The aircraft resulted from U. The FEX is a variant of the F Advanced Eagle , a further development of the FE design initially intended for export customers and incorporates improved internal structure, flight control system, and avionics.
The aircraft is manufactured by Boeing's St. Louis division formerly McDonnell Douglas. The FEX variant had its maiden flight in and entered operational service in July Air Force and Air National Guard for performing homeland and air defense missions and also serves as an affordable platform for employing large stand-off weapons to augment the frontline F and F The Advanced Eagle in this configuration represents the current baseline in F production.
In the s, the United States Air Force USAF was facing an incoming shortfall of its fighter fleet size in the s due to deferred and downscaled modernization plans from budget cuts following the end of the Cold War in , and the focus on asymmetric counterinsurgency warfare after the 11 September terrorist attacks.
The USAF's procurement requirement of production Fs to replace its fleet of air superiority FA to D fighters was curtailed to just in Restarting F production was considered cost prohibitive due to the high non-recurring startup costs of rebuilding the production line and sourcing replacement parts vendors.
Meanwhile, Boeing had been developing upgrades for the FE for export customers and a substantial update to the air vehicle design resulted in the F Advanced Eagle; [ 8 ] the FSA Saudi Advanced was the initial variant which first flew in 20 February , followed by the FQA Qatari Advanced ordered in Louis division in order to maintain diversity in the U.
