AFCENT notes continued high airstrike rate in Afghanistan

The US military continued to drop munitions on Afghanistan in January at the near record-breaking levels achieved for 2019, figures released by Air Force Central Command (AFCENT) show.

A US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle dispenses flares during the supposed-height of the Afghan conflict in 2010. Since that time, the number of airstrikes conducted by US aircraft has markedly increased, with 2019 posting record figures. The first month of 2020 continues this trend. (US Air Force)

According to the Combined Forces Air Component Commander (CFACC) 2013–19 Airpower Statistics released on 13 February, 415 missions flown in Afghanistan in January resulted in weapons being released. This is comparable to the 463 releases logged for the same month in the record-breaking year of 2019, and means that the 878 strikes logged for January 2019 and 2020 are significantly more than the combined 691 strikes recorded for same month over the previous four years.

As reported by Jane’s in January, 2019 saw the US military drop more munitions on Afghanistan than in any other year over the past decade, with 7,423 missions flown resulting in weapons being released (the AFCENT numbers do not note the numbers or types of weapons released during each mission).

As noted by AFCENT, the statistics comprise all manned and unmanned US and coalition aircraft flying in the Afghanistan area of operations under CFACC control. This does not include Afghan Air Force (AAF) assets and, as only the US is currently engaged in kinetic air operations in Afghanistan, these figures are limited to the US Air Force (USAF), US Navy (USN) and US Marine Corps (USMC).