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.”
Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Defense Department needs to upgrade its electronic warfare capability and its EW training ranges; just as his predecessor said at his own confirmation hearing.