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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: How many planes in a sortie?
Message-ID: <1991Feb11.052034.3869@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 11 Feb 91 05:20:34 GMT
References: <1991Feb9.034021.5022@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>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?

A sortie, by definition, is one plane one mission.  So a six-plane group
flying one mission is six sorties.

>Followup: What is the "expected" loss rate for military flights,
>takeoffs & landings in a non-shooting environment? ...

Don't have numbers for a non-shooting environment.  Numbers I do have,
which may be of interest, are that the RAF to date is taking about a
2% attrition rate in combat missions, and reportedly considers 5% tolerable.
-- 
"Maybe we should tell the truth?"      | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
"Surely we aren't that desperate yet." |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry