| OSW Loadouts |
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| Written by Sabc & Raptor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
After the Gulf War no-fly zones were established over the northern and southern parts of Iraq. Operation Southern Watch (OSW) was launched to enforce the southern no-fly zone. Being a dual role fighter, the F-15E's not only conducted CAP's but they sometimes executed so pre-planned retaliatory ground strikes called Response Options (RO's) or (at the beginning at least) spontaneous retaliatory strikes, whenever an Iraqi anti-aircraft unit attacked coalition jets. RO's were pre-planned well in advance and in many cases their target was not the same anti-aircraft site which executed the attack at the first place. OSW lasted for more than 10 years and evolved as a general container of all aerial operations aimed at keeping the peace in Southern Iraq. F-15E's flew 3-4 combat missions and 1-2 training missions per week as an average. During the decade of operations almost all F-15E units received ample opportunity to try themselves in combat missions. During enforcing no-fly zones no A/A ordnance were used, however retaliatory strikes required the use of laser guided bombs or sometimes AGM-130's. Besides LANTIRN systems, the Litening II targeting pod was also tried during OSW. Loadout #1 - No-Fly ZoneThis is almost an A/A only loadout. A/G ordnance is represented by two 2 GBU-12's for pre-planned retaliatory strikes. Besides Sidewinders a total of 4 AMRAAM's are used, giving the F-15E a considerable A/A firepower. Due to the closeness of airbases to the South Iraq region, external drop tanks are not used, further reducing overall weight and drag.
Loadout details:
Weight distribution:
Photos: No photos are available for this loadout configuration.
DisclaimerPlease note that this list is by no means complete. If you have any solid information (or better yet: photos) of other loadouts used in this conflict, do not hesitate, please feel free to drop us an email to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We at F-15E.info always do our best to comply with OPSEC/COMSEC rules. All information presented here is based on public domain information and/or material previously cleared for official release by USAF. Sources
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| Last Updated on Tuesday, 31 May 2011 |
In this article we present a typical F-15E Strike Eagle loadout configuration used in Operation 'Southern Watch' (OSW).
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