Eleven forty eighth Fighter Wing Strike Eagles have returned residence from the Iran air struggle sporting attention-grabbing nostril artwork and bomb markings.
On Jul. 1, 2026, eleven F-15E Strike Eagles belonging to the forty eighth Fighter Wing returned residence from their newest fight tour within the Center East. Though some plane carried 494th FS markings, in line with our sources all of the aircrews have been from the 492nd Fighter Squadron “Madhatters” (or “Bolars” from the squadron’s callsign). It’s not uncommon for the 2 squadrons of the forty eighth Fighter Wing to pool plane and borrow jets from each other when some airframes are unavailable.
The jets made their method again to RAF Lakenheath from Jordan, the place they’d been deployed to assist Operation Epic Fury, with a visit Sigonella Air Base in Italy.
Flying as TREND 11-15 and TREND 21-26, the primary eight jets landed earlier than sundown. Regardless of the poor lighting circumstances, our contributor Stewart Jack was there and took some attention-grabbing pictures of the F-15Es. The photographs reveal nicknames and nostril artwork utilized to the jets, as has turn out to be a convention for deployments to the CENTCOM AOR (space of accountability). On this case, the nicknames seem to observe a monster/cryptid theme, mixing mythological creatures and horror figures.
Total, the primary eight Strike Eagles have been nicknamed Nessie, Kraken, Yeti, Chupacabra, Cthulhu, Cerberus, Sirenhead and El Jefe. The ultimate three F-15Es landed at round 21:45 LT, when it was a lot darker, and for the second we now have been unable to find out their nicknames.
Extra in particulars the plane arrived within the following order:
00-3001 “Nessie”91-0329 “Kraken”97-0221 “Yeti”01-2001 “Chupacabra”91-0331 “Cthulhu”91-0309 “Cerberus”96-0205 “Sirenhead”91-0324 “El Jefe”
All of the plane sport a major variety of JDAM (Joint Direct Assault Munition) markings, with two of them, “Cerberus” and “El Jefe,” additionally painted with what look like AGM-158 JASSM (Joint Air-to-Floor Standoff Missile) silhouettes. Noteworthy, the primary eight plane don’t appear to sport any APKWS II markings.
Nostril artwork and nicknames on Strike Eagles deployed to the Center East first appeared on the 18 F-15E Strike Eagle jets belonging to the 391st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron returning to Mountain House AFB from OIR (Operation Inherent Resolve) in April 2019. Since then, it has turn out to be a regular for all of the F-15E squadrons deployed to the CENTCOM AOR.
A giant thanks to our contributor Stewart Jack Pictures for sending us his photographs!
