More than £300 million worth of cruise missiles have been dropped by NATO forces in the first two days of air strikes against Yugoslavia.
The most common missile used to date has been the land-attack Tomahawk, priced at £700,000£1 million each. Fitted with a half-ton warhead and 1,000-mile range booster rocket, the US-produced missile is at the cutting edge of weapons technology.
However, its cost pales into insignificance against the weaponry of the US B2 "stealth" bomber, which was engaged for the first time in a war situation on Thursday. Two of the £1.45 billion aircraft flew non-stop from their base in Missouri to the war-zone to drop 32 satellite-guided one-tonne bombs, priced at up to £5 million each.
Conceived at the height of the Cold War and built to avoid detection by enemy radar, the B2 cost more than £50 billion to develop, and a fleet of 21 has been built for the US Air Force. The bomber's combat debut had been eagerly anticipated in American defence circles.
Up to 400 other planes, valued at more than £5 billion, are also involved in the NATO operation. These include 12 F-117 stealth bombers at £30 million each, 40 USAF F-16s (£25 million each), 10 French Mirage fighters (£25 million each), eight US B52 bombers (£20 million each), and eight British Harrier GR7 jets (£14.5 million each).
In the course of the first dogfights of the war, US F-15s and Dutch F-16s shot down a number of Yugoslavia's Russian-made MiG29s. Most of the NATO planes are fitted for this task with Sidewinder and advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAMS), priced at £100,000£500,000.
NATO also has UK and US warships costing at least £2 billion at its disposal. These include four US warships and two submarines and HMS Splendid, Britain's first nuclear-powered submarine to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Mr Joe Murray, director of the development group AfrI, said it was "shameful that million-dollar missiles are being dropped with abandon" when the same governments were cutting back on investment in overseas development. He said the war was being used cynically by weapons manufacturers "as an opportunity to showcase their arms".
