The Air Pressure Life Cycle Administration Middle has established a devoted EPAWSS Speedline on the Warner Robins Air Logistics Advanced to speed up the fielding of the brand new defensive suite on the F-15E Strike Eagle.
The U.S. Air Pressure is taking steps to speed up the fielding of the AN/ALQ-250 Eagle Passive Energetic Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS) on the F-15E Strike Eagle. In a press launch on Could 26, 2026, the service has introduced that the Air Pressure Life Cycle Administration Middle has established a devoted EPAWSS Speedline on the Warner Robins Air Logistics Advanced, in Georgia.
The EPAWSS Speedline will obtain the primary F-15Es slated for modification in June 2026. The service says the road will probably be unbiased and considerably speed up the set up and fielding of next-generation Digital Warfare (EW) capabilities on F-15E Strike Eagle.
Earlier than the institution of the Speedline, the EPAWSS improve was included within the F-15E’s scheduled Programmed Depot Upkeep (PDM) cycles. The service famous that this was an environment friendly methodology for routine depot work, nevertheless it slowed down the fielding of the improve because it was restricted to the jet’s commonplace upkeep schedule.
The Speedline will take away the limitation by working independently from the usual F-15E PDM line. The service says this “supplies this system with the mandatory flexibility to finish installations of this essential defensive system on plane that is probably not due for PDM for an additional 5 to seven years.”
“The F-15E Strike Eagle stays a cornerstone of our tactical airpower and deep strike capabilities,” mentioned Lt. Col. Matthew Heil, F-15 Program Workplace, EPAWSS Materiel Chief. “The mixing of superior digital warfare suites, such because the Eagle Passive Energetic Warning Survivability System, ensures the F-15E is not going to simply survive, however actively disrupt and dismantle adversary kill chains in probably the most extremely contested, electromagnetically dense environments. We’re not merely extending the lifetime of this platform; we’re aggressively increasing its lethality and survivability to make sure it dominates the fashionable battlespace.”
The improve
The primary modifications for the F-15E Strike Eagle, particularly an plane from the forty eighth Fighter Wing based mostly at RAF Lakenheath, UK, started in Could 2023. The primary two modified plane had been then delivered to the British base in January 2025.
Earlier in the identical month the EPAWSS additionally entered full price manufacturing. The Air Pressure accomplished in early 2024 the Preliminary Operational Check & Analysis (IOT&E) of the EPAWSS for the F-15E Strike Eagle and F-15EX Eagle II.
The system is put in from the manufacturing facility as commonplace subject on the brand new F-15EX and is being retrofitted on F-15Es to exchange out of date parts of the legacy Tactical Digital Warfare System. In complete, the Air Pressure plans to retrofit 99 F-15Es and equip all F-15EXs with EPAWSS.
Beforehand, EPAWSS was put in solely Strike Eagles assigned to Eglin AFB, Florida, and Nellis AFB, Nevada, along with the Eagle IIs. These F-15Es had been devoted to developmental and operational testing.
The AN/ALQ-250 EPAWSS
The Eagle Passive Energetic Warning Survivability System is a cutting-edge self-protection system supposed to allow the F-15 to detect, establish, find, deny, degrade, disrupt, and defeat air and surface-to-air threats throughout operations inside extremely contested environments. The system will substitute the earlier self-protection suite put in on the Strike Eagle.
EPAWSS is totally built-in with radar warning, geo-location and elevated chaff and flare functionality to detect and defeat floor and airborne threats in signal-dense and extremely contested environments. Due to this, the system permits freedom of maneuver and deeper penetration into battlespaces protected by fashionable built-in air protection techniques.
“EPAWSS is a leap in know-how, enhancing the lethality and fight capabilities of the F-15E and F-15EX in contested, degraded environments in opposition to superior threats,” mentioned Maj Bryant “Jager” Baum, EPAWSS Check Director for the Air Pressure Operational Check & Analysis Middle (AFOTEC). “EPAWSS has set the baseline for EW inside the fighter group.”
BAE Techniques, the producer of the system, notes EPAWSS is notably smaller and lighter than earlier EW techniques for the F-15, because of its totally digital know-how. The corporate additionally says EPAWSS has broad instantaneous bandwidth and a high-speed scan functionality to detect all RF risk courses, together with low likelihood of intercept and fashionable agile threats.
“EPAWSS was designed for upgradeability and fast functionality insertion,” added Amy Nesbitt, EPAWSS program supervisor at BAE Techniques. “We’re utilizing agile software program growth to offer iterative upgrades to fielded EW techniques—permitting our clients to defeat future electromagnetic threats.”
The system in U.S. service is at present not built-in with the AN/AAR-57A(V) Widespread Missile Warning System (CMWS) designed to detect infrared threats, even when the F-15EX options the identical mounting factors used for these sensors on the F-15QA and F-15SA. Nonetheless, techniques like CMWS can nonetheless be built-in later, as BAE officers informed us in 2021 that “EPAWSS can combine with a number of sensor sources to offer warfighters with enhanced survivability through a completely built-in countermeasure response.”
EPAWSS additionally permits to extend the F-15’s chaff and flares capability by 50%, with 4 extra dispensers added within the EPAWSS fairings behind the tail fins (two for every fairing), for a complete of 12 dispenser housing 360 cartridges. This enchancment is essential as in fashionable situations chaff and flares are sometimes launched preemptively to counter MANPADS (Man Transportable Air Protection System), which means that now the Eagle may have extra countermeasures out there for a greater safety.
EPAWSS integrates cognitive digital warfare to raised discriminate the alerts obtained by the system. This functionality was demonstrated in the course of the Northern Edge 2023 giant power train take a look at occasion, which examined EPAWSS’ means to quickly reply to beforehand unencountered electromagnetic threats. The checks challenged the system’s means to course of in-mission sensor knowledge, create beautiful methods, and optimize waveforms in actual time.
“Our shut collaboration with the U.S. Air Pressure permits us to mature EPAWSS cognitive processing capabilities,” mentioned Chip Mosle, program director at BAE Techniques. “By incrementally testing and fielding cognitive EW options to confirmed techniques equivalent to EPAWSS, we’re enabling tactical spectrum overmatch in opposition to superior threats which might be unpredictable, evolving, and adaptable.”
Within the Director, Operational Check & Analysis report, it’s talked about that EPAWSS replaces three functionally out of date F-15 legacy Tactical Digital Warfare System parts: the AN/ALR-56C Radar Warning Receiver, the AN/ALQ-135 Inside Countermeasures Set, and the AN/ALE-45 Countermeasures Dispenser Set. The system additionally integrates with the F-15 AN/APG-82(V)1 radar and Superior Show Core Processor II mission pc.
