F-15I Ra'am

The F-15I Ra'am ("Thunder") is a two-seat, twin-engine strike fighter built by McDonnell Douglas for the Israeli Air Force, derived from the F-15E Strike Eagle. Twenty-five were produced at St. Louis between 1996 and 1998, the last F-15s built before the line paused ahead of the Advanced Eagle era. The first pair were delivered in January 1998 and all serve with No. 69 Squadron ("The Hammers") at Hatzerim Air Base, which previously flew the F-4E Phantom II. The type is the Israeli Air Force's principal long-range strike platform.

Development

Iraqi Scud strikes on Israeli towns during the 1991 Gulf War led the Israeli government to seek a long-range strike aircraft able to reach targets far beyond its borders. Lockheed Martin offered an F-16 variant; McDonnell Douglas offered the F/A-18 and the F-15E. On 27 January 1994 Israel announced its intention to buy 21 modified F-15Es as the F-15I under the Peace Fox V programme, and on 12 May 1994 the US government authorised the sale of up to 25. Four more were ordered in November 1995. The US Air Force contracted McDonnell Douglas for the airframes while Israel bought engines directly from Pratt & Whitney; the foreign military sale case, covering LANTIRN pods, spare engines, spares, training and support, was valued at about 1.76 billion dollars, with over 500 million dollars of offset work placed with 34 Israeli companies. The first aircraft flew on 12 September 1997 and deliveries ran to 1999, when Israel opted for the F-16I Sufa rather than a second F-15I batch.

Design

The F-15I retains the F-15E airframe, conformal fuel tanks and two Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 turbofans of 13,200 kgf each, but differs in avionics and electronic warfare fit. The radar is the APG-70I, an export APG-70 with synthetic-aperture mapping resolution degraded by about a third, detecting airliner-sized targets at about 280 km and fighter-sized targets at about 104 km. Targeting used Sharpshooter pods initially, with 30 LANTIRN pods bought later. Delivered without radar warning receivers, the aircraft received the Elisra SPS-2110 EW suite with a new central computer and embedded GPS/INS; a counterweight replaces the AN/ALQ-128 antenna on the port fin, and AN/ALQ-135B band 3 antennas and additional chaff and flare dispensers are fitted on the tail booms. The NVG-compatible cockpit uses the Elbit DASH helmet-mounted sight for both crew, with all sensors slavable to it.

Armament

Fixed armament is one 20 mm M61A1 Vulcan cannon. Air-to-air weapons include the AIM-9L Sidewinder, Rafael Python 4 and Python 5, AIM-7 Sparrow and AIM-120 AMRAAM. Air-to-ground load reaches about 10,400 kg, covering Mk 82 and Mk 84 bombs, Paveway laser-guided bombs, GBU-28 bunker busters, JDAM, AGM-65 Maverick and Israeli stand-off weapons.

Operational History

No. 69 Squadron operates the Ra'am in a strategic bomber role. In August 2003 three Israeli F-15s flew 1,600 nautical miles to Poland and back. F-15Is were used heavily after October 2023, striking the Yemeni ports of Hodeidah and Ras Isa on 29 September 2024 alongside F-35I and F-16I aircraft and further Houthi targets in December 2024. During Operation Rising Lion in June 2025 they flew long-range strikes against Iranian nuclear and military sites and shot down Iranian one-way attack drones and cruise missiles.

Variants

• F-15I Ra'am: Original 25 aircraft delivered 1998–1999 with APG-70I radar, F100-PW-229 engines and Israeli EW and helmet-mounted sight systems.
• F-15I+: Mid-life update of the existing 25 airframes, cleared by the US State Department on 13 August 2024 under FMS case Israel 24-01.
• F-15IA: New-build Advanced Eagle with F110-GE-129 engines, ADCP II mission computers and APG-82(V)1 AESA radar; a contract for the first 25 was signed in December 2025 with an option on 25 more.