Tucked away in a corner of the publication, the January edition of the Air Force Association’s magazine yields an interesting tidbit about airpower contingency losses in Iraq and Afghanistan. These figures are from September 11th, 2001 to mid-Novmber, 2008.
The twenty-four manned aircraft losses, from greatest to fewest:
- 6x MH-53 Pave Low
- 5x F-16 Fighting Falcon
- 2x B-1B Lancer
- 2x HH-60G Pave Hawk
- 2x MC-130P Combat Shadow
- 1x A-10A Thunderbolt II
- 1x B-2A Spirit
- 1x C-5B Galaxy
- 1x C-130H Hercules
- 1x F-15E Strike Eagle
- 1x U-2
The forty-three unmanned aircraft losses, from greatest to fewest:
- 40x MQ/RQ-1 Predator
- 2x RQ-4A Global Hawk
- 1x MQ-9A Reaper
Seven of the aircraft are considered combat losses, meaning that they were destroyed while in direct contact with the enemy.
- 4x MQ/RQ-1 Predator
- 1x A-10A Thunderbolt II
- 1x F-16 Fighting Falcon
- 1x MH-53 Pave Low
(from “Air Force World“, Air Force magazine, January 2009)
UPDATE 170700Z JAN 2009: These figures are, of course, for the USAF alone. The US Army has lost upwards of 120 aircraft of varying types, of which fully one quarter were combat losses. My guess would be that, like the Air Force, the bulk would be unmanned vehicles, followed by a smaller number of rotary-wing aircraft. I have not been able to locate figures for the USN and USMC.
Chris is most often found flying a desk, but he delights in studying the Golden Age of Aviation (1919-1939). He admires all the pioneering men and women who navigated the skies with nothing more sophisticated than a map, compass and sextant—and the conviction that there was no place they could not reach.
