France has overtaken Britain as the second biggest contributor to the air campaign against Islamic State, Sky News can reveal.
The UK government has long claimed that position but since the arrival of French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in the Gulf last month, the French are putting up more planes on more sorties over Iraq.
French warplanes now fly between 12 and 15 sorties a day, more than three times the amount of RAF jets.
There are more than four times as many French fighter jets involved in the campaign.
The Charles de Gaulle has 21 jets on board, including 12 Rafale, 9 Super Etendard and a further 15 are based on land in Jordan and the UAE.
In contrast, the UK has eight Tornados based at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, flying an average of two sorties a day in pairs.
culled from Yahoo
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