Home » Air » Saudis Likely to Get F-15SG

Saudis Likely to Get F-15SG

By Greg Grant Friday, September 11th, 2009 9:29 am
Posted in Air, International

We broke the news earlier this week that the Saudis are close to finalizing a deal to buy an additional 72 Boeing Strike Eagles. Certain Pentagon offices have been working the specific arrangements to ensure the deal goes through smoothly.

I wrote that Riyadh has been eyeballing the low-observable F-15 “Silent Eagle” version. An industry source tells me it’s more likely the buy will be the F-15SG configuration which is now being built for Singapore; basically an advanced version of the F-15E. It is the most modern and capable F-15 in production and comes with an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar and a third generation Lockheed Martin SNIPER targeting pod.

The Saudi F-15Ss bought in the early 1990s were shipped with downgraded radars and some electronics countermeasures systems were also of lesser quality than what is standard on U.S. Air Force F-15s.

The new F-15s would replace the Royal Saudi Air Force’s fleet of 88 F-15C/Ds, which are getting a bit long in the tooth, delivered as they were in the 1980s. As a Pentagon source told me, the older aircraft have been leaving a few bolts on the tarmac as RSAF maintenance hasn’t always been the best.

This website uses IntenseDebate comments, but they are not currently loaded because either your browser doesn't support JavaScript, or they didn't load fast enough.

Join the Conversation

	Charles D Phillips, LtCol, USAF (Ret) September 11th, 2009 at 10:18 am Waiting for the other shoe to drop… So if the Saudis buy newer F-15s, who else in that part of the world will get even more worried??? Maybe Israel??? Do we think that the Israelis will be secure with all of those new F-15s just a few minutes flying time away??? What will the Israelis need to feel secure? Do you wonder if Israel will try to acquire equivalent aircraft or maybe better ones? Often, a military sale to a country over there means two sales — to maintain the balance of strength.
	Aurora September 11th, 2009 at 11:11 am Charles, if memory serves the IAF has 75 F-35s pending.
	Charles D Phillips, LtCol, USAF (Ret) September 11th, 2009 at 12:23 pm Aurora — sure lots of people have “pending” this and that, but the Saudi F-15s will be sitting on the ramp, ready to go when the F-35s are on assembly lines at best. An F-15 on the ramp is worth quite a few F-35s on order! And the F-35 is designed as a stealthy A-10, not as an air superiority fighter. The IAF has a record that speaks for itself but even they might feel uneasy if they were flying the unproven F-35 against a proven F-15. The Saudi pilots have been uneven at best but even they could get a bunch of missiles off.
	Dow September 11th, 2009 at 12:54 pm What about Taiwan? If we at going to sell to the Saudis why not? Barry osbama could care less about Israel but he sure does take his chicomm pals into consideration?
	jimbo September 11th, 2009 at 1:02 pm f-35 is noo a-10?! was not designed to be either.. if anything it has more of the capabilities that exceed an f-16
	jack September 11th, 2009 at 1:19 pm Who cares if the Israeli’s object???Who gave them the right to tell other nations what to do? Oh yea, the US did.
	elgatoso September 11th, 2009 at 1:41 pm Somebody know if the new F-15 have fly by wire?
	pfcem September 11th, 2009 at 2:36 pm Note that USAF F-15Cs are OLDER & have MANY more flight hours on them than the Saudi F-15Cs… All F-15s have fly-by-wire. On the initial F-15A it was a back-up, known as control augmentation system (CAS), rather than the primary flight control system.
	Mike September 11th, 2009 at 8:57 pm Back in the mid-1990’s I worked for McD on the F-15S (Saudi) and the F-15I (Israeli). Both were variants of our F-15E but with some hardware and software differences. I remember that the F-15I’s could carry both AIM-120 A/B missiles.
	Navy75 September 11th, 2009 at 9:27 pm When we sold them the first batch of F15’s with the AWAC it was because Saddam was threatening them, Saddam’s gone, what the reasoning behind this sale?
	Kayaker September 11th, 2009 at 9:39 pm Hmmm.….The Saudis won’t allow US Forces to be stationed on their soul but they want American Jets ??? Hmmmmmm. No way ! Let the Saudis fly F-4 Phantoms.
	Uncle B September 12th, 2009 at 8:40 am The Saudis can have anything “American” including our 12 year old virgin daughters if they so wish! We are Oil Junkies, addicted to the death to the stuff, and they provide us with our fix! We fought the “Sunnis” war for them in Iraq, and the OPEC boys are in control there now, as expected, and selling Iraqi oil even to the Chinese! We died for their Middle Eastern “War games” once or twice already! Remember Kuwait? It surprises me that the Saudis want actual hardware, and to man it themselves, I think this article has that wrong! We are their mercenaries as it is! We develop, produce, arm and man the forces, they dictate the uses, like a video game! Life –Size! Even Israel lives in fear of this and seeks such power, but, Alas! has no oil, our “Drug of Choice” and the lifeblood of our economy! The modern American is slave to the Saudi Princes, and OPEC, and financed by China, His vote not worth as much as a shareholders vote in a board meeting as far a directing his life or his country, he can’t even get proper paid health care! he is a well paid shill of corporatism, and sells out easy, dies on other’s battle-fields gracefully, breeds large strong soldiers quickly due to hormones put in his children’s milk, meat, and for now has a minimal use in the ways of a world much bigger than he is led to believe! He has been “Dumbed Down” (read the book — see Amazon) by his school system, Militarized by his movies and video games and does the dirty work most good Muslims of other countries won’t do! He even eats Pork! The cheapest meat to produce! As long as he is such a valuable “Beast of Burden” the powers that be, will keep feeding him, so: Hope for War Yankee Doodle! it has become your primary occupation, while your rich land languishes, exploited to and early and unnecessary end in filth pollution, salted fields, dried out waist lands and rubble like Detroit city, monument to your way of life: “Third World” comparable to Johannesburg, and once a place of hope for many! Wake Up America! Last Call!, Last call.
	Drake1 September 12th, 2009 at 10:52 am Everyone complains about us letting our military infrastructure dwindle, yet certain prejudices seem to obscuring this fact in this particular case. Traditional allies of the U.S. are (for the most part) cutting defense budgets, therefore to stay competitive, U.S. defense companies have to take advantage of emerging markets– like Saudi Arabia, which happen to be undergoing growth. The U.S. government essentially gave Lockheed all future fighter contracts, so how do you expect Boeing to stay in the market for fighters without selling large amounts of legacy aircraft. And don’t say Taiwan, because there is only so much hardware Boeing you can sell to a tiny country.
	Baboo Remembers September 12th, 2009 at 12:43 pm The Saudi’s don’t have the skill set to challege anyone regardless of what they fly.
	Stephen September 12th, 2009 at 3:36 pm On June 5, 1984, Eagles from No 6 Squadron were involved in an air battle with Iranian-piloted F-4E Phantoms which were threatening Saudi oil fields. Two of the intruders were shot down by Sparrows, marking the first (and so far only) encounter in which McDonnell-built aircraft fought each other. On January 24, 1991, Captain Ayehid Salah al-Shamrani of the No 13 Squadron of the RSAF shot down a pair of Iraqi Mirage F1s that were flying along the Persian Gulf coast. These Mirages may have been carrying Exocet missiles in preparation for an attack on Coalition naval units. SA has had F-15’s over 20 years. In the face of the rising power of Iran, they’ll buy what they need from somewhere. Why not Boeing?
	KingandI September 12th, 2009 at 10:02 pm This is just another stupid move by a stupid administration! No more bows. Flick S.A. Just take their oil.
	Chockblock September 12th, 2009 at 11:09 pm the silent eagle is a dead end. Even Boeing knows that. The prototype will sit in a dark corner while F-15SG’s and F-35’s fly away.
	elgatoso September 13th, 2009 at 12:45 am thanks for the information,pcfem
	elgatoso September 13th, 2009 at 12:47 am sorry, is pfcem ‚I type quickly .
	Drake1 September 13th, 2009 at 12:48 am Good point. The more advanced F-35 gets fast track export clearance, while Boeing, is still tied up in negotiations with the government to export the silent eagle.
	Drake1 September 13th, 2009 at 1:14 am And yes, I’m aware that Saudi Arabia flies downgraded f-15s.
	Dragonkeeper1085 September 13th, 2009 at 3:46 pm To hell with Saudi. Give them our used Eagles at new prices. Do they do anything for us? Come on, really. Leave the region and tell them to pay double each Eagle (Used) or kiss off. They could always develop their own fighters with all that money they have and support themselves with Allahas help.
	Joe Katzman September 13th, 2009 at 8:56 pm The alternative is that the Saudis buy French Rafales, which the French will be very happy to sell them. Russian SU-35s would also be an option, now that the Saudis are about to begin buying Russian defense equipment for the first time (Mi-17s). Either aircraft offers comparable or better performance in a number of areas. So the Saudis don’t really care if America sells them F-15SGs. It would be nice to keep the same support arrangements and have parts commonality in the fleet, which explains the discussions, but those things can be replaced easily enough. Truth is, the F-15 and Tornado ADVs in the Saudi fleet are already being replaced — by 72 Eurofighters, which are better air superiority planes and will also have ground attack capability. That leaves Tornado IDS and F-15S Strike Eagle aircraft for long range strike duties. The F-15S are getting new engines and upgrades, but the Tornados are getting very old. What an F-15SG Strike Eagle would really replace is the remainder of the Saudis’ Tornado fleet.
	WorldWarsModeler September 13th, 2009 at 9:32 pm Gentlemen: Dragonkeeper makes a good point. Granted, they fought in the Coalition during DS-I. But given that they are Sunni Muslims, the Israelis are Jewish, and the U.S. is mostly Christian, truly, what have the Saudis done for us lately? Nothing of note.…
	mike p September 14th, 2009 at 9:29 am The saudi’s have already ordered 72 typhoon’s from britan so they already have a next generation fighter being built the f-15FG varient cannot out manuver the typhoon in a air to air dogfight maybe it has a longer radar span but the typhoon wins out the only way to get the f-15 to be standard is to give it a canard wwing and new bulkid jets it think tihis would bbe cheaper than the f22
	Rhyno327 September 14th, 2009 at 9:39 am I have no love for the Saudi’s at all, but, if things go south with Iran, isn’t a good thing to have capable allies? You know we need thier f-ing oil..maybe we invaded the wrong country after 9/11..???
	mike p September 14th, 2009 at 9:41 am The f-15sg the suadis’s want would be a multiplier to thier force when the typhoon enters their service they will have a modern fighter/strike capable to counter the sukhoi family which is now out the in some air forces in my earlier statement why buy more f22s when you can build anew bulid f-15 with canards and vectored thrust engines and maybe some new designs to go with it the russains are doing it with th su-27 and all of its improved family why can’t we do the same to save some defense money?
	Dveed N September 14th, 2009 at 10:08 am Doesn’t matter to Israel what the Saudis get. Israel has Patriot 3 batteries, AWACs + lots of really good jet jockeys just waiting to pile up the kills.
	jaky September 16th, 2009 at 9:43 pm I heard about the planes f15 will go to Egypt Any one heard of something like that
	SEOOO! September 16th, 2009 at 10:33 pm Good is good news for the Arabs and Saudi Arabia in particular, but how the amount of the deal? Will the reduction of military equipment is also sensitive or not?
	Reaper September 17th, 2009 at 5:48 pm we never sell to foreign powers fully capable aircraft, what they get are dumbed down a little here a little there, all combined they tend to be limited to 90%, we are in a mainstream military aircraft gap and it is growing , however we have many other x craft that would make Luke Skywalker quite Jealous
	dean cav scout September 17th, 2009 at 6:42 pm well as a ground troop in a ground force that has gotten rid of any true substantial air defence capability i am not all that excited about any arab nation having any aircraft newer than a phantom. but if they must we might as well use the sales to help with our trade deficit. but then again we havnt had that much trouble on the ground with their (russian ) equipment but if we go to iran we will have m1 tanks on m1 tanks even dumbed down it isnt a comfortable thought
	squatswitch September 17th, 2009 at 6:57 pm I’ve had first hand relations with the Saudi’s, (RSAF), they are uncapable to handle the F-15 s’s they now possess. They can not fund for spare parts, maintenance by the RSAF alone is a joke. With out American contractors they at best, can visulize a flyable force… If the RSAF gets the F_15SG, Have them purchase them, not a Packaged gift from the USA as they have had in the past..The RSAF,are little boys with expensive TOYS…
	MSgt, USAF (Ret) September 17th, 2009 at 9:16 pm The Saudis will never be able to maintain any aircraft we sell them on their own. They just don’t have it.
	Tony Conner September 18th, 2009 at 7:02 am Sounds like some Boeing field support engineers are going to make a bundle supporting this buy! Without this configuration in the USAF, the spare parts and support will be direct from the contractor.
	robertro2 September 19th, 2009 at 11:45 am I believe it was a “saudi“flying an F-15 during the gulf war that shot down an “iraq” flying with that french missle,going after one of are ships, he had 2 good hits.…and i know that “Isreal“could also do it.…
	John October 9th, 2009 at 9:36 pm Royal Saudi Air Force rules.….….….….….….….….….….….…The hill with USA if they do not want to sell us the F-15Ss.….. The market is wide open for us; we can buy SU-35…Raffales.…Typhoons…with our money. US needs our money and you can not survive without our oil.…so, put up or shut up.
	r winters October 26th, 2009 at 11:48 am If you have ever seen the capabilities of the Saudi Pilots.….you know that Israel has absolutely nothing to worry about
	Donald December 17th, 2009 at 9:21 am to boost the american economy
	Donald Fortune December 17th, 2009 at 9:50 am Uncle B, last time I checked, it was Canada’s more specifically Alberta’s oil sands that provided by far the majority of the oil produced in America, which actually kinda benifits them cuz thats on less tax they have to pay. MAybe true what your saying, but I thought you guys went to Iraq for more or less vengeance for 9/11. If you guys were mercanaries, the Suadis should be paying you guys something other then oil that you buy if you are thier mercanaries, hmm, I dunno man, try writting your Congress member about it
	muosa February 19th, 2010 at 9:44 pm god bless saudi arabia juses christ human alllah is the god