The F-15X is about one thing. A missile truck to make up for the F-35's poor loadout...

via Heritage.org

As envisioned, the F-15X will include all those improvements, while carrying a veritable arsenal of air-to-ground and air-to-air munitions including up to 22 air-to-air missiles. With both conformal and external drop tanks, the jet has a range of 600 miles, equaling that of an F-35A.

Many, including Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein, talk of the F-15X as a replacement for the Air Force’s F-15C. Unfortunately, the added weight and drag of the modifications that give the F-15X its superb range and suite of capabilities have also caused it to lose the agile handling characteristics and favorable thrust-to-weight ratio associated with its older, air superiority sibling.

The F-15X is an updated version of the F-15E, and six active duty pilots I have interviewed who have flown both that jet and the F-35 state the former could never survive in a modern day, high-threat environment, and that it would be soundly defeated by an F-35 in almost any type of air-to-air engagement. That strongly suggests buying the F-15X in lieu of the F-35 would be a very poor choice.

It is hard to imagine any high-end scenario where fighters will be able to operate outside of the threat rings of surface-to-air missiles. Even with the threat in places like Syria, stealth is becoming a prerequisite for survival.

By some estimates, the next generation of Russian and Chinese air-to-air missiles will out-range ours by some measure. While an F-15X’s arsenal of 22 air-to-air missiles is formidable, it might not live long enough to target a fourth-generation Russian or Chinese fighter, much less even see their fifth-generation fighters that will guard every conceivable avenue of approach 12 years from now.

Story here. 

Everyone is missing the REAL point of the F-15X.  It's not about replacing the F-35.  While I contend that the F-35 will underperform for the entirety of its short OPERATIONAL career, it has one crown in its hat.

It's low observable...stealthy.

That's about it too.  So the USAF is digging up a concept that it tossed around in late 2017 and early 2018 and actually going forward with a missile truck.

Many fans of the Discovery Channel Show "Dogfights Of The Future" pointed to the original idea of using a B-1 to perform the role, its obvious that the USAF thought differently.

It's gonna flex this mission into the F-15X and make it it's missileer.

The F-35 will serve as a scout aircraft and the F-15X will make the kills.  Even better?  If networking is done properly then it won't just be F-35's playing "quarterback" as the fanboys like to push as a meme.  UAVs, E-3s, E-2s, other aircraft in general, ships and even troops on the ground should be able to give targeting information if the futurists are even somewhere in the ballpark of being right.

One heavily loaded plane with targeting data from other platforms can help claw back our lost air superiority cause certain military leaders put all our eggs in a flawed basket.

What has me spinning is how can such a simple concept have escaped the notice of supposedly smart people....unless they're on the payroll of LM too...