Comments by "LRRPFco52" (@LRRPFco52) on "Spark" channel.

  1. They’re also showing Oregon ANG F-15As while the personnel are still wearing BDU’s. The mx Sqdn CDR also said “These airplanes are 20 years old.”, which puts the time of filming in the mid-1990s because no F-15A was built past 1978 that I’m aware of. C models started rolling out of St. Louis in 1979.
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  2.  @captaron  Every one of those F-15As in this video is in the boneyard. It's an old video. Oregon ANG flies C models now, one of the only CONUS F-15C units.
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  3. @Wizzer F-15As quickly got sent to ANG units as Cs rolled off the line and into operational units in West Germany, Netherlands, England, Japan, Iceland, Virginia, Holloman NM in the 1980s. All F-15s got the DSP upgrade to the radar on the late 1970s-early 1980s as one of the main technical orders. F-15Cs later got an Electronically Scanned Array radar antennae, then an even newer AESA, then data link, a new digital EW suite, JHMCS, and AIM-9X/AIM-120D integration. There are a lot of major Voper production blocks with substantial differences over the years. In USAF operational units, they only fly Block 40/42 & 50/52, totally different than Block 30s and 25s. All the A & B models made from 1978-1983 are long-gone to the boneyard or TGT drones. They've been shooting down QF-16C Block 30s for years now. Operational Vipers are currently finishing or already have the new AESA radars, new data links/JTIDS, JHMCS, EW suites, LITENING pods, AIM-9X and AIM-120C7/D integration. Just like with the F-4E, they were upgraded until the end with AIM-9L, new ECM, etc. F-4 guys were deflated after getting so many new systems, only to have them sold to foreign countries or send to boneyard. Airframes and subsystems time out, no longer meet readiness and durability of US training and deployment tempo. That's why the JSF airframe is rated for so many more hours than any legacy fighters, which also doesn't get reported.
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  4. @Wizzer The oldest F-16C Block 40s we fly in the USAF and ANG were made in the late 1980s-early 1990s. F-16C Block 50s were made from 1990s through early 2000s. Those will serve until the end, depending on flight hours, wear & tear, and mishaps.
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  5. @Wizzer Modified to composites? That's a totally new design, not something you can modify to. They've done structural overhauls on F-15Cs as part of SLEP, especially after one broke in half in flight and grounded the fleet. Israelis had one with canopy failure recently as well. Canooy blew off. Eagles are old.
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  6. @Wizzer F-15EX is based off the F-15QA for Qatar.
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