Air Force Inks Deal for 22 More Boeing F-15EX Fighters

The Air Force awarded Boeing a $2.38 billion contract for 22 F-15EX Eagle II fighters on Sept. 29, narrowly meeting a deadline to use funds from last summer’s reconciliation bill or face cuts.

The deal, Lot 7 of the program, brings to 120 the total number of F-15EXs under contract. The Air Force had planned to end production at 129 jets, but increased the total program in April to 269 aircraft.

Boeing earned the deal on the same day as the Navy announced it had selected Boeing to build its next-generation air dominance fighter, F/A-XX. The win means Boeing has won both the Air Force’s and Navy’s sixth-generation fighter competitions.

The F-15EX, meanwhile, is a heavily upgraded version of the fourth-generation F-15, leading some to dub it a “4.5 generation” fighter. Its digital fly-by-wire flight controls complement an all-glass touch-screen cockpit, a new APG-82 active electronically scanned array radar, and the Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System, an advanced electronic warfare suite.

Funding for Lot 7 came from $115 million in the 2026 budget and another $2.8 billion in last year’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” reconciliation package. That bill came with a caveat, though: any funds not spent by Oct. 1, 2026, would be reduced by 8.3 percent. The threatened reduction provided the pressure to close the deal before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

In a release, the Air Force trumpeted its success in meeting that deadline.

“This award followed extensive collaboration among program management, contracting, pricing, engineering, financial management, logistics and other acquisition professionals,” the release states. “The team assessed the impacts of changing production conditions and inflation, aligned the aircraft procurement with available funding, and completed the action before the fiscal-year deadline.”

At $2.38 billion for 22 jets, the average cost works out to $108 million, which does not include engines from GE Aerospace, which the Air Force purchases separately.

Boeing said in a release that it is currently delivering Lot 3 aircraft and will continue to do so for the rest of the year. Boeing is working with the Pentagon to up its production to two F-15EXs per month.