7/25/23, 1:34 PM F-15E Strike Eagle Smart-Bomb Transports Are Hauling Munitions Around The Middle East

The forward-deployed 494th EFS will begin flying air-tasking orders immediately in support
of U.S. Central Command, making use of these additional munitions that are fully assembled
and ready to employ, rather than having to wait for them to be transported by airlifted and
then ‘built up’ in situ. A C-130 is still required to support an F-15E deployment of this kind,
carrying personnel to arm and maintain the jets, but previously two of these transports
would have been required for moving the same quantity of airmen and munitions. Reducing
that burden would be a significant issue in a peer conflict, in which tactical and strategic
airlift would already be at a premium.

Of course, the munitions carried by the F-15Es could also be used by other aircraft flying
combat missions in the same theater, an especially useful function for the fifth-generation F-
22 or F-35 stealth fighters, which typically feature much-reduced offensive weapons loads
compared to the Strike Eagle.

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