USAF employing significantly more munitions against the Islamic State
The US Air Force (USAF) has employed considerably more munitions in its campaign against the Islamic State over recent weeks, the service disclosed on 6 January. This increased expenditure of weaponry was revealed in an article on deployed USAF armourers that was published on the service's official website. "[Prior to being deployed] I had no idea […]Gareth Jennings writes for IHS Janes Defence Weekly :
The US Air Force (USAF) has employed considerably more munitions in its campaign against the Islamic State over recent weeks, the service disclosed on 6 January. This increased expenditure of weaponry was revealed in an article on deployed USAF armourers that was published on the service's official website.
"[Prior to being deployed] I had no idea how high tempo the mission was going to be or how many munitions we would be building," a senior airman said in the piece, adding, "In the last three months we have already built over nine times the amount of munitions than the last rotation did in their entire six [months]." While the previous rotation did include a period before airstrikes were launched, the numbers of munitions now being expended is significant. According to the air force, more than 500 GBU-38 and GBU-54 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) precision-guided bombs have been dropped since the beginning of October 2014.
