Naif al Hilali
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@Khafee is the resident expert on the Middle Eastern (Arab) defense industry. From my little knowledge (of primarily the Western and Russian aerospace industries), kindly note from the link I posted earlier (excerpts from the article The secretive Super Eagle, Combat Aircraft January 2017):
"...In order to allow the use of these hardpoints, the F-15SA is fitted with a new Goodrich full-authority digital fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control system, with no mechanical back-up. An 18-month test period was initially planned to clear the new system across the entire flight envelope, but unspecified snags with it led to significant program delays."
*** Note: This is the trouble Boeing and Goodrich had with the DFBW system.
"...EAGLES REBORN
A total of 84 new-build second-generation F-15SAs will be delivered to the RSAF from Boeing’s St Louis, Missouri assembly line. The existing fleet of 68 older, first-generation F-15S Strike Eagle multi-role fighters are to be converted to that standard by the Alsalam Aircraft Company as part of the same overarching $29.4-billion contract, the largest Foreign Military Sales (FMS) deal in US history.
The program for the manufacturing of the new forward fuselages and wings for the retrofit — the ‘conversion program’ — is designated F-15SR. Alsalam’s F-15SR program thus produces the forward fuselages and wing sets for the in-country F-15SA conversion program.
A formal order for the 84 new-build F-15SAs was placed in March 2012. That for the conversion of 68 F-15S aircraft to F-15SA status (via the F-15SR program) followed on June 26 that year.
...PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
Production of the F-15SA continued apace even as the test program progressed, with aircraft being completed, test-flown and then stored. Eleven production aircraft have been identified in photographs. Several were spotted flying at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport, a civil/military public airport serving Springfield, the capital of Illinois, and home to the Illinois Air National Guard’s 183rd Fighter Wing, a non-flying unit.
Aircraft noted include 12-1004, 12-1016, 12-1017, 12-1019, 12-1020, 12-1023, 12-1025, 12-1027, 12-1028, 12-1030 and 12-1031. 12-1023 and 12-1025 may have been the first two F-15S-to-F-15SA conversions, which were undertaken in St Louis rather than by the Alsalam Aircraft Company in Saudi Arabia. The latter company will be responsible for converting the remaining F-15S aircraft to F-15SA standard, manufacturing new wings and forward fuselage sections for the conversions as well as pylons and pylon adaptors for stations 1 and 9.
New forward fuselages are needed because of the need to accommodate FBW flight control system black boxes, while new displays, avionics and warning systems may need additional power and cooling provision, and the heavy AESA antenna might require a strengthened front bulkhead.
Alsalam signed the F-15SA wing and forward fuselage contract in June 2012. It assigned a leadership team and developed a project plan, including training.In July 2013, then-CEO Mohammed Fallatah said that the company had been ‘undergoing intensive preparations for the loading of the first component piece into the assembly tooling’. Fallatah said that this marked Alsalam’s ‘transition from conventional maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activity on commercial and military airplanes to a position of creating added value with the assembly of large aircraft components.’
If anything, Fallatah was guilty of understatement. Alsalam is building key sub-assemblies of an important modern fast jet, but those components include the crucial forward fuselage, which will be more densely packed with sophisticated and critical systems than any other part of the aircraft. It will be using these sub-assemblies as it undertakes what will amount to the final assembly of the newly converted F-15SAs.
Alsalam dispatched two classes of employees to train and work at St Louis, where the first two F-15S-to-F-15SA conversions were undertaken. While a Boeing team converted the first aircraft for validation, an Alsalam team performed this work on the second verification aircraft. The conversion of these two aircraft in Missouri means that Alsalam will only convert 66 aircraft in Riyadh.
There were reports that this first US-based phase ended in December 2015. The following March, Alsalam held a party to celebrate completion of the two-year program to upgrade the first F-15S to F-15SA standard.
On the LinkedIn business networking website, David Mitchell, described as the director of manufacturing operations at Alsalam, noted the completion of the moving line assembly station for its F-15 forward fuselage factory in Riyadh on April 21, 2015.
The US DoD announced on April 1, 2016 that the Alsalam Aircraft Company had received a not-to-exceed $32.5-million undefinitized contract action for services required for the tear-down and assessment of three F-15S aircraft (identified by Bloomberg as 5502, 9222 and 0613) and for the modification of one of these airframes (probably 5502) to F-15SA configuration to serve as the prototype Saudi conversion in 2017.
Alsalam delivered its first F-15SA forward fuselage on August 22, 2016. This was quickly accepted and signed off by Boeing and the US government. The second was expected to follow in October 2016, and the first set of wings in November. The conversion program will run from this year until 2020 or 2021. Yahya Al Ghoraibi, Alsalam’s new president and CEO, described the deliveries as a ‘Very big achievement, we are very proud. I am grateful to the Ministry of Defense for giving Alsalam this work, and for always supporting us to succeed. The Ministry and the Air Force have always been there for us, and have demonstrated this in every aspect of our work.’
"
"...In order to allow the use of these hardpoints, the F-15SA is fitted with a new Goodrich full-authority digital fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control system, with no mechanical back-up. An 18-month test period was initially planned to clear the new system across the entire flight envelope, but unspecified snags with it led to significant program delays."
*** Note: This is the trouble Boeing and Goodrich had with the DFBW system.
"...EAGLES REBORN
A total of 84 new-build second-generation F-15SAs will be delivered to the RSAF from Boeing’s St Louis, Missouri assembly line. The existing fleet of 68 older, first-generation F-15S Strike Eagle multi-role fighters are to be converted to that standard by the Alsalam Aircraft Company as part of the same overarching $29.4-billion contract, the largest Foreign Military Sales (FMS) deal in US history.
The program for the manufacturing of the new forward fuselages and wings for the retrofit — the ‘conversion program’ — is designated F-15SR. Alsalam’s F-15SR program thus produces the forward fuselages and wing sets for the in-country F-15SA conversion program.
A formal order for the 84 new-build F-15SAs was placed in March 2012. That for the conversion of 68 F-15S aircraft to F-15SA status (via the F-15SR program) followed on June 26 that year.
...PRODUCTION SCHEDULE
Production of the F-15SA continued apace even as the test program progressed, with aircraft being completed, test-flown and then stored. Eleven production aircraft have been identified in photographs. Several were spotted flying at Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport, a civil/military public airport serving Springfield, the capital of Illinois, and home to the Illinois Air National Guard’s 183rd Fighter Wing, a non-flying unit.
Aircraft noted include 12-1004, 12-1016, 12-1017, 12-1019, 12-1020, 12-1023, 12-1025, 12-1027, 12-1028, 12-1030 and 12-1031. 12-1023 and 12-1025 may have been the first two F-15S-to-F-15SA conversions, which were undertaken in St Louis rather than by the Alsalam Aircraft Company in Saudi Arabia. The latter company will be responsible for converting the remaining F-15S aircraft to F-15SA standard, manufacturing new wings and forward fuselage sections for the conversions as well as pylons and pylon adaptors for stations 1 and 9.
New forward fuselages are needed because of the need to accommodate FBW flight control system black boxes, while new displays, avionics and warning systems may need additional power and cooling provision, and the heavy AESA antenna might require a strengthened front bulkhead.
Alsalam signed the F-15SA wing and forward fuselage contract in June 2012. It assigned a leadership team and developed a project plan, including training.In July 2013, then-CEO Mohammed Fallatah said that the company had been ‘undergoing intensive preparations for the loading of the first component piece into the assembly tooling’. Fallatah said that this marked Alsalam’s ‘transition from conventional maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) activity on commercial and military airplanes to a position of creating added value with the assembly of large aircraft components.’
If anything, Fallatah was guilty of understatement. Alsalam is building key sub-assemblies of an important modern fast jet, but those components include the crucial forward fuselage, which will be more densely packed with sophisticated and critical systems than any other part of the aircraft. It will be using these sub-assemblies as it undertakes what will amount to the final assembly of the newly converted F-15SAs.
Alsalam dispatched two classes of employees to train and work at St Louis, where the first two F-15S-to-F-15SA conversions were undertaken. While a Boeing team converted the first aircraft for validation, an Alsalam team performed this work on the second verification aircraft. The conversion of these two aircraft in Missouri means that Alsalam will only convert 66 aircraft in Riyadh.
There were reports that this first US-based phase ended in December 2015. The following March, Alsalam held a party to celebrate completion of the two-year program to upgrade the first F-15S to F-15SA standard.
On the LinkedIn business networking website, David Mitchell, described as the director of manufacturing operations at Alsalam, noted the completion of the moving line assembly station for its F-15 forward fuselage factory in Riyadh on April 21, 2015.
The US DoD announced on April 1, 2016 that the Alsalam Aircraft Company had received a not-to-exceed $32.5-million undefinitized contract action for services required for the tear-down and assessment of three F-15S aircraft (identified by Bloomberg as 5502, 9222 and 0613) and for the modification of one of these airframes (probably 5502) to F-15SA configuration to serve as the prototype Saudi conversion in 2017.
Alsalam delivered its first F-15SA forward fuselage on August 22, 2016. This was quickly accepted and signed off by Boeing and the US government. The second was expected to follow in October 2016, and the first set of wings in November. The conversion program will run from this year until 2020 or 2021. Yahya Al Ghoraibi, Alsalam’s new president and CEO, described the deliveries as a ‘Very big achievement, we are very proud. I am grateful to the Ministry of Defense for giving Alsalam this work, and for always supporting us to succeed. The Ministry and the Air Force have always been there for us, and have demonstrated this in every aspect of our work.’
"
