Air strike

In an age of missiles and laser-guided bombs carried by aircraft packed with electronic aids for the crew, the task of destroying targets on the ground remains difficult and dangerous. Smart weapons - which can often be loosed far from a target and outside the enemy's most intensive air defenses - are not suitable for use on every sort of target. Railroad yards, warehouses, and petroleum storage facilities, for example, are best attacked with relatively simple weapons that require aircrews to drop them right down the enemy's throat, straight into the teeth of radar-directed antiaircraft defenses, a feat that demands skill, determination, and daring.One of the most demanding types of mission, is the solo "hi-lo-lo-hi" night attack. On such an assignment, a fighter-bomber enters enemy air space at a fuel-conserving 25,000 feet or so and descends to a height as little as 200 feet above the ground to elude enemy radar while approaching the initial point (IP), the starting point for the actual attack. Popping up to an altitude of several thousand feet, the jet makes a diving attack, then streaks away at low level until safely out of range of enemy air defenses.
For the rest of the flight home, the pilot climbs again to higher altitude to save fuel. Arguably the best plane for such missions is the two-seat F-15E Strike Eagle. An all-weather fighter-bomber derived from the single-seat F-15C air-superiority fighter, the F-15E uses an inertial navigation system (INS) and LANTIRN for flying and bombing at night.It also has terrain-following radar for low-level flight to elude enemy radar. With this equipment as well as electronic gear to detect and jam enemy radar, the F-15E can penetrate enemy defenses unescorted. Flown by a seasoned crew, the plane and its computerised bombing system can deliver even unguided weapons with extraordinary precision - typically within thirty feet or so of the aim point. For all their technology and skill there is no substitute for keeping one step ahead of the opposition. As shown in this book, each side has tricks up its sleeve, and the more inventive one side becomes, the more resourcefully the other must respond.