Sunday, June 4, 2017

How Many Bombs Did The U.S. Air Force Dropped On ISIS In Iraq And Syria That Were 'Duds'?

Three GBU-31 bombs are ready to be loaded onto the F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida on Mar. 11, 2017. Photo via DoD

Task & Purpose: How Many Air Force Bombs Dropped On ISIS In Iraq And Syria Were ‘Duds’?

In the three years since President Barack Obama first declared war on ISIS, the U.S-led multinational coalition has dropped tens of thousands of bombs on enemy targets across Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. But for several months after the Pentagon initiated airstrikes against the terror group, a significant number of U.S. munitions were considered “duds” — and the Air Force’s anti-ISIS strategy may have been to blame.

That’s according to data presented by Maj. Brian Baker of the U.S. Air Force Regional Plans and Posture Division at the National Defense Industry Association’s Precision Strike Annual Review on March 29. Air Force records presented by Baker indicated that somewhere between 11% and 19% of the munitions deployed against ISIS from August to November 2014 “failed” due to lower-than-expected impact angles or fuze delays.

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Previous Post: Has The U.S. Been Fighting The Islamic State With The Wrong Bombs And Tactics? (June 2, 2017).

WNU Editor: The answer is 11% to 19% .... or around 4,400 bombs dropped that are considered "duds".

2 comments:

B.Poster said...

An 11% to 19% failure rate is unacceptable in almost any profession. The only exception I can think of his hitter in baseball.

In military matters there should be an even less margin for error than in anything else. I've long known that US defense contractors and military leaders are incompetent boobs. This further vonfirms that.

Given the propensity of US "leadership" to overestimate our capabilities while underestimating the capabilities of adversaries and potential adversaries combined with their "Pollyannish" world view, I suspect the "dud" rate is much higher.

11% to 19% is a BIG difference. As such, I suspect someone is "spinning." The real "dud" rate is much higher. It's not a good idea to make Russia into a "foreign devil" for strictly partisain political purposes. It is gendtally unwise for those who are weak to go out of their way to pick fights with those who are strong.

fazman said...

We will never know if russias failure rate is even higher.