@ Nellis AFB, NV
March 2010
An Aggressor F-15 Eagle taxies for departure during the Red Flag 10-3 exercise held at Nellis AFB. This Eagle was assigned to the 65th Aggressor Squadron of the 57th Adversary Tactics Group based at Nellis. Aggressor aircraft are used to teach adversarial tactics and provide dissimilar air combat training to active duty units. Their aircraft wear camouflage schemes based on those observed on Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighters, this one wears a “Blue Flanker” livery. First flown in 1972, close to 1,200 Eagles have been built to date. The Charlie model is an improved air-superiority version, the most numerous Eagle variant with 483 built from 1979–1985. It is among the most successful modern fighters, with over 100 victories and no losses in aerial combat. The 65th utilized the F-15C as aggressor aircraft from 2005 to 2014 when the squadron was disbanded, then reactivated in 2022 with the F-35A Lightning II.