One Navy Squadron, 421 Weapons, One Campaign

A photo of a munitions tally board reveals what VFA-41's Black Aces expended during Operation Epic Fury — and raises stockpile questions.

By The Defense Desk

A single photograph of a squadron tally board has given the clearest accounting yet of U.S. munitions use against Iran. Strike Fighter Squadron 41, the 'Black Aces,' launched 421 missiles and bombs from their F/A-18F Super Hornets during Operation Epic Fury — a campaign the Pentagon says ran from February 28 to May 5. [1]

[1]

The rough total cost of VFA-41's expenditure comes to at least $43,646,000, using available U.S. military budget documents, though unit costs fluctuate regularly. [1] Standard JDAMs can only be employed against static target coordinates; the LJDAM kits add a laser guidance component that enables strikes against moving targets. [1] JDAM accuracy is officially quoted as 13 m (43 ft) under GPS-aided INS guidance. [2]

[1] The U.S. military has previously confirmed that air-launched AGM-114 Hellfire laser-guided missiles (likely fired from MQ-9 Reaper drones) and ground-launched Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) short-range ballistic missiles were employed against submarines, specifically. [1]

What makes the tally remarkable is its narrowness: one squadron, one carrier, one chapter of a much longer campaign. The full arithmetic of this war remains deliberately out of public view.

Lincoln's air wing includes four strike squadrons, three with Super Hornets and one with F-35Cs, and the carrier was just one node in a broader force. For comparison, the entire Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group fired 770 munitions total during its Red Sea operations between November 2023 and June 2024. [1] VFA-41 alone, in roughly ten weeks, fired more than half that number — and the stockpile math is already drawing scrutiny in Washington.