The 48th Fighter Wing’s F-15E Strike Eagle, recently painted to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Operation El Dorado Canyon, took off in May. July 7, 2026 There have been too many inactive training rounds.
The new camouflage paint scheme for F-15E Strike Eagle 93-0311 was officially unveiled on 28 April 2026 to mark the 40th anniversary of RAF Lakenheath’s participation in Operation El Dorado Canyon. This design represents those worn by F-111 Aardvarks used on long-range strike missions over Libya and received special praise for KARMA 52. KARMA 52 was the only F-111 lost during the raid, killing pilot Capt. Fernando L. Ribas-Dominicci and weapons systems officer (WSO) Capt. Paul F. Lorence.
Our friend and aerial photographer Stewart Jack captured this image of 93-0311 taking off for a training sortie in May. 7, flying under the call sign EAGLE 31. Notably, the jet was seen carrying eight inert version GBU-12 Paveway II guided bombs, distinguished by their blue casings.
EAGLE 31 took off from Lakenheath with wingman EAGLE 32 shortly after 08:30 local time (07:30 UTC), rendezvoused with a KC-135 Stratotanker, refueled, and began the sortie by heading to a low-flying area in North Wales. After completing the flyby, the EAGLE flight headed to Holbeach Air Weapons Range on the north coast of RAF Lakenheath where the full payload was dropped.
This essentially simulates a real strike mission, with a low level entry through a Welsh valley before establishing the use of weapons at a range simulating a target.
The GBU-12 is one of the most commonly seen variants of the Paveway series and is a 500lb Mark 82 bomb fitted with a nose-mounted laser seeker device and a deployable tail guidance fin. These pins have an ‘on/off’ actuation style, known in the industry as bang-bang guidance, and the control surface can only be deflected up to a maximum amount without any fine tuning. The bomb’s guidance system accounts for this by over-correcting the course adjustment and then immediately deflecting it in the opposite direction to the intended trajectory. This method makes the mechanical and electronic devices simpler and reduces the overall cost of single-use systems.
Being able to easily transport such large amounts of ammunition is one of the F-15E’s greatest strengths. From the images we can see that despite such a load, the jet’s wing hardpoints are still empty and available for external fuel tanks and/or air-to-air weapons. All air-to-ground munitions are mounted on fuselage stations with additional mounting points on each side of the aircraft, on the aircraft’s contoured fuel tanks (CFTs) mounted outside the air intakes, providing significant additional capacity.
In the F-15, these CFTs are also known as the ‘FAST Pack’ (Fuel and Sensors, Tactics) and were initially developed for the air-to-air focused F-15C. In American service they are almost exclusively associated with the Strike Eagle and these dark-colored Eagles are rarely seen without them. The primary U.S. Air Force F-15C known to carry them on a regular basis was the aircraft based at the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS) in Keflavik, Iceland.
Watch them fly!
Louisiana 159th Fighter Wing #Boeing The F-15C flies with new conformal fuel tanks. #USAF Range and homeland defense capabilities! #F15 #AirNotGuard pic.twitter.com/qjrRNblIQC— Boeing Defense (@BoeingDefense) February 5, 2018
Since CFTs could not be jettisoned mid-flight to gain additional speed and maneuverability, air-to-air pilots of the F-15C preferred more traditional drop tanks. For the F-15E’s strike missions, having a lasting impact on the aircraft’s flight characteristics is a worthwhile trade-off for the additional range and payload options it offers.
The United States has stated that it has no plans to operate the F-15EX Eagle II with the CFT, although its F-15EX order may be expanded and reexamined in the future with the prospect of replacing the older F-15E Strike Eagle.
Thanks as always to Stewart Jack for providing these images. You can find him on Facebook and Instagram.
