When the USAF started operations in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, the F-15s swept the skies of Iraqi fighters while the F-15E used its precision strike capabilities to pick apart the Iraqi war machine. Even more than ten years later, new generations of aircrews took these very same aircraft into Afghanistan in OEF and back to Iraq in OIF, and the Eagle remains supreme. The F-15E’s two-person crew enabled one Strike Eagle to respond to a distress call after a Blackhawk had been forced down and its crew were pinned down by mortar fire. The F-15E crew saw the survivors’ infrared beacon with their night vision goggles (NVGs) while the flash of the mortar was visible without. With the backseater monitoring speed and altitude, the pilot did something that transformed night operations – they successfully straffed the mortar position (they were out of bombs before they arrived) and saved the Blackhawk crew.
Features and options in this kit:
External stores include:
The subtitle to this kit is the 333rd Fighter Squadron and indeed, one of the three subjects is from the 333rd, but the other two options are from the other two sister squadrons:
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