"Formidable Force? UK Commits Only Four Airstrikes..." Topic

… In Syria In Five Weeks

"The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense posts monthly official statistics of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since October 2014. According to its latest publication, only three or four air strikes took place during last five weeks. This is less than 14 strikes that took place in January or seven in February.

This barely corresponds to British Prime Minister David Cameron's claims that UK forces would play a "vital, battle-winning" role in the conflict…."
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Well … they showed up … so …

So 3 or 4 is less than 14!!!!!

Top class reporting :-/

The dog and pony shows must continue.

If it makes you feel any better, I think we're down to about one strike per day, if that, and I suspect that may be on empty desert, just to make the stats "look good"…..

4 more strikes than the ISIS air force.

And/or the Persian one, I suspect.

;-)

Gee Whiz I hope no one got hurt and they dropped candy.

No cheerleading from me

Yep the bighouse changes a Man. Legion snores

Ah, that bastion of accurate and unbiased reporting, Sputnik News. Remember that their mission-brief is to turn western public opinion against NATO… Lapped up by the terminally thick…

The RAF provides primarily tactical reconnaissance, signals intelligence, air-to-air refuelling (particularly for the US Navy and USMC, who also use hose-and-drogue refuelling systems) and command-and-control capability for allied forces. Just because they're not dropping bangy stuff does NOT mean that operations are not being conducted.

March is also sandstorm season – every air campaign in the region at that time of year has seen a marked drop-off in engagements for that reason alone.

At least the RAF is actually attacking Daesh military targets, unlike Big Gay Vlad's aerial exterminators of civpop…

And let's have a look at the actual stats, shall we…? Oh look, there's the RAF bombing Daesh IN IRAQ, pretty much every single day…

link

So bollox then.

1 March
Whilst RAF Tornado GR4s conducted extensive reconnaissance missions against suspected terrorist locations, RAF Typhoon FGR4s patrolled over western Iraq to support Iraqi army operations south-east of Haditha. One of the few large artillery pieces operated by Daesh, a D-30 122 millimetre howitzer, was located close to the Euphrates, and was successfully destroyed by a Paveway IV precision guided bomb.

2 March
Typhoons were active over a wide swathe of northern Iraq, providing close air support to the Kurdish security forces. East of Mosul, Paveways were used to destroy 2 groups of terrorists with vehicles, the aircraft then flew west to the area north-east of Tall Afar where they conducted a series of 4 Paveway attacks on a number of rocket-launchers and a stockpile of rockets. A second Typhoon mission bombed a Daesh mortar team south of Sinjar, while a pair of Tornado GR4s used a Paveway to demolish a building north of Mosul where a large group of terrorists had been observed. In eastern Syria, an RAF Reaper worked closely with other coalition aircraft to support Syrian Democratic Forces south-west of As Shadadi, as they followed up on their recent successes against Daesh in the region. A coalition surveillance aircraft identified a terrorist truck, armed with an anti-aircraft gun, concealed in an orchard, and passed the target to the Reaper for prosecution. A Hellfire missile scored a direct hit on the vehicle.

3 March
Typhoons were in action again near Mosul, they used Paveways to destroy 2 buildings where Daesh terrorists were possibly planning an attack. Later that night, Typhoons also bombed 2 heavy machine gun positions south-west of Sinjar.

4 March
Typhoons continued to provide close air support to the Iraqi and Kurdish forces in northern Iraq, delivering 3 attacks with Paveway IVs against Daesh positions near Tall Afar, Kisik and Sinjar.

5 March
Four Typhoons joined other coalition aircraft in a large coordinated operation against terrorist locations in western Iraq. The RAF aircraft targeted a large Daesh weapons factory in the countryside near Qubaysah, some miles west of Ramadi. The Typhoons released a total of 16 Paveways, which completely demolished workshops and storage sheds.

6 March
A Typhoon mission returned to northern Iraq and assisted Kurdish forces south-west of Sinjar, who had come under fire from a terrorist heavy machine gun team. A Paveway IV destroyed the target.

7 March
Reaper remotely piloted aircraft have also been extremely active over the period, primarily flying surveillance missions. An attack was conducted by a Reaper in the morning, when a Hellfire missile was used to destroy a Daesh held building in western Iraq, close to the Syrian border. In the evening a Typhoon patrol assisted Kurdish peshmerga fighting a group of terrorists near Kisik by attacking the Daesh position with a Paveway IV precision guided bomb.

8 March
Patrols over northern Iraq continued, near Kisik, Tornados used a Paveway against a terrorist position, while a Typhoon flight silenced a heavy machine gun position with a direct hit from a Paveway. The Typhoons were then tasked to use their remaining Paveway bombs to strike 7 strongpoints in a village south of Sinjar, where Daesh had driven out the civilian population and were using it as a defensive base against the Kurdish advance. All 7 Paveways struck their targets accurately.

9 March
Typhoons patrolled south of Sinjar. A vehicle used by Daesh to construct defensive positions, was destroyed by a Paveway. A second deserted village taken over by the terrorists as a fortified haven, near Ranbusi, was then attacked with 6 targets successfully struck by Paveways. Further south, Tornado GR4s were providing close air support to Iraqi forces in the Euphrates river valley. A Paveway was used against a group of terrorists in the open, whilst a further pair of Paveways accounted for 2 heavy machine gun positions.

10 March
Both Tornados and Typhoons were active over the Euphrates valley, assisting Iraqi forces as they cleared Daesh positions to the west of Ramadi. A Tornado mission targeted a terrorist weapons cache concealed under the ramp of a destroyed bridge over the Euphrates, using 2 Paveways. At the same time a Typhoon mission conducted successful strikes on a heavy machine gun team and a group of extremists engaged in close combat with Iraqi troops. In the north of the country, a Typhoon flight attacked a rocket launch point near Tall Afar, then dropped Paveways on 6 Daesh positions in the Kisik area where Kurdish forces had spotted terrorists preparing for a possible attack.

11 March
A Reaper worked with coalition jets to attack terrorists to the west of Sinjar. The Reaper provided targeting assistance for 3 successful coalition air attacks on groups of Daesh fighters, it then conducted 2 attacks of its own using Hellfire missiles.

12 March
Another Reaper was active in the same area and conducted an attack on terrorists who were launching rockets. The terrorists immediately left the area in a truck which the Reaper's crew tracked and successfully attacked with a Hellfire. The Reaper then directed coalition aircraft in an attack on an array of rocket launchers nearby.

13 March
Typhoon FGR4s, based at RAF Akrotiri and supported by a Voyager air refuelling tanker, provided support to Iraqi troops operating to the west of Ramadi. The Typhoons used a pair of Paveway IV guided bombs to demolish the entrance to a tunnel system which was reported to be surrounded by IEDs.

14 March
Typhoons and Tornado GR4s also provided support to ground forces in northern Iraq. Near Qayyarah, Typhoons used Paveways against 2 Daesh mortars and a group of terrorists engaged in a firefight with the security forces, whilst near Kisik, Tornados destroyed 2 Daesh positions, again with Paveway IVs.

15 March
Typhoon FGR4s provided close air support to Kurdish peshmerga pushing south from Sinjar and eliminated a heavy machine gun position firing on Kurdish troops, scoring a direct hit on the terrorists with a Paveway IV precision guided bomb.

16 March
The Kurdish forces received further air support from the RAF the following day, when Tornado GR4s, destroyed another heavy machine gun which had opened fire on the peshmerga some miles to the west of Kirkuk. Further south, in Anbar province, a Reaper remotely piloted aircraft patrolled over Anbar province and identified and attacked a terrorist check point near Ar Rutbah being used to intimidate and control the local population using a Hellfire missile.

17 March
Tornados and Typhoons operated over both northern and western Iraq. Typhoons used a Paveway bomb to demolish a building from which a terrorist sniper had opened fire on Iraqi forces near Tall Afar, while a Tornado mission over Anbar worked in cooperation with a coalition remotely piloted aircraft to assist Iraqi troops engaged in combat with Daesh extremists to the north-west of Ramadi. Despite heavy cloud obscuring the target, the RAF and coalition aircraft used their highly sophisticated surveillance and targeting equipment to allow the Tornados to deliver 2 precision attacks with Brimstone missiles on the terrorists, then, once they attempted to retreat, to strike the remainder of the Daesh group with a Paveway.

Meanwhile, another Tornado flight Near Kisik used a Paveway to destroy a Daesh command and control position, where a number of terrorists had gathered. The Tornados then interrupted Daesh's efforts to reopen supply routes near Qayyarah, destroying targets with 2 direct hits from Paveways and then another Paveway and Brimstone missiles were used to destroy 3 engineering vehicles.

18 March
Paveway-armed Typhoons struck a group of extremists mustering east of Mosul, while Tornados similarly hit 2 Daesh groups gathered for possible attacks near Kisik.

20 March
Tornado GR4s were in action again over northern Iraq, when they used Paveways to destroy 3 weapons caches and supply points several miles south-west of Sinjar.

21 March
Two flights of Typhoons provided close air support to the Kurdish forces; 1 flight destroyed a Daesh group that was firing rockets at the Kurds, whilst the other flight successfully attacked 3 terrorist teams which were planting improvised explosive devices in the Kisik area. Across the border in Syria, careful reconnaissance work had identified a major Daesh weapons storage facility at a site near Ukayrishah, south-east of Raqqa. This intelligence success allowed Tornado GR4s to conduct a very successful strike on Monday night, delivering 8 Paveway IVs which destroyed the main warehouse and 3 support buildings. On the ground, British training teams continue to play an important role in the large coalition programme to help the Iraqi security forces become ever more effective in their successful efforts to drive the terrorists from their country. The British instructors have focused on training infantry and combat medical skills, as well as leading the coalition's assistance in how to deal safely with the thousands of improvised explosive devices and booby-traps left behind by Daesh in an attempt to prevent the civilian population from resuming their lives in liberated territory.

22 March
Royal Air Force Tornado GR4s conducted strike operations over both western and northern Iraq. In Anbar province, a Tornado flight was able to destroy with Paveway IV guided bombs a staging post used by Daesh extremists. Further north, near Qayyarah, coalition surveillance aircraft identified renewed attempts by Daesh to build an improvised ramp up to a damaged bridge at a key crossing over the Tigris, just south of Qayyarah; RAF aircraft had destroyed the heavy engineering vehicles and a previous attempt at a ramp on 17 March. Two Tornados therefore returned to the bridge and again destroyed the ramp with Paveways, preventing the terrorists from reopening their supply route across the river. In eastern Syria, a Reaper used a Hellfire missile to demolish a Daesh storage building near Ukayrishah; the attack was very carefully planned in both timing and weapon choice to avoid causing any damage to a nearby school.

23 March
Typhoon FGR4s patrolled over northern Iraq. They used Paveways to destroy a Daesh position south of Sinjar, and a tunnel entrance, 2 terrorist held buildings and a mortar team all located near Kisik. The following day, Tornados were again active over Qayyarah; working in close cooperation with a coalition surveillance aircraft, they were able to successfully engage with a Paveway a Daesh mortar team that had opened fire on Kurdish forces. Across the border in eastern Syria, a Reaper used a Hellfire missile in a successful attack on a Daesh vehicle.

25 March
Typhoons caught extremists mustering near Mosul and struck 5 positions with Paveway IVs.

27 March
RAF aircraft continued to provide close air support to the Kurdish forces. Paveways from a Typhoon flight silenced both a sniper and a heavy machine gun team who were engaged in combat with Kurdish troops near Qayyarah, and a further Paveway accounted for a second heavy machine gun team that opened fire on the peshmerga south of Sinjar.

28 March
The Typhoons were again in action south of Sinjar when they bombed 2 terrorist held buildings, before flying to the area around Tall Afar where they struck a third Daesh position.

29 March
Operations over both northern and western Iraq continued. One Typhoon flight struck a reported Daesh storage building north-east of Mosul, while a second flight assisted Kurdish forces by bombing a mortar position near Quyyarah, then conducted attacks on terrorist installations nearby; 1 Typhoon was able to strike simultaneously 4 tunnel entrances, each with a Paveway, the second aircraft striking 3 truck bomb facilities, again each with a Paveway. In Anbar province, 2 further truck bomb workshops near Hit were successfully attacked by Tornados the same day.

30 March
Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR4s, flying from Akrotiri, used Paveway IV guided bombs to strike a Daesh-held building and a stockpile of concealed rockets near Fallujah. In northern Iraq, near Mosul, a second Typhoon flight destroyed 2 more buildings used as bases by the terrorists.

31 March
RAF Tornado GR4s, supported by a Voyager air refuelling tanker like the Typhoons, provided close air support to Iraqi security forces as they advanced near the city of Hit. A terrorist observation post was identified and the Tornado flight scored a direct hit with a Brimstone missile.

I wish the UK government would make this kind of info more public.
I also wonder why the UK media are effectively ignoring this.

So by a quick count, I make that roughly 110 separate Daesh targets engaged by the RAF in Iraq & Syria during March (that includes a single complex target attacked with 16 Paveways and another single target with 8 Paveways). Just a touch more than 'four' and all attacked with precision weapons. Tsk, Russians lying… Who'd have thought it…

EL,

This is publicly available information. I'd love to see the Russian equivalent.

"Today, some barely-trained aircrew stopped drinking hydraulic fluid just long enough to lob some unguided cluster bombs vaguely in the direction of a built-up area that might or might not have contained 'terrorists'… Meanwhile, some strategic bombers flew all the way from Russia, violating multiple civil airways, to drop unguided bombs through cloud from 30,000 feet. They may or may not have hit Syria."

Where did you get that treasure trove from? I've been looking all over to find a day by day account fo what we're up to.

All the monthly strike lists, going back to Oct 14, are here: link

Oddly enough, Sputnik links the same list and then proceeds to selectively cherry-pick 'factoids', half-truths, bollox and utter fibs, confident in the knowledge that their readership are too utterly cretinous to understand what has been linked or even to bother reading the underpinning facts. It's a classic example of Putin's information ops against the west.

I loved the bit where Sputnik said that LITERALLY no attacks had been made using Brimstone… Yet there were at least five Brimstone engagements during March alone…

ok, even that Sputnik is not among my sources of primary information, the article says "Syria", the list in the link and Jemima's post says "Syria and Iraq". UK sees it as a single theatre of operation but they're two different countries, and most of the airstrikes in the list are, indeed, strikes in Iraq….
So it is an example of selective truth, but I don't think that western press is doing anything different.

You exceed in PR though…there's a long way for us to catch up with you ;)

Where you see 'Selective truth by the press', I see 'Lying by omission and state-directed propaganda'.

;)

ok, but there is 4 or 5 strikes in Syria in March, right? Therefore it is not a lie ;)
And have you seen a lot of coverage how opposition in Syria makes their war? The press is focused on the way government troops are shooting indiscriminate targets, while youtube is full of videos where opposition groups are cheering shooting the cities with gas cans, imrovised missiles, etc, which can barely fly in straight line….or how Ukrainian army was conducting their "pacifying" operation. You don't see much of it in English really.
Saying all this, I still say once again, that to get a full picture I'm checking all sources I can find…

Barin, the purpose of the article is to peddle the lie that the UK is not effectively prosecuting an air war against Daesh. The underpinning facts do not support the garish headline.

AHA!!!!

Foolishly I thought this kind of stuff would be published on the RAFs web-page…

Thanks!

Politically it is easier for us to bomb Iraq as the government there has asked for our help. Our involvement in Syria is controversial.

'UK sees it as a single theatre of operation but they're two different countries, and most of the airstrikes in the list are, indeed, strikes in Iraq…'

Same enemy, I'd say that it's more about efficient allocation of resources – we CAN attack in Syria, but if more attacks in Iraq are more effective leaving Syria to others than it makes sense. It's the enemy that's important, not the country.

Politically it is easier for us to bomb Iraq as the government there has asked for our help. Our involvement in Syria is controversial.

Yes, because Daesh is only in Iraq … no … wait …

It's the enemy that's important, not the country.

Amen …

The priority on striking targets in Iraq is primarily tactical rather than political. The matter of bombing Syria was debated and comfortably passed in Parliament and UK public opinion seems to be firmly in favour of bombing the bastards with everything in the arsenal.

However, the strategic priority from the outset was in providing close air support to Iraqi and Kurdish forces and prevent further eastward expansion by Daesh, as well as to protect ethnic groups from further genocide. The second phase was then preparing the ground for friendly forces in Iraq to re-take territory captured by Daesh.

The fact is that our SF are primarily on the ground supporting Iraqi and Kurdish forces and are able to provide accurate target identification, so it's hardly surprising that the lion's share of strikes are directly in support of those forces.

RAF strikes in Syria have thus far been limited to cutting lines of communication, logistics and command and control facilities, equipment and personnel, as well as hitting occasional time-sensitive targets of opportunity, such as key Daesh personnel. As Daesh gets rolled back and SF deploy forward, strikes will increasingly hit targets in Syria.

As mentioned earlier, the RAF has mounted continual tactical recce, refuelling, SIGINT and ELINT sorties over Syria, as well as rotary and fixed-wing SF flights which of course will never be discussed except in a historical context. In these areas, the UK is second only to the USA in capability.

But to some here it seems that if it doesn't go 'BANG!', we're not doing anything…

I for one laud the UK SF, etc., on the ground with the US and others. Trying to turn some of the locals into soldiers, which it seems besides the Kurds, borders on Mission Impossible. And frankly it's not like the US is short aircraft. Especially with the ROE limits and what would appear a meager Air Tasking Order … Based on GWI, GWII, Bosnia-Kosovo, etc. … The strikes that are occurring are down right tiny …

seems that if it doesn't go 'BANG!'

But I'll freely admit … I like the 'BANG!' …

Me too, to be honest… ;)

The USA has plenty of planes.

What it doesn't have, for reasons which escape me, is Brimestone, which allows for precision attacks with far less collateral damage.

Why the USA hasn't bought this, given it's ideal for current ops, is totally beyond me.

To be fair, typically authorized targets that the US goes after are isolated IS targets. US command is very sensitive to collateral damage, even more so after the MSF hospital attack.

Understood, but using Brimestone they don't have to be so isolated.

It just strikes me that the extra capability would be useful.

So… at the end… were there only 4 Airstrikes in Syria?…. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Just looked up the cost data for Brimestone = US$263,000 per missile.

While the US is supposedly evaluating Brimestone, personally, I'd guess that there's a lot of heavy lobbying from US defense contractors to keep procurement strictly within US manufacturers.

With the Hellfire at US$110,000 per unit, there is plenty of incentive to stay with American munitions, especially with such tight ROEs for air launched weapons.

…add

With a name like "Brimestone", isn't there a direct attempt to go after the "Hellfire" market? Might be another reason why US defense and military could be peeved at this competitor.

I think Brimestone is a Hellfire derivative, which possibly explains the name.

Economy of scale… It costs the UK £263,000.00 GBP a pop, but a customer the size of the USA, buying lots more wouldn't be paying anything like that. Yes, Brimstone was originally intended to be a joint US/UK Hellfire derivative. The airframe is the same, but internally very different.

The USAF has gone for a direct Hellfire descendant for the same job, but it doesn't work and they're apparently looking at Brimstone again.

Again … it's all about the …

Yup, wars have bankrupt the royal treasury before. In fact that's one of the reasons why King George raised taxes on the American colonies which led to the AWI.

That's about $400,000 USD a pop then, not including shipping and handling fees.

Do we get a quantity, and VAT discount on those?

I think it's a misquote. I looked up the costs for Brimstone and it is US dollars $263,000 USD missile, not pounds sterling. Still a lot of money to pop a pickup truck.

Maybe the US will adopt Brimstone in time for the F-35.

My typo. $, not £0.00 GBP

From reading, the quoted cost of Brimstone is 'between £100,000.00 GBP and £175,000.00 GBP' to the RAF, which is the unit cost of the first delivered batch, plus all development, storage, basing, training and maintenance costs included in the quoted cost. This has been translated to $163,000 USD in a number of publications, by taking the highest cost estimate and the worst possible pound-dollar exchange-rate… Presumably 'translated' by someone at Boeing or Raytheon or a US politician with a vested interest…? ;)

The individual unit cost even to the RAF is therefore far lower once the overheads are taken out of the equation and once further batches are ordered. The cost to the USA would clearly be far lower, as the UK has already absorbed the development costs and the USA would be requiring a very large quantity.

The baffling saga of US missile procurement is worth reading, particularly the cancellation of the JCM and the ongoing on-off-on issues with JAGM. The fact is that US forces already have a capability gap in AGMs and are facing an even greater one shortly, when various existing missile systems end production.

It's still about the money.

There is something called the Buy American Act/Statute, which is self-explanatory.

No way will local politicians ever allow killing the Hellfire for a foriegn product and loss of manufacturing jobs in their districts. Possibly, if the US can license Brimstone for local production…

Also, I looked into the specs, Brimstone just has a dual mode system; with a millimeter wave radar (fire & forget) in addition to standard laser homing. The added radar, which isn't used in A-stan or Syria, requires a decrease in explosive payload down to 14lbs from 20lbs used in the Hellfire. It seems the smaller explosive charge is what helps limit collateral damage, not accuracely from similar laser-homing tech.

Why not just decrease the payload in Hellfires then?

The USA has bought other British systems in the past – often built under licence (Canberra, Hawk, Harrier II), but sometimes straight off the peg (Harrier).

The issue is mainly that Hellfire can't be used from fast jets and that doesn't seem to be addressed with the latest re-incarnation of JAGM, which is still only operable from Reapers and helicopters.

I understand, but ROEs hasn't allowed them to be fired from jets in A-stan or Iraq unless guided with laser-designator.

Millimeter wave radar is for fire-and-forget use, which is prohibited.

I know why fighter jocks want it they're gear heads, but Brimstone contains redundant tech that is not used. Why spend an additional US$100k per missile on something that doesn't get used and will get destroyed?

I know what you're saying, but the JAGM project is currently installing much the same type of guidance kit on to Hellfire for use from Apache and Reaper, so they must see some value in it.

The cost issue was also discussed above – the unit cost would be FAR lower than what has been quoted, which is the worst-case estimate for what the RAF paid for the first batch.

The problem is that in a couple of years, the USAF, USN and USMC won't have ANY air-ground missile that can be used from its jets. Maverick has ended production (they've upgraded old stocks following the cancellation of JCM, but no new Mavericks are being built). Hellfire is due to end production next year, with no successor lined up except for JAGM, which is still in the development phase.