If you're wondering how much the war against the Islamic State is costing the US and why the Obama administration isn't ramping up its bombing campaign even more, consider this fact: from August 2014 to December 2015, the US military dropped $1.3 billion in smart bombs and other guided munitions on ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria, with air operations costing an average of about $11.2 million per day.
So many smart bombs have been dropped during the roughly 9,000 missions flown by US Air Force and Navy aircraft that the Department of Defense is running out of the guided weapons—and the Pentagon wants to stock up for ramped-up attacks. The military also wants to accelerate updates to the aging B-52 fleet to convert them into "arsenal ships" that can hang around for long periods of time and deliver bigger loads of guided bombs against targets such as ISIS.
Defense One reports that the Obama administration will send a request to Congress next week to approve an additional $1.8 billion for the DOD in order to purchase 45,000 new Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) smart bombs and other air-dropped ordnance. The $1.8 billion bomb request is part of a total of $7.5 billion the Pentagon will seek to cover Operation Inherent Resolve, the ongoing operation against ISIS.
All this is good news if you're in the bomb-making business. The defense industry is already reportedly straining to meet demand for missiles and bombs and is expanding its capacity. According to a Reuters report in December, Boeing has already increased its production rate for JDAMs by 80 percent in the wake of the US approving sales of over 22,000 JDAM-equipped bombs and other guided weapons to Saudi Arabia.
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