Originally Posted by
vagabond
Ok, I hate to pick nits, but I am still a little confused.
If a sortie, according to Dictionary.com, is "the flying of an airplane in combat," I have the follow up questions.
Helicopters don't count?
Flying gas stations don't count?
"70 to 80 sorties" means 70 to 80 unique airplanes?
Or can one airplane have more than one sortie?
Or is it simply that each time an airplane takes off on a mission, that is one sortie?
Man, this is like discussing the minutiae of a latte, a cappuccino, a white chocolate mocha, a dark chocolate mocha, 2% milk. Or how about discussing the difference between fat free milk and non-fat milk?
Addition: ah, I see RickyBobby answered my original questions. Let me examine them before asking any more.
The type of aircraft doesn't matter. I suspect UAVs are counted, these days. Here's two examples, hope they help.
1) A C-17 takes off from U.A.E. and flies to Kabul, Bagram, Kandahar, then back to U.A.E. Per the Navy definition, this would be 4 sorties even though only one aircraft was flown.
2) A flight of four F/A-18s depart from USS Ship in the Med, strike targets in N Africa, and return to the ship. Per the Navy definition, this would be 4 sorties.
The USAF may have a slightly different definition of a sortie.
RB