Courses of Action for Enhancing U.S. Air Force "irregular Warfare" Capabilities PDF Download

Author: Richard Mesic
Publisher: RAND Corporation
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
The U.S. Air Force leadership plans in the near term to identify and implement a range of initiatives for enhancing the service's contributions to irregular warfare (IW) operations. This monograph is the result of a "quick-turn" study to provide the leadership with a menu of actions it could consider to strengthen and expand the Air Force's capabilities to take part in joint and interagency efforts in irregular warfare.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
This monograph documents a "quick-turn" study to assist Air Force leadership in determining actions to enhance USAF capabilities and capacities for joint and combined operations in irregular warfare. The Secretary of Defense has directed the military services to come forward with operational and force structure initiatives to rebalance their forces across IW and conventional-warfare mission areas. According to this direction, U.S. forces must be prepared to conduct IW operations for many years to come. Airpower plays critical roles in IW operations that are both direct-e.g., hunting down and attacking terrorist groups-and indirect-e.g., training, equipping, advising, and assisting partners. As the Air Force enhances its IW capabilities it must also maintain capabilities for deterring or defeating regional or near-peer adversaries in large-scale conflicts. In rebalancing, it must recognize that, although IW and large-scale combat operations have features in common, IW operations are not a lesser included case of major combat operations. This is particularly apparent when one recognizes that IW is largely about influencing relevant populations and operating by, with, and through partner nations. Further, military force is only one of the relevant instruments of national power and may even be secondary to political and economic instruments in many contexts.

Author: Jr Us Air Force Chavez, Major
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
ISBN: 9781479200634
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 88

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Book Description
The US Air Force, and the U.S. armed forces separate service air arms, have historically wrestled with how to apply air and space power to non-traditional forms of warfare, such as insurgency and counterinsurgency. While the airplane was used as early as 1916 in such a context in the Punitive Expedition against Francisco “Pancho” Villa, U.S. military doctrine has struggled to keep pace with the ever-evolving nature of warfare, especially with regard to air and space power's role within it. The U.S. joint community's latest development of the warfare spectrum includes insurgency and counterinsurgency under the construct of irregular warfare, delineating it from traditional war, which is characterized by conventional, state-on-state major combat operations. This monograph explores and evaluates the history of airpower doctrine in irregular warfare and assesses the current state of that doctrine, asking the question: what is the best synthesis of ideas for creating a basic and operational irregular warfare airpower doctrine? The study establishes a set of criteria for evaluating irregular warfare airpower doctrine based on analytical studies by several prominent and recent small war airpower researchers. Finally, the paper evaluates current and past irregular warfare airpower doctrine through this analytical lens, providing recommendations for the improvement of USAF and joint airpower in irregular warfare doctrine. The inquiry concludes that through the short history of powered flight there have been numerous examples of viable irregular warfare airpower theory and doctrine. On balance, however, the current state of such doctrine is uneven, with the greatest deficiencies being at the basic and first-tier operational levels. These deficiencies include properly defining the full spectrum of conflict, providing a fundamental and operationalizing airpower theory incorporating irregular warfare, and specifying air and space power roles and capabilities with regard to counterinsurgency and support to counterinsurgency. The study provides recommendations for improvement in these areas with the intent of building USAF irregular warfare airpower doctrine in preparation for the refinement and development of complementary joint doctrine.

Author: Shannon Caudill
Publisher: Military Bookshop
ISBN: 9781782666851
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 444

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Book Description
This anthology discusses the converging operational issues of air base defense and counterinsurgency. It explores the diverse challenges associated with defending air assets and joint personnel in a counterinsurgency environment. The authors are primarily Air Force officers from security forces, intelligence, and the office of special investigations, but works are included from a US Air Force pilot and a Canadian air force officer. The authors examine lessons from Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflicts as they relate to securing air bases and sustaining air operations in a high-threat counterinsurgency environment. The essays review the capabilities, doctrine, tactics, and training needed in base defense operations and recommend ways in which to build a strong, synchronized ground defense partnership with joint and combined forces. The authors offer recommendations on the development of combat leaders with the depth of knowledge, tactical and operational skill sets, and counterinsurgency mind set necessary to be effective in the modern asymmetric battlefield.

Author: Us Government United States Space Force
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Book Description
This book, Space Capstone Publication Spacepower: Doctrine for Space Forces, is capstone doctrine for the United States Space Force and represents our Service's first articulation of an independent theory of spacepower. This publication answers why spacepower is vital for our Nation, how military spacepower is employed, who military space forces are, and what military space forces value. In short, this capstone document is the foundation of our professional body of knowledge as we forge an independent military Service committed to space operations. Like all doctrine, the SCP remains subject to the policies and strategies that govern its employment. Military spacepower has deterrent and coercive capacities - it provides independent options for National and Joint leadership but achieves its greatest potential when integrated with other forms of military power. As we grow spacepower theory and doctrine, we must do so in a way that fosters greater integration with the Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. It is only by achieving true integration and interdependence that we can hope to unlock spacepower's full potential.

Author: Charles T. Cleveland
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781977405449
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The United States has failed to achieve strategic objectives in nearly every military campaign since Vietnam. This memoir describes how the United States can begin to build the American way of irregular war needed for success in modern conflict.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Aeronautics
Languages : en
Pages : 556

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Book Description

Author: Ryan Burke
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1647122503
Category : Air power
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
This second edition of Military Strategy, Joint Operations, and Airpower introduces contemporary strategy at the operational level of war. Developed as foundational reading for all US Air Force Academy cadets, this textbook is designed to close the gap between military theory and practice.

Author: James S. Corum
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
The use of airpower in wartime calls to mind the massive bombings of World War II, but airplanes have long been instrumental in small wars as well. Ever since its use by the French to put down rebellious Moroccan tribes in 1913, airpower has been employed to fight in limited but often lengthy small conflicts around the globe. This is the first comprehensive history of airpower in small wars-conflicts pitting states against non-state groups such as insurgents, bandits, factions, and terrorists-tracing it from the early years of the twentieth century to the present day. It examines dozens of conflicts with strikingly different scenarios: the Greek Civil War, the Philippine Anti-Huk campaign, French and British colonial wars, the war in South Vietnam before the American escalation, counterinsurgency in southern Africa, Latin American counterguerrilla operations, and counterinsurgency and counterterrorist campaigns in the Middle East over the last four decades. For each war, the authors describe the strategies employed on both sides of the conflict, the air forces engaged, and the specific airpower tactics employed. They discuss the ground campaigns and provide the political background necessary to understand the air campaigns, and in each case they judge the utility of airpower in its broadest sense. In their historic sweep, they show how forms of airpower evolved from planes to police helicopters, aircraft of the civilian air reserve, and today's unmanned aircraft. They also disclose how small wars after World War II required new strategies, operational solutions, and tactics. By taking this broad view of small-war airpower, the authors are able to make assessments about the most effective and least effective means of employing airpower. They offer specific conclusions ranging from the importance of comprehensive strategy to the need for the United States and its allies to expand small-wars training programs. Airpower in Small Wars will be invaluable for educating military professionals and policy makers in the subject as well as for providing a useful framework for developing more effective doctrine for employing airpower in the conflicts we are most likely to see in the twenty-first century.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Counterinsurgency
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Product Description: Since the tragic events of 9/11 and the consequent advent of the Global War on Terrorism, there has been a remarkable surge of interest in counterinsurgency. This anthology presents 27 articles on counterinsurgency and irregular warfare, particularly highlighting and examining the U.S. Marine Corps' roles in conflicts from 1898 through 2007. It also includes an extensive bibliography of works on these conflicts. Continuing discussion and study of these subjects is of critical importance to the ongoing efforts of the United States and its allies in the Global War on Terrorism. The anthology is divided broadly into two halves: the first half presents historical examples of counterinsurgency involving the United States-from the Philippines and the "Banana Wars" up through Vietnam-while the second half addresses the nation's contemporary efforts in this regard. Articles cover the situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa. The selected bibliography addresses a broad range of subjects: on higher-end operational/strategic level of war considerations, on geopolitical context, and on a varied array of related topics-political theory, historical case studies, failed states, cultural studies and analysis, and many others-that all provide context or play a role in conducting a counterinsurgency and achieving success in the realm of irregular warfare. Colonel Stephen S. Evans, USMCR, researched and compiled this work as a field historian with the Marine Corps History Division. He has experience at various operational levels, both joint and multinational, in CONUS and overseas, and has performed duty with all three MEFs, MARFORLANT, MARFOREUR, and U.S. forces in Korea. He has also held a range of positions in administrative and educational roles at Quantico and the Pentagon. Colonel Evans holds a doctorate in history from Temple University and has published two historical monographs.