The fierce clash between US F-15 fighter jets and Iranian UAVs highlights the evolving dynamics of modern warfare.
On April 13, during an unexpected assault on Israel, Major Benjamin Irish Coffey and Captain Lacie Sonic Hester found themselves fighting a relentless Iranian missile and UAV barrage. With over 300 Iranian missiles and drones launched, the scale of the attack surpassed US military expectations.Despite running low on missiles, Coffey and Hester were ordered to engage with everything they had to prevent the assault from succeeding. In an incredibly dangerous maneuver, they flew their F-15 Strike Eagle dangerously low and used their aircraft’s guns, a risky move made even more perilous by the total darkness and unidentifiable targets.
By the end of the night, the US forces, with Coffey and Hester leading the charge, managed to intercept 70 UAVs and three ballistic missiles, successfully repelling much of the attack. Yet, the intensity of the Iranian offensive took its toll. For the Air Force, it was the first real test of handling a large-scale, sustained drone attack. F-15 pilots and crew acknowledged moments of being overwhelmed as they spent hours in the air, battling a wave of low-cost, low-risk drones.”The challenge with UAVs is their cost and risk are minimal, allowing the enemy to deploy them in large numbers,” said Timothy Causey, an F-15 pilot. “We’ve never faced anything on this scale before.”
The April 13 attack revealed a daunting new reality for the US military, as advanced fighter jets like the F-15 faced off against inexpensive, slow-moving UAVs that could easily evade even the most sophisticated radar systems. With fighter jets carrying limited ammunition, the challenge was compounded by the rapid depletion of their most effective weapons. The F-15E Strike Eagle, for instance, could only carry eight air-to-air missiles, which were exhausted within 20 minutes of engagement.”The mission that night was clear: shoot down as many UAVs as we could to protect our allies,” recalled Lt. Col. Curtis Voodoo Culver. “But we ran out of missiles fast.”When the weapons ran out, the pilots faced another, even greater challenge: landing at a US base while Iranian missiles and UAVs were intercepted by the base’s Patriot system, sending debris scattering over the runway.
In some cases, fighters like Coffey and Hester’s were forced to land with a “missile hang,” where a missile malfunctions and doesn’t launch properly.”There was a real fear of whether it would explode on the wing or while on the ground during maintenance,” Coffey explained. “It was a tense, red-alert situation as we attempted to land under fire.”Meanwhile, the base was essentially under siege. Missiles and UAVs were intercepted above, and the base’s alarms blared, signaling imminent danger. Amid the chaos, military personnel maintained discipline, focusing not just on survival but on getting the planes back in the air to continue the fight.On the ground, soldiers were instructed to take cover in bunkers, though many stayed on task, helping to prepare the jets for their next mission. The night’s events marked a significant shift for fighter pilots, highlighting how warfare had evolved and the critical need for adaptability in the face of an unconventional threat.For their bravery, many of those involved, including Culver, received awards for valor. For Culver, the night was a stark reminder of the dramatic changes fighter pilots must now face in the era of modern warfare.
