This study examines factors influencing the development of theory and doctrine based on emerging and future technology. It uses the air power theory of Giulio Douhet and the unescorted daylight strategic bombing doctrine of the US Army Air Force to...
The Army as well as the other armed services began a transformation in the late 1990s in order to meet the challenges of warfare in the future. This effort is characterized by utilizing technology as the catalyst for change. The process has...
The following monograph is a circumscribed look at the effects of air power on achieving political objectives. It is no way intended to be a commentary on the relative bravery of airmen compared to soldiers and sailors or an attempt to justify...
This monograph suggests an airpower theory that helps explain why airpower does not result in quick, clean, economical, "ideal" war. The genesis of this study comes from the observation that airpower advocates, from early personalities such as...
This study refutes the claims by many air power advocates that Operation Desert Storm stands as a revolution in warfare. According to their logic, the success of the Gulf War air campaign proves air power has become the dominant force in modern...
This monograph examines under what circumstances, if at all, an air campaign can achieve decisive results independent of other forces. The recent war in the Persian Gulf has given the research question its immediate significance. Given the...
This study examines the development of US airpower theory and its major applications. The focus of the study is on offensive applications of airpower and on interdiction and strategic bombing in particular. The study reveals that a mature airpower...
After toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein in a few weeks, the decisive operational maneuver victory was not enough to defeat the enemy’s will to fight. Instead of challenging US forces in a conventional military battle, the enemy has now sought...
Is American air power sliding toward irrelevancy in the security environment that the United States confronts as it moves into the twenty-first century? Attitudes of certain senior airmen about the application of air power in the new security...
This monograph examines a concept considered an abomination to some airmen - operational air reserves. The study is exploratory in nature: searching applicable theory, historical examples, and contemporary developments for insights on air reserves....
This monograph examines Claire Lee Chennault as a military theorist and campaign planner. It inquires whether Chennault's evolution of a theory of war assisted his planning the China-Burma-India Campaign during World War II. The monograph is...
Germany reestablished its air force during the last half of the interwar period of 1919 to 1939, a period in which airpower theorists attempted to merge the new technology of aviation with traditional roles of the military. The Royal Air Force...
This monograph examines whether the air defense artillery battalion organic to armored or mechanized divisions is necessary for operations on future battlefields. To explore relevant issues in this area, historical examples from World War I, the...
In spite of experience that shows post-conflict stability operations are inevitable, the U.S. military places more emphasis on winning the fighting and less on the decisive post-combat phase. This has resulted in increased risk to the mission and...
This monograph examines several definitions for the operational fires concept, and traces the theoretical underpinnings of operational fires from both Russian operational theory and airpower theories. The monograph then examines historical examples...
Service culture affects how military branches organize, train, equip, and survive as separate institutions of the US military. The culture of a service includes the persistent, patterned way of thinking about operations and relationships. The...
In the aftermath of the air campaign that began Operation Desert Storm, the US Air Force sought to measure US success in the military-technical and organizational innovation that occurred during the Gulf War and its impact on the future evolution...
Close air support (CAS) is a vital component of air operations in AirLand Battle. The accelerated tempo and complexity of operations on the extended battlefield requires rapid response from CAS in support of a fluid, complex ground combat,...