American fighters fire live missiles over Gulf Coast

U.S. Air Force fighter units conducted large-scale live-fire training during the latest iteration of the Weapons System Evaluation Program (WSEP 25.09) at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, between 8 and 19 September, according to the service.

Hosted by the 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group, the exercise allowed participating squadrons to assess combat readiness through live missile launches against full-scale and subscale drone targets. The training, held several times each year, enables aircrews, maintainers and weapons teams to operate in realistic combat scenarios while validating missile performance.

“WSEP is a very powerful exercise,” said Tech. Sgt. Brandon Murdaugh, 83rd Fighter Squadron weapons system program evaluator. “It’s one of the only exercises where live-fire missile testing is a regular activity. It gives units an opportunity to showcase their maintenance and combat capabilities.”

The event brought together fifth-generation F-22 Raptors and F-35A Lightning IIs alongside legacy aircraft such as the F-15C Eagle, F-15EX Eagle II, F-15E Strike Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon. Units from Nellis, Eglin and, for the first time since 2018, Hickam Air Force Base joined the exercise.

Maj. Tyler Davidson, F-22 program manager at the 83rd Fighter Weapons Squadron, said the Gulf Coast Range Training Complex offers unmatched flexibility.

“The airspace is massive and provides us a lot of flexibility and range to execute our profiles and objectives, while getting a lot of aircraft airborne at the same time,” he said. “Because of how great our airspace is, you could be employing a weapon within 10 minutes of taking off.”

Davidson added that the live-fire setting allows pilots to gain experience rarely available outside combat. “My dream is that every pilot, if they ever have to fire a real weapon in combat, has fired a weapon [at WSEP] first,” he said.