Pairs of F15's coming into PDX today throughout the day with sidewinders and drop tanks on the wing

I work in the flight path of Portland International Airport and today between 12:15 and 12:45pm today I watched four Two fighter elements coming in to land in that time period (8 jets in 4 2 ship elements total)

Now the thing I found very interesting was they seemed to be configured in a way I can't recall ever seeing except in the days leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Each plane had an air to air missile on the outer pylon of each wing then a drop tank on each inner wing hard point. To the best of my admittedly limited knowledge that is a configuration used for long range war time ferry missions... (dual drop tanks gives them lots of range and a pair of air to air missiles for self defense isn't a common configuration as far as I know)

Just figured I'd throw this thread up to see if anyone else has seen any concentrations of strike aircraft that seem to be on their way somewhere.

Not unusual.

I watch the sky pretty avidly and while I agree that the f-15's even in two flight elements and tactical staggering is not unusual BUT the loadout and the tactical staggering is enough to give me pause...

Last time I saw that behavior and loadout out of f15's was pre iraq.

It's the pair of Air to air defensive armament and the paired ferry tanks but no belly drop tank that made me say hmm... paired drop tanks and missiles like that is usually an indicator that they're going somewhere medium far away under combat conditions (hence defensive air to air arms)

And I don't think it was unusual per se just interesting .... and possibly indicative of something if others are observing similar patterns throughout the states.

Which is why I started the thread in the first place. So I could see if anyone else that is in flight paths is seeing equipment move around in combat ferry trim and if so which general direction the hardware seems to be heading

Nothing unusual in the load out either. They could be training inert rounds and also air training data pods.

Here is an F-15E I snapped in the UK operating out of RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk, England. No live missiles on that one either.

Nothing unusual in the load out either. They could be training inert rounds and also air training data pods.

See load outs on the F-15E and F-15Cs.

www.airliners.net...

www.airliners.net...

TJ

Right I wish I had a digi cam I could have snapped pics of the wings with to see if they were live or training missiles.

Guess I'll never know... I do find it interesting that military equipment does seem to be moving around the US quite a bit today. As evidenced by the other thread that just popped up

Originally posted by roguetechie
I work in the flight path of Portland International Airport and today between 12:15 and 12:45pm today I watched four Two fighter elements coming in to land in that time period (8 jets in 4 2 ship elements total)

Now the thing I found very interesting was they seemed to be configured in a way I can't recall ever seeing except in the days leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Each plane had an air to air missile on the outer pylon of each wing then a drop tank on each inner wing hard point. To the best of my admittedly limited knowledge that is a configuration used for long range war time ferry missions... (dual drop tanks gives them lots of range and a pair of air to air missiles for self defense isn't a common configuration as far as I know)

Just figured I'd throw this thread up to see if anyone else has seen any concentrations of strike aircraft that seem to be on their way somewhere.

Those are not strike aircraft. The Oregon ANG has F-15C aircraft, and those sidewinders are not just for self defence, but because they are a fighter aircraft, which tend to carry air to air missiles

here's your the answer for those flights check out this link

www.kgw.com...

Originally posted by eniranjanrao
here's your the answer for those flights check out this link

www.kgw.com...

That was from Oct 4.

F-15C aircraft will normally launch with a couple heat seekers at the very least. And a couple of drop tanks would not be unusual at all, especially if going someplace.

US Fighters do not normally fly with live ordanance on the aircraft (warshots as they are sometimes called). The exception would be the alert planes on Air Defense Duty, but that's about it and there are usually only a couple of dozen of those on alert nation wide if that.

Training munitions are blue. Warshots are white or off white/grey.

Originally posted by SrWingCommander
US Fighters do not normally fly with live ordanance on the aircraft (warshots as they are sometimes called). The exception would be the alert planes on Air Defense Duty, but that's about it and there are usually only a couple of dozen of those on alert nation wide if that.

Training munitions are blue. Warshots are white or off white/grey.

Agree with Wing Commander here about the colour of the munitions..blue verses White. I believe these blue traing ones often have a regular seeker head on them..just no warhead or rocket fuel. They can be locked up/produce tone and the firing sequence done on them and recorded in the aircrafts electonic recording equipment. This is how many training ordinance types work...as a realistic training aid.

It was not at one time uncommon for Navy or Air Force Aircraft to lock up an airliner or air freighter in the air and do a firing pass with one of these training rounds and it be recorded. All this from long distance..often beyond visual. The airline pilots never know they have been locked up..unless they may themselves be national guard/reserve pilots.

If they were making a long distance overseas deployment I could see where they might be carrying at least two white ones on the rails in lieu of blue. The drop tank configuration would be telling as well. I would expect that a certain number of cannon rounds are kept in the magazines for ballasting out the aircraft on these overseas flights.

There were for many years F15s here at Langley Air Force Base just up the road from me. Whenever I passed by and saw them on approach I would automatically take note of the External tank configurations or lack thereof as well as what was on the rails. Same thing with navy planes which often fly over from Norfolk and Virginia Beach south of me across the Bay.
Now days the F 22s are at Langley AFB and they have internal storage bays. It is not easy to determine what they are carrying.

Thanks,
Orangetom

Some times what looks like drop tanks are cargo pods.
On aircraft going out of there area for a couple days or more this allows the plane pilot and if its a two seater to carry there luggage and other items.

Common for going to another base for training is to carry one cargo pod and one fuel pod with inert training missiles.

Carrier air groups come to NAS China Lake to train and in many cases this is what they carry.