Airpower statistics for Operation Enduring Freedom for 2009 just released by the Combined Forces Air Component Commander show a rise for close air support sorties, nearly 39 percent compared to 2008. The number of CAS strikes (with data only through November 2009) rose about 17 percent, but the number of munitions actually expended dropped from 2008 to 2009. In the mobility arena, the number of supplies airdropped in Afghanistan nearly doubled, jumping from about 16.6 million pounds in 2008 to more than 32.3 million pounds in 2009. Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance sorties (data for Afghanistan and Iraq) rose by about 37 percent over the previous year. (See data from 2004 through 2009 in Data Points: Airpower Numbers Jump in Afghanistan)
The Pentagon is significantly bolstering airpower near Venezuela, dispatching the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to Latin America, it said in an Oct. 24 statement. The announcement came just hours after U.S. Air Force B-1 bombers and other U.S. assets flew near the Venezuelan coast on Oct. 23.
