Air Force grounds F-15s in Afghanistan after Missouri crash

Air Force grounds F-15s in Afghanistan after Missouri crash

www.cnn.com

A mandatory grounding of Air Force F-15s has been expanded to cover those flying combat missions over Afghanistan after a crash in Missouri last week, Air Force officials said Monday.

The F-15Es in Afghanistan can fly only in emergency situations to protect U.S....

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The article also mentions this:

The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but Air Force officials said it was a structural failure and the plane broke apart in flight. The accident happened during a routine training operation in mid-Missouri. The pilot ejected.

The Air Force's top aircraft, the stealthy F-22 Raptor, is newly operational for the air service and has not yet been deployed in combat.

The expensive F-22 will eventually be the main fighter jet for the Air Force, but budgetary restrictions on the plane have forced the Air Force to cut the number of planes it will have in the fleet

www.cnn.com
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The F-15 is getting long in the tooth. Even the F-15E is getting older. The C/D models that this accident happened to were built in the early-mid 1980s. This is a prime example of why we need the F-22 and replacements for older aircraft.

The F-15E also had problems with structural fatigue when they put more powerful engines than the C/D models had. It caused backbone cracks from the vibration of the engines.

The F-15 was a highly innovative design that led to many changes to the way fighters were built and designed, but it's time for them to come off the front lines and take their place with the B-52.

The F-15 was designed for 4,000 flight hours of service life. It was demonstrated that they could stretch it up to 7,600 of hard flight hours, or up to almost 12,000 of "soft" flight hours. Estimates would have taken the F-15C up to 2030, but these were based on 270 flight hours a year, which is a normal year of non-combat training. I suspect that this aircraft was one that had reached the end of its' service life and hadn't gone through a PDM to find any structural problems yet.

The F-15E was designed for 16,000 flight hours of service life.