Compiled by Ewa Historian John Bond
Where Bombs Are Going and How Much They Cost
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_of_the_United_States
As of 2019, the U.S. has an inventory of 6,185 nuclear warheads; of these, 2,385 are retired and awaiting dismantlement and 3,800 are part of the U.S. stockpile. Of the stockpiled warheads, the U.S. stated in its March 2019 New START declaration that 1,365 are deployed on 656 ICBMs, SLBMs, and strategic bombers.
US Running Out Of Bombs?
The Pentagon plans to invest more than $20 billion in munitions in its next budget. But whether the industrial base will be there to support such massive buys in the future is up in the air — at a time when America is expending munitions at increasingly intense rates.
As to diversity in the industrial base, well ― there isn’t any, with the authors concluding that Raytheon and Lockheed Martin account for about 97 percent of the DoD’s munitions and missile procurement funding.
According to U.S. Air Forces Central Command, U.S. aircraft dropped 7,423 munitions in 2019 — that’s the highest number of bombs released in nearly a decade.
Per the Air Force budget, a standard, unguided Mk 82 500-pound class bomb has a unit price of $4,000, while 2,000-pound class Mk 84 unguided bombs cost $16,000 apiece.
In 2018, U.S. warplanes dropped 7,362 bombs — the second highest total in a year thus far since AFCENT began publishing the number of munitions released in Afghanistan.
In 2010 and 2011, the height of America’s participation in Afghan war, coalition aircraft dropped 5,100 and 5,411 bombs respectively. During those two years, the U.S. military had nearly 100,000 U.S. troops on the ground as part of President Barack Obama’s troop surge to clear Taliban militants.
The US bombing the hell out of the Taliban as munitions
dropped reaches nearly 10-year high
In the backdrop of peace negotiations to end the 18-year long war U.S. aircraft are bombing the hell out of the Taliban and other militants as the warring parties slog through never-ending discussions to bring the fighting to a close.
According to U.S. Air Forces Central Command, U.S. aircraft dropped 7,423 munitions in 2019 — that’s the highest number of bombs released in nearly a decade.
Record Number Of Bombs Dropped On Afghanistan In 2019
https://www.statista.com/chart/16079/weapons-released-by-the-us-coalition-over-afghanistan/
High Volume of Bombs Dropped During The Vietnam War
Eight bombs a minute were dropped on average during the Vietnam war between 1964 and 1973 - more than the amount used during the whole of World War Two.
Despite the war ending in 1975, it is estimated that there are still at least 350,000 tons of live bombs and mines remaining in Vietnam alone, with Cambodia also heavily affected and Laos suffering more than either country. At the current rate, it will take 300 years to clear all the explosives from the landscape.
What Each Of The Pentagon's Air-Launched Missiles And Bombs Actually Cost
What follows are the unit prices, rounded to the nearest dollar, that the various branches of the U.S. military expect to pay for various air-launched weapons in the 2021 Fiscal Year as they appear in the official budget documents.
Air-to-Air Missiles:
AIM-9X Sidewinder (Air Force) - $472,000
AIM-9X Sidewinder (Navy) - $430,818
These unit prices are averages for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year orders for both services, which include lots of AIM-9X-2 Block II and AIM-9X-3 Block II+ missiles, the latter of which is specifically for variants F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
AIM-120D Advanced Medium-Range Air To Air Missile (AMRAAM) (Air Force)- $1.095 million
AIM-120D Advanced Medium-Range Air To Air Missile (AMRAAM) (Navy)- $995,018
Air-to-Surface Missiles:
AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER) (Navy) - $6.149 million
AGM-114 Hellfire (Air Force) - $70,000
This unit price is an average for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year order, which may include a variety of Hellfire missiles in Air Force service, including, but not limited to the AGM-114R2, AGM-114R4, AGM-114R9E, and AGM-114R12.
This is also the unit price for orders in the base budget. The Air Force is also looking to purchase a much larger number of AGM-114 variants through the supplemental Overseas Contingency Operations budget at an average unit cost $31,000.
AGM-114 Hellfire (Army) - $213,143
This unit price is an average for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year order, which may include a variety of Hellfire missiles in Army service, including various different variants of the AGM-114R, as well as the millimeter-wave radar-guided AGM-114L.
This is also the unit price for orders in the base budget. The Army is also looking to purchase a much larger number of AGM-114R variants through the supplemental Overseas Contingency Operations budget at an average unit cost $76,461.
AGM-114 Hellfire (Navy) - $45,409
This unit price is an average for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year order, which may include a variety of Hellfire missiles in Navy and Marine Corps service, including, but not limited to the AGM-114K/K2, AGM-114M, AGM-114N, AGM-114P/P2, and AGM-114Q.
AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) (Air Force) - $1.266 million
This unit price is an average for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year order, which includes examples of the AGM-158A JASSM and AGM-158B JASSM-Extended Range (JASSM-ER).
The Air Force also expects the complete 2021 Fiscal Year JASSM order will also include the purchase of the first batch of low rate initial production AGM-158D JASSM-Extreme Range (JASSM-XR) missiles.
AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) (Air Force) - $3.960 million
AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) (Navy) - $3.518 million
AGM-179A Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) (Army) - $324,805
AGM-179A Joint Air-to-Ground Missile (JAGM) (Navy) - $243,281
Precision-Guided Bombs:
GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) (Air Force) - $39,000
This unit price is an average for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year order, which may include the GBU-39A/B Focused Lethality Munition (FLM) variants, which has a special carbon fiber body intended to reduce the chance of collateral damage, and GBU-39B/B Laser SDBs.
GBU-53/B StormBreaker/Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) (Air Force) - $195,000
GBU-53/B StormBreaker/Small Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) (Navy) - $220,916
Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) (Air Force) - $21,000
Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) (Navy) - $22,208
These are the unit prices for orders in the base budget. The Air Force is also looking to purchase a much smaller number of JDAM kits through the supplemental Overseas Contingency Operations budget at an average unit cost of $36,000. The Navy is also looking to purchase a smaller number of JDAM kits through the supplemental Overseas Contingency Operations budget at an average unit cost of $23,074.
These unit prices are also averages for the entire projected 2021 Fiscal Year orders for both services and apply to the JDAM guidance kits only for 500, 1,000, and 2,000-pound class bombs.
This unit price average also includes multi-mode Laser JDAM kits.
The different JDAM guidance kits will work with a wide variety of different dumb bomb types within those classes, but some, such as the new BLU-137/B 2,000-pound class bunker buster, require certain weapon-specific modifications that impact the specific price point.
Per the Air Force budget, a standard, unguided Mk 82 500-pound class bomb has a unit price of $4,000, while 2,000-pound class Mk 84 unguided bombs cost $16,000 apiece.
It's important to note that a number of air-launched munitions that are in active service across the U.S. military, such as the AGM-65E Maverick laser-guided missiles, AGM-154 Joint Stand Off Weapon (JSOW) glide bombs, AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship cruise missiles, and Paveway laser and multi-mode guidance kits for various types of bombs, are not mentioned above.
This is because the services are not planning to buy new stocks of them in the 2021 Fiscal Year or they are included include broader sections of the budget where their exact unit cost is not readily apparent. There are requests for funds for sustainment of many of those weapons, as well as modifications and upgrades, too. The Navy is notably expecting to begin purchasing a powered derivative of the AGM-154, known as the JSOW-Extended Range (JSOW-ER), in the 2022 Fiscal Year.
