closest USAF installation to Taiwan.

The Air Force announced in October 2022 that it would bring home the 48 aging F-15C/D Eagles stationed at Kadena but did not announce a replacement at the time. Air Force officials stressed at that time that other types of aircraft would rotate through the base.

The F-15C/Ds at Kadena were the last of their type operated by the Active-Duty Air Force; the remaining inventory was housed in the Air National Guard.

The older model was first introduced in 1979 and stationed at Kadena beginning in the 1980s. In 2022, the fleet averaged nearly 40 years of service.

The F-15EX, by contrast, is the most advanced Eagle variant. The Eagle II is the first F-15 to include digital fly-by-wire flight controls and a large area display glass-cockpit with touchscreen interface, and it incorporates a new APG-82 AESA radar, Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System, and EPAWSS self-defense suite.

The aircraft has a higher speed, longer range, and a 29,000 lb. payload, including two additional weapons stations.

The Air Force awarded Boeing a $1.2 billion contract in 2020 for the first eight jets and approved the aircraft for full-rate production in June 2024. The service planned to purchase 98 of the aircraft according to its fiscal 2025 budget request.

In 2024, the service announced it would replace the 48 F-15C/Ds at Kadena with 36 F-15EXs.

Retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, said in 2022 when the removal of the F-15C/Ds was announced, that moving the aircraft off the island without an immediate replacement was not a surprise given “consistent underfunding of the Air Force over 30 years.”

At the time, he said, the service was required to “cut its force structure with no replacements” due to the “neglect and shortsightedness of government leaders who oversee service funding.

He did not see rotational forces as an ideal alternative.

“It will stress those aircraft, maintenance personnel, the deployed aircrews, and their families, exactly at a time when pilot retention is a serious problem,” he said. It also “deprives other combatant commands of fighter aircraft” when demand for them is very high, he said.

The last flight of a permanently stationed F-15C/D from Kadena was in January 2025.

Since 2022, the Air Force has relied on six-month deployments of various aircraft types at Kadena. That has included a mix of fourth- and fifth-generation fighters such as the F-15E, F-16, F-35, and F-22.

Most recently, in October, the New Jersey Air National Guard sent F-16C Fighting Falcons to the island. That was complemented by the arrival earlier that month of F-35As from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, according to an Air Force release.

“Our deployment to Kadena will enhance the Air Force’s ability to respond across the Indo-Pacific with speed and precision,” Lt. Col. Eric Emerson from the New Jersey Air Guard said in December. “The experience of our Citizen-Airmen, coupled with the F-16’s versatility, brings a balance of power, adaptability, and reach that ensures our team can support any mission—air superiority, strike, or defense—whenever called upon.”