How Many Us Aircraft In Iraq? Options

[Gettin High]

I know some of you have flown for the US military, maybe even have been to Iraq or Afghanistan:

In the Coalitions attack on Saddams Regime in Iraq, the "shock and awe" campaign before the ground war started was a good example of the incredible power of the US airforce. So I'm wondering how many planes we use. Also, how many flight missions (sorties??) are flown per day on average?

Also, are a majority of our planes located in the carrier fleets or on land in bases in surrounding nations? It seems that carriers can be much more versatile, with the exceptions of wars faught extremely far from the ocean.

[F-14 Tomcatter]

I would say thousands and thousands scattered all over the Middle East.

[Archangel]

well at any given time half of my bases' C-17's are out in the field somewhere. and we have 51 assigned to us valued at somewhere are $202 million a piece averaged(older ones costed more).

[glnflwrs]

I can't shed any light on actual numbers but maybe a little on the type and their sortie origins.

Most ground attack including tactical bombing and theater ground support is accomplished by aircraft such as the F-18 Hornet/Super Hornet and originate from carriers. Top cover for those preplanned sorties is usually provided by F-15's and originate from bases in the theater area such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, or elsewhere, or by F-14's from carriers, although F-14's usually assume a Fleet Defense role also.

The close ground support of troops or armor removal is almost always done by the AH64 Apache and the A-10 Thunderbolt, although the F-16 has also seen more use in this role. These are all originated from land bases.

With the fairly recent (last 15 years) adoption of the "Unified Force/Command" strategy all the services, Navy, Army, AF, and to some extent the Marines, act as one force and take their commands from a COMSYNCPAC or such structure.

The air traffic and their missions are commanded by the central command and orchestrated and controlled by JSTARS or equivalent.

If anyone can correct any of this PLEASE do so. It's been a while since my active duty days but I try to keep abreast. Teach me something.

8) :lol: