dropped

Indonesia, once in line to be the first export operator of the F-15EX Eagle II multirole fighter, has abandoned its plans to buy the Boeing-made jets. The deal had been in stasis for the last two years.

Speaking to reporters at the Singapore Airshow, Bernd Peters, vice president of business development and strategy for Boeing Defense, Space and Security, confirmed that the F-15EX for Indonesia “is no longer an active campaign for the Boeing company.”

The reason for the turnaround is unclear; Boeing deferred questions on this matter to the governments of Indonesia and the United States, which were working on the program under the Foreign Military Sales process.

TWZ has contacted Boeing for further details.

Back in February of 2022, the U.S. State Department approved a possible Foreign Military Sale to Indonesia of an F-15EX derivative known as the F-15ID, as you can read more about here.

By August of 2023, it appeared as if this was a done deal when Jakarta formally committed to buying up to 24 of the jets from Boeing. By now, the Indonesian version had been renamed F-15IND. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the purchase of the jets was signed in St. Louis, Missouri, the location of the F-15 production facility. Among those in attendance was Indonesia’s Minister of Defense, Prabowo Subianto, who had a tour of the F-15 production line.

“We are pleased to announce our commitment to procure the critical F-15EX fighter capability for Indonesia,” Subianto said. He added: “This state-of-the-art fighter will protect and secure our nation with its advanced capabilities.”

It’s unclear if Jakarta will instead buy another fighter type instead of the F-15.

However, it’s notable that the U.S. State Department’s approval for the F-15 deal came only hours after Indonesia’s announcement that it would be buying 42 of France’s Dassault Rafale multirole fighters. Deliveries of these are now underway.

At the time, we surmised that Washington may have been making a last-ditch effort to persuade Indonesia to opt for a mixed fleet of F-15 and Rafale jets. That bid now seems to have collapsed entirely, although we don’t yet know why. The overall cost of the F-15 deal was never made clear, but this, or production timelines, could have been sticking points.

Even without F-15s, the Indonesian Air Force is building one of the most modern and capable fighter fleets in Southeast Asia.

Aside from the Rafales, the Indonesian Air Force operates a mix of U.S. and Russian fighters.

The Viper fleet consists of around eight survivors from the 12 F-16A/B Block 15OCU fighters delivered beginning in 1989, plus 23 upgraded F-16C/Ds.

In terms of Russian-made equipment, Indonesia fields several different versions of the Sukhoi Flanker. These comprise five single-seat Su-27SKs and a pair of two-seat Su-30MKs, deliveries of which started in 2003, plus nine two-seat Su-30MK2s, the first of which was handed over in 2008. Since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sanctions on Russia have likely made it far trickier to support them.

Looking further ahead, Indonesia has long been expected to buy 50 examples of the KF-21 new-generation fighter that the country is developing jointly with South Korea. Indonesia’s PT DI is an industry partner in the KF-21 alongside Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI), with a 20 percent share of the project. In the past, however, Jakarta has failed to make payments to secure its stake in the program, and its long-term commitment to the program has repeatedly been questioned.

(공식) KF-21 보라매 최초비행(220719)

A firm commitment to the KF-21 could also have spelled the end of the F-15 acquisition.

Buying both Rafales and KF-21s, as well as supporting older jets, involves enormous costs, not just in terms of upfront expenses, but also in terms of training and support.

At one point, Indonesia planned to buy Su-35s, which would have seen Russia receive half its payments in the form of exports of palm oil, rubber, and other commodities. Other big-ticket arms deals have seen Indonesia rely on loan payments, reflecting the precarious defense budget situation.

For Boeing, today’s news comes as a blow, although it will be tempered by the fact that, late last year, Israel signed a contract for 25 new F-15IA aircraft. These will be the first new Eagles that the country has acquired since 1999, and these jets will also be based on the F-15EX.

Meanwhile, the company says it’s still committed to working with Indonesia on existing programs like the country’s AH-64 Apache fleet.

“We feel the F-15 will continue to have a very bright future in the region,” Boeing’s Bernd Peters said.

Elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region, Boeing last month received a $2.8-billion award for upgrades to South Korea’s F-15K Slam Eagle fleet, with work expected to be completed in 2037. You can read more about this program here.

Returning to the F-15EX, under the Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal, the U.S. Air Force’s program of record is now set to grow from 98 to 129 aircraft, with the addition of at least one more squadron, which will be converting from the A-10. It seems quite possible that further growth of the program could occur. Originally, the Air Force had a minimum number of 144 jets to replace the F-15C/D force. Some of the Eagle units have switched to other platforms since then, but units that fly A-10s, F-16s, and even F-15Es could end up getting F-15EX if the service chooses to go such a route.

Beyond that, Poland has emerged as another potential export customer for the F-15EX.

Boeing is currently intent on ramping up F-15EX production to 24 aircraft annually. Between August and November of last year, deliveries were suspended due to production delays. The 16th F-15EX was delivered to the Air Force in December.

Whatever happens in terms of foreign sales, the future of the F-15EX with the U.S. Air Force looks increasingly bright.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

MINNEAPOLIS — U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Thursday she is running for governor of Minnesota, promising to take on President Trump while unifying a state that has endured a series of challenges even before the federal government’s immigration crackdown.

Klobuchar’s decision gives Democrats a high-profile candidate and proven statewide winner as their party tries to hold on to the office occupied by Gov. Tim Walz. The 2024 Democratic vice presidential nominee, Walz abandoned his campaign for a third term this month amid criticism over mismanagement of taxpayer funding for child-care programs.

“Minnesota, we’ve been through a lot,” Klobuchar said in a video announcement. “These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration — but who are also willing to find common ground and fix things in our state.”

Klobuchar cited Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota, federal officers killing two Minnesotans, the assassination of a state legislative leader and a school shooting that killed multiple children — all within the last year. She avoided direct mention of ongoing fraud investigations into the child-care programs that Trump has made a political cudgel.

“I believe we must stand up for what’s right and fix what’s wrong,” Klobuchar said.

Klobuchar becomes the fourth sitting senator to announce plans to run for governor in 2026. The other races are in Alabama, Colorado and Tennessee.

Multiple Minnesota Republicans are campaigning in what could become a marquee contest among 36 governorships on the ballot in November. Among them are MyPillow founder and Chief Executive Mike Lindell, a 2020 election denier who is close to Trump; state House Speaker Lisa Demuth; Dr. Scott Jensen, a former state senator who was the party’s 2022 gubernatorial candidate; and state Rep. Kristin Robbins.

Immigration and fraud will be at issue

The Minnesota contest is likely to test Trump and his fellow Republicans’ uncompromising law-and-order approach and mass deportation program against Democrats’ criticisms of his administration’s tactics.

Federal agents have detained children and adults who are U.S. citizens, entered homes without warrants and engaged protesters in violent exchanges. Renee Good was shot three times and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in early January. On Saturday, federal officers fatally shot intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti during an encounter.

Many Democrats on Capitol Hill, in turn, have voted against spending bills that fund Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. A standoff over the funding could lead to a partial government shutdown.

Trump and other Republicans also will try to saddle Klobuchar — or any other Democrat — with questions about the federal investigation into Minnesota’s child-care programs and its Somali community. Trump also has made repeated assertions of widespread fraud in state government, and his administration is conducting multiple investigations of state officials, including Walz. The Democrat has maintained that Walz’s administration has investigated, reduced and prosecuted fraud.

Demuth was quick to release a new video and a webpage that illustrate what’s likely to be another main line of her campaign: that Klobuchar cannot be trusted to end the fraud in public programs or curb the growth of government. “Minnesotans only need to look at her record to know that she simply cannot deliver the change that our state needs, and would be nothing more than a third term of Tim Walz,” Demuth said in a statement.

Klobuchar has won across Minnesota

Now in her fourth Senate term, Klobuchar is a former local prosecutor and onetime presidential candidate who positions herself as a moderate and has demonstrated the ability to win across Minnesota.

She won her 2024 reelection bid by nearly 16 percentage points and received 135,000 more votes than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Harris outpaced Trump by fewer than 5 percentage points.

Klobuchar gained attention during Trump’s first term for her questioning of his judicial nominees, including now-Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. At his acrimonious confirmation hearings, she asked Kavanaugh, who had been accused of sexual assault as a teenager, whether he ever had so much to drink that he didn’t remember what happened. Kavanaugh retorted, “Have you?”

The senator, who had talked publicly of her father’s alcoholism, continued her questioning. Kavanaugh, who was confirmed by a single vote, later apologized to Klobuchar. Kavanaugh has denied that the alleged assault occurred.

After Trump’s first presidency, Klobuchar was among the most outspoken lawmakers during bipartisan congressional inquiries of the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol during certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. As Senate Rules Committee chair, she pressed Capitol Police, administration officials and others for details of what authorities knew beforehand and how rioters breached the Capitol.

“It’s our duty to have immediate responses to what happened,” she said after helping write a report focused not on Trump’s role but on better security protocols for the seat of Congress.

2020 presidential bid

Klobuchar sought the presidential nomination in 2020, running as a moderate in the same political lane as Biden. She launched her campaign standing outside in a Minnesota snowstorm to promote her “grit” and Midwestern sensibilities that have anchored her political identity.

As a candidate, Klobuchar faced stories of disgruntled Senate staffers who described her as a difficult boss but also distinguished herself on crowded debate stages as a determined pragmatist. She outlasted several better-funded candidates and ran ahead of Biden in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. But Biden, then a former vice president, trounced her and others in the South Carolina primaries, prompting her to drop out and join others in closing ranks behind him.

After Biden’s victory, Klobuchar would have been well positioned for a Cabinet post, perhaps even attorney general. But the Senate’s 50-50 split made it untenable for Biden to create any opening for Republicans to regain control of the chamber.

Klobuchar announced in 2021 that she had been treated for breast cancer and in 2024 announced that she was cancer-free but undergoing another round of radiation.

Barrow and Karnowski write for the Associated Press. Barrow reported from Atlanta. AP writer Maya Sweedler in Washington contributed to this report.