The Army tested its Hunter Standoff Killer Team technology demonstration program last month at Pax River—sending target data over the Link 16 high-speed, digital data link from an Army command and control UH-60 helicopter on the ground to an airborne Air Force F-15E and Navy F/A-18C/D. It worked. Yet to come is a full-up flight test later this year, marrying up a Hunter UAV and an AH-64 Apache—both flying—with the F-15E and F/A-18C/D.
Less than a day after arriving in the Middle East, F-15E Strike Eagles from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. defended Israel from an Iranian attack in April 2024. DUDE flight, four F-15Es from the 335th Fighter Squadron, downed two dozen Iranian drones in roughly 45 minutes.