Air Force grounds 452 F-15s

WASHINGTON -- The Air Force grounded more than 450 Boeing F-15 fighter jets on Wednesday after investigating a crash this month and finding defects in the aircraft's fuselage.

It was the second time this month that F-15s were grounded. The entire fleet was grounded following a Nov. 2 Missouri Air National Guard training exercise in which a pilot safely ejected before the aircraft crashed. The Air Force subsequently returned the F-15s to flight status Nov. 21.

The Air Force investigation found there were "possible fleetwide airworthiness problems" because of defects in metal rails that hold the F-15's fuselage together.

Some F-15s at Nellis Air Force Base were among those grounded Wednesday, a base spokeswoman, Capt. Jessica Martin said.

She said the decision to ground older F-15s won't affect a terrorist-tracking, air support training exercise in Pahrump because only newer F-15E Strike Eagles are being used in the exercise. The three-day exercise ends tonight.

There are about 35 F-15s at Nellis including those in the 57th Wing and some assigned to the 53rd Wing out of Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., that are stationed at Nellis in the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron.

The F-15s at Nellis are used primarily for air combat training exercises including those in the 65th Aggressor Squadron, which portray enemy aircraft.

Air Force officials said Wednesday that 452 of its oldest F-15s, or more than 60 percent of the fleet, will remain grounded until each one is inspected, and possibly repaired.

A Boeing representative could not be immediately reached for comment.

The Air Force seeks to replace aging F-15s, some more than 30 years old, with Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-22 Raptor. The latest version of the F-15 is being used in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Noncombat but critical-mission flights were flown using Lockheed's F-16s while the F-15 fleet was grounded.

The F-15 was first manufactured by St. Louis-based McDonnell-Douglas, which was purchased by Chicago-based Boeing some 10 years ago. Boeing delivered its last military F-15 to the Air Force in late 2004, but still manufactures the aircraft for nonmilitary customers, the company said.

Review-Journal writer Keith Rogers contributed to this report.