History
Since 1940s, the term "strike fighter" was occasionally used in the navies to refer to fighter aircraft capable of performing air-to-surface strikes, such as the Westland Wyvern and Blackburn Firebrand. It became normally used in the United States Navy at the end of 1970s, being the official description of the new McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. In 1983, the U.S. Navy even renamed each existing Fighter Attack Squadron to Strike Fighter Squadron to emphasize the air-to-surface mission (as the "Fighter Attack" designation was confused with the "Fighter" flying pure air-to-air missions).
This name quickly proliferated to non-maritime use. As the F-15E Strike Eagle came into service, originally called "dual role fighter", it instead quickly became known as "strike fighter".
Read more about this topic: Strike Fighter
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