Cost of Bombing ISIL Cheap Compared With Afghan War

The major driver of cost is flight time for warplanes and steaming time for ships — not missiles or bombs, said Richard Aboulafia, a military aviation analyst with the Teal Group. A warplane can cost at least $10,000 per hour to fly. "What clobbered us over the past decade wasn't procurement (of weapons)," Aboulafia said. "It was operations and maintenance."