In this era of somewhat sluggish stealth fighters capable of sneaking deep behind enemy lines, the F-15EX Eagle II stands out from the 21st-century pack. While this latest iteration of the legendary Cold War dogfighter comes jampacked with modern avionics – and even boasts the fastest mission computer ever affixed to a fighter – the F-15EX makes no effort to hide its approach in contested airspace.

The Eagle II knows you see it coming… and one could argue, it simply doesn’t care.

While stealth is still prized for air combat operations, not all missions require it. Because of the high operating costs associated with flying stealth fighters, 4th generation platforms like the F-15EX are seeing renewed life in air operations, like domestic defense, where being sneaky isn’t a priority. Now, the US Air Force wants to boost its domestic defense fleet by acquiring more than 100 of these formidable jets.

A new video released by Boeing shows the incredible aerobatic performance of the F-15QA, which is a variant of the Eagle designed specifically for Qatar. As a result, this video may be the closest glimpse we’ve gotten yet to just how much more capable the F-15EX will be in air combat, as the F-15EX is only the third version of the fighter to turn over control of the aircraft to a computer, following only Qatar’s F-15QA and Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA.

The F-15’s operational lineage dates back to 1976 when it........

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