survive today in a high-threat environment, you need a radar jammer. In the Eagle, this system is the internally mounted Northrop ALQ-135(V), which operates automatically, requiring only that the pilot turn it on. To alert the pilot to electronic (i.e., radar guided) threats, there is a Loral ALR-56C Radar Warning Receiver (RWR), with the display mounted just below and to the right of the HUD. This display shows both the type of threat and the bearing to the enemy radar. It also can tell the pilot whether the enemy radar is just scanning, or if it has actually fired a SAM. As might be imagined, this information is vital for a pilot to survive in the modern aerial battlefield. Antennas for the ECM and RWR systems are mounted in pods on top of the twin tail fins. Should the ECM system fail and there's an incoming missile on your tail, the pilot also has a Tracor ALE-45/47 chaff and flare decoy dispenser, with the release button mounted on the left side of the throttle column.
The only reason for the existence of a combat aircraft is to deliver (or at least threaten to deliver) ordnance (the technical term for weapons) onto an enemy target. As we stated earlier, the original design of the Eagle was for a no-compromise air-to-air (the USAF term for this is 'air superiority') fighter. Thus, the F-15C weapons suite was optimized for taking on and rapidly defeating a large number of air-to-air targets. For the designers of the Eagle, their starting point was the original weapons loadout of the aircraft that it replaced, the eight air-to-air missiles of the F-4 Phantom. In addition, they decided to add a gun to the package, since the lack of such a weapon had cost American pilots so many MiG kills over North Vietnam. Unlike guided missiles, guns have no minimum range, and can also be used against ground targets, should that be required. While originally it was planned to fit the F-15 with the new Philco Ford (now Loral Aeronutronic) 25mm GAU-7, it was eventually decided that the F-15 would be equipped with the older, more dependable General Electric M-61 Vulcan 20mm six-barreled rotary cannon. Used on USAF aircraft since the mid-1950s, it is something of a classic on its own, and is on every air superiority fighter currently in the U.S. inventory. The cannon muzzle is located in the starboard wing root, well behind the engine intake, so there is no risk of ingesting gun gas, causing an engine flameout. A drum magazine behind the cockpit holds 940 rounds, but you better fire short bursts, since this is just enough for 9.4 seconds of firing. (The M61 fires over six thousand rounds per minute!) Today, the big news about the Vulcan is that there is a new kind of ammunition for it to fire — the PGU- 28, which has armor piercing, explosive fragmentation, and incendiary effects, all in a single round. This new bullet has greatly improved the capabilities of the M-61, which is still one of the finest airborne cannons in the world. In the F-15C, the gun is angled up about 2deg, so that it 'lofts' the rounds towards the target, allowing a better view before you lose sight of the target under the nose of the aircraft. There also is a new gunsight — or more properly, gunsight symbology for the HUD — which greatly eases the task of aiming. When the GUN mode is selected (from a switch on the throttle), what looks like a funnel appears on the HUD. Once you have the enemy aircraft centered between the two lines of the funnel, a squeeze of the trigger on the front of the control stick sends a stream of cannon shells toward the target. According to F-15 pilots, the new sight symbology has radically improved gunnery accuracy and makes the gun a much more dangerous weapon.
Good as the gun is, the most powerful weapons on the Eagle are its eight air-to-air missiles (AAMs). Originally, the F-15's primary AAM was the Raytheon AIM-7 Sparrow, four of which could be carried on racks tucked neatly on the underside of the fuselage. These have since been replaced by the Hughes AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), which is known as the 'Slammer' by pilots. Underwing pylons also can carry up to four AIM-9 Sidewinder AAMs or AMRAAMs.
All these systems and weaponry have made the Eagle the most powerful air superiority fighter in the world for over two decades now. This has translated to a modest degree of success in the export market, despite the relatively high cost of the Eagle compared to the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the Mirage F-1 and -2000, and the MiG-29. Several generations of Russian, British, and French fighters have tried to get the better of the Eagle, but regular upgrades and the superb training of the USAF pilots have kept the F-15 at the top of the worldwide fighter hierachy. Currently, there are more than 1,300 F-15s of all models in service with the U.S. Air Force, the Israeli Air Force (F- 15A/B/I models), the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (F-15J), and the Royal Saudi Air Force (F-15A/B/S models). The Japanese F-15J is built by Mitsubishi on license from McDonnell Douglas.
The ultimate test of any military aircraft is combat, and the Eagle has an undefeated record. The Israelis scored the Eagle's first kill, a Syrian MiG-21 in June of 1979. Later on, in February 1981, they provided the ultimate proof of the Eagle's superiority by downing a Syrian MiG-25 Foxbat, the very aircraft it had been designed to defeat. Israeli F-15s also escorted the force of F-16s that destroyed an unfinished Iraqi nuclear reactor outside Baghdad in 1981. The Saudis also have scored with their force of Eagles, with at least one kill of an Iranian Phantom over the Persian Gulf in 1988, and two kills by one pilot of a pair of Iraqi Mirage F-1Qs armed with AM-39 Exocet anti- shipping missiles during Desert Storm. In fact, Eagles shot down at least thirty-five of the forty-one aircraft that Iraq lost in air-to-air combat during the 1991 conflict. The record book currently credits the F-15 with a career total of 96.5 confirmed air-to-air kills for no losses.
With the coming of the F-15's designated replacement, the Lockheed F-22, further production of the Eagle for the USAF and a few foreign governments will be limited to the Strike version. The remaining USAF — C and — E model aircraft will all be fitted with GPS receivers, as well as the follow-on version of the JTIDS data link terminal. There is also a radar upgrade program, designed to replace some of the 'black box' components of the APG-63/70 system with newer units from the APG-73 radar used on the F/ A-18 Hornet fighters now being delivered to the U.S. Navy. This upgrade will allow for faster processing of information, as well as a larger memory module. It is also likely that before it goes out of service, the new model of the venerable Sidewinder AAM, the AIM-9X with its helmet-mounted sighting system, will be integrated into the Eagle. Whatever happens to the Eagle fleet, the taxpayers of the United States can be pleased with the value that they received for their investment in the Eagle, which held the line in the air for the last years of the Cold War and the beginning of the new world order.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS F-15E STRIKE EAGLE
I had never flown an eighty-one-thousand-pound jet before, and we were surprised when we started taxiing. We felt a thump, thump, thump underneath us, and we were concerned until we realized that all that weight standing on the tires had molded a temporary flat spot on them.
The F-15E Strike Eagle is an almost perfect balance of structure, power plant, sensors, weapons, and avionics, controlled by the finest cockpit design in the world today. Now you might wonder why I'm describing it separately from the air-to-air version of the Eagle. The truth is that while the two birds share a common heritage, they really are different aircraft, both inside and out. In fact, the crews that fly this powerful beast say there are two kinds of USAF crews: those that fly the Strike Eagle, and those who wish they did. Given what I've learned about this machine, they may be right.
It is surprising that an aircraft originally designed as a pure air superiority machine should give rise to one of the greatest fighter-bombers in aviation history. Nevertheless, by the early 1980s, with the fleet of F-111 fighter bombers aging rapidly, and the F-117As just coming into service, there was a severe shortage of all-weather strike aircraft in USAF service. Thus, the USAF leadership began to kick around the idea of an interim strike aircraft, which could bridge the gap between the older F-111 and the new stealth types that were being planned.
The F-15E was not a plane the Air Force requested directly per se; it began as a private venture funded by McDonnell Douglas. This is because the contracting rules of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) do not allow the services to 'ask' a contractor directly to make them something. They can, however, 'suggest' that a company put together an 'unsolicited proposal' to offer certain goods and services. Such dialogues are common, and were apparently conducted by General Wilber Creech, USAF, then commander of the Tactical Air Command, and several aircraft companies concerning strike variants of existing fighter designs. Thus, General Creech might well be considered the USAF 'father' of the Strike Eagle. The effort began when a production F-15B (originally a two-seat trainer version) was converted for ground attack by adding extra underwing pylons and bomb racks on CFTs. Demonstrations of the prototype at Edwards and Eglin AFBs in 1982 and 1983 were sufficiently impressive that the Air Force decided to hold a competition between the F-15 and an improved version of the General Dynamics (now Lockheed) F-16 with a cranked delta wing, the F-16XL. The McDonnell Douglas entry won the competition, and in
