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 award, designated F-15 Eagle Crest, creates a long-term ordering framework rather than committing the government to buy a fixed number of aircraft at signing. Defense News reported that the Aug. 24 contract does not include an order for any jets.
The ceiling is therefore not a $131.23 billion payment to Boeing. It is the maximum value of orders the Air Force may place over the contract’s life. Only $343,740 in fiscal 2026 research, development, test and evaluation funds was obligated when the award was made. The eventual value will depend on orders issued under the framework.
The Air Force may place orders through Aug. 24, 2031, with an option to extend the ordering period to 2036. The contract combines new production, upgrades, retrofits, sustainment and depot support for the Air Force, the Air National Guard and foreign military customers. Boeing will 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 provision is intended to give Air Force depots the ability to conduct heavy F-15 overhauls rather than relying solely on Boeing for that work.
The absence of a jet order distinguishes the award from a comparable F-16 contracting action. 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 aircraft on the same day. The F-15 Eagle Crest notice contains no equivalent aircraft quantity or initial production order.
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, while Israel is already buying aircraft from Boeing’s St. Louis production line. The notice identifies the countries connected to the contract framework, but it does not state how many aircraft, upgrades or sustainment orders each customer might receive.
A F-15EX Modernized Selected Acquisition Report issued with the fiscal 2027 budget provides additional context for the program’s planned workload. The report says a Dec. 29, 2025, agreement covers 25 F-15IA aircraft, with an option for 25 more, at $8.58 billion. It says the purchase “stabilizes the lower-tier supply chain and extends the active manufacturing life of the F-15EX production line.” That agreement is separate from the contract ceiling, but it identifies one existing foreign requirement associated with the same St. Louis production line.
The report also raises the planned U.S. F-15EX buy to 268 aircraft through fiscal 2031, compared with a baseline of 98 aircraft. It says the larger purchase will require updates to the aircraft’s radar, mission computer, electronic warfare suite and engines. The report does not establish that the full $131.23 billion ceiling will be used for those aircraft or upgrades.
The F-15EX schedule also faces a stated delay. The report says the program will miss its July 2027 full operational capability date after a 15-week strike at Boeing’s St. Louis plant that ran from Aug. 4 to Nov. 17, 2025, compounded, in the report’s assessment, by Boeing’s failure to meet production recovery goals. The mitigation measures include reconsidering how the service defines and measures the full operational capability milestone. That schedule issue affects the program’s planned milestone, while the Eagle Crest award establishes the contracting vehicle for future production, modernization and sustainment orders.