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I found an interesting statistic the other day in researching a
presentation to a group about my book. In Operation Iraqi Freedom, one
fixed wing US aircraft was lost for 18,190 fixed wing sorties flown.
JUST ONE!! For Desert Storm, we lost 37 fixed wing aircraft on 116,000
sorties for a rate of one loss per 3135 sorties. During Rolling
Thunder, the F-105 was losing one aircraft per 65 sorties during 1966.

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Ed, We lose more airplanes than that in a bad week at Red Flag. Comparing
the DS II rates to DS I or VietNam is apples to oranges. They hardly shot
back. Even in DS I the air defense wasn't as robust as around Hanoi,
because we were allowed to kill it.

All your statistics show is that a decent program of SEAD works to prevent
losses. Says nothing about the capabilities of the F-15E, F-16C, or the
A-10. It does say a lot about the AGM-88 and smart weaponry over the last
12 years of SEAD in Iraq.

--
Les
F-4C(WW),D,E,G(WW)/AC-130A/MC-130E EWO (ret)