USA Air Force has deployed 6+2 F-15Cs from the 48th Fighter Wing based at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England to the Incirlik Air Base  to protect Turkish airspace over Syria-Turkey border.

Media outlets had speculated that the F-15Cs would be used to protect U.S. planes over Syria from Russian aircraft, which are conducting a separate air war against rebels fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, but a spokeswoman for U.S. Air Forces in Europe said the F-15s will not be used in Syria.

“The mission of the F-15C deployed to Incirlik is to conduct combat air patrols in Turkish airspace and to demonstrate our resolve to defend the sovereignty of Turkish airspace,”  said Maj. Sheryll Klinkel