Cost of British Air Strikes in Iraq
 

Cost of British Air Strikes in Iraq


Interesting news article with breakdown of costs of recent RAF activity in Iraq.
e.g. Paveway bombs, £22,000 each, Brimstone missiles, £105,000 per unit.


How Much Will Airstrikes On IS Cost Taxpayer?

The RAF kept these well hidden, I've never even seen one... :suspect:

-RP

Rhino ... That's three Conways aside then ;)

At least a decent, unemotional piece of writing.

I don't suppose strapping a guidance unit on a 25lb practice bomb would work? It just seems a VERY expensive way of taking out a pick-up truck.

how much would a US CBU cost - surely attacking convoys with individual guided weapons is economic suicide?

using Brimstone/Paveway might work, just, for plinking IS £5000 Toyota pick-up trucks, but wallopping a single armoured regiment is going to deplete our entire stock...

I saw somewhere that IS have 10 tanks ... Save the goodies for that, and use guns on the rest?

Oh, that might be dangerous.

I guess high angle dive with airburst KFF has fallen out of fashion.

Surgical strikes are as expensive as surgery.

Sorry, I'm old and out of date ... KFF?

1000lb Free Fall.

IS have 2 Billion Euros in assets, it is estimated. I think that means they can afford more £5000 Toyotas than we can afford £105,000 Brimstones.

JTO.....KFF & KRET were dropped (see what I did there? :}) years ago and the profiles no longer practiced.

Guys, the cost of the weapons vs the targets is relatively irrelevant. They're bought and paid for. If we don't drop them now, there may not be another chance so if it were up to me, we'd drop the lot!

Precision is the order of the day, minimum collateral damage and certainly no civilian casualties. Whole different ballgame from Cold War days.

especially if their 'best before' date is 31/10/14.....

so they will not need to be replaced after expenditure, then?

Funny old thing.

JAJ - I think the hole in your argument is
These annoying terrorist jerks are turning up all over the shop. In fact we've been bombing 'technicals' and the like from Libya to the 'Stan for over 10 years. It's 'kin expensive, and they aren't worth it. Furthermore, the effect on inability to provide proper healthcare at home is becoming measurable.

Let's do what the French were rumoured to do in Chad - just sent the flying training weapons course out there to do strafe, etc on real targets. Cheap as you like, bullets that have to be fired anyway, and beers for every 'secondary'!

Huh

Wouldn't it be a lot easier to ask them to blow the truck up themselves, grab a lift in a truck to Uk and they could live on benefits.

Lets face it they will end up as Asylum seekers here anyway so just cutting out some time.

I am not trivialising the difficulties, or being lighthearted, but there surely exists a better way of dealing with these targets more cheaply? Or isn't there any more, in the new high-tech precision world?

I look forward with interest to see how this thread progresses.

but surely the cost is slightly offset by reduced live fire training exercises? if they are out there doing the real thing could you not just scrap some scheduled live fire exercises and balance SOME of the cost?

Using what, highflyer40? Isn't that the conundrum?

Practice bombs might do the job, but not with precision.
Guns put you in the MANPAD zone.
Nuke is a no-no

What ARE the options for 21st Century assymetric warfare that don't cost silly money or risk lives to take out a puck-up truck? Or is this the cost of progress?

In one of the recent wars (Libya?) I seem to remember concrete bombs
being used on armour hiding in built up areas?
mmitch.

When you see IS driving around in all the captured Humvee's etc I cannot understand why in this day and age they cannot be linked to a central US military computer system via satellite, thus when captured their engine ECU's could be disabled rendering them unusable by the enemy. It would be nice if like American police bait cars it also locks the doors, stuck in a disabled armoured vehicle in the desert with nothing working would be a nice end for some of them.