Japan’s F-15 ‘Super Interceptor’ Program Should Have China Worried

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Key Points on a ‘New’ F-15 for Japan: Japan’s Super Interceptor (JSI) Program aims to modernize 68 F-15J fighter jets by 2030, incorporating advanced radar, electronic warfare systems, and high-speed computing from the F-15EX.

-These upgrades include AESA radar, the AN/ALQ-250 EPAWSS system, and Honeywell’s ADCP II processor, enabling enhanced multi-target detection and precision strike capabilities.

-The addition of AGM-158 JASSM-ER missiles extends attack ranges and enables synergy with Japan’s growing F-35 fleet.

-This integration allows JSI-equipped F-15s to serve as missile carriers and support platforms in tandem with stealthy F-35s, ensuring air superiority and mission versatility against evolving threats.

Japan’s Super Interceptor Program: F-15J Upgrades Aim for Air Superiority by 2030

Long-range, multi-target high-resolution radar, precision air-to-surface and air-to-ground air-launched weapons, advanced electronic warfare, and a variant of the fastest computer ever put in a fighter jet are all key elements of a massive Japanese Super Interceptor Program designed to substantially modernize and enhance 68 of the Japanese Air Defense Forces F-15J fighter jets. The program aims to be completed by 2030. 

The Japanese aircraft, to be worked on at Boeing’s St. Louis, Mo., facility through a DoD Foreign Military Sales contract with Japan, will receive paradigm-changing new technologies, many of which have already been integrated into the US Air Force’s F-15 EX. 

New Weapons for JSI F-15

The technological upgrades are wide-ranging and quite significant, according to an interesting essay in the Aviationist, as they include a comprehensive suite of technologies. A critical part of the upgrades includes a weapons envelope expansion and new forms of air-to-surface attack with the addition of the US-built AGM-158  Joint Air-to-Surface-Standoff Missile-Extended Range (JASSM ER). 

Necessary upgrades not only introduce land-attack possibilities but also extend attack range for the Japanese aircraft, which are intended to focus as supportive air-combat platforms to the F-35 by operating as a cruise missile carrier and supplemental attack platform.

Extended capabilities make great tactical sense, as Japan is acquiring a large force of F-35s, and 5th-gen aircraft will use stealth and speed to destroy enemy air defenses to open up an attack “corridor” for more heavily armed 4th-generation fighters.

This synergy has been dramatically improved in recent years by the US Air Force, which has found new ways to achieve two-way data link networking between 5th-and-4th generation fighter jets. 

High-Tech Computing for Japan’s F-15

Japan is likely doing this as well, as evidenced by some of the other ongoing electronic, computing, and communications upgrades fundamental to JSI. These include the addition of AESA Actively Scanned Electronic Array radar and AN/ALQ-250 EPAWSS Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System.

AESA radar is well known as a next-generation threat detection system capable of scanning multiple targets simultaneously at longer ranges on a wide range of frequencies using high-fidelity imaging. 

F-15EX. Image Credit: Boeing.

The JSI F-15s will also get Honeywell’s high-speed ADCP II Advanced Display Core Processor II. This computer, described as the fastest computer processing ever integrated into a fighter jet, has been added to the US Air Force’s upgraded F-15 Eagle II.

Boeing developers told Warrior Maven a few years ago that this ADCP computer performs 87 billion functions per second. The new processing speed supports improved air-attack weapons such as the AIM-9X or AIM-120 missiles and can also enable continued software upgrades. Several years ago, former Air Force senior commander Gen. Arnold Bunch, explained this to Warrior Maven in an interesting interview. 

“If I do not put in the new computer with its throughput and processing power, there are certain apps I cannot run to grow and evolve it for the future,”  Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, Jr. told me (Warrior) several years ago when he was the  Military Deputy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition.

Bunch is now retired but also went on to serve as the Commander of Air Force Materiel Command. 

About the Author: Kris Osborn 

Kris Osborn is the Military Technology  Editor of 19FortyFive and President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters  Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.