A U.S. Air Force F-15EX Eagle II, assigned to 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., lands at Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, July 16, 2025. (Nathaniel Jackson/U.S. Air Force)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The Air Force has delayed delivery of the 18th Wing’s first F-15EX Eagle II fighters to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, according to the wing.
The wing expects an updated timeline for the aircraft’s arrival this spring, according to an unsigned email from Kadena on Tuesday. The delay is due to a strike at Boeing’s St. Louis plant that occurred from Aug. 4 to Nov. 17, Ann Stefanek, spokeswoman for the secretary of the Air Force, wrote in an email Tuesday.
“The Air Force will continue to support the Kadena mission with rotational forces until the F-15EXs arrive,” she wrote.
The Air Force announced plans in July 2024 to permanently station 36 of the multirole fighters on Okinawa to replace an aging fleet of 48 F-15C/D aircraft. The move is part of a broader effort to deploy more advanced combat aircraft across Japan.
The first F-15EX was expected to arrive between March and June, Brig. Gen. Nicholas Evans, wing commander at the time, told reporters last March.
Production of the fighters halted during the strike at Boeing’s St. Louis facility, according to a Dec. 15 news release from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.
The strike caused “significant disruptions to the delivery schedule, impacting the modernization of the U.S. Air Force’s fighter fleet,” the release said.
However, deliveries to the Portland, Ore., Air National Guard Base resumed in December, according to the release. The first operational F-15EX aircraft were unveiled at the base in June.
While not a stealth aircraft, the F-15EX features next-generation avionics and networking capabilities and can fly faster, farther and carry a larger payload than earlier F-15 variants, according to Boeing.
The Air Force began rotating fighter squadrons to Kadena in late 2022 as it phased out the F-15C/D fleet.
Two F-35A Lightning II squadrons — the 4th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and the 356th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska — and F-16C Fighting Falcons of the 119th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron from Atlantic City Air National Guard Base, N.J., arrived at Kadena in October.
