all of the ground procedures for the Strike Eagles and restore their
operational readiness. Interestingly, when the F-15s were landing in
Poland, another part of the ACE exercise assumed that six F-15Es
from the 494th Squadron would deploy to Al-Dhafra in UAE, sporting
the "tac-ferry" configuration (12 GBU-38 bombs, 227 kg each, plus
four GBU-39 SDBs). The above mission saw the F-15E in the role of
a "bomb truck" which diminishes the needs when it comes to the
number of personnel needed to unload the ordnance from a trans-
port aircraft, assemble it, and put it on the combat aircraft. USAF
claims that handling payload as such now only requires a single
C-130, instead of two. The configuration that has been tested only
recently makes it possible to carry up to 15 JDAM bombs to a for-
ward operating base and to eventually provide bomb units to other
aircraft. So far, the F-15E was only certified to carry up to 9 JDAMs.
This aligns perfectly with the ACE philosophy. Noteworthy, the 85th
Test & Evaluation Squadron that made the above feasible, has just
AVIATION
