Data on the air sorties in Southwest Asia are available once again and will appear periodically in the Data Points section of the airforce-magazine.com home page. The most recent Data Points entry, Airpower on the Rise, includes the air sorties data for all of 2010.
The six-week government shutdown did not affect the hours flown by Air Force pilots, a service spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine—avoiding what could have been a major blow at a time when flying hours are already lower than they have been in decades.
