F-15E Strike Eagle February 09 2015

Indeed it is true, dress dark and you look sexier.

The F-15E is a variation of the pure fighter F-15. This thing is designed to go deep behind enemy lines (preferably undetected or jamming the hell out of the enemy), bomb the targets and then come out fighting (if needed) as the air superiority aircraft that it is.

Having said that though, I always wondered why in 1981, then Israel took out Iraq's nuclear reactor (look up Operation Opera or Operation Babylon; they should make a movie out of this) it did so with F-16s doing the bombing run and F-15A as escorts. So I did so very basic research and actually deduced the "answer" (since I did not find any text answearing my question directly). Turns out that the F-15E was not available back in 1981. The F-15E was operational only until 1989.

Had the F-15E been available in 1981 or had the operation happened when the F-15E were available, there is a good chance that it would have been a solely F-15E operation. But then again, if we start taking like this, we are going into counter-factual thinking,which is (although fun and entertaining) never a good thing.

This particular model, comes loaded to the max. It includes external fuel tanks, to go long distances. Bombs, to nail the target and 8 (yeah, I said 8) air-to-air missiles to tangle with anybody on its return trip. Quite a nice model, I must say.