Where Bombs Are Going and How Much They Cost

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?

https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/05/22/the-us-is-running-out-of-bombs-and-it-may-soon-struggle-to-make-more/

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

https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2020/01/27/the-us-is-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

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/32277/here-is-what-each-of-the-pentagons-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.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser: Plan to upgrade, expand West Loch munitions annex has neighbors on edge

 Honolulu Star-Advertiser: Plan to upgrade, expand West Loch munitions annex has neighbors on edge

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2020/09/15/hawaii-news/plan-to-upgrade-expand-west-loch-munitions-annex-has-neighbors-on-edge/?HSA=f56431b918182c8b582fa3b0d66a5c6b0d5a6e78

In 1944 a munitions accident triggered an explosion that rocked West Loch, leaving 163 men dead and nearly 400 wounded in what is considered Pearl Harbor’s second-worst disaster in terms of fatalities.

Today, 76 years later, a military plan to expand the munitions depots at West Loch has left some people in neighboring communities wondering whether they could be exposed to similar danger.

A draft environmental assessment describes a new Army munitions storage complex at the Navy’s West Loch Annex within Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The project would be built over several phases of construction, the first of which is scheduled to begin in 2022.

The complex would be home to 35 storage magazines and a range of support structures over 50 acres, allowing for the relocation of existing Army munitions operations at Lualualei Annex in Waianae.

In addition, the Navy is building a new munitions facility at the same West Loch Annex featuring 24 new box magazines for storage of Navy ordnance.

Last month Naval Facilities Engineering Command Hawaii awarded Nan Inc. a $33 million contract to build the magazines by September 2022.

Some community members, meanwhile, are a bit nervous about the plans. The military is being far too quiet about the latest project, they say, and the public needs to be better informed about what’s going on.

“I think they should put this on pause,” said Will Espero, a former state senator from Ewa Beach who is running for Honolulu City Council. “A lot of people don’t know about this.”

Even those who do know about the project are wary.

“The plan contains too much uncertainty and undisclosed materials,” said Poka Laenui of the Institute for the Advancement of Hawaiian Affairs. “The public is unable to effectively participate in this process or to condone an action which it does not understand.”

Laenui said a full environmental impact statement should be done, given the impact of the proposal.

Haunani Hess, a Native Hawaiian who lives on the Pearl City Peninsula, said the 1944 munitions disaster shows what can happen at such a facility.

What’s more, the historical targeting of Pearl Harbor because of its location and capacity “should stand as an obvious telltale sign,” especially with so many densely populated communities surrounding West Loch, Hess said.

“West Loch will be receiving and storing new magazines, and will most likely transport to and from Lualualei Valley. Is it possible to predict accurate calculation for moving explosives?” she said.

Ewa Beach historian John Bond said he believes a vast area of West Oahu, from Waipahu to Kapolei to Iroquois Point, could be vulnerable in an accident.

“There are very major impacts to the Ewa/West Oahu community, and there have been no hearings or presentations made for the public to understand what is going to happen literally in their backyards,” Bond said.

Bond said he thinks the military is using old blast zone data, and he says he can prove it using a United Nations software program, plus Department of Defense data and Army blast zone calculations released during a 2018 public review of a similar project at a base in North Carolina.

By his calculations, the potential blast effects at West Loch could extend out more than 3.5 miles, affecting Kapolei, Ewa, Kunia-Waipahu, Ford Island- Hickam, Haseko, Ewa Beach and Iroquois Point.

The blast wave, he said, could send shrapnel across the region and result in broken windows farther out and casualties and flattened buildings closer in.

Bond said he believes West Loch will only grow in size in the coming years as larger munitions of increasingly powerful explosives and missiles are needed to counter China and Russia.

Asked to comment on concerns from the community, NAVFAC responded with written answers from both the Army and Navy perspectives.

“Safety is always paramount. The preferred alternative in the draft EA maximizes the continued safe storage of ammunition at this site without negatively impacting the neighboring communities. In fact, this and concurrent Navy projects would improve safety by providing state-of-the-art magazine storage and significantly reducing the movement of ordnance on Oahu roadways.”

All new and rebuilt magazines, NAVFAC said, would be within the existing West Loch Annex Explosive Safety Quantity Distance arcs that extend across uninhabited Navy-owned land.

“The safety of community residents is of the utmost importance, and explosive safety is calculated with extreme care and scrutiny,” NAVFAC said.

The ESQD arcs represent a safety buffer zone determined by the design of the magazine and amount of explosives permitted to be stored inside the magazine, according to the response.

The military wouldn’t say what ammunition types and explosive amounts would be stored at West Loch, calling it “sensitive information.”

“However, as stated in the Draft EA, magazine storage capacity would be limited to maintain the current ESQD arc” within Navy property, and residential areas would not be affected, it said.

State Sen. Mike Gabbard asked the Navy for a public hearing, but it told him an environmental assessment was sufficient.

However, the Navy did say the deadline for the 30-day public review and comment period, which originally ended Sept. 8, has been extended to Friday.

In the meantime the draft EA is available online at  808ne.ws/2ZEj5NN and at the Ewa, Waipahu and Hawaii State libraries.

The public can submit comments through mail to Code: EV21AS Naval Facilities Engineering Command Pacific, 258 Makalapa Drive, Suite 100, JBPHH, HI 96860; or by email to NFPAC-Receive@navy.mil.