Air Force
First combat-ready F-15EX Eagle II is operational, and Oregon Air National Guard has it
Stars and Stripes
June 11, 2024
A combat-ready F-15EX Eagle II landed last week at Portland Air National Guard Base, making the 142nd Wing the first operational unit in the Air Force to field the strike fighter.
“This is incredibly exciting,” Wing Commander Col. Michael Kosderka said in a video promoting the fighter’s arrival. Tail number 008 arrived at Portland on June 5 at approximately 12:30 p.m. PT.
The 142nd Wing is the unit that intercepts hostile aircraft over the northwest United States.
“This is the first time, to my knowledge, that an Air National Guard base got a major weapons system before the active component,” Kosderka said. “It’s a super big deal.”
A combat-ready F-15EX Eagle II prepares to land June 5, 2024, at Portland Air National Guard Base, making the 142nd Wing the first operational unit in the Air Force to field the strike fighter. (142nd Wing/Facebook)
The initial instructor pilots from the Portland-based wing were at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida to fly training versions of the jet, which the Air Force said can exceed twice the speed of sound.
In St. Louis, the first F-15EX bound for the Oregon wing rolled off the Boeing assembly line in March. The Air Force has slated 18 F-15EX aircraft to be operational at the 142nd Wing by the end of 2025.
Boeing said in February the top speed for the F-15EX is 2,225 miles per hour — more than Mach 2.7 at sea level.
The Air Force said in budget documents released in March that it wants to acquire 144 F-15EXs eventually to replace aging F-15C/D models from the 1990s in the active-duty force and Air National Guard inventories.
A combat-ready F-15EX Eagle II landed June 5 at Portland Air National Guard Base, making the 142nd Wing the first operational unit in the Air Force to field the strike fighter. (142nd Wing/Facebook)