Deployed from their homebase at MCAS Miramar, VMFA-232 fly the “Legacy” Hornets in a combination of surveillance flights and kinetic strike missions in support of Iraqi Security Forces in their fight against ISIS.
Noteworthy, the Marines F-18s appear to have been removed of their IFR (In-Flight Refueling) probe cover. In the past, other U.S. warplanes, including the U.S. Navy F-14s involved in Desert Storm, conducted combat operations without the probe hatch in order to prevent it to get jammed with the basket used by some aerial refuelers (like the U.S. Air Force KC-135s) or because it blocked during AAR (Air-to-Air Refueling) ops as a consequence of low temperatures at night.
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
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