Direct proof of use
The F-15 family is directly documented in the 1990 Gulf War by U.S. Air Force sources. The service's F-15 Eagle fact sheet states that F-15C, F-15D, and F-15E models deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1991 for Operation Desert Storm; it identifies F-15C fighters as the aircraft credited with most Air Force air-to-air victories and F-15E Strike Eagles as night attackers hunting Scud missile launchers and artillery sites with LANTIRN.
Air Combat Command's history of the Strike Eagle's opening Desert Storm combat records F-15E aircraft from the 335th and 336th Tactical Fighter Squadrons deploying after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, moving to Al Kharj Air Base in December 1990, and joining the opening January 17, 1991 strike package against heavily defended Scud missile sites.
Sources: F-15 Eagle fact sheet, DESERT STORM: The Strike Eagle's opening act
Combat chronology
F-15 units arrived during Operation Desert Shield before the air campaign began. Eglin Air Force Base's 33rd Fighter Wing history says the wing deployed 24 F-15Cs and 769 personnel to King Faisal Air Base, Saudi Arabia by late August 1990, then flew training sorties before Operation Desert Storm opened.
On January 17, 1991, F-15s were already part of the opening air campaign. Eglin's 30th-anniversary account credits Capt. Jon K. Kelk with the first aerial kill of the war in an F-15C, destroying an Iraqi MiG-29 near Mudaysis, Iraq, and lists additional F-15C victories by 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing pilots over MiG-29, Mirage F1, MiG-25, MiG-23, and Su-7/17 aircraft through February 7, 1991.
The F-15E branch was used for air-to-ground work from the first night of the campaign. Air Combat Command says the initial F-15E strike package included 24 Strike Eagles followed by another 21, with heavily defended Scud missile sites as the targets. The same account records later F-15E losses near Basrah and to an Iraqi SA-2, and says 335th and 336th squadron crews flew mostly at night while dropping millions of pounds of ordnance.
Sources: A look back: 30th anniversary Operation Desert Storm, Nomad's legacy in Desert Storm, DESERT STORM: The Strike Eagle's opening act
Operational role
The F-15C and F-15D role in the Gulf War was air superiority and air-defense patrol for coalition air operations. Air Force historical writing on 1990s aerial combat states that F-15 pilots downed nearly all Iraqi aircraft credited to U.S. Air Force fighters during Operation Desert Storm, while the Air Force fact sheet summarizes the F-15C share as 34 of 37 Air Force air-to-air victories.
The F-15E role was different: deep interdiction and night attack against fixed and mobile Iraqi targets. The Air Force fact sheet identifies Scud launchers and artillery sites as major F-15E targets, and Air Combat Command's history adds first-night strikes on Scud missile sites, later attacks near Basrah, laser-guided-bomb use, and the February 14, 1991 engagement in which an F-15E crew used a GBU-10 laser-guided bomb against an Iraqi helicopter.
GAO's evaluation of the Desert Storm air war provides the broader campaign context: the air campaign ran from January 17 to February 28, 1991, involved nearly every fixed-wing aircraft type in the U.S. inventory, and included large air-to-ground and support-sortie totals. Within that air campaign, the documented F-15 use was split between the Eagle's air-superiority mission and the Strike Eagle's night interdiction and strike mission.
Sources: No Contest: Aerial Combat in the 1990s, F-15 Eagle fact sheet, DESERT STORM: The Strike Eagle's opening act, GAO Operation Desert Storm Air War
