Improvements to the F-15I “Ra'am”

fIn several months, the project for upgrading all Israeli F-15I "Ra'am”, considered to be the IAF’s strategic fighter aircraft, is meant to come to a conclusion. Lt. Col. Tzahi Alia, head of the systems and armaments field in the maintenance squadron at the Israeli Hatzerim airbase, said that “the planes are undergoing a revolution. This is a totally different aircraft with regards to avionic aspects, which has many new capabilities.”
The avionic systems of the Ra'am aircraft are replaced in the framework of the project with more advanced systems, suitable to the fast rate of the technological development. Beyond improvements to the existing capabilities, the new systems will also add new features. “The project expands the layout’s ways of dealing with the new threat arena,” explains Maj. Avi Sharvit, head of the department responsible for the project.
“For the past two years, soldiers wake up, breathe and sleep with the project on their minds,” Lt. Col. Alia explains. The upgrades are being carried out at the Hatzerim airbase by a team that was established specifically for this purpose. All of the IAF’s Ram aircraft are expected to become 'ImprovHed Ra'ams' in the near future.