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. January 7, 2026 with a heavy load of inert training rounds.
The new F-15E Strike Eagle 93-0311 camouflage paint scheme was officially unveiled on 28 April 2026 to commemorate forty years since RAF Lakenheath participated in Operation El Dorado Canyon. The scheme is representative of that used by the F-111 Aardvarks employed in the long-range strike mission against Libya, with a special tribute to KARMA 52, the only F-111 lost during the raid, which resulted in the deaths of pilot Captain Fernando L. Ribas-Dominicci and weapons systems officer (WSO), Captain Paul F. Lorence.
our friend, aviation photographer Stewart Jackcaptured these images of 93-0311 while taking off on a training sortie in May. 7, flying under the callsign EAGLE 31. In particular, the aircraft was seen to be carrying eight inert versions of the GBU-12 Paveway II guided bomb, distinguishable by their solid blue casings.
EAGLE 31 took off from Lakenheath with its companion EAGLE 32 shortly after 08:30 local time (07:30 UTC) and began its departure by meeting a KC-135 Stratotanker to refuel before heading to the low flying areas of North Wales. After completing the low-flying segment of its sortie, EAGLE flight headed to the Holbeach Air Weapons Range on the coast north of RAF Lakenheath, where all payload was dropped.
Essentially, this simulates a real-world strike mission, with a low-level entry through the Welsh valleys before preparing for weapons employment in the field simulating the target.
The GBU-12 is one of the most common variants of the Paveway series and equips a 500 lb Mark 82 bomb with a nose-mounted laser homing unit and deployable tail guidance fins. These fins have an ‘on/off’ style of operation, known in the industry as bang-bang guidance, where the control surfaces can only deflect as much as possible, without any fine adjustment. The bomb’s guidance system takes this into account by overcorrecting any heading adjustments and then immediately deflecting in the opposite direction to align with the intended trajectory. This method allows for simpler mechanics and electronics, reducing the overall cost of the single-use system.
Being able to easily carry such a large amount of these munitions is one of the F-15E’s greatest strengths. In the images we can see that even with such a load, the aircraft’s wing attachment points are still empty and would be available for external fuel tanks and/or air-to-air weaponry. All air-to-ground munitions are carried in fuselage stations, and additional mounting points on the aircraft’s conformal fuel tanks (CFTs), installed on each side of the aircraft, outside the air intakes, provide significant additional capability.
On the F-15, these CFTs are also known as ‘FAST Packages’ (Fuel and Sensor, Tactical) and were initially developed for the air-to-air focused F-15C. In US service, these have been almost exclusively associated with the Strike Eagle, and these darker colored Eagles are rarely seen without them. The primary US Air Force F-15Cs that regularly carried them were those based at the 57th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS) in Keflavik, Iceland.
Watch them blow up swamps!
Louisiana 159th Fighter Wing #boeing F-15Cs take off with new shaped fuel tanks: more and more #USAF national defense reach and capability! #F15 #NationalAirGuard pic.twitter.com/qjrRNblIQC– Boeing Defense (@BoeingDefense) February 5, 2018
Since CFTs cannot be jettisoned in flight to gain additional speed and maneuverability, air-to-air focused F-15C pilots have preferred to use more traditional drop tanks. For the F-15E’s strike mission, the permanent impact on the aircraft’s flight characteristics is a valuable trade-off for the additional range and payload options they offer.
The United States has said it does not plan to operate its F-15EX Eagle II with CFTalthough this may be reconsidered with the expansion of the F-15EX order and the prospect of them replacing older F-15E Strike Eagles in the coming years.
Many thanks as always to Stewart Jack for contributing these images, you can find him at Facebook and instagram.
