Ever wonder what happens to unexpended ammunition rounds downloaded from A-10 Thunderbolts—more familiarly called Warthogs? The Air Force uses a GFU-7 machine—called the Dragon—to separate brass from the ammo, returning unused rounds to a container to be reloaded. Playing the statistics game, the 455th Munitions Flight, Bagram AB, Afghanistan, estimates that, since Sept. 15 it has “expended” more than 23,000 rounds of 30 mm ammo, 15,000 countermeasures, 103 rockets, 14 500-pound air burst bombs, and nine laser-guided bombs.
The U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear development facilities saw the first use of the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, a weapon specifically designed for such a mission more than 20 years ago. The Air Force B-2s were the only platform with the stealth and carrying capacity needed to haul the huge…