Oregon Air National Guard’s 142nd Wing became the first operational unit whose F-15EX drops live bombs, achieving what the Air National Guard called “a historical milestone” on August 27, 2026. The drops came during a roughly three-week deployment to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, in support of the U.S. Air Force’s Weapons Instructor Course, and the photographs documenting them weren’t released until September 9.
It’s the second of two milestones the 142nd has hit this year on the way to turning its F-15EX Eagle IIs into true multirole fighters. The wing first loaded and dropped inert practice bombs in May; the August deployment was the first time it employed live ordnance.
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What Happened at Nellis
The 142nd Wing’s F-15EXs operated out of Nellis Air Force Base for about three weeks in late August and early September, supporting the Air Force’s Weapons Instructor Course, the schoolhouse that trains the tacticians who set employment doctrine for the rest of the force. Official photos, dated August 26 and 27, show jets on the ramp and departing Nellis carrying live ordnance. The imagery shows a single 500-pound Mk 82 freefall bomb mounted on the fuselage centerline station; spotters separately photographed F-15EXs carrying the larger 2,000-pound Mk 84. The Air Force has not disclosed how many live bombs were dropped during the deployment.
Weapons technicians from the 142nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, including Master Sgt. Jay Aebi and Staff Sgts. Eric Janson and Alisha Sargent, loaded the bombs. A small group of loaders with prior bomb-loading experience became certified on F-15Es at Nellis earlier in the year, then trained the loaders who supported the May deployment to Mountain Home.
From Inert Bombs to Live Ordnance
The Nellis deployment was the second of two distinct firsts, three months apart. In early May, 142nd Wing pilots, maintainers, and munitions Airmen traveled to Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, and loaded and dropped concrete-filled BDU-50 and BDU-56 practice bombs, sized and weighted to match the 500-pound Mk 82 and 2,000-pound Mk 84 respectively. Over 10 missions, the wing dropped 24 BDU-50s and 12 BDU-56s with zero safety incidents. That was the first time an operational F-15EX unit had loaded and dropped any bombs; only the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base had previously done so, and only in a test capacity.
Three 142nd Wing pilots with prior air-to-ground experience, including Maj. Jesse Loya, built a compressed training syllabus to teach the rest of the wing’s pilots the fundamentals of employing bombs, condensing a course that normally runs nine months. That pipeline is what let the wing move from inert drops in May to the point where its F-15EX drops live bombs at Nellis in August.
Turning the F-15EX Into a True Multirole Fighter
The 142nd Wing, based at Portland Air National Guard Base, was the Air Force’s first operational unit to field the F-15EX Eagle II, receiving its first jet in June 2024 and unveiling it publicly that July. Before the EX arrived, the wing flew the F-15C, a pure air-superiority fighter with no air-to-ground mission and no bombing capability built into its pilots’ training or the unit’s equipment.
The F-15EX is derived from the F-15E Strike Eagle and carries considerably more inherent multirole potential than the F-15C it replaces. The wing’s 142nd Operations Group Commander, Col. Joshua Hovanas, credited the unit’s Airmen for how quickly it stood up an entirely new capability from scratch.
“The speed at which this wing established a completely new capability is a testament to our Airmen.”
Col. Joshua Hovanas, 142nd Operations Group Commander
FAQ: F-15EX Live Bomb Drop
Is this the first time any F-15EX has ever dropped a bomb?
No. Test aircraft under the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base had already employed weapons, including the type’s first-ever weapon release, an AIM-120D AMRAAM, on January 25, 2022. The August 2026 event marked the first live-bomb drop by an operational F-15EX unit.
What weapons did the F-15EXs carry during the Nellis deployment?
Official photos show a 500-pound Mk 82 freefall bomb on the fuselage centerline station; spotter photos also show the larger 2,000-pound Mk 84. Some aircraft also carried an AN/AAQ-33 Sniper targeting pod. The Air Force has not disclosed the total number of live bombs dropped.
Why couldn’t the 142nd Wing do this before?
The wing’s previous aircraft, the F-15C, was a pure air-superiority fighter with no air-to-ground mission. When the multirole F-15EX arrived, the 142nd had jets capable of dropping bombs but no pilots or loaders trained to do it, so it had to build that capability from scratch.
Looking Ahead
The 142nd Wing’s progression from inert drops in May to the point where its F-15EX drops live bombs establishes the template other Air National Guard F-15EX units are likely to follow as the type continues fielding. The Aviation Diary will track how the wing builds on this qualification, and whether the Air Force releases further detail on the scope of the Nellis live-fire missions.
Sources
- The Aviationist — “Oregon ANG’s F-15EXs Drop Live Bombs For The First Time”
- The War Zone — “Operational F-15EXs Drop Live Bombs For The First Time”
- Air Force Times — “In First, Oregon Guard F-15EXs Drop Live Bombs”
- AirDataNews — “Operational F-15EX Drops Live Bombs for First Time”
- DVIDS / 142nd Wing Public Affairs — “142nd Wing Drops Bombs in Historic First” (May 2026 inert-bomb milestone)
