Boeing started installing APG-82 AESAs on Seymour Johnson's F-15Es

Since September, Boeing engineers have been busy at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, swapping the old APG-70 radars on the F-15Es there and replacing them with the state-of-the-art APG-82 AESA radar.

An F-15E Strike Eagle from the 336th Fighter Squadron sits in a hanger while members of the Radar Modernization Program Eagle modernization program team begin removing panels, Oct. 3, 2016, at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. More than 90 jets at Seymour Johnson AFB will receive the radar modifications, projected to be completed in seven to nine years. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Shawna L. Keyes)

The program, dubbed RMP Eagle modernization program, is no easy feat. Each aircraft takes 70 to 75 work days for the radar swap.

They had to jack up the aircraft, remove the nose landing gear in order to access the avionics bays at the nose. Brackets had to be removed and new ones installed. Holes were cut for new cables to snake through as well.