max steel Tue Mar 29, 2016 4:23 pm
Air Force 'loans' bombs to coalition partners in war on ISIS
The Air Force and coalition partners in the air war against the Islamic State are not only sharing intelligence, runways and strategic plans, they’re also sharing bombs.
Coalition jets having been taking from the U.S. stockpiles as needed, said Lt. Gen. John Raymond, deputy chief of staff for operations at Headquarters Air Force.
“We do have relationships with our coalition partners for those supplies; they are using those weapons as well,” Raymond told reporters Thursday at a defense writer’s briefing in Washington, D.C.
While the Air Force is not immediately concerned with depleting its stockpiles, “it is something we are managing very closely to make sure … we have the supplies to do what we need to do today,” he said.
The service, flying more than half the total sorties under Operation Inherent Resolve, has dropped 4,748 bombs so far in 2016; in 2015, aircraft released approximately 28,675 weapons, according to statistics from Air Forces Central Command.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said earlier this year that the Defense Department is running low on precision bombs and missiles. The fiscal 2017 budget requests $1.8 billion to buy 45,000 smart bombs and other guided munitions to replenish supplies in the continuing air campaign against Islamic State militants.
The U.S. is responsible for the most targeted strikes against ISIS. The coalition includes Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
In December, the Air Force lamented its dwindling bomb stockpiles, telling USA Today it had fired more than 20,000 missiles and bombs since the air campaign began in 2014.
"We're in the business of killing terrorists and business is good," Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told the paper. "We need to replenish our munitions stock. Weapons take years to produce, from the day the contract is assigned until they roll off the production line."
Airmen are also involved in meeting the demand for ordnance.
The 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron Munitions Flight, for example, builds bombs at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Between July and the end of 2015, the team of airmen built a record 4,000 bombs,one every seven minutes.
Raymond said the U.S. gets reimbursed for the “leasing” of its bombs, but did not specify if the reimbursement was monetary, or if partners and allies in the fight against ISIS have a trade agreement of some sort.
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