A single Eagle rolled out of Boeing’s St. Louis plant this month wearing two small but loaded details: a “ZZ” tail flash and the badge of the 18th Wing. Translation — the first F-15EX Eagle II built for Kadena Air Base has finally broken cover.
The jet, serial 22-0022, made its first flight on 4 August 2026 in bare primer, then flew again on 15 August in full livery. It is also the first aircraft of the new Lot 3. After years of waiting, Okinawa’s next-generation Eagle is real, and it is painted for the fight it was bought for.
Quick Facts
- The jet: F-15EX Eagle II serial 22-0022, in 18th Wing “ZZ” markings
- First flights: 4 August 2026 (primer), 15 August 2026 (full livery), from Boeing St. Louis
- Destination: Kadena Air Base, Okinawa — the closest U.S. air base to Taiwan
- The plan: 36 F-15EXs to replace Kadena’s retired F-15C/D Eagles
- Timeline: first arrivals in 2027, full complement by 2028 (delayed from spring 2026)
- First unit: the 67th Fighter Squadron, followed by the 44th
A gap over Okinawa
Kadena has felt thin for a while. The 18th Wing flew F-15C/D Eagles for decades, but the Air Force began retiring those tired jets back in 2022, flying the last operational Kadena F-15C in January 2025. Since then the base has leaned on rotating deployments — F-22 Raptors among them — to keep fighters over the first island chain while the permanent replacements were built.
Why the wait
The delay has an unglamorous cause: a monthslong strike at Boeing’s St. Louis F-15EX line in 2025 pushed the whole program to the right. The original plan had Eagles landing on Okinawa in spring 2026; now the first are due in 2027, with the 36th arriving in 2028. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told the Senate the fix is stable, long-term contracts.
An Eagle built for China
There is no mystery about the mission. Kadena sits closer to Taiwan than any other American air base, and 36 heavily-armed EX Eagles — each able to haul a dozen air-to-air missiles — are meant to make the skies over the first island chain a very expensive place to fight. The buy is growing too: the Air Force has more than doubled its planned F-15EX fleet. One freshly-painted jet in St. Louis is the first small proof that the plan is finally moving metal.
Sources: The Aviationist (photos by Jerry McGrath); Air & Space Forces Magazine; Stars and Stripes. Meink quote from Senate Armed Services Committee testimony, 21 May 2026.
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