Some Statistics On Royal Canadian Air Force Operations In Libya

On the 18th of March 2011,Peter MacKay the Canadian Minister of National Defence announced the deployment of CF188 Hornets as part of Operation Mobile to support United nations resolution 1973.

Canadian CF188 Hornets and other aircraft passed through Prestwick in Scotland the following day,the 19th of March 2011,on their way to Trapani air base in Sicily.

Canadian Hornets flew their first combat sortie on the 21st of March 2011.

Up to the 15th of June 2011,a period which covers a total of 86 days,6 Canadian CF188 Hornets had flown 418 combat sorties.

Which means that the Canadian CF188s have flown an average of  about 4.9 sorties per day.

That is an average of 0.8 sorties per aircraft per day.

This compares very well to the 12 Royal Air Force Tornados based at Goia Del Colle.

The 12 Tornados averaged 6 sorties per day over the first 50 days of Operation Ellamy.

An average of 0.5 sorties per aircraft per day for the British bombers.

Thus the Canadian CF188s are generating about 60% more sorties per aircraft per day than the Royal Air Force Tornados.

The average length of a Canadian CF188 Hornet sortie over Libya is just under 5 hours.


The average length for a Royal Air Force Tornado sortie over Libya is 5.5 hours.

The Canadian base at Trapani in Sicily is about 350* Miles from Tripoli.


The British base at Gioia Del Colle in Italy is about 580* Miles from Tripoli.


So the Royal Air Force Tornados must fly about 1,160 Miles just to transit to and from Tripoli.


The Canadian CF188 Hornets must fly about 700 Miles to transit to and from Tripoli.


Assuming an average transit speed of 500 miles per hour,the extra 460 Miles which the Tornados must fly on each sortie is likely to absorb about an extra 55 minutes of their flying time on each sortie.

Which suggests that the average Canadian Hornet sortie generates about 25 minutes more time on station over Libya than the average Royal Air Force Tornado sortie.


Time on station per sortie over Libya averages about 3 hours 36 minutes for the Canadian Hornets and about 3 hours and 11 minutes for the Royal Air Force Tornados.

The Canadian Hornets appear to be generating both more sorties per aircraft per day than the British Tornados and more time on station per sortie.

Between them,the 6 Canadian Hornets are generating about 18 hours on station over Libya each day,an average of 3 hours on station per Hornet per day.


The 12 British Tornados are generating 19 hours on station over Libya each day,an average of 1 hour and 35 minutes on station per Tornado per day.


Each Canadian Hornet is generating 89% more time on station over Libya per day than each British Tornado.




*Distances from google Earth.

Some Statistics On Royal Air Force Operations In Libya

Statistics on Royal Air Force operations over Libya have been rather scant and incomplete.

This has made it rather difficult to judge the performance of British combat aircraft in Operation Ellamy.

However,there are now some useful pieces of information available.

On the 19th of May 2011,Scottish Member of Parliament (M.P.) Angus Robertson asked the following question in the House Of Commons:

"To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many missions the (a) Nimrod R1, (b) Sentinel R1, (c) VC-10 and (d) C-130 have flown in Operation Ellamy."

He received the following answer from the Secretary of State for Defence Dr.Liam Fox:

"Up to 8 May 2011 the UK has flown the following sorties in support of Operation Ellamy:

                                                           

Aircraft type	Number of sorties (1)
VC10	110
C130	15
Nimrod	20
Sentinel	50
(1) Numbers are rounded to the nearest five."

Mr.Robertson went on to ask the following:

"To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) how many sorties the (a) GR4 Tornado and (b) Typhoon has flown in Operation Ellamy;what type of mission was flown in each case;and how many weapons of each type were released; 

(2) how many dual mode Brimstone missiles have been used by UK forces in Operation Ellamy to date."

Dr.Fox replied: 

"Up to 8 May 2011 the UK has flown about 300 GR4 Tornado and 140 Typhoon sorties as part of Operation Ellamy.

Both aircraft types have conducted missions to protect civilians in support of UN Security Council Resolution 1973,and the Typhoons have also conducted missions in support of no-fly zone enforcement.

In all,approximately 240 weapons have been fired by these aircraft during these missions.

These were a combination of Dual Mode Seeker Brimstone and Storm Shadow missiles,Enhanced Paveway II and Paveway IV Precision Guided Munitions.

I am unable to provide a breakdown of these figures for reasons of operational security."

Operation Ellamy began on the 19th of March 2011,which means these figures cover the 50 days between then and the 8th of May.

Over that period V.C.10 tanker aircraft have flown 110 sorties or about 2.2 sorties per day.


It is difficult to calculate a sortie generation figure for these aircraft as numbers involved in this operation appear to vary over time,most recently the International Institute for Strategic Studies said that 6 V.C.10s were involved in Operation Ellamy,other sources often put the figure at 3 V.C.10s.


These numbers would give us a best case of 0.73 sorties per aircraft per day and a worst case of 0.37 sorties per aircraft per day.


Both of these figures are well below the 1 sortie per aircraft per day which the Royal Air Force tanker fleet often generates in combat.

The C130 Hercules transports flew 15 sorties or about 0.3 sorties per day ,1 sortie every 3 days on average.

Nimrod R.1 electronic reconnaissance aircraft flew 20 sorties or about 0.4 sorties per day,2 sorties every 5 days on average.

As there is only 1 Nimrod based at Akrotiri,this gives 0.4 sorties per aircraft per day. 

The Sentinel R.1 radar reconnaissance aircraft flew 50 sorties or about 1 sortie per day.


With 2 Sentinels based at Akrotiri,this equates to 0.5 sorties per aircraft per day.


It is likely to take about 4 hours for the Sentinel to transit to and from Cyrus to Tripoli on each sortie.

Tornado bombers flew 300 sorties or about 6 sorties per day.


As there have been 12 Tornados involved for most of Operation Ellamy,this equates to just over 0.5 sorties per aircraft per day,well below the 0.8 sorties per aircraft per day which Canadian Hornets are generating.


Flying sorties of 5.5 hours duration on average,the 12 British Tornados are generating 19 hours on station over Libya each day,an average of 1 hour and 35 minutes on station per Tornado per day (assuming an average transit speed of 500 miles per hour over the 580 miles between Gioia Del Colle and Tripoli).


This compares poorly with the 3 hours on station which each Canadian Hornet generates per day.


Each Canadian Hornet is generating 89% more time on station over Libya per day than each British Tornado.

Typhoon fighters flew 140 sorties or about 2.8 sorties per day.

A total of 240 weapons were released,an average of 4.8 weapons per day or 0.55 weapons per fast jet sortie.

It is interesting to note that,other than a handful of Storm Shadow missiles,these weapons range from the 1,000 pound (450kg) bomb based Enhanced Paveway II down to the 110 pound (50kg) Brimstone.

Thus weapon expenditure in 50 days of combat over Libya probably totals less than about 120 tonnes of ordnance and could be as little as 12 tonnes.

By way of comparison,a large aircraft carrier like the Nimitz class carries about 3,200 tonnes of ordnance,with the replenishment vessel which accompanies it carrying a similar amount.

The French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle carries 600 tonnes of ordnance (other sources say 2,100 tons) and 3,200 tonnes of aviation fuel.


It would be interesting to know how much ordnance is carried by the Royal Navy's Invincible class ships and also by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary's replenishment vessels,unfortunately we do not know the answer to that but it is likely to be far higher than 120 tonnes.

The only figures we have for the ordnance capacity of the forthcoming Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers are unfortunately expressed in cubic metres rather than tonnes which is less than helpful.

Operation Ellamy : A Tornado Sortie

British sources of information about current operations over Libya are rather sparse.

Something interesting can be found on Stuart Hughes' page on youtube.com.

He shows the above video of a Tornado operating over Libya.

The pictures are from the Royal Air Force Mobile News Team and the supporting text appears to be from the same source given the detail.

Here is the text in full in full:

"23 March 2011

An RAF TORNADO GR4 recce mission on the 23 Mar generated RAPTOR imagery identifying Gadaffi's ground forces in a hostile posture 2.5 miles S of AJDABIYA. The imagery was sent to the! RAF's Tactical Imagery Wing (TIW) cell within the JFACHQ in Ramstein for analysis.

24 March 2011

At 1335Z a pair of RAF TORNADO GR4 took off from Gioia del Colle tasked with an Armed Reconnaissance mission in the AJDABIYA area.

At 1435Z, soon after the TORNADO'S arrival over AJDABIYA, the Coalition Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) in Ramstein passed the coordinates of a number of Libyan Main Battle tanks to Coalition aircraft in the area; this included the two RAF TORADO'S. The information had been supplied by the TIW Cell based on their assessment of the imagery collected on the previous day.

The TORNADO'S arrived over the target area and identified 4 x MBT. The tanks were still positioned 2.5 miles south of AJDABIYA, with barrels elevated and pointing north towards the town. They were deemed to have clear hostile intent. Other Coalition aircraft located and identified the remaining 6 x MBT.

The TORNADO'S th! en rendezvoused with the VC10 tanker on station in the area for fuel while the other Coalition aircraft identified and engaged their targets; destroying 6 x MNT.

At 1450 post refuelling, the RAF TORNADO'S returned to the target area and, having re-confirmed the targets were still in a hostile posture and that the area was clear of civilians, successfully engaged the 4 x MNT with Brimstone missiles.

One of the Strikes was delayed when a civilian vehicle was spotted close to the target, with the aircraft re-engaging once the vehicle was outside of the danger area.

Initial Battle Damage Assessment indicates all three MBT were destroyed.

At 1735Z the TORNADO'S landed back at Gioia del Colle."

We can deduce from the above that it takes a Tornado just under an hour to transit from Gioia Del Colle to Libya.

The Tornado received it's first aerial refuelling less than 1 hour and 15 minutes after taking off.

The Tornado's sortie lasted for 4 hours in total.

As transit time was about an hour one way,the Tornado would have spent about 2 hours "on task" out of it's 4 hours in the air.

As the objective of this sortie is to maintain an aircraft on station,this mission might be described as acheiving 50% mission efficiency.

With a Tornado spending 2 hours over Libya on each sortie,it would require 24 daily Tornado sorties to maintain a 24 hour 2 Tornado patrol over Libya from Gioia Del Colle.

Figures for the Tornado's sortie generation over Libya have not been released.

However,those same Tornados flying sorties of similar endurance over Afghanistan generate about 6 sorties per day from a total of 8 aircraft in theatre.

It would not be unreasonable to extrapolate from that that 32 Tornados would be required in theatre to generate a 2 aircraft continuous patrol over Libya when flying from Gioia Del Colle.




It is interesting to compare these figures with those for the Harriers which the United States Marines are using in Libya.

On a close air support mission the Harrier II has an unrefuelled endurance of about 3 hours with 2 external drop tanks.

Being based just a few minutes flying time off the Libyan coast,it can can spend well over 2 hours on station in Libyan air space without any aerial refuelling support at all.

A Harrier can also fly multiple sorties over Libya each day.

Based in the Mediterranean Sea,Marine Corps Harriers have been reported to be flying 2 sorties per aircraft per day over Libya.

If that sortie rate were sustainable,it may require as few as 12 Harriers with no aerial refuelling support to maintain 2 Harriers on patrol over Libya continuously.

 

It will be interesting to compare the statistics for the Harriers and Tornados performance over Libya when they are eventually released.

The Tornado is likely to generate far fewer hours on station per aircraft per day than the Harrier with far more aerial refuelling per aircraft per day.

The Tornado and tanker combination also cost far more than the Harrier and carrier alternative.