Fighter Wing: A Guided Tour of an Air Force Combat Wing

1984 they were awarded a contract to begin full-scale development, with an original goal of 392 production aircraft. But budget cuts at the end of the Cold War chopped this number down to two hundred by 1994, plus a few replacements for aircraft lost in Desert Storm and training mishaps.

^{A McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle of the 366th Wing's 391st Fighter Squadron flies over the Nevada desert during Green Flag 94-3. It is armed with the training versions of Sidewinder and AMRAAM air- to-air and Maverick air-to-ground missiles.}

^{Craig E. Kaston}

The first flight of the Strike Eagle was on December 11th, 1986, with deliveries to the Air Force beginning on December 29th, 1988. The 4th TFW, with three squadrons, reached an initial operational capability (IOC — first squadron service) in October 1989 at Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina.

^{A cutaway drawing of the forward fuselage of the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle.}

^{Jack Ryan Enterprises, Ltd., by Laura Alpher}

That change was more than just cosmetic. Although the F-15E is externally very similar to the F-15D (the two-seat trainer model of the F-15C), about 60 % of the F-15's structure was redesigned to accommodate its new role as a strike aircraft. These changes were designed to strengthen the airframe, extending the certified fatigue life to sixteen thousand hours, and allowing sustained 9-G maneuvers, like its smaller partner, the F-16. The extra strength is important, because the huge fixed-geometry wing of the F-15 can make for a rough ride at low altitude for both the airframe and the crew, even when nobody is trying to kill you. Also, since low-altitude, high-speed flight can be a dangerous thing, the F-15E's windshield is specially strengthened against bird-strikes, which are more common than you might think. The basic F-15 is an enormously tough airplane — after a midair collision, one F-15 pilot safely landed his craft with only 14 in./35 cm. of wing remaining on one side — and the modifications to the — E model have only made it tougher. Maximum takeoff weight was increased from 68,000 lb./30,845 kg. to an astounding 81,000 lb./36,741 kg.! Of this total, up to 24,500 lb./11,100 kg. can be ordnance, in almost any mix of air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons imaginable.

^{The two-man cockpit of this Mc-Donnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle is shown to advantage, with the wide-field-of-view Heads-Up Display (HUD) at the bottom, in front of the pilot.}

^{Craig E. Kaston}

The greatest strength of the Strike Eagle is the two-man cockpit, which allows for the increased workloads of low-level, day and night strike missions. Historically, two-seat fighters have usually gained the advantage in combat against single-seat types, because the situational awareness benefit of an extra set of eyes and brains is greater than the weight penalty of the extra ejection seat. The benefit is even greater in ground attack missions, because the backseater can concentrate on precise delivery of weapons and managing the defensive- countermeasures systems (jamming, chaff, and flares), while the pilot concentrates on flying the plane. Though Weapons Systems Officers (WSOs) are not trained as pilots, they do tend to become skilled at flying and 'staying' the pilot; and both crew positions have a full set of flight controls.

^{A cutaway drawing of the Lockheed Martin AAQ-13 LANTIRN navigation pod.}

^{Jack Ryan Enterprises, Ltd., by Laura Alpher}

The division of labor in the Strike Eagle between the pilot (in the front seat) and WSO (or 'wizzo,' in the backseat) is nearly perfect, thanks to another excellent design effort by Eugene Adam and his team at McDonnell Douglas. In the front seat, the pilot has a wide field-of-view HUD and three Multi-Function Displays (MFDs), two monochrome/green and one full-color, in addition to the normal controls you would encounter in an F-15C. Each MFD functions like a computer monitor that can show data clearly even in bright daylight, and has an array of selection buttons mounted on all four sides of the bezel. The HOTAS controls have been upgraded to support the extra capabilities of the — E model's APG-70 radar, as well as the Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) system pods (which we will look at later). To the right of the HUD is the display for the Improved Data Modem (IDM), a sort of low-speed data link which is tied to the onboard Have Quick II radios and the weapons delivery system. It is designed to be part of the joint-service Automatic Target Hand-Off System (ATHS), which allows the F-15E to automatically send and receive targeting coordinates to and from a number of other U.S. Army, Marine, and Air Force systems, including the F-16C, the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, the AV-8V Harrier II, the AH-64A Apache, and the Army's TACFIRE artillery control system. In lieu of a JTIDS terminal (which is planned for installation later), it is a capable little device for getting targeting information from a variety of sources. In the rear cockpit, delivery of air-to-ground ordnance is the WSO's main job, and the best tool for this is the same Hughes APG-70 radar that is on the — C model Eagle, though it has a number of added features unique to the Strike Eagle. The radar data, as well as data from the onboard LANTIRN pods, are displayed on four MFDs — two color and two monochrome/green — in the rear cockpit. An onboard videotape recorder serves as the 'gun camera,' recording whatever appears in the HUD, or on any of the selected MFDs.

Along with the radar, the WSO also controls the same ALQ-135 internal jammer package, ALE-45/47 decoy launchers, ALR-56M RWR, APX-101 IFF system, as on the — C model Eagle, along with the other avionics. Provisions are currently being made in the F-15Es flight software and on the data bus for a GPS receiver and the JTIDS secure data link, which will be added later in the 1990s. Another planned upgrade may be a satellite communications system, which would allow ground-based commanders to stay in contact with aircraft on the most distant missions.

^{The pilot's instrument panel in the McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle. The three computer-style Multi-Function Displays are clearly shown, as well as the Data Entry Panel (top center).}

^{McDonnell Douglas Aeronautical Systems}

The engine bays of the F-15E were designed with a common interface to accommodate either the standard Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 turbofan or the more powerful F100-PW-229, which can deliver up to 29,000lb./ 13,181 kg. of thrust. All this thrust means that in 'clean' configuration at high altitude, the F-15E's maximum speed is Mach 2.5. At low altitude, with a maximum bomb load, the weapons impose a practical limit around 490 knots/564 mph./908 kph. The maximum unrefueled combat radius of the F-15E depends very much on the flight profile, but a typical figure is about 790 nm./1,445 km. using 3,475 gallons/13,100 liters of internal fuel (including that in the CFT packs) and three 610 gallon/2,300 liter external tanks. For truly long-range missions, tanker support is essential to the Strike Eagle, though the F-15E needs less of this than other strike aircraft.

^{A heads-on view of a McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagle from the 366th Wing's 391st Fighter Squadron. The two Lockheed Martin Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LANTIRN) system pods are mounted on pylons under the engine inlets, with a pair of Mk 84 general-purpose bombs mounted on hard points under the two Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFTs). There is also a Sidewinder air-to-missile training round on the port wing weapons pylon.}

^{John D. Gresham}

LOCKHEED MARTIN AAQ-13/14 LANTIRN SYSTEM

I commented on how close our wing tip was to the trees. [The pilot] responded, 'It's worse in the daytime. You can see every chipmunk… '

— AVIATION WEEK PILOT REPORT, F16/LANTIRN APRIL 25, 1988

The Lockheed Martin (formerly Martin Marietta) Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night