{"id":4526076,"date":"2026-07-08T11:16:01","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:16:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/jetflights\/fords-super-hornets-wear-their-war-paint\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T10:34:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T08:34:49","slug":"fords-super-hornets-wear-their-war-paint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/fords-super-hornets-wear-their-war-paint\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford&#8217;s Super Hornets Wear Their War Paint"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<p>Fighter jets keep diaries. They keep them in stencilled paint, just below the cockpit rail, and if you know how to read them they will tell you exactly what kind of year the crews have had. On the Fourth of July, as the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/fa-18-super-hornet\">Super Hornets<\/a> of Carrier Air Wing 8 recovered at Naval Air Station Oceana after the America 250 flyover in New York, photographer William Abrams was waiting with a long lens. What he caught, and what The Aviationist published this week, is the war diary of the USS Gerald R. Ford's air wing, written one bomb silhouette at a time.<\/p>\n<p>The jets belong to the squadrons that spent the past year aboard Ford, the US Navy's newest and largest carrier, through the strikes on Iran. Now they are home, and their noses are covered in fresh mission markings: neat rows of weapon symbols recording what each aircraft dropped in combat.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px 24px;border-radius:8px;margin:8px 0 28px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px;line-height:1.8\"><li>Photos taken 4 July 2026 at NAS Oceana, during recovery from the America 250 flyover over New York<\/li><li>VFA-213 \"Black Lions\" CAG F\/A-18F wears 31 identical, so-far-unidentified bomb-shaped markings<\/li><li>Other CVW-8 tallies: one VFA-37 jet shows 4 JSOW and 42 JDAM silhouettes; VFA-87's CAG bird shows 11 JDAMs<\/li><li>USS Gerald R. Ford deployed 24 June 2025, returned to Norfolk 16 May 2026 &mdash; 326 days, the longest US carrier deployment in over half a century<\/li><li>The strike group fought in Operation Epic Fury (Iran) and Operation Southern Spear (Caribbean)<\/li><li>Carrier Air Wing 8 logged more than 5,760 flight hours and 12,200 launches (US Navy)<\/li><li>The strike group received the Presidential Unit Citation<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=202867009  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/u-p10-body-vfa87-cag-jdam-markings.jpg\" alt=\"VFA-87 CAG Super Hornet with JDAM tallies\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">VFA-87's CAG bird recovering at Oceana with its JDAM mission tallies in red beneath the cockpit. Image: William Abrams (@whiskey_alpha_photo) via The Aviationist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The tallies differ jet by jet, which is exactly what makes them interesting. A grey F\/A-18E of VFA-87 shows four AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapons; the squadron's colourful CAG bird shows eleven JDAM guided bombs. The two jets photographed from VFA-37 saw the most action of the group: one wears four JSOWs and a remarkable forty-two JDAMs, the other four JSOWs and nineteen JDAMs. JDAMs, in standard and laser-guided flavours, were reportedly among the most heavily used weapons of the air campaign against Iran.<\/p>\n<p>And then there is the puzzle. The F\/A-18F flagship of VFA-213, the \"Black Lions,\" carries thirty-one identical markings that nobody outside the squadron has yet decoded. Each appears to show a Mk-80-series bomb casing, the shape used for JDAMs, with a second, unidentifiable symbol painted on top. Thirty-one of anything is a serious combat record. Thirty-one of something mysterious is an invitation to every aviation forum on the internet.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;The VFA-213 CAG jet immediately stood out with its nose art and mission markings, and I wanted to capture a clean side profile to show off the aircraft.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>William Abrams<\/strong> &mdash; aviation photographer (@whiskey_alpha_photo), as told to The Aviationist<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">What the Air Wing Actually Did<\/h2>\n<p>The markings are the receipts for a deployment that broke records nobody particularly wanted broken. Ford left Norfolk on 24 June 2025 for what was planned as a routine European cruise. It came home 326 days later, on 16 May 2026, after the longest American carrier deployment in more than half a century. In between, the strike group was pulled to the Caribbean for Operation Southern Spear and then to the Middle East for Operation Epic Fury, the campaign against Iran.<\/p>\n<p>The Navy's own numbers sketch the workload: the ship sailed more than 57,000 nautical miles and conducted 23 replenishments at sea, while Carrier Air Wing 8 logged over 5,760 flight hours and 12,200 launches. \"It's nearly 80,000 miles sailed,\" Admiral Daryl Caudle, the Chief of Naval Operations, said at the homecoming. \"That's like going around the Earth three times - over 2,500 sorties, 12,000 takeoffs of tactical aircraft, over 200 tons of ordnance dropped.\" Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth met the ship at the pier and presented the strike group with the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest award an American military unit can receive, for its work in Epic Fury.<\/p>\n<div style=\"max-width:550px;margin:0 auto 28px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/embed\/Tweet.html?id=2009298781359980953&theme=light\" style=\"width:100%;height:400px;border:none;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>VFA-213 itself was a regular in official imagery throughout the cruise. CENTCOM photographs showed the squadron's two-seat F\/A-18Fs in nearly every configuration the jet offers: clean for training, hauling five external tanks as \"five wet\" tankers to keep the strike packages fed with fuel, and loaded with JDAMs and Laser JDAMs for the strikes themselves. The mission markings are the summary; those photos were the chapters.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">From the Memphis Belle to the CAG Bird<\/h2>\n<p>Painting your combat record on the side of your aircraft is one of military aviation's oldest habits. Second World War bomber crews stencilled a bomb on the fuselage for every raid survived &mdash; the B-17 Memphis Belle's twenty-five became famous enough to carry a war-bond tour &mdash; while fighter pilots claimed their victories in tidy rows of enemy flags beneath the canopy. The tradition ran through Korea's MiG kills and Vietnam's, and it never really died; it just adapted to the age of the precision strike, where the tally counts weapons delivered rather than aircraft downed.<\/p>\n<p>Its modern keepers are exactly the aircraft you would expect. <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/a-10-warthog\">A-10<\/a> Warthogs and <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-15e-strike-eagle\">F-15E<\/a> Strike Eagles routinely come home from deployments wearing elaborate nose art and long ledgers of bombs, missiles and destroyed targets. Navy squadrons tend toward more restraint, with one glorious exception: the CAG bird, the air wing commander's aircraft, which by tradition wears the squadron's most flamboyant colours. When a CAG bird adds combat tallies to its livery, as VFA-213's has, the result is the closest thing modern naval aviation has to a heraldic banner.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px\"><img data-opt-id=1483436884  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/ml5psubhxdln.i.optimole.com\/cb:0e0_.b970\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/ig:avif\/https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/07\/u-p10-body-uss-ford-homecoming-norfolk.jpg\" alt=\"USS Gerald R Ford arrives at Norfolk\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Naval Station Norfolk on 16 May 2026, ending a 326-day deployment. US Navy photo by MC2 Mike Shen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Which brings us back to those thirty-one symbols. The Navy has not explained them, and the squadron is under no obligation to. They may denote a specific weapon variant, a particular class of target, or something nobody outside the ready room has guessed. Sooner or later, someone from the Black Lions will tell the story over a beer, and the mystery will resolve into a fact.<\/p>\n<p>Until then, the jets themselves are doing the talking, parked in the Virginia sun with a year of war painted on their noses. Diaries, as we said. And this one had a lot to say.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zO1IcA1j4bE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;border-radius:8px\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">13News Now covers the Ford strike group's long-awaited homecoming at Norfolk.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style:italic\">Sources: The Aviationist, U.S. Navy, VPM, Stars and Stripes, USNI News, DVIDS<\/p><!-- mf-faq -->\n\n<div class=\"mf-faq-block\"><style>.mf-faq-block{margin:34px 0}.mf-faq-item:not([open]) .mf-faq-answer{display:none !important}.mf-faq-block h2.mf-faq-h{padding-top:22px;margin-bottom:14px}.mf-faq-item{border:1px solid #e2e8f5;border-radius:8px;margin:0 0 10px;background:#fff}.mf-faq-item summary{list-style:none;cursor:pointer;padding:15px 50px 15px 18px;font-weight:600;color:#1a1a1a;position:relative;line-height:1.45;user-select:none}.mf-faq-item summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mf-faq-item summary::after{content:\"+\";position:absolute;right:18px;top:50%;transform:translateY(-50%);font-size:1.5em;font-weight:400;color:#5C91FF;line-height:1}.mf-faq-item[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mf-faq-item[open] summary{border-bottom:1px solid #eef1f8}.mf-faq-item summary:hover{background:#f5f8ff}.mf-faq-answer{padding:14px 18px;color:#333;line-height:1.6}.mf-faq-answer p{margin:0}.mf-faq-answer a{color:#5C91FF}<\/style><h2 class=\"mf-faq-h\">Related Questions<\/h2><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>What are mission markings on fighter jets?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>Mission markings are small stencilled symbols painted below a military aircraft's cockpit to record its combat history \u2014 each bomb silhouette typically represents a weapon dropped or a mission flown. The tradition dates back generations and turns each jet's nose into a public war diary of its most recent deployment.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>How long was the USS Gerald R. Ford's 2025\u20132026 deployment?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>326 days \u2014 the longest deployment by a US aircraft carrier in over half a century. The Ford deployed on 24 June 2025 and returned to Norfolk on 16 May 2026, fighting in Operation Epic Fury against Iran and Operation Southern Spear in the Caribbean along the way.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>What operations did the Ford strike group fight in?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>Two named operations: Operation Epic Fury, the campaign of <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/centcom-hits-80-targets-overnight-iran-blitz\/\">strikes against Iran<\/a>, and Operation Southern Spear in the Caribbean. The strike group's performance earned it the Presidential Unit Citation, and its Super Hornets returned home wearing rows of fresh mission markings.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>What is the USS Gerald R. Ford?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>The USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) is the US Navy's newest and largest aircraft carrier and lead ship of its class. Its air wing, Carrier Air Wing 8, logged more than 5,760 flight hours and 12,200 launches during the 2025\u20132026 deployment, according to the US Navy.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>What do the bomb markings on the Ford's Super Hornets show?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>Photographs taken at NAS Oceana on 4 July 2026 show one VFA-37 jet with 4 JSOW and 42 JDAM silhouettes, VFA-87's CAG bird with 11 JDAMs, and VFA-213's CAG F\/A-18F carrying 31 identical, so-far-unidentified bomb-shaped markings \u2014 a tally that has aviation watchers guessing.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>What is a JDAM?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) is a guidance kit that converts unguided bombs into GPS-guided precision weapons. It is one of the most widely used air-to-ground weapons in the US arsenal, and JDAM silhouettes dominate the fresh mission markings on the Ford air wing's Super Hornets.<\/p><\/div><\/details><details class=\"mf-faq-item\"><summary>Where were the Super Hornet photos taken?<\/summary><div class=\"mf-faq-answer\"><p>At Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia, on 4 July 2026, as Carrier Air Wing 8's jets recovered from the America 250 flyover in New York. Photographer William Abrams captured the markings, and The Aviationist published the images \u2014 fresh from <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/sirens-at-dawn-iran-answers-us-strikes-kuwait-bahrain\/\">a deployment shaped by the confrontation with Iran<\/a>.<\/p><\/div><\/details><\/div>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What are mission markings on fighter jets?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Mission markings are small stencilled symbols painted below a military aircraft's cockpit to record its combat history \u2014 each bomb silhouette typically represents a weapon dropped or a mission flown. The tradition dates back generations and turns each jet's nose into a public war diary of its most recent deployment.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How long was the USS Gerald R. 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Photographer William Abrams captured the markings, and The Aviationist published the images \u2014 fresh from <a href=\\\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/sirens-at-dawn-iran-answers-us-strikes-kuwait-bahrain\/\\\">a deployment shaped by the confrontation with Iran<\/a>.\"}}]}<\/script><!-- \/mf-faq -->\n\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px;border-radius:0 8px 8px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/missile-in-the-mirror-a-super-hornet-escapes-iran\/\">Missile in the Mirror: A Super Hornet Escapes Iran<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/yf-17-cobra-lost-became-fa-18-hornet\/\">The YF-17 Cobra: The Fighter That Lost &mdash; and Became the F\/A-18 Hornet<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fresh mission markings on USS Gerald R. Ford&#8217;s Super Hornets reveal the weapons its air wing used against Iran, and one jet wears 31 unexplained symbols.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":4525033,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[664,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4526076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-military-aviation","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ford Super Hornets Reveal Iran Mission Markings<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Fresh mission markings on USS Gerald R. 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