In early April 2024, Israel conducted a strike on an Iranian consulate in Syria, which prompted the Middle East to brace for an increasingly predictable response: an Iranian barrage of ballistic missiles and one-way attack drones.
On the evening of April 12th, 2024, F-15E Strike Eagles from the 335th Fighter Squadron (FS) out of Seymour Johnson AFB landed at an undisclosed location within the US Central Command theater after completing a multi-leg journey across the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, US national security officials anticipated an impending Iranian response that would include waves of one-way attack drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. Within minutes of arrival, maintenance and weapons crews from the 335th Fighter Generation Squadron (FGS) began preparing the aircraft for battle by removing travel pods, reconfiguring conformal fuel tanks, loading 4x AIM-120 AMRAAMs, 4x AIM-9X Sidewinders, a GBU-54 500lb Laser JDAM and 510 rounds of 20mm onto each aircraft.
Over the next several hours, members of the 335th Fighter Squadron worked closely with members of the 494th Fighter Squadron to spin up for the first combat sorties of the 335th deployment. After thorough briefings from both squadrons’ intelligence personnel and weapons officers, crews from each squadron stepped to their aircraft to prepare to launch. The mission was to prevent a regional war by conducting Defensive Counter Air (DCA) patrols over Iraq and Syria in defense of Israel, the US, and other coalition forces. Shortly after sundown, DUDE 41 Flight, comprised of 4 crews from the 335th Fighter Squadron, departed and headed for their Combat Air Patrol (CAP) location, refueling enroute with KC-135 Stratotankers from the 134th Air Refueling Wing.
Once established, under complete darkness, and fully lights out, a sortie of F-15E’s from the 335th initiated their mission, patrolling the skies over Syria, assisted with night-vision goggles, and conducting YO-YO (“you’re on your own”) fueling operations to stay ready. Later that night, one of the aircraft detected a slow-moving, low-altitude radar track transiting through the Syrian sky. Upon further investigation, the pilots positively identified the track as an Iranian-made Shaheed-136 one-way attack drone. Moments later, they shot it down utilizing an AIM-9X heat-seeking missile. Almost immediately, the aircraft began to detect waves of suicide drones transiting the Iraqi and Syrian deserts. Non-stop for the next hour, the crew, working as two rotating elements, continued this cycle to detect, identify, and engage 24 drones utilizing AIM-120s, AIM-9Xs, and even attempting to use a Laser Guided bomb.
The size, slow speed, and low-altitude flight path of one-way attack drones are among many factors that make these threats a significant targeting challenge for conventional fighter aircraft.
As the formation had exhausted their weapons, two of the aircraft in the formation recommended their fuel be reassigned to fighters who still had ordnance, began coordinating their handoff, and proceeding back to base. Despite reaching friendly airspace without issue, the team soon realized that their excitement was far from over. Only minutes from landing, the booster trails of dozens of theater ballistic missiles (TBMs) illuminated the sky above as they overtook the formation headed west. As the crews recognized what was above them, the black night sky was further illuminated by countless missiles from Israel’s Arrow system and a US Patriot battery firing defensive missiles in the opposite direction. Iran’s ballistic missiles clashed with friendly air defenses thousands of feet above DUDE41 aircraft, detonating and showering thousands of pieces of glowing debris down all around them as they prepared to land.
Several hours after the initial takeoff, the “all clear” was given, as the attack was largely expected to be over. Everyone on base would soon watch coverage from every major news outlet on earth reporting on the events they had just shaped. In culmination, defense assets from Jordan, the United Kingdom, France, Israel, the US Army, the US Navy, the US Air National Guard, and the US Air Force successfully intercepted 99% of Iran’s 300+ projectiles launched at Isreal that night. Not a single life was lost.
Last Friday, we had the honor to attend the Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor and Medal award ceremony by General Kenneth Wilsbach ACC Commander at Seymour Air Force Base, North Carolina. 31 Medals were awarded including 8 Distinguished Flying Cross with Valor to the fighter pilots that flew the 4 F15E Jets on April 13, 2024. The 335th Squadron leader Lt Col Kevin “Rowdy” Murphy and his wingman Maj Sebastian “Barrage” Kaiser who led this mission from one of the 4 F15E Jets was honored early this year by MDAA as the US Air Force Missile Defender of the Year.
The United States Air Force combat capability for air defense is second to none in the world today and has been since World War II. It is the World’s preeminent air mission for air superiority in air defense. Its agility, mobility and lethality to go at anytime, anywhere to defend airspace in the world is second to none. It most definitely will be part of the Golden Dome’s architecture in the under-layer at the boost, midcourse and terminal phase of missile flight.
This mission was not a pickup game. The stellar results are a testament to the trust, training and teamwork developed over decades of refining this mission set — an investment that paid off in spades on 13 April 2024. General Wilsbach was a Major flying F-15Cs in Alaska in the late 1990s when the US Air Force decided to get serious about utilizing air superiority fighters to counter the growing and rapidly proliferating cruise missile threat. His squadron developed the initial tactics that eventually spread beyond the F-15C community to the entire US Air Force, joint force and allies and partners. Today, counter-cruise missile tactics are a core competency for US and allied fighter pilots, including the integration of fighters with the other assets in the IAMD team. MDAA commends the men and women who dedicate themselves to continually refining these life-saving skills and for the tremendous work they did on this fateful night when they were called upon to defend freedom.
WOMPUM
