The 12,633-plus airstrikes conducted by U.S. warplanes against the Islamic State underline what U.S. Air Force chief Gen. David Goldfein said at last week’s Defense One Summit: Airpower is central to today’s counterterrorism wars.

“Whether you want to talk about global vigilance, reach or power, what the air component … brings to the joint force has really become like oxygen,” Goldfein said. “And like oxygen, when you’ve got it, you don’t even think about it, but when you don’t have it, that’s all you think about.”

Coalition partner aircraft have contributed another 3,658 strikes since the war on ISIS in Iraq and Syria began in August 2014, according to data released by U.S. Central Command.