The Air Force has awarded Boeing a sole-source contract with a $131.23 billion ceiling to produce, modernize and sustain F-15 fighters for U.S. and foreign customers through 2037. The Defense News account says the contract, designated F-15 Eagle Crest, allows the service to place orders over time rather than purchase a fixed number of aircraft at signing.
The contract notice contains no order for any jets. Only $343,740 in fiscal 2026 research, development, test and evaluation funds was obligated when the award was made. The $131.23 billion figure is a ceiling on what the Air Force may order over the contract’s life, not a guaranteed expenditure or the value of aircraft already purchased.
Orders may be placed through Aug. 24, 2031, with an option to extend ordering through 2036. The framework combines new production, upgrades, retrofits, sustainment and depot support for the Air Force, the Air National Guard and foreign buyers. Boeing is to perform the work in St. Louis, while the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity.
The arrangement also includes work to establish organic depot maintenance. That would allow Air Force depots to conduct heavy overhauls themselves rather than rely solely on Boeing for that work. The contract includes production, sustainment and work to establish organic depot maintenance.
The absence of an initial aircraft order distinguishes the award from a previous multiyear contracting action cited in the account. In August 2020, the same Air Force office awarded Lockheed Martin a 10-year, $62 billion contract for new F-16 exports and issued a $4.94 billion order for 90 jets on the same day. Boeing’s F-15 award, by contrast, establishes the ordering vehicle without identifying a first aircraft buy.
The Aug. 24 notice identifies potential foreign military sales involving Japan, Israel, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and Poland. Indonesia and Poland do not currently fly the F-15, according to the account. The notice identifies the countries covered by the sales framework but does not specify quantities for them under the Eagle Crest contract.
Israel already has an F-15 purchase tied to Boeing’s St. Louis production line. A F-15EX Modernized Selected Acquisition Report issued with the fiscal 2027 budget says a Dec. 29, 2025 agreement covers 25 F-15IA aircraft, with an option for 25 more, at $8.58 billion. The report says the purchase “stabilizes the lower-tier supply chain and extends the active manufacturing life of the F-15EX production line.” That agreement is identified separately from the Eagle Crest award and does not turn the $131.23 billion ceiling into a committed purchase value.
The same report raises the planned U.S. F-15EX buy to 268 aircraft through fiscal 2031, compared with a previous baseline of 98 aircraft. It says the larger buy will require updates to the aircraft’s radar, mission computer, electronic warfare suite and engines. The report presents those changes as requirements associated with the expanded U.S. procurement plan, rather than as specifications for every aircraft that could eventually be ordered under Eagle Crest.
The report also says the F-15EX program will miss its July 2027 full operational capability date. It attributes the schedule problem to a 15-week strike at Boeing’s St. Louis plant, from Aug. 4 to Nov. 17, 2025, along with what it describes as the prime contractor’s subsequent failure to meet production recovery goals. The report’s mitigation steps include “a re-evaluation of the FOC definition,” indicating that the service is considering how the milestone will be measured as the program moves past the missed date.
Taken together, the contract creates a long-duration mechanism for future F-15 orders and support, while the immediate financial commitment remains the $343,740 obligation listed at award. The ceiling permits potential activity through 2037, but the notice itself does not establish how much of that authority will be used or how many aircraft will be ordered.