Out of Missiles, US F-15Es Drop JDAMs on Iranian Drones and Miss

Three American F-15E Strike Eagle crews, their air-to-air missiles spent, turned to the only weapon left on their jets on the night of April 13, 2024: laser-guided bombs, dropped on Iranian drones in flight.

None of them hit. The episode, recounted again by Air & Space Forces Magazine on Nov. 6, 2026, exposed what the outlet called “a cost and capacity problem” for the U.S. Air Force.

A Night of Empty Rails

Iran launched nearly 300 drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles toward Israel that night. U.S. fighters patrolled over Iraq to hunt the drones before they arrived. Cheap one-way attack drones such as Iran’s Shahed-136 were built to saturate defenses in swarms like that barrage.

The force included F-15Es from the 494th Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath and the 335th Fighter Squadron, whose jets had arrived from North Carolina less than a day earlier. F-16s from the 121st Fighter Squadron flew alongside French, British and Jordanian aircraft.

Each Strike Eagle carried up to eight AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles. The volume of targets meant many fighters emptied them quickly. According to the magazine, the U.S. downed 80 drones; an earlier report by the same outlet credited “U.S. and allied aircraft” with some 80.

‘Like in Star Wars’

The jets were also carrying laser-guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions in case of ground targets. Lt. Col. Timothy “Diesel” Causey, a weapons systems officer, and his pilot, then-squadron commander Lt. Col. Curtis “Voodoo” Culver, decided to try one on a low-flying drone.

Causey said they set it up “just like we would in attacking a car.” The bomb appeared to strike.

“I mean, the bomb, it looks like it hits—big explosion. I was like, ‘HIT!’ And then just out of this massive cloud, like in Star Wars,” Causey told the magazine in 2025. “Just here comes the drone, just right out of the cloud.”

A second 494th crew and one from the 335th also dropped JDAMs. “They missed further than I did—mine was the closest,” Causey said.

Tactic Halted Over Risk

Maj. Benjamin “Irish” Coffey, the mission commander that night, coordinated through command and control to stop the bombing attempts. He cited “strategic implications if something happens because of a missed bomb.”

Crews had a precedent in mind: an F-15E once destroyed an Iraqi Mi-24 Hind helicopter with a bomb as it took off during the 1991 Gulf War.

The Cost Problem

The attempts reflected a wider mismatch. AMRAAMs cost roughly $1 million each and the AIM-9X around $500,000, according to the magazine, while JDAMs were already on board and far cheaper. Iran has since kept adapting its mix of missiles and drones as U.S. interceptor stockpiles have come under strain.

The Air Force later turned to laser-guided 70 mm Hydra rockets fitted with the APKWS guidance kit and a proximity fuze, which can be carried in pods of seven.

The pressure has since grown. The magazine reports that Iran has fired more than 6,000 drones and 1,500 ballistic missiles since Operation Epic Fury began on Feb. 28, 2026, and has kept refining cheaper ballistic systems such as the Kheibar Shekan to stress the same defenses.