This Is What It Looks Like When You Get Intercepted By An F-15C Eagle
The 142nd Fighter Wing is one of the world's premier air F-15 Eagle units. Based in Portland, Oregon, their mission includes sitting alert all day, every day, waiting to scramble at a moment's notice to intercept everything from airliners having emergencies, to enemy cruise missiles attacking from the sea, to even more 'exotic' aerial targets. So they have to be trained in the unique procedures and techniques used to find and engage with a wide variety of aircraft with vastly different performance capabilities.
The F-15C typically weight over 50,000lbs at takeoff and packs a pair of Pratt and Whitney F100 turbofans that crank out 47,500lb of thrust in afterburner. Compare this to a Cessna 172 that weighs a couple thousand pounds loaded and runs on a 160hp piston engine and you get the picture of how vast the disparity in performance can be between the Eagle and its target. This makes flying tricky for Eagle drivers attempting to execute safe and effective intercepts.
With this in mind, the Air National Guard constantly trains to execute intercepts on various targets, and because wayward light aircraft pilots straying where they shouldn't is a constant source of scrambles, this training includes intercepting Cessnas from the Civil Air Patrol.
