Boeing will turn over four advanced F-15QA Ababil fighter jets to Qatar at the conclusion of Farnborough air show.
The newly assembled Qatar Advanced F-15s are participating in flying displays at Farnborough, after making an appearance at the Royal International Air Tattoo last week and at the Spirit of St Louis air show in June.
Boeing’s fighter production campus, which includes the F-15 assembly line, is located in St Louis adjacent to Lambert International airport.
Qatar ordered 36 of the Boeing fighters in 2017 under a $6.2 billion contract, with the first F-15QAs delivered to the Qatar Emiri Air Force (QEAF) in 2021.Doha subsequently added 12 more aircraft to its acquisition programme, of which the four jets at Farnborough are the first tranche.
Boeing pilots are performing the F-15QA flying displays at Farnborough, after which QEAF personnel will take possession of the jets for transit to their home station in Qatar.
The QA variant of Boeing’s venerable F-15 fighter was custom build for Qatar and served as the precursor the US Air Force’s latest F-15EX Eagle II fighter. Many of the improvements included on the EX variant were first pioneered for the QA model, including fly-by-wire technology, increased weapons capacity and modernised Advanced Electronically Scanned Array radar.
Boeing is now producing combat configuration F-15EXs for the US Air Force, the first of which was delivered in June. Eight total F-15EXs have been handed over to the service, with two of those being combat configured aircraft.
The USAF currently plans to acquire 98 examples of the latest Eagle fighter, although the number has fluctuated repeatedly.
