{"id":1462,"date":"2013-05-03T13:37:42","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T19:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=1462"},"modified":"2013-05-03T13:37:42","modified_gmt":"2013-05-03T19:37:42","slug":"boeing-presents-first-f-15sa-of-saudi-arms-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/boeing-presents-first-f-15sa-of-saudi-arms-package\/","title":{"rendered":"Boeing Presents First F-15SA of Saudi Arms Package"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Bill Carey, AIN Online
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A Boeing F-15SA test aircraft made its first flight on February 20 in St. Louis. (Photo: Boeing)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Boeing Defense presented the first F-15SA destined for Saudi Arabia in a ceremony at its St. Louis headquarters on April 30. The latest F-15 variant is the centerpiece of the largest foreign military sale in\u00a0U.S.\u00a0history, worth $29.4 billion. It also figured prominently in recent\u00a0U.S.negotiations to improve the military capabilities of Israel, the\u00a0UAE\u00a0and Saudi Arabia\u00a0simultaneously.<\/p>\n

The F-15SA\u00a0(Saudi Advanced) that rolled out in St. Louis is the first of 84 new fightersSaudi Arabia agreed to purchase in late December 2011<\/a>; another 70 F-15S fighters already operated by the Royal Saudi Air Force will be upgraded to the\u00a0SA\u00a0configuration. Boeing declined to reveal the delivery schedule. Earlier this year, the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0Air Force said that new aircraft deliveries to Saudi Arabia will begin in 2015 and conclude by 2019. Conversion kit installations in the kingdom begin in\u00a02016.<\/p>\n

The F-15SA\u00a0first flew at St. Louis on February 20. The\u00a0USAF\u00a0said the flight-test program will include three instrumented F-15As flying from Boeing\u2019s St. Louis and Palmdale, Calif.,\u00a0facilities.<\/p>\n

Improvements on the F-15SA\u00a0include fly-by-wire flight controls, a digital electronic warfare suite, Lockheed Martin\u00a0AN\/AAS-42 infrared search and track system and Raytheon\u00a0APG-63(v)3 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. The forward and aft cockpits are equipped for the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System enabling the crew to aim sensors and weapons through their helmet visors. The aircraft has two additional wing stations for increased weapons payload\u00a0capacity.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia\u2019s F-15SAs and\u00a025 new Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 60 fighters sought by the\u00a0UAE<\/a>\u00a0will be equipped with unspecified advanced \u201cstandoff weapons\u201d that have not previously been made available to those countries, according to a senior\u00a0U.S.\u00a0defense official. In addition,\u00a0the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0has agreed to supply Israel with advanced weaponry<\/a>\u00a0that includes the Bell-Boeing V-22 tiltrotor,\u00a0KC-135 tankers and\u00a0AESA\u00a0radar\u00a0retrofits.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon revealed the weapons packages during a briefing for reporters on April 19 in advance of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel\u2019s first trip to the Middle East in his new capacity. They represent \u201cone of the most complex and carefully orchestrated arms sale packages in American history,\u201d and resulted from intensive negotiations begun under previous defense secretary Leon Panetta, the defense official said. Israel\u2019s consent was critical. \u201cA key part of the agreement is [that] we believe and the Israelis believe that the provision of these capabilities [will] in no way diminish Israel\u2019s qualitative military edge,\u201d the official\u00a0said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Bill Carey, AIN Online click here for original article A Boeing F-15SA test aircraft made its first flight on February 20 in St. Louis. (Photo: Boeing) Boeing Defense presented the first F-15SA destined for Saudi Arabia in a ceremony at its St. Louis headquarters on April 30. The latest F-15 variant is the centerpiece […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1463,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[169],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-boeing"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/5-2013-1-f-15sa-first-flight.jpg?fit=275%2C188&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1464,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions\/1464"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}