The US Air Force (USAF) has conducted a joint training exercise with the US Army at Jikdo Island, off the western coast of South Korea, near Kunsan Air Base.
During the exercise, the teams fired AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, rockets and 30mm munitions at the range.
Targeting pods on the F-15E Strike Eagle were used to identify targets by laser followed by AH-64 Apache pilots firing the missiles.
494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron F-15E pilot Captain Christopher Leong said, “The AH-64s will be firing the Hellfire missiles and we’ll be guiding those missiles onto the targets.”
“We’ll use the sensors on our jets – our targeting pods. We’ll find the target and fire a laser and the Hellfire missile,” he added.
US Army assistant S-3 for 4-2 Attack Battalion Captain Nikolas Folgert said, “The purpose for this exercise is to evaluate and determine 4-2 Attack’s readiness posture.”
This training is also considered to be vital for the F-15E ‘back-seater’, who is responsible for acquiring the targets and guiding the missiles to impact.
