Comment by greedo
5 years ago
"No F-15 has been lost in air-to-air combat, but there have been losses. "
What a ridiculous metric. All aircraft have non-combat losses; that's the nature of flying a high performance aircraft.
There were almost 1k F-15s built (excluding the Strike Eagle models) for the USAF. Not exactly "small numbers." And the F-15 didn't necessitate the LWFC, that was a budget decision to help protect other aircraft manufacturers.
The F-15 is arguably the second most important fighter the USAF has ever had (the P-51 or P-47 can fight over first). And Boyd has been wrong about many aircraft designs. His fan club hates the way the F-16 turned out, but it too has been incredibly successful by any metric applied.
>"All aircraft have non-combat losses; that's the nature of flying a high performance aircraft."
F-15 have been lost in combat but not air-to-air combat.
Only 2 F-15E Strike Eagles have been lost in combat. One shot down by gunfire during Desert Storm, and another to an SA-2 during the same conflict. No other F-15 models have been lost in combat, though there have been plenty of non-combat losses.