Airpower Advantage Book in PDF, ePub and Kindle version is available to download in english. Read online anytime anywhere directly from your device. Click on the download button below to get a free pdf file of Airpower Advantage book. This book definitely worth reading, it is an incredibly well-written.
The Airpower Advantage in Future Warfare: The Need for Strategy by Colin S. Gray Pdf
The U.S. has long suffered from a serious strategy deficit. In short, there is a general crisis of strategic comprehension, a lack of agreement on the most effective organizing ideas. Airpower is by no means lonely in suffering from strategic theoretical uncertainty. The study argues that the United States needs a theory of war and warfare. It claims that future warfare will be diverse and that the tactical, operational, and strategic value of airpower must always be situational. A coherent theory of employment for all of airpower's capabilities, not only the kinetic, is needed. Airpower's potential utility lies within a spectrum of possibilities and is dependent on context. The study advises frank recognition of airpower's situational limitations. (Dr. Colin S. Gray is Professor of International Politics and Strategic Studies at the University of Reading in England. Originally published by the Airpower Research Institute)
American air power is a dominant force in today's world. Its ascendancy, evolving in the half century since the end of World War II, became evident during the first Gulf War. Although a great deal has been written about military operations in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, this deeply researched volume by Dr. Diane Putney probes the little-known story of how the Gulf War air campaign plan came to fruition. Based on archival documentation and interviews with USAF planners, this work takes the reader into the planning cells where the difficult work of building an air campaign plan was accomplished on an around-the-clock basis. The tension among air planners is palpable as Dr. Putney traces the incremental progress and friction along the way. The author places the complexities of the planning process within the context of coalition objectives. All the major players are here: President George H. W. Bush, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, General Colin Powell, General Chuck Horner, and Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney. The air planning process generated much debate and friction, but resulted in great success-a 43-day conflict with minimum casualties. Dr. Putney's rendering of this behind-the-scenes evolution of the planning process, in its complexity and even suspense, provides a fascinating window into how wars are planned and fought today and what might be the implications for the future. C. R. Anderegg Director of Air Force History
Diane T. Putney,U.s. Air Force,Office of Air Force History
Author : Diane T. Putney,U.s. Air Force,Office of Air Force History Publisher : CreateSpace Page : 494 pages File Size : 53,9 Mb Release : 2015-02-02 Category : History ISBN : 1507814798
Airpower Advantage by Diane T. Putney,U.s. Air Force,Office of Air Force History Pdf
American air power is a dominant force in today's world. Its ascendancy, evolving in the half century since the end of World War II, became evident during the first Gulf War. Although a great deal has been written about military operations in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, this deeply researched volume by Dr. Diane Putney probes the little-known story of how the Gulf War air campaign plan came to fruition. Based on archival documentation and interviews with USAF planners, this work takes the reader into the planning cells where the difficult work of building an air campaign plan was accomplished on an around-the-clock basis. The tension among air planners is palpable as Dr. Putney traces the incremental progress and friction along the way. The author places the complexities of the planning process within the con- text of coalition objectives. All the major players are here: President George H. W. Bush, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, General Colin Powell, General Chuck Horner, and Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney. The air planning process generated much debate and friction, but resulted in great success - a 43-day conflict with minimum casualties. Dr. Putney's rendering of this behind-the-scenes evolution of the planning process, in its complexity and even suspense, provides a fascinating window into how wars are planned and fought today and what might be the implications for the future.
American air power is a dominant force in today's world. Its ascendancy, evolving in the half century since the end of World War II, became evident during the first Gulf War. Although a great deal has been written about military operations in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, this deeply researched volume by Dr. Diane Putney probes the little-known story of how the Gulf War air campaign plan came to fruition. Based on archival documentation and interviews with USAF planners, this work takes the reader into the planning cells where the difficult work of building an air campaign plan was accomplished on an around-the-clock basis. The tension among air planners is palpable as Dr. Putney traces the incremental progress and friction along the way. The author places the complexities of the planning process within the context of coalition objectives. All the major players are here: President George H. W. Bush, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, General Colin Powell, General Chuck Horner, and Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney. The air planning process generated much debate and friction, but resulted in great success-a 43-day conflict with minimum casualties. Dr. Putney's rendering of this behind-the-scenes evolution of the planning process, in its complexity and even suspense, provides a fascinating window into how wars are planned and fought today and what might be the implications for the future. C. R. Anderegg Director of Air Force History
Colin Gray,Professor of International Politics and Strategic Studies Colin S Gray
Author : Colin Gray,Professor of International Politics and Strategic Studies Colin S Gray Publisher : CreateSpace Page : 50 pages File Size : 40,6 Mb Release : 2012-07-23 Category : Electronic ISBN : 1478296356
The Airpower Advantage in Future Warfare: the Need for Strategy by Colin Gray,Professor of International Politics and Strategic Studies Colin S Gray Pdf
The United States has long suffered from a serious strategy deficit. For so long as Americans short change the strategic function, the leverage of US airpower must be much less than its potential. The study argues strongly for the rigorous application of strategic discipline to all airpower activity, not only the kinetic.
Review From The Air & Space Power Journal... I have read most of the literature on the planning of the Gulf War air campaign (GWAC). Relative to other documents on the subject, Diane Putney's Airpower Advantage is the most accurate, complete, and unbiased account available to date. A lucid writer and meticulous researcher, the author substantiates her statements with references to firsthand documentation of critical events. The book uniquely ties together the key decisions and briefings that occurred in Saudi Arabia; Tampa, Florida; Washington, DC; and locations around the Southwest Asia theater. Although Putney wrote this account shortly after the Gulf War, it has taken 10 years to declassify the text, gain publication-release authority, and make available the book's critical insights. The author provides a tutorial on how planning a major theater war unfolds and discusses its key elements: limiting factors, logistical concerns and requirements, command relationships, and the importance of personalities specifically, the role of leadership in putting together an executable plan from disparate pieces. Readers gain complete and accurate understanding not only of the design and development of the GWAC, but also of the combatant commander's creation of his overall campaign plan and the integration of service components. Unlike some of the more myopic accounts of Operation Desert Storm, this book merges a number of viewpoints into a balanced, coherent whole, thus lending insight into the variety of planning elements, perspectives, and inputs that other books have either missed or avoided. It is also the first study to capture the importance of the effects-based planning approach used to design the GWAC. One finds here a wealth of perspectives and case studies that can assist future planners. For example, with respect to the role of the joint force air component commander (JFACC) as area air defense commander, Putney summarizes Gen Charles A. Horner's action as follows: "Grafting onto the host nation's organization precluded other [US Central Command] components from establishing their own area air defense system," that would have inhibited the development of an integrated and effective theaterwide system (p. 108). Putney also allows readers to examine the effective style employed by General Horner as he worked with other services to meet objectives (p. 114). Chapters 6 and 9 offer Desert Storm case studies of the failure of intelligence institutions and architectures to adapt to the demands of precision warfare and effects-based assessment. Unwavering adherence to an established intelligence process, regardless of the demands of the situation, hampered bomb damage assessment and rendered intelligence support of the overall effort less than optimal. At the same time, we learn how the integration of intelligence and operations might enhance their efforts. In addition to addressing the influence of different players, the author accurately captures the magnitude of the tasks that General Horner, as JFACC, adroitly wove into a cohesive air campaign. Such insights validate the utility of a JFACC, an organizational construct first employed in Desert Storm. From General Horner's example we learn that a great commander does not micromanage but leads best by providing operational-level guidance. The real-world evidence found in this book-especially the challenges and elements involved in designing a campaign plan-will prove invaluable to the professional military education and training of our country's future leaders. For that reason, I almost wish Putney had given it a different title because the insights found therein do not limit themselves to airpower but address the concerns of all leaders and planners in each of our military services. Clearly, Airpower Advantage merits inclusion in the required reading lists of anyone with an interest in campaign planning. Maj Gen David A. Deptula Hickam AFB, Hawaii
John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power by John Andreas Olsen Pdf
Dr. John Andreas Olsen has written an insightful, compelling biography of retired U.S. Air Force colonel John A. Warden III, the brilliant but controversial air warfare theorist and architect of Operation Desert Storm s air campaign. Warden s radical ideas about air power s purposes and applications, promulgated at the expense of his own career, sparked the ongoing revolution in military affairs. Legendary in defense circles, Warden is also the author of "The Air Campaign: Planning for Combat" (republished by Brassey s, Inc. in 1989). Presenting both the positives and negatives of Warden s personality and impact in this objective portrait, Olsen offers a trenchant analysis of his revolutionary ideas and great accomplishments. "
John Warden and the Renaissance of American Air Power by John Andreas Olsen Pdf
****Included on the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force's reading list for 2008 and the Royal Air Force's Centre for Air Power Studies 2008 Reading List**** Dr. John Andreas Olsen has written an insightful, compelling biography of retired U.S. Air Force colonel John A. Warden III, the brilliant but controversial air warfare theorist and architect of Operation Desert Storm's air campaign. Warden's radical ideas about air power's purposes and applications, promulgated at the expense of his own career, sparked the ongoing revolution in military affairs. Legendary in defense circles, Warden is also the author of The Air Campaign: Planning for Combat (republished by Brassey's, Inc. in 1989). Presenting both the positives and negatives of Warden's personality and impact in this objective portrait, Olsen offers a trenchant analysis of his revolutionary ideas and great accomplishments.
In the pantheon of air power spokesmen, Giulio Douhet holds center stage. His writings, more often cited than perhaps actually read, appear as excerpts and aphorisms in the writings of numerous other air power spokesmen, advocates-and critics. Though a highly controversial figure, the very controversy that surrounds him offers to us a testimonial of the value and depth of his work, and the need for airmen today to become familiar with his thought. The progressive development of air power to the point where, today, it is more correct to refer to aerospace power has not outdated the notions of Douhet in the slightest In fact, in many ways, the kinds of technological capabilities that we enjoy as a global air power provider attest to the breadth of his vision. Douhet, together with Hugh “Boom” Trenchard of Great Britain and William “Billy” Mitchell of the United States, is justly recognized as one of the three great spokesmen of the early air power era. This reprint is offered in the spirit of continuing the dialogue that Douhet himself so perceptively began with the first edition of this book, published in 1921. Readers may well find much that they disagree with in this book, but also much that is of enduring value. The vital necessity of Douhet’s central vision-that command of the air is all important in modern warfare-has been proven throughout the history of wars in this century, from the fighting over the Somme to the air war over Kuwait and Iraq.
Author : Major John R. Carter Publisher : Pickle Partners Publishing Page : 111 pages File Size : 46,6 Mb Release : 2015-11-06 Category : History ISBN : 9781786252760
Airpower And The Cult Of The Offensive by Major John R. Carter Pdf
The belief that airpower is inherently offensive is a recurrent theme throughout airpower theory and doctrine. Before World War I, dogmatic belief in the dominance of the offense in land warfare affected the military decisions which resulted in the disaster of the trenches. Termed the “cult of the offensive” by scholars, faith in offense became so unshakable in pre-1914 Europe that military organizations dismissed as irrelevant the numerous indications of the waning power of the offense as technological developments strengthened the defense. With airpower’s professed inclination for offense, could a cult of the offensive perniciously trap airpower doctrine and lead to similarly disastrous consequences? The study begins by establishing the theoretical background necessary for case study analysis. Airpower defense is defined as those operations conducted to deny another force’s air operations in a designated airspace. Airpower offenses are those operations in the airspace defended by another, or operations conducted outside of one’s actively defended airspace. The relationship between offense and defense is dissected to discover that airpower defense enjoys neither an advantage of position nor of time, so traditional Clausewitzian views relative to the power of the defense do not apply to airpower. Next, the study describes those factors which may inject, or reinforce, a preferential bias for offense into airpower strategy and doctrine. A cult of the offensive is defined as an organizational belief in the power of offense so compelling that the military organization no longer evaluates its offensive doctrine objectively. This leads to an examination of the ramifications postulated to result from offensive ideology.
Author : Robert L. Pfaltzgraff,Richard H. Shultz Publisher : DIANE Publishing Page : 387 pages File Size : 42,5 Mb Release : 1992 Category : Air power ISBN : 9781428992818
The Future of Air Power in the Aftermath of the Gulf War by Robert L. Pfaltzgraff,Richard H. Shultz Pdf
This collection of essays reflects the proceedings of a 1991 conference on "The United States Air Force: Aerospace Challenges and Missions in the 1990s," sponsored by the USAF and Tufts University. The 20 contributors comment on the pivotal role of airpower in the war with Iraq and address issues and choices facing the USAF, such as the factors that are reshaping strategies and missions, the future role and structure of airpower as an element of US power projection, and the aerospace industry's views on what the Air Force of the future will set as its acquisition priorities and strategies. The authors agree that aerospace forces will be an essential and formidable tool in US security policies into the next century. The contributors include academics, high-level military leaders, government officials, journalists, and top executives from aerospace and defense contractors.
The Paths of Heaven The Evolution of Airpower Theory by Anonim Pdf
Airpower is not widely understood. Even though it has come to play an increasingly important role in both peace and war, the basic concepts that define and govern airpower remain obscure to many people, even to professional military officers. This fact is largely due to fundamental differences of opinion as to whether or not the aircraft has altered the strategies of war or merely its tactics. If the former, then one can see airpower as a revolutionary leap along the continuum of war; but if the latter, then airpower is simply another weapon that joins the arsenal along with the rifle, machine gun, tank, submarine, and radio. This book implicitly assumes that airpower has brought about a revolution in war. It has altered virtually all aspects of war: how it is fought, by whom, against whom, and with what weapons. Flowing from those factors have been changes in training, organization, administration, command and control, and doctrine. War has been fundamentally transformed by the advent of the airplane.
Department of Defense,U. S. Air Force (USAF),U. S. Government
Author : Department of Defense,U. S. Air Force (USAF),U. S. Government Publisher : Unknown Page : 338 pages File Size : 46,8 Mb Release : 2017-05-18 Category : Electronic ISBN : 1521319731
The USAF in the Persian Gulf War by Department of Defense,U. S. Air Force (USAF),U. S. Government Pdf
American air power is a dominant force in today's world. Its ascendancy, evolving in the half century since the end of World War II, became evident during the first Gulf War. Although a great deal has been written about military operations in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, this deeply researched volume by Dr. Diane Putney probes the little-known story of how the Gulf War air campaign plan came to fruition. Based on archival documentation and interviews with USAF planners, this work takes the reader into the planning cells where the difficult work of building an air campaign plan was accomplished on an around-the-clock basis. The tension among air planners is palpable as Dr. Putney traces the incremental progress and friction along the way. The author places the complexities of the planning process within the context of coalition objectives. All the major players are here: President George H. W. Bush, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, General Colin Powell, General Chuck Horner, and Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney. The air planning process generated much debate and friction, but resulted in great success - a 43-day conflict with minimum casualties. Dr. Putney's rendering of this behind-the-scenes evolution of the planning process, in its complexity and even suspense, provides a fascinating window into how wars are planned and fought today and what might be the implications for the future. Chapter 1 - OPLAN 1002-90 * Chapter 2 - Instant Thunder * Chapter 3 - Desert Storm Phase I * Chapter 4 - Desert Shield Planning * Chapter 5 - JFACC and Instant Thunder * Chapter 6 - Special Planning Group * Chapter 7 - Phase I Triumphant * Chapter 8 - Phases II, III, and IV * Chapter 9 - Problems and Solutions Planning air campaigns is crucially important to airmen, notably to those planning the 1991 Desert Storm campaign. Their air plan emerged, expanded, and evolved as individuals from Florida and South Carolina military bases, from Saudi Arabia, the Pentagon, and the White House all contributed to the process. That the officers responsible for crafting the Gulf War air plan found the ordeal to be arduous, complicated, and contentious is undeniable, but we have now a documented, close look at the collaborative, intellectual effort that went into producing their war plan. Although planning is seemingly less exciting than combat, the Desert Storm undertaking included strong-willed officers, bold thinking, and the clash and melding of ideas. Planners knew that if their ideas were not sound and shrewd, they doomed the pilots and the war's outcome. Many key participants generously shared their experiences, and their vivid words enliven this account. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the unified combatant command responsible for Southwest Asia, the U.S. Central Command, had no offensive plan ready to execute in response to Iraqi aggression. The U.S. Central Command Commander, General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, USA, directed and participated in the offensive planning process that lasted throughout Desert Shield and continued even as the air war commenced on January 17, 1991. He described the enterprise: "It is a tortuous process coming up with the decisions that involve the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. It's not simple. . . . You agonize over your decisions. You agonize over your plan." Because the Central Command commander would execute air operations in all phases of his offensive plan, the air campaign was the dominant feature in the Gulf War of 1991. As early as August 25, 1990, the basic framework of the war plan had emerged, with Phase I, Strategic Air Campaign; Phase II, Air Supremacy in Kuwait; Phase III, Attrition of Ground Combat Power (later, Preparation of the Battlefield); and Phase IV, Ground Attack.
