The F-15EX Fighter Has a ‘Secret Weapon’ To Beat Any Air Defense System

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Key Points: The F-15EX, the latest iteration of the legendary Eagle, incorporates the BAE Systems’ Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) to enhance survivability in contested airspaces.

-EPAWSS integrates radar warning, geolocation, and jamming capabilities, providing superior situational awareness and protection against modern threats.

-While not stealthy like fifth-generation fighters, the system equips the F-15EX with digital electronic warfare technology, bridging the gap between fourth and fifth-generation aircraft.

-Benefits include reduced size and weight for better performance and range, and interoperability with AESA radars. The EPAWSS ensures the F-15EX remains a formidable force in evolving aerial combat environments.

F-15EX and EPAWSS: A Game-Changer for Fourth-Generation Fighters

The F-15 Eagle has been a staple of the US Air Force for four decades. When the F-15 first rolled off the assembly line, she served exclusively as an air superiority fighter (“without a pound for ground”). Later, the F-15 program would be expanded to offer an E-variant that was multirole capable, demonstrating the versatility of the airframe despite its single-minded inception goals. And just this fiscal year, the F-15 program was updated to include the EX-variant, a fourth-generation-plus version of the Eagle that costs about $90 million and promises to be the most advanced Eagle ever. 

One of the things that makes the EX so advanced relative to earlier Eagle incarnations is the brand new BAE Systems’ Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System, known as EPAWSS. The EPAWSS “provides the F-15 aircraft with fully integrated radar warning, geolocation, situational awareness, and self-protection solutions to detect and defeat surface and airborne threats in highly contested, dense signal environments.”

Let’s take a closer look at the EPAWSS system.

Introducing the EPAWSS for F-15EX 

The battlespace has changed. The margins have tightened. When the original F-15 debuted in 1972, survivability was much more possible for a non-stealth fighter in contested airspace. 

However, the ever-increasing sophistication of enemy air detection methods and surface-to-air missile systems has resulted in an environment that is much more perilous to non-stealth aircraft like the F-15. 

To mitigate the risk and enhance the F-15’s survivability and performance, the EX-variant was upgraded to include the EPAWSS system. 

Granted, even with the EPAWSS, the F-15EX will not enjoy the survivability of fifth-generation fighters, like the F-22 or F-35, who have significantly smaller radar cross sections (RCS), but the F-15EX should see improvements relative to true fourth-generation fighters like the F-15 A-D variants and the F-16. 

According to the BAE website, the EPAWSS “enables deeper penetration against modern integrated air defense systems, providing rapid response capabilities and complete aircrew protection.”

Of course, the F-15EX just recently went operational with its first Air National Guard Unit (the 142nd in Oregon), which patrols the Pacific Northwest to maintain America’s territorial integrity – the point being: the EX’s EPAWSS has been cruising around Portland and Astoria and has not been tested so far as we know on a deep penetration runs against an accurate modern defense system.

In addition to enabling deeper penetration in enemy air space, BAE boasts many EPAWSS-enabled advantages, including reduced size and weight relative to previous F-15 electronic warfare systems. 

F-15EX. Image Credit: Boeing.

The reduced size and weight should result in increased fuel efficiency and hence greater range, and two, better aircraft performance on account of not being as weighed down. 

BAE also states that the EPAWSS “leverages digital electronic warfare technology from fifth-generation fighter aircraft,” in effect giving the fourth-generation F-15 airframe some of the advantages of its modern fifth-generation cousins like the F-35. 

Additionally, the EPAWSS allows for “enhanced situational awareness through all-aspect, broadband radar warning and geolocation capabilities” and “simultaneous jamming without interfering with radar and radar warning receiver.” The EPAWSS is also “interoperable with” the Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars. 

In all, the EPAWSS offers the F-15 platform a modern edge, which should ensure the airframe’s relevance for years to come. 

Two Boeing F-15EX fighters armed with air-to-air missiles. Boeing handout.

About the Author: Harrison Kass 

Harrison Kass is a defense and national security writer with over 1,000 total pieces on issues involving global affairs. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.