Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!news.cs.indiana.edu!att!cbnews!cbnews!military From: bentrup@m.cs.uiuc.edu (John Bentrup) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: sorties per day Message-ID: <1991Mar6.043339.26029@cbnews.att.com> Date: 6 Mar 91 04:33:39 GMT References: <1991Feb28.053505.11394@cbnews.att.com> <1991Mar4.213025.10068@cbnews.att.com> Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (william.b.thacker) Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL Lines: 31 Approved: military@att.att.com From: bentrup@m.cs.uiuc.edu (John Bentrup) >>According to published figures, US and other Coalition aircraft generally >>get in between 1.5 and 2 sorties per day. In the Six Days War, and >>in the Yom Kippur War, Israeli planes routinely got in five sorties >>per day. >> >>How do the IDF mechanics do it? Why can't or don't the US and other >>Coalition air forces achieve the same turnaround? I think that much of the sortie rate difference can be accounted for by - distances: Coalition forces were flying much greater distances to their targets. Eg: Riyadh, Bahrain, Diego Garcia, England. - mission types: I suspect that with Egyptian ground forces trying to race across the Sinai, and the very existence of the state of Israel being threatened, that the IAF was more interested in dumping their ordnance and hurrying back for another run than perhaps the coalition forces. No need to worry about collateral damage. No time for exhaustive checks and unnecessary maintenance. - refueling capabilities: The IAF probably had the capability then, but I don't remember reading that they used it. I read that it was common for a U.S. F-15 flying CAP to top off 5 or 6 times per sortie. -- John Bentrup INTERNET: bentrup@CS.UIUC.EDU Department of Computer Science BITNET: bentrup%uiucdcs.BITNET University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign USENET: 1304 W Springfield Ave {pur-ee,convex,ihnp4}!uiucdcs!bentrup