Every war the United States Air Force has fought, 1916 to today
Newest first, across four names for the same air arm: the Signal Corps aviators of 1916, the Army Air Service, the Army Air Forces, and the United States Air Force.
Twenty-one campaigns, newest first, across four names for the same air arm. Open a row for what the air campaign was actually like, every type flown, and where each figure comes from.
| Conflict | Years | Against | Main aircraft | Sorties | Aircraft lost | |
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| Operation Epic Furythe 2026 Iran campaignUnited States Air Force | 2026 | Iran | Northrop Grumman B-2A Spirit, Boeing B-52H Stratofortress, Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning IIand 7 more | — | 9 | |
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Flew a 38-day campaign against Iranian air defences, ballistic missile and drone infrastructure, naval production and the nuclear industrial base, while defending coalition bases under sustained missile and drone attack. Epic Fury opened at 0115 on 28 February 2026 with B-2s out of Whiteman and grew into the largest American air campaign since 2003, drawing in some 300 fighters, twenty-odd bombers and about 75 tankers. Central Command counted more than 13,000 targets struck in 38 days, roughly 4,000 of them dynamic targets that appeared and had to be prosecuted inside a single cycle. The cost was unusually high for a modern American air war: three F-15Es were shot down over Kuwait by Kuwaiti forces in a friendly-fire incident on 2 March, a fourth went down over Iran, and the rescue effort that followed cost an A-10 and two MC-130s destroyed on the ground by American forces to deny them to the enemy. Roughly two dozen MQ-9s were lost, and an E-3 was hit on the ground at Prince Sultan Air Base. Outcome Iran accepted a ceasefire on 7 April 2026, agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and undertook to abandon its nuclear weapons work; United States forces remained in theatre. In Afterburner 39 Aircraft Lost: The Full Cost of Epic Fury Bridges, Railways, and Red Lines: Epic Fury’s Infrastructure War Six Names: The Human Cost of Keeping Epic Fury in the Air No consolidated sortie total had been published at the time of writing. The nine manned aircraft is the figure given by the Chief of Staff at the end of April 2026 and was described as a minimum; American deaths in other services are counted separately.
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| Operation Midnight Hammerthe strike on FordowUnited States Air Force | 2025 | Iran | Northrop Grumman B-2A Spirit, Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II, Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptorand 3 more | — | 0 | |
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Struck three Iranian nuclear sites in a single night with the only weapon and the only aeroplane able to reach them, supported by a large fighter and tanker package. Seven B-2s flew a 36-hour round trip from Whiteman Air Force Base and put fourteen GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators into Fordow and Natanz, the first combat use of the 30,000-pound weapon. F-22s and F-35s went in ahead of the bombers to sweep and suppress, firing roughly thirty weapons at Iranian air defences, and a submarine added 30 Tomahawks against Isfahan. Fourteen airmen flew the seven aircraft, drawn from the active force and the Missouri Air National Guard; a decoy package flying west across the Pacific held Iranian attention while the strike force crossed the Atlantic. Outcome The Defense Department assessed that the strikes set the Iranian nuclear programme back by one to two years; the intelligence community made the final judgement. Battle damage assessment of the buried Fordow halls remains contested; the figures here are those released by the Department of Defense.
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| Operation Rough Riderthe Houthi campaignUnited States Air Force | 2024-2025 | Ansar Allah (the Houthi movement) | Northrop Grumman B-2A Spirit, Boeing B-52H Stratofortress, General Dynamics F-16C/D Fighting Falconand 3 more | — | 0 | |
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Struck Houthi missile, drone and radar sites in Yemen to reopen Red Sea shipping, with bombers staging from Diego Garcia and fighters and Reapers flying from regional bases. Rough Rider ran from 15 March to 6 May 2025 and followed the more limited Poseidon Archer strikes of 2024, this time with looser rules and a much heavier weight of effort. Six B-2s deployed to Diego Garcia in late March, an unusually large share of a 20-aircraft fleet committed to one theatre, and F-16s of the 55th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron flew strike and escort work against a defender that shot back harder than expected. The Houthis downed MQ-9s at a rate no adversary had managed before, taking at least six in seven weeks at roughly thirty million dollars apiece, and one F-16 pair survived a surface-to-air ambush that the crews described afterwards as the closest thing to a fair fight American aircrew had seen in years. Outcome A ceasefire announced on 6 May 2025 halted the campaign after Houthi ballistic missile launches had fallen by about 69 per cent and one-way attack drone activity by about 55 per cent. Munitions expenditure and cost figures were not released. Whether Poseidon Archer strikes from January 2024 should be counted in the same campaign is a matter of convention; the target and loss figures here cover 15 March to 6 May 2025 only.
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| Operation Inherent Resolvethe campaign against ISISUnited States Air Force | 2014-present | Islamic State of Iraq and Syria | Fairchild Republic A-10C Thunderbolt II, General Dynamics F-16C/D Fighting Falcon, Boeing F-15E Strike Eagleand 6 more | 63,668 | 0 | |
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Provided the great majority of coalition strike, tanker, reconnaissance and airlift sorties against the Islamic State, working through Iraqi, Kurdish and Syrian Democratic Forces ground partners. Inherent Resolve was an air campaign fought largely without an American ground manoeuvre force, and its rhythm was set by what partner forces on the ground could hold. Weapons releases peaked in 2017 at 39,577 as the coalition ground through Mosul and Raqqa street by street, then collapsed to 1,188 by 2020 once the caliphate had lost its cities. The B-1B, designed to penetrate Soviet airspace at low level, spent years orbiting over Iraq as a long-endurance close air support platform, and the volume of urban strikes forced the coalition into an unusually public accounting of civilian casualties. Outcome The territorial caliphate was destroyed by March 2019; the coalition mission in federal Iraq concluded in 2025 and a smaller, conditions-based effort continues in Syria and northern Iraq. The AFCENT airpower summaries count coalition sorties in the Central Command area, most but not all of them flown by the Air Force, and were suspended after February 2021; no consolidated 2014 to date total has been published. Air Force deaths in Inherent Resolve are not broken out by service in the published casualty tables.
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| Operation Odyssey Dawn and Operation Unified Protectorthe 2011 Libya interventionUnited States Air Force | 2011 | Libyan Arab Jamahiriya | Northrop Grumman B-2A Spirit, Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle, General Dynamics F-16C/D Fighting Falconand 5 more | — | 1 | |
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Opened the no-fly zone with strikes on Libyan air defences, then handed the shooting to NATO partners while supplying most of the tanking, jamming and reconnaissance that kept the campaign flying. Three B-2s flew from Missouri on the first night and put 45 weapons into Libyan hardened aircraft shelters, and within twelve days the shooting had largely passed to European air forces. What did not pass was the plumbing: the United States supplied roughly 80 per cent of the aerial refuelling and about 70 per cent of the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and the campaign exposed how thin NATO’s own tanker and targeting capacity had become. The only American aeroplane lost was an F-15E whose crew ejected after a control failure near Benghazi and were picked up in a rescue that involved, on one side of the airfield, Libyan civilians helping the weapon systems officer. Outcome The Gaddafi government fell in August 2011 and NATO ended Unified Protector in October; no coalition aircraft were lost to Libyan fire. Air Force sorties are not separately reported; the figures given are American and coalition totals from the Air Force Magazine account of the campaign.
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| Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawnthe Iraq WarUnited States Air Force | 2003-2011 | Iraq and Iraqi insurgent groups | Fairchild Republic A-10C Thunderbolt II, General Dynamics F-16C/D Fighting Falcon, Boeing F-15E Strike Eagleand 6 more | 24,196 | — | |
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Flew the strike, airlift, tanker and reconnaissance backbone of the invasion of Iraq and then eight years of counter-insurgency air support, casualty evacuation and intra-theatre lift. The 2003 campaign was the first in which precision weapons outnumbered unguided ones by a wide margin, 19,948 guided against 9,251 unguided, and the first in which persistent Predator video and Joint STARS ground radar let planners work the Iraqi field army rather than a fixed target list. Only one Air Force aeroplane, an A-10A, was lost to enemy fire in the major combat phase; the Iraqi air force never flew. What followed was a long, unglamorous war of gunship orbits, convoy overwatch, aeromedical evacuation and C-130 sorties flown to keep supply lorries off mined roads. Outcome The Iraqi government fell in April 2003; American forces left Iraq in December 2011 after eight years of insurgency that airpower supported but could not settle. The sortie figure covers only the 19 March to 18 April 2003 major combat phase, the last period for which a full service breakdown was published. Air Force aircraft losses across 2003 to 2011 have not been published as a single total.
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| Operation Enduring Freedomthe war in AfghanistanUnited States Air Force | 2001-2021 | Taliban and al-Qaeda | Rockwell B-1B Lancer, Boeing B-52H Stratofortress, Boeing F-15E Strike Eagleand 6 more | — | — | |
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Destroyed the Taliban’s fielded forces in 2001 in partnership with Afghan militias and a few hundred special operators, then sustained twenty years of close air support, reconnaissance and airlift over a landlocked country. The 2001 campaign paired B-52s and B-1Bs in long orbits with special tactics airmen on horseback calling GPS-guided bombs onto Taliban trenches, a combination nobody had planned for and which flattened the front north of Kabul in weeks. Afghan air defences were so thin that not a single Air Force aeroplane was shot down in 2001 or 2002, and no American pilot scored an aerial victory in twenty years of the war. Weapons releases rose again to 7,423 in 2019 as the Taliban recovered ground, then fell away to almost nothing under the withdrawal agreement, and the war closed with an airlift of more than 120,000 people out of Kabul in a fortnight. Outcome The Taliban government fell in December 2001 and returned to power in August 2021; the last American aircraft left Kabul on 30 August 2021. AFCENT began publishing airpower summaries only in 2012, so no 2001 to 2021 sortie or loss total exists in the public record; the figure quoted is the sum of the published 2014 to 2021 annual sortie counts for the Afghanistan mission.
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| Operation Allied Forcethe Kosovo air warUnited States Air Force | 1999 | Federal Republic of Yugoslavia | Northrop Grumman B-2A Spirit, Boeing B-52H Stratofortress, Rockwell B-1B Lancerand 6 more | 30,018 | 2 | |
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Flew about four fifths of NATO’s sorties in a 78-day coercive air campaign against Serbian air defences, infrastructure and fielded forces in Kosovo. Allied Force is widely described as the first war won by airpower alone, and it was certainly the first in which a stealth aeroplane was shot down, a Serbian SA-3 battery having worked out that the F-117 was briefly visible on long-wavelength radar and that NATO kept flying the same routes. Serbian air defences survived by hiding, so NATO aircraft spent 78 days operating above 15,000 feet against an army that dispersed, camouflaged and put out decoys; the master target list swelled from 169 to more than 970 as the campaign dragged on. Air Force pilots shot down five MiG-29s, four of them in the first three days, and a Dutch F-16 took a fifth. Outcome Serbian forces withdrew from Kosovo on 10 June 1999; NATO won the war without losing a single aircrew member to enemy action. Assessments of how many Serbian vehicles were actually destroyed in Kosovo were disputed for years afterwards; NATO’s own post-war survey found far fewer than the wartime claims.
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| Operation Deliberate ForceBosnia; Operation Deny FlightUnited States Air Force | 1993-1995 | Army of Republika Srpska | General Dynamics F-16C/D Fighting Falcon, Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle, Fairchild Republic A-10C Thunderbolt IIand 5 more | — | 1 | |
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Policed the Bosnian no-fly zone from 1993, then flew the bulk of a three-week NATO bombing campaign against Bosnian Serb air defences, ammunition depots and command sites. Deny Flight gave the Air Force its first aerial victories since 1991 when F-16s downed four Bosnian Serb J-21 Jastrebs over Banja Luka on 28 February 1994, the first shots NATO had ever fired in anger. Deliberate Force itself lasted from 30 August to 14 September 1995 and was small by any earlier standard, 1,026 weapons against 48 target complexes, but 69 per cent of them were precision-guided and 97 per cent of the aim points were struck. The one American loss came earlier: Captain Scott O’Grady’s F-16C was cut in half by an SA-6 on 2 June 1995 and he spent six days eating grass and insects before a Marine helicopter pulled him out. Outcome Bosnian Serb forces accepted the terms that led to the Dayton peace agreement in November 1995. The 3,515-sortie total covers Deliberate Force only, not the two and a half years of Deny Flight patrols that preceded it. The only aircraft lost during Deliberate Force itself was a French Mirage 2000K.
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| Operations Northern Watch and Southern Watchthe Iraqi no-fly zonesUnited States Air Force | 1991-2003 | Iraq | McDonnell Douglas F-15C/D Eagle, Boeing F-15E Strike Eagle, General Dynamics F-16C/D Fighting Falconand 5 more | — | 0 | |
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Held two no-fly zones over Iraq for twelve years, flying daily patrols under fire and striking air defence sites in reprisal. This was the longest sustained combat air operation the Air Force has ever flown, and it was almost invisible: crews took anti-aircraft fire on routine patrols, shot back at radars and missile sites, and went home. Iraqi gunners engaged coalition aircraft more than a thousand times, nearly 500 of them in 2002 alone, and the coalition answered with about seventy strikes a year. The two darkest days were not caused by Iraq: F-15s misidentified and shot down two American Black Hawks over the northern zone on 14 April 1994, killing all 26 aboard, and a truck bomb at Khobar Towers killed 19 airmen supporting Southern Watch in 1996. Outcome The zones held until the 2003 invasion, at a cost of roughly twelve billion dollars and no manned aircraft lost to enemy fire. Sortie totals for the two operations were never consolidated in one public figure. At least three unmanned aircraft were lost to accidents or Iraqi fire; the zero refers to manned aircraft only.
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| Operation Desert Stormthe Gulf WarUnited States Air Force | 1991 | Iraq | Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk, General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, McDonnell Douglas F-15C/D Eagleand 6 more | 69,406 | 14 | |
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Planned and flew the majority of a 43-day coalition air campaign that dismantled Iraq’s air defences and command system before turning on the army in Kuwait. Desert Storm opened before dawn on 17 January 1991 with F-117s over Baghdad and helicopter-guided Apache strikes on the border radars, and inside a week the Iraqi integrated air defence system had effectively stopped functioning. The heaviest single loss was Spirit 03, an AC-130H shot down off Khafji on 31 January with all fourteen aboard. The campaign is remembered for precision, but only about 7,400 tons of the ordnance dropped was guided; the A-10 and the B-52 did most of the work against the Iraqi army, and the aircraft casualty rate across the whole coalition was 0.0017 per strike, roughly a tenth of what Israeli squadrons suffered in 1973. Outcome Iraq was expelled from Kuwait after a hundred-hour ground campaign, with Air Force pilots credited with 37 of the coalition’s aerial victories. Coalition and Air Force sortie counts vary with what is counted as a sortie; the 69,406 figure is the Gulf War Air Power Survey number as cited by the Government Accountability Office. Non-combat Air Force aircraft losses in theatre are not included in the 14.
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| Operation Just Causethe invasion of PanamaUnited States Air Force | 1989-1990 | Panama Defence Forces | Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk, Lockheed AC-130H Spectre, Lockheed C-130 Herculesand 4 more | — | — | |
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Delivered the largest night combat airdrop since 1945, put gunships over the Panama Defence Forces’ barracks and flew the F-117 on its first combat mission. Just Cause began at 0100 on 20 December 1989 with about 1,300 Rangers jumping from C-130s onto Rio Hato and Torrijos-Tocumen and 2,700 more paratroopers behind them, the biggest night combat drop since the Second World War. Two F-117As opened the assault on Rio Hato by putting 2,000-pound GBU-27s deliberately into open ground beside the barracks, the intention being to stun rather than kill; the aim points were changed late and the bombs landed further off than planned, which produced an awkward public argument about stealth’s debut. AC-130H gunships did the close work over Panama City through the night while over 110 transports fed 27,000 troops into the country. Outcome Manuel Noriega surrendered on 3 January 1990 and the operation formally ended on 11 January. Neither the Air Force fatality count nor an Air Force aircraft loss count for Just Cause appears in the official histories consulted; the 23 dead is the all-services figure.
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| Operation El Dorado Canyonthe 1986 Libya raidUnited States Air Force | 1986 | Libyan Arab Jamahiriya | General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark, General Dynamics EF-111A Raven, Boeing KC-135 Stratotankerand 1 more | — | 1 | |
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Flew F-111Fs from England around the Iberian peninsula and back, a 6,400-mile round trip, to bomb targets in Tripoli in retaliation for a terrorist bombing in Berlin. France and Spain refused overflight, so the Lakenheath F-111Fs flew around the western edge of Europe and refuelled four times in each direction, a fourteen-hour mission for a tactical bomber designed for short European hops. Only four of the aeroplanes assigned to Tripoli put bombs on target; seven missed and six did not release at all because of rules of engagement or equipment failures, and one F-111F crewed by Major Fernando Ribas-Dominicci and Captain Paul Lorence went into the Gulf of Sidra. The raid killed 37 people on the ground and injured 93, and it made the case inside the Air Force for the precision and stealth investments that paid off five years later. Outcome Five targets were struck, one aeroplane and its crew were lost, and Libyan-sponsored attacks on American targets fell away for some years. In Afterburner El Dorado Canyon: The 18-Hour Raid on Tripoli Accounts differ slightly on how many F-111Fs launched, since spares turned back en route; the figures here are those in the Air Force Historical Support Division fact sheet.
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| Operation Eagle Clawthe Iran hostage rescue; Desert OneUnited States Air Force | 1980 | Iran | Lockheed MC-130E Combat Talon, Lockheed EC-130E Hercules, Lockheed C-141 Starlifterand 1 more | — | 1 | |
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Flew the transport, fuel and command element of an attempt to rescue 52 American hostages from Tehran, landing MC-130s and EC-130s on a strip of desert 200 miles from the city. Three MC-130s carried the assault force to Desert One and three EC-130s brought the fuel; eight RH-53Ds flew in from the Nimitz, two aborted with instrument and mechanical failures and a third arrived with a broken hydraulic system, leaving five when six were the minimum. As the force withdrew, a helicopter’s rotor struck a fuel-laden EC-130E on the ground and both burned, killing five airmen and three Marines. The failure produced the Holloway review, the Special Operations Command and, eventually, the Air Force’s dedicated special operations wing structure; more than any single mission, Eagle Claw built modern American special operations aviation. Outcome The mission was aborted at the desert refuelling site and eight servicemen died; the hostages were released on 20 January 1981.
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| The Mayaguez Incidentthe battle of Koh TangUnited States Air Force | 1975 | Khmer Rouge | Sikorsky HH-53C Jolly Green Giant, Sikorsky CH-53C, Lockheed AC-130H Spectreand 5 more | — | — | |
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Flew the helicopter assault, the gunship and fighter support and the airlift for an attempt to recover the container ship SS Mayaguez and its crew from Khmer Rouge captors. This was the last combat action of the Vietnam era and it went wrong from the start: a CH-53 carrying Air Force security police to the staging field crashed in Thailand on 13 May, killing eighteen airmen and the five-man crew, before the assault had even begun. On 15 May the helicopters flew into a Khmer Rouge position on Koh Tang far stronger than intelligence had suggested, and Knife 31 went down in the shallows with ten men dead inside. AC-130 gunships and A-7s kept the beachhead alive long enough to extract the Marines that evening, by which time the Mayaguez crew had already been released by boat. Outcome The ship and its 39 crew were recovered, but 41 American servicemen died and three Marines were left behind on Koh Tang. The Air Force Historical Support Division fact sheet gives 19 security police and two aircrew killed; the Air Force Magazine account and most later histories give 23 dead in the Thailand crash, which is the figure used here. No consistent count of Air Force helicopters destroyed as opposed to damaged has been published.
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| The Vietnam Warthe war in Southeast AsiaUnited States Air Force | 1961-1973 | North Vietnam, Viet Cong and Pathet Lao | McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, Republic F-105 Thunderchief, North American F-100 Super Sabreand 6 more | 5,226,701 | 2,255 | |
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Flew interdiction, close air support, strategic bombing, reconnaissance, forward air control, gunship, transport and rescue missions across four countries for twelve years. Eighty-three per cent of Air Force combat losses came from guns and small arms, not missiles or MiGs, and the F-105 was worn out doing it: 334 were lost in combat out of 833 built. Rolling Thunder’s target restrictions and predictable route packages handed North Vietnamese gunners a gift, and it took until Linebacker in 1972, with laser-guided bombs and Wild Weasel escort worked out properly, for the Air Force to drop the Thanh Hoa bridge it had been failing to hit since 1965. Linebacker II in December 1972 cost fifteen B-52s in eleven nights, most of them in the first three, before tactics changed. Outcome American forces withdrew under the Paris agreement of January 1973; South Vietnam fell in April 1975. In Afterburner Operation Bolo: Robin Olds’ MiG Trap Over Hanoi Operation Bolo: The Trap That Broke North Vietnam’s Air Force Air Force losses must not be confused with the roughly 3,700 fixed-wing aircraft lost by all United States services. The Air Force Association gives 2,255 aircraft and 1,741 battle deaths; Air and Space Forces Magazine gives 2,254 and the Congressional Research Service gives 1,745 battle deaths of 2,586 total. Air Force involvement began with the Farm Gate detachment in November 1961; the loss and sortie figures run from February 1962 to October 1973.
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| The Korean WarUnited States Air Force | 1950-1953 | North Korea, China and Soviet Union | North American F-86 Sabre, Lockheed P-80 and F-80 Shooting Star, Republic F-84 Thunderjet and Thunderstreakand 5 more | 720,980 | 1,466 | |
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Won and held air superiority over the peninsula, interdicted Chinese and North Korean supply lines and flew close air support for United Nations ground forces through three years of fighting. Korea was the first jet war and, in the corridor along the Yalu the crews called MiG Alley, the first sustained fighter-versus-fighter contest between swept-wing aeroplanes; many of the MiG-15 pilots on the other side were Soviet, a fact both governments were careful not to admit. Away from the glamour, the war was mostly B-29s bombing at night after daylight losses became unsustainable and B-26s and F-51s hunting lorries on mountain roads, and the Air Force delivered about 476,000 tons of ordnance in 37 months. It also brought the helicopter into combat rescue, pulling downed aircrew out of ground the Chinese held. Outcome The armistice of 27 July 1953 left the peninsula divided; Air Force pilots claimed 792 MiG-15s for 76 Sabres lost in air combat. In Afterburner Namsi 1951: Black Tuesday and the End of the B-29 Air and Space Forces Magazine gives 1,180 killed in action and 1,841 battle casualties; the Congressional Research Service figure of 1,238 battle deaths, drawn from Defense Department casualty records, is used here. The 792 MiG claim is a wartime credit and Russian archival records suggest a lower number.
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| The Berlin AirliftOperation VittlesUnited States Air Force | 1948-1949 | Soviet Union | Douglas C-47 Skytrain, Douglas C-54 Skymaster, Boeing C-97 Stratofreighterand 1 more | — | 12 | |
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Supplied a city of two million people entirely by air for fifteen months after the Soviet Union closed the land routes into Berlin. The Air Force began with 102 C-47s carrying three tons apiece and two C-54s carrying ten, and finished flying a conveyor belt so tightly scheduled that an aeroplane that missed its approach went straight home with its load rather than break the pattern. On the Easter Parade of 17 April 1949 the airlift put 13,000 tons into the city in a single day. Nearly 600,000 flying hours and 92 million miles were logged, and the accident rate came out at less than half that of the Air Force as a whole; this was not a combat operation, but it was the first Cold War confrontation the new service was asked to win, and it settled what strategic airlift was for. Outcome The Soviet Union lifted the blockade on 12 May 1949 and the airlift wound down on 30 September 1949 with the city supplied throughout. In Afterburner One Aircraft Every 62 Seconds: The Berlin Airlift Total deaths across all nations taking part were 78, including 39 British and eight German; the 31 counts Americans only.
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| The Second World WarUnited States Army Air Forces | 1941-1945 | Germany, Japan and Italy | Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, Consolidated B-24 Liberator, Boeing B-29 Superfortressand 5 more | 2,362,800 | 43,581 | |
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Fought a strategic bombing campaign against Germany and Japan while providing tactical air support, transport and reconnaissance on every front the United States Army fought on. The Army Air Forces grew from 26,000 people in 1939 to a peak of 2,411,294 in March 1944, and the bill for daylight precision bombing came due over Schweinfurt and Regensburg before long-range P-51 escort changed the arithmetic in early 1944. Battle casualties in overseas theatres came to 121,867, of whom 40,061 were recorded as dead and 63,568 as missing, interned or captured, a great many of the latter later confirmed dead. Against Japan the campaign ended somewhere quite different from where it started: the B-29s came down from 30,000 feet to burn Japanese cities at night with incendiaries, and two of them carried atomic weapons. Outcome Germany surrendered in May 1945 and Japan in August; the Army Air Forces claimed 40,259 enemy aircraft destroyed and became an independent service two years later. In Afterburner Black Thursday Over Schweinfurt: The B-17 Raid That Nearly Broke the Eighth Air Force The Raid That Flew at Fifty Feet The Doolittle Raid: Sixteen Bombers, Zero Airfield These are Army Air Forces figures only and must not be confused with United States military totals. The commonly quoted battle-death figure of about 52,000 counts men initially listed as missing who were later confirmed dead; the 40,061 here is the wartime Statistical Digest count of those recorded as died at the time of compilation.
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| The First World Warthe Great WarAviation Section, Signal Corps and Army Air Service | 1917-1918 | Germany and Austria-Hungary | SPAD S.XIII, Nieuport 28, Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5aand 3 more | — | 289 | |
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Built an air arm from almost nothing and flew observation, pursuit and day bombing over the Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensives, mostly in French and British aeroplanes. The United States entered the war with 55 aeroplanes, none of them fit for combat, and no American-designed combat aircraft ever reached the front; squadrons flew SPADs, Nieuports and Salmsons bought or borrowed from the French, and the one substantial American contribution was the Liberty engine in the British-designed DH-4. Billy Mitchell massed nearly 1,500 Allied aeroplanes over Saint-Mihiel in September 1918, the largest concentration of aircraft anyone had yet attempted, and the Air Service brought back more than 18,000 photographs of German positions. Balloon observers had the worst job in the service, hanging under hydrogen in a wicker basket and jumping when the tracer came. Outcome The Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces claimed 781 enemy aeroplanes and 73 observation balloons destroyed and produced 72 aces. The air arm was the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps until 24 May 1918, when the Air Service was created; the two names cover the same organisation across the war. No consolidated sortie count was ever compiled.
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| The Punitive Expedition into Mexicothe pursuit of Pancho VillaAviation Section, Signal Corps | 1916-1917 | Villista forces | Curtiss JN-2, Curtiss JN-3, Curtiss N-8and 1 more | 540 | 8 | |
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Flew reconnaissance, photography, courier and dispatch missions for General Pershing’s column in the first American operational deployment of military aeroplanes. Captain Benjamin Foulois took the 1st Aero Squadron across the border on 15 March 1916 with eight Curtiss JN-3s, eleven officers, 82 enlisted men and one civilian mechanic. Ninety-horsepower engines could not lift the machines over the Sierra Madre passes, the desert air tore the laminated propellers apart and by late April the squadron had nothing airworthy left; the replacement Curtiss R-2s were little better. What the squadron did prove, in 540 flights over ten months, was that aeroplanes could carry dispatches and photographs faster than a horse, and Congress voted more than thirteen million dollars for aviation on the strength of the embarrassment. Outcome Villa was never caught, and the squadron’s failure produced the congressional appropriation that funded American military aviation properly for the first time. Sources differ on the exact date the last JN-3 was condemned and on how many aircraft were lost outright as against struck off charge; the eight is the number taken into Mexico, none of which survived the deployment fit to fly. The squadron flew Curtiss JN-2s at Fort Sill immediately before deploying and several of its JN-3s were rebuilt JN-2s; four Curtiss N-8s delivered in May 1916 were judged unfit and sent away without operational use.
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Nothing matches that search.
Every figure, checked
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: Wilsbach — Air Force Will Seek to Replace Aircraft Lost in Epic Furythe itemised list of USAF aircraft lost in Operation Epic Fury and the at-least-nine manned aircraft total
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: WORLD — Epic Furyforce size, combat flights flown by 23 March 2026, casualty events and allied involvement
- U.S. Central Command: Operation Epic Fury Fact Sheet, 6 April 2026start date and time, assets employed and targets struck
- U.S. Department of War: Epic Fury Quelled for Now, Objectives Accomplished, U.S. Forces Remain Ready38-day duration, ceasefire of 7 April 2026, target categories and stated outcomes
- U.S. Air Force: DoW Identifies Air Force Casualtiessix airmen killed in the KC-135 crash in western Iraq on 12 March 2026
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: 3 Americans Killed in Iran Operation as US Strikes with B-2sthe opening B-2 strikes of 28 February 2026 and the Iranian retaliation against regional bases
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: WORLD — Operation Midnight Hammerseven B-2s, 14 GBU-57s, 125 aircraft, 36-hour mission and the damage assessment
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: Air Force Confirms SEAD Role of F-35s in Midnight Hammerthe fighter escort and suppression package ahead of the bombers
- Curtis E. LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education: Doctrine Paragon — Operation Midnight Hammerofficial doctrinal account of the 21 and 22 June 2025 mission
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: US Has Struck Over 1,000 Houthi Targets in Renewed Campaigntargets struck, B-2 deployment to Diego Garcia, MQ-9 losses and the fall in Houthi launch rates
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: Trump Says US Halting Military Campaign Against Houthiscampaign dates of 15 March to 6 May 2025, aircraft committed and losses
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: Life or Death Over Yemen — How F-16 Pilots Survived a Houthi Ambushthe 55th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron and the surface-to-air threat over Yemen
- U.S. Air Forces Central: Airpower Summary, September 2017Inherent Resolve sorties and weapons releases by year from 2014, and Freedom’s Sentinel sorties from 2012
- U.S. Air Forces Central: Combined Forces Air Component Commander 2014–2021 Airpower Statisticsannual sorties, weapons releases, ISR, tanker and airlift figures for Inherent Resolve and the Afghanistan mission
- Lead Inspector General: Operation Inherent Resolve in Brief, 2026current mission, the conclusion of the coalition mission in federal Iraq and continuing operations in Syria
- Combined Joint Task Force — Operation Inherent Resolve: Historyoperation start date, coalition membership and the defeat of the territorial caliphate
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: The Libya Missionsortie counts to 31 March 2011, the American share of tanking and ISR, aircraft types and the F-15E loss
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: Lessons From LibyaNATO capability shortfalls and the transition from Odyssey Dawn to Unified Protector
- U.S. Air Forces in Europe: USAFE Releases Accident Investigation Board Report on F-15E Crash in Libyathe 21 March 2011 loss was a mechanical failure, not hostile fire; both crew recovered
- U.S. Central Command Air Forces: Operation Iraqi Freedom — By The Numbers, 30 April 2003sorties by service, munitions expended, aircraft lost to enemy fire, personnel deployed and tanker offloads
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: The Gulf War II Air Campaign, by the NumbersUSAF share of coalition sorties and strikes, aircraft committed and munitions breakdown for 2003
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: Contingency LossesUSAF aircraft lost in contingency operations after 11 September 2001, manned and unmanned
- Air Force Historical Support Division: 2001 — Operation Enduring Freedomphases and dates of the campaign, aircraft types and the precision munitions share in the opening months
- Air Force Historical Research Agency: USAF Manned Aircraft Combat Losses, 1990–2002 (Daniel L. Haulman)17 manned aircraft lost in combat across the period, itemised by operation, type and cause
- Congressional Research Service: American War and Military Operations Casualties — Lists and Statistics (RL32492)Air Force deaths by conflict, split into hostile and non-hostile, for Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf War, Enduring Freedom, Iraqi Freedom and New Dawn
- Air Force Historical Support Division: 1999 — Operation Allied Force38,004 NATO sorties, 30,018 USAF sorties broken down by mission, target counts and force composition
- Air Force Historical Research Agency: Manned Aircraft Losses Over the Former Yugoslavia, 1994–1999 (Daniel L. Haulman)every aircraft shot down over the former Yugoslavia by date, type, operation and pilot, including the four 1994 J-21 kills and the five MiG-29s of 1999
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: True Blue — Behind the Kosovo Numbers Gamethe post-war dispute over Serbian vehicles actually destroyed in Kosovo
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: Deliberate Force3,515 NATO sorties of which 2,318 American, 1,026 weapons with 69 per cent precision, target complexes and USAF types deployed
- Air Force Historical Support Division: 1995 — Operation Deliberate Forcecampaign dates of 30 August to 20 September 1995 and the link to the Dayton settlement
- Air Force Historical Research Agency: The United States Air Force and Bosnia, 1992–1995 (Daniel L. Haulman)Deny Flight operations and the Air Force role in Bosnia before Deliberate Force
- Air Force Historical Support Division: 1991 — Operation Southern Watchmore than 86,000 sorties by 1997, the 1992 MiG-25 shootdown and the 19 airmen killed at Khobar Towers
- Air Force Historical Support Division: 1991 — Operation Provide Comfort and Northern Watchdates from 7 April 1991 to 1 May 2003, the 1993 MiG-23 kill and the 1994 Black Hawk friendly-fire shootdown
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: Legacy of the Air Blockadeseleven years without a manned coalition aircraft lost to enemy fire, engagement counts and the cost of the zones
- U.S. General Accounting Office: Operation Desert Storm — Evaluation of the Air Campaign (GAO/NSIAD-97-134)69,406 USAF sorties from the Gulf War Air Power Survey, 38 coalition aircraft lost to Iraqi action and the per-strike casualty rates
- Air Force Association: White Paper — Air Force Performance in Desert Storm, April 1991aircraft deployed by type, sortie counts by type and the 7,400 tons of precision munitions
- Air Force Historical Support Division: 1991 — Operation Desert Shield and Desert Stormdates from the Iraqi invasion of 2 August 1990 to the ceasefire of 28 February 1991
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: A Small War in Panamathe F-117 debut at Rio Hato, the airlift build-up and the all-services casualty figure
- Joint History Office: Operation Just Cause — The Planning and Execution of Joint Operations in Panama (Ronald H. Cole)airlift aircraft committed, drop timings and the build-up to 27,000 troops
- Air University: Doctrine Paragon — Air Mobility in Operation Just Causemore than 110 airlift aircraft and the largest night combat airdrop since the Second World War
- Air Force Historical Support Division: 1986 — Operation El Dorado Canyonaircraft launched, targets, the F-111F lost with both crew and the casualties on the ground
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: El Dorado Canyonthe routing around Iberia, the refuelling plan and the conduct of the raid
- Air Force Historical Support Division: 1980 — Operation Eagle Clawaircraft and helicopters committed, the abort at Desert One and the eight deaths
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: Desert Onethe conduct of the mission and its consequences for American special operations aviation
- Naval History and Heritage Command: Iran Hostage Rescue Mission Report (the Holloway Report)the joint review of what failed at Desert One
- Air Force Historical Support Division: 1975 — The Mayaguez Incidenthelicopters committed and damaged, aircraft types and the Air Force casualty account
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: The Mayaguez Rescuethe 13 May CH-53 crash that killed 23, the loss of Knife 31 and the total of 41 American dead
- National Museum of the United States Air Force: Final Combat — The Mayaguez Incident at Koh Tangthe assault on Koh Tang and the recovery of the ship and crew
- Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies: The Air Force in the Vietnam War5,226,701 USAF sorties in Southeast Asia, 2,255 aircraft lost with the combat and operational split, and battle deaths
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: The Crucible of Vietnamloss totals by type, the 83 per cent of losses caused by ground fire and the air-to-air record
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: The Remembered War720,980 USAF sorties, 1,466 aircraft lost, 476,000 tons of ordnance and the Sabre against MiG record
- Air Force Historical Research Agency: The U.S. Air Force’s First War — Korea 1950–1953, Significant Eventsday-by-day chronology of Far East Air Forces operations
- Air Force Historical Support Division: 1949 — The Berlin Airliftmore than 189,000 American flights, 2.3 million tons delivered, 12 crashes and 31 deaths
- Air Mobility Command: The U.S. Air Force and Humanitarian Airlift Operationsthe operational history of Operation Vittles and later airlift operations
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: The Berlin Airliftthe conveyor-belt scheduling, the Easter Parade of 17 April 1949 and aircraft types flown
- Army Air Forces Statistical Digest, World War II (Office of Statistical Control, 1945)Table 118 combat sorties, Table 99 and 100 aircraft losses, Table 158 combat mission losses, Table 34 battle casualties and Table 166 enemy aircraft destroyed
- Air Force Historical Support Division: The U.S. Army Air Forces in World War IIofficial histories and studies of Army Air Forces operations in every theatre
- Air & Space Forces Magazine: Daylight Precision Bombingthe cost of unescorted daylight bombing and the effect of long-range escort from early 1944
- National Museum of the United States Air Force: Combat Record (Air Service, AEF)781 enemy aircraft and 73 balloons destroyed, 289 aeroplanes lost in combat, 237 killed and 279 wounded, 72 aces
- Air Force Historical Support Division: The U.S. Air Service in the First World Warthe four-volume official documentary history of the Air Service in 1917 and 1918
- National Museum of the United States Air Force: Air Service Enters CombatAmerican reliance on French and British aeroplanes and the Saint-Mihiel concentration
- Airman Magazine: The Flying Firsteight Curtiss JN-3s, 540 flights and 346 flying hours during the Punitive Expedition
- Air Force Historical Support Division via DVIDS: Aerial Reconnaissance during the Punitive Expedition, 1 April 1916squadron composition, deployment date, the Curtiss R-2 replacements and the crashes caused by terrain and weather
- U.S. Army: American Military Aviation Takes Off with the First Aero Squadron, 9 March 1916the Columbus raid, Foulois’s arrival on 15 March 1916 and the fate of the aeroplanes
- HistoryNet: The 1st Aero Squadron and the Pursuit of Pancho Villathe succession of Curtiss types issued to the squadron in 1916 and the burning of the last two JN-3s
Figures verified 2026-09-13. Back to the United States Air Force.