Aug 032015
The American-led coalition has been bombing ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria for 360 days.
The Web site airwar.org keeps track of the bombings.
One curious detail: While most airstrikes are carried out by the United States, even minor partners like Denmark or Canada flew more missions that all Arab members of the coalition combined. That despite the fact that for these Arab nations, ISIS represents a potentially existential threat.
The Arab air forces may not be equipped to talk to the targeting systems used by the NATO coalition partners, and they certainly can’t generate as many sorties per day per aircraft, although that is less of a consideration given the relatively low overall sortie rates involved. And much as we saw with allied ground troops in Afghanistan, there are probably political limits on using them. The leadership of many Arab nations, Saudi Arabia prominent among them, dislikes and fears the idea of their troops getting too good, or too popular.
Actually, I think it is pretty clear that this is a question of (lack of) will, not capability. See, e.g., http://www.dw.com/en/uae-suspends-airstrikes-against-islamic-state/a-18235089. But your point about the military becoming too popular is interesting.