A New Paradigm for British Airpower
Abstract
The nearly century-old paradigm of Western military institutions consists of three separate services organized and equipped to defeat a peer competitor in major combat operations. In any conflict the services will have some interaction, but the majority of the fighting will be separate. World War II and Cold War scenarios epitomize this thinking. For the UK, as with most nations, this type of warfare would involve joining coalitions in order to generate significant combat power. Having established itself for the most dangerous situation, the UK has always believed it can draw its forces into a sufficiently coherent configuration for lesser operations. This thesis examines that paradigm in the light of financial restrictions imposed upon the UKs military establishment through the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, culminating in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review. The fiscal pressures exerted by these reviews have now created significant capability gaps. But by examining the current and future forecast of military activity and looking forward rather than backward, it may be possible to maintain a strategically meaningful defense capability even with reduced resources. This perspective would require the UK to consider a new paradigm for organizing and utilizing its military forces. Such a paradigm would be based largely upon airpower, due to its inherent flexibility across the physical domains of land and sea. Two potential contemporary alternatives are considered, the US Marine Corps and the Israeli Defence Force/Air Force. Both demonstrate that airpower can be organized differently than in the UK model, yet very successfully. The final section examines how these alternatives could be adjusted to suit UK-specific requirements and explores the issues surrounding implementation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- AD1019367
Entities
People
- Richard D. Grimshaw
Organizations
- Air University