F-15N Sea Eagle: The Exotic Eagle Species that Never Made it to the Carrier Decks.
The F-15N was a carrier-capable variant of the F-15 platform conceived as a replacement for the venerable F-14 Tomcat by McDonnell Douglas.


The F-15N Sea Eagle was proposed in 1970s as the carrier capable naval variant of its F-15 Eagle by McDonnell Douglas when the USN started looking for substitutes for its F-14 Tomcat, which, despite of being highly capable, was really expensive to maintain owing to issues with its Pratt Whitney-built TF-30 turbofan engine and the variable sweep wing. In fact, the high acquisition as well as operating and sustainment costs of the Tomcats; with a single F-14's acquisition cost almost equal to 3 F-35s in dollar purchasing power terms; made the program reach the very top of the Congress' chopping list for defense programs.
The F-15N was to have strengthened landing gear & folding wingtips for carrier based operations besides variable sweep wing. However, cost evaluation of the proposal along with inability of the Eagle to carry the long range AIM-54 Phoenix AAM missiles (considered as the go-to aerial weapon of the time for long-range engagements) along with the limited range of its onboard radar collectively & effectively terminated the F-15N Sea Eagle prematurely, at the proposal stage itself, and ensured an extended life span for the F-14 Tomcats...
About the Author: Rajat Narang is the Co-Founder & Partner of Noealt Corporate Services apart from being an A&D Industry Researcher & Specialist, Serial Author and Nuclear, Aviation & Cold-War Historian. For his full bio and list of books authored by him on the Global A&D Industry, access his author page on Amazon.
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