Washington: The US Air Force is fast running out of bombs to drop on IS targets in Syria and Iraq after its pilots fired off over 20,000 missiles and bombs since the US bombing campaign against the terror group began 15 months ago, its chief has said.
As America ramps up its military campaign against the Islamist terror group, the Air Force is now “expending munitions faster than we can replenish them,” Air Force chief of staff General Mark Welsh said. “B-1s have dropped bombs in record numbers. F-15Es are in the fight because they are able to employ a wide range of weapons and do so with great flexibility. We need the funding in place to ensure we’re prepared for the long fight,” Welsh said in the statement.
“This is a critical need,” he said. The bombing campaign has left the US Air Force with what an Air Force official des-cribed as munitions depot stocks “below our desired objective.”
The Air Force has requested additional funding for Hellfire missiles and is developing plans to ramp up production to replenish stocks quickly.
