F-15E Strike Eagle Becomes the First Aircraft to drop StormBreaker bomb

A US Air Force squadron Idaho made its successful attempt to drop Raytheon’s StormBreaker smart weapon. Defense official identified it as a significant step ahead for the long halted small diameter bomb. According to the information revealed by the Air Force, the F-15E Strike Eagle successfully completed the test hitting four moving vehicles on the ground dropping the bomb. The test operation was successfully completed at Utah Test and Training Range.

The test were extremely crucial to pave the way for incorporating F-15E Strike Eagle combat said Alison Howlett, the Director of StormBreaker program at Raytheon Missiles and Defense. The stress-testing of the weapon has proved it will be capable of hitting the targets in difficult situations.

So far, the StormBreaker is only approved for integrating it on the F-15E. Now that the results have showed its capability to strike targets in difficult conditions, it will be used on the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and fifth-generation fighters like the F-35. It’s a major step for a weapon as small diameter bomb was delayed roughly over a year due to production issues.

The StormBreaker weighs 204-pound which is relatively small weapon. The weapon measures 69 inches long with a diameter of 7 inches. The Strike Eagle can carry around 28 StormBreaker which would be helpful when there is need of striking multiple targets at one time with highest level of accuracy.