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From: gnb@bby.oz.au (Gregory N. Bond)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: How many planes in a sortie?
Message-ID: <1991Feb9.034021.5022@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 9 Feb 91 03:40:21 GMT
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Organization: Burdett, Buckeridge and Young Ltd.
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From: gnb@bby.oz.au (Gregory N. Bond)
The Gulf news has been full of phrases like "2,000 sorties flown per
day".  I guess "missions" are flown with multiple planes, at least
three and maybe more (e.g. 3 for attack plus 3 for air cover), but do
those six planes count as one sortie, two or six?

Corollary: How many takeoffs/landings have happend at the 50,000
sortie-level?  (May need to guess!)

Followup: What is the "expected" loss rate for military flights,
takeoffs & landings in a non-shooting environment?  Given the 20-odd
planes lost in Desert Storm, and the sortie rate, how many of them
would be expected to be lost due to mechanical failure?

Greg.
--
Gregory Bond, Burdett Buckeridge & Young Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
Internet: gnb@melba.bby.oz.au    non-MX: gnb%melba.bby.oz@uunet.uu.net
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