The U.S. Air Force received a Boeing-built multirole fighter aircraft March 11 at Eglin AF Base in Florida. USAF said Thursday the F-15EX aircraft will undergo a series of developmental and operational tests throughout its entire deployment. Aircrews will perform local airspace flights to familiarize themselves with the fighter prior to the tests.
"Combining these test capabilities on day one of flight test helps ensure F-15EX is ready to execute on air tasking order day one," said Lt. Col. Richard Turner, commander at the 40th FLTS.
The 40th Flight Test Squadron and the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron aim to help the aircraft achieve test objectives and ensure rapid delivery of the unit to warfighters via the integrated tests. F-15EX features updated electronic flight controls, cockpit, mission systems, software tools and payload capacity.
The fighter is also built in support of the Department of Defense's DevSecOps program, an effort that seeks to create secure, agile and flexible software technologies. A second F-15EX unit, dubbed as EX2, will arrive in April.