F-15

No other aircraft dominated air-to-air combat in the forty years after the Vietnam War like the F-15 Eagle, which has downed over 100 opponents: including 15 Syrian MiGs by Israel in the 1979–81 Israeli-Lebanese border disputes, 40 Syrian jet fighters and one helicopter during the 1982 Lebanon War, and 36 Iraqi aircaft by the Americans in the 1991 Gulf War.

January 16, 1991, over western Iraq: Capt. Tony Schiavi of the USAF 33rd TFW, heard the AWACS report, "Bandits taking off from H2, a whole group, heading northeast." Capt. Schiavi and three other F-15s immediately headed that way to give chase. With a one hundred mile head start, the Iraqi jets would be hard to catch. Accelerating rapidly, the F-15s were burning up fuel at a prodigious rate. Then the AWACS piped up again, more Iraqi jets were taking off from H2. These were much closer, but was it a trap?

The American pilots punched off their wing tanks, dove down from 25,000 feet, heading for the remote Iraqi airbase, still invisible beneath the winter cloud cover. Capt. Rhory Draeger locked onto a target, presumably the enemy leader. Tony Schiavi picked out another Iraqi jet, closed to within twenty miles, and locked on with his AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile. Both pilots let go their 500-lb., radar-guided, missiles at the same time. With their two-stage rocket motors, and advanced electronics, the AIM-7Ms used in the 1991 war had a 40% hit rate. Capable of Mach 4, the Sidewinders would overtake their targets in seconds.

Just then the clouds opened up, and down on the deck, the American pilots spotted three MiG-23 Floggers speeding across the desert. Capt. Draeger's missile hit his target, but, incredibly, the MiG flew through the fireball created by the Sidewinder's 88 pounds of high explosive. (If that doesn't sound like a lot, think how much one stick of dynamite weighs.) Damaged, but not destroyed, the MiG flew on a few more seconds until the fire reached the wingroot, then it blew up. Meanwhile, Capt. Schiavi's missile impacts his target, destroying it immediately. A third F-15 pilot, Captain Cesar Rodriguez, also scored on this encounter. Three kills, zero losses. That's what happened every time the F-15s met the enemy over Iraq in 1991.

The F-15 Eagle is an all-weather, extremely maneuverable, tactical fighter designed to gain and maintain air superiority in aerial combat.

The Eagle's air superiority is achieved through a mixture of unprecedented maneuverability and acceleration, range, weapons and avionics. It can penetrate enemy defense and outperform and outfight any current or projected enemy aircraft. The F-15 has electronic systems and weaponry to detect, acquire, track and attack enemy aircraft while operating in friendly or enemy-controlled airspace. Its weapons and flight control systems are designed so one person can safely and effectively perform air-to-air combat.

A multimission avionics system sets the F-15 apart from other fighter aircraft. It includes a head-up display, advanced radar, inertial navigation system, flight instruments, UHF communications, tactical navigation system and instrument landing system. It also has an internally mounted, tactical electronic-warfare system, "identification friend or foe" system, electronic countermeasures set and a central digital computer.

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Sources:

National Museum of the USAF

The Encyclopedia of 20th Century Air Warfare, edited by Chris Bishop, 2001, Aerospace Publishing