Aircraft
Operation Inherent Resolve Takes its Toll on Air Forces
Airforces involved in the non-NATO airstrike campaign against ISIS are seeing success but tension is high with Russian/Syrian forces.

“Air power is politically cheap but financially costly, and we have become addicted to it,” a senior European air force commander told The Fighter Conference in London last November. The numbers are indeed mind-boggling. According to Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Harrigian, air forces commander for U.S. Central Command (Centcom), in one recent month, coalition forces in the Middle East flew more than 580 kinetic sorties; employed 4,800 weapons; flew 1,800 airlift sorties; and conducted 1,300 refueling sorties. The average daily cost of operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is $13.1 million.