A second Air Force unit is experiencing the “new” F-15E Strike Eagle, with the addition of the Small Diameter Bomb and Suite 5 hardware and software upgrades. The 391st Fighter Squadron at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, is joining the 494th FS at RAF Lakenheath, Britain, as operators of newly upgraded F-15Es. “It’s a completely different aircraft,” Capt. Drew Perry, 391st FS plans chief, told Air Force journalist MSgt. Brian Orban. Perry calls the SDB a “very precise, surgical weapon.” As to Suite 5, Perry says, “The ability to confirm targets is incredible.”
When Lt. Col. Dustin Johnson was ordered to deploy to the Middle East last year, he and his fellow F-22 Raptor pilots prepared for an unusual challenge. As America’s premier air superiority fighter, the F-22 was designed to take on advanced enemy aircraft, capable of maneuvering stealthily and cruising at supersonic…