Upgrading the SLAM Eagle
November 23, 2024
The F-15K Slam Eagle is a derivative of the F-15E Strike Eagle, developed by and operated by the Republic of Korea Air Force. The F-15K was the first of a new family of Strike Eagle variants, which also included the F-15SG for Singapore.
The F-15K was fitted with an AN/AAS-42 infra-red search and track system, a customized Tactical Electronics Warfare Suite to reduce weight and increase jamming effectiveness,[ improved communications and datalink equipment and an advanced AN/APG-63(V)1 radar. Though the APG-63(V)1 radar has a mechanical-scanned array it also has a common digital processor with the APG-63(V)3 AESA radar, and was designed to be upgraded with a replacement AESA antenna. The F-15K is armed with an array of new precision guided weapons including the AGM-84K SLAM-ER (hence the SLAM Eagle name), AGM-84H Harpoon Block II, and the German-designed KEPD 350 Taurus.
An initial batch of 40 aircraft were ordered in 2002, deliveries began in 2005. A second batch of 21 F-15Ks was ordered on 25 April 2008, at a cost of 2.3 trillion Korean won (US $2.3 billion). This second batch of aircraft were powered by Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 (EEP) engines, license-produced by Samsung Techwin, for commonality with the KF-16 fleet, rather than the more powerful General Electric F110-GE-129 engines used by the first batch.
Offset agreements saw South Korea taking responsibility for 40% of production and 25% of assembly with the fuselage and wings supplied by Korea Aerospace Industries, flight control actuators by Hanwha Corporation, the EW jammer and radar warning receiver by Samsung Thales, and the head-up display, airborne communication system, and radar by LIG Nex1, while Samsung Techwin built engines under license. Though final assembly was undertaken at Boeing’s St. Louis facility, Korean Air provides F-15K depot-level maintenance.
In December 2022, South Korea’s Korea’s Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) approved an upgrade for the 59 surviving F-15Ks. This will see the F-15Ks being upgraded to a similar standard to the USAF’s new F-15EX, or Qatar’s F-15IQ.
The aircraft will receive an all new AN/APG-82(V)1 AESA radar (70 authorised), AN/ALQ-250 EPAWSS (Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System) electronic warfare systems (70), and ADCP (Advanced Display Core Processor) II mission computers (96) and 70 AN/AAR-57 Common Missile Warning Systems (CMWS) – the latter not yet fitted to the US F-15EX.
Elsewhere in Asia, Japan is pursuing a similar upgrade for its F-15Js, with the same radar, mission computer and BAE Systems AN/ALQ-250 electronic warfare suite, while Indonesia has expressed interest in buying new F-15EXs.
Small wonder that our colleague, Gordon Arthur, writing in Defense News, judged that: “The F-15 fighter jet is having a second spring in Asia.”
