Earlier this year, the Air Force signed a deal to develop, test, and eventually buy up to 140 fourth-generation Boeing F-15EX fighters. Defense Department and Air Force arguments to acquire the F-15EX have run the gamut from it being cheaper to acquire and operate than the F-35, to the need to sustain Boeing’s place within the fighter production industrial base. While there is a sliver of truth attached to many of those claims, no fact-based argument to acquire the F-15EX stands up to even a modest level of scrutiny.