Airpower in Small Wars: The British Air Control Experience
Abstract
Perhaps the most visible uses of American military forces in recent years have been in deploying US Army forces as part of the Sinai Constabulary Mission and sending US Marines to Lebanon. In both instances, the mission of these forces is not victory in a war-fighting situation but peacekeeping through constabulary or police activity. The essential difference between war-fighting and peacekeeping missions is that the former makes the maximum use of force while the latter is committed to the minimum use of force. The growing importance of a peacekeeping role for armed forces was predicted by Morris Janowitz more than 20 years ago; the decade of the eighties is showing the prescience of that prediction. As it has increasingly concentrated on its strategic nuclear mission and its role in the high-tech, high-intensity Central Front NATO-Warsaw Pact conflict scenario, the capability of the Air Force to participate in small wars has correspondingly declined. The British experience with air control between World Wars I and II demonstrates that air power was once effective in a constabulary and small-war situation. That experience points out how air power, in the hands of creative strategists, can be shaped and applied to support a government's most trying political responsibilities.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA215899
Entities
People
- David J. Dean
Organizations
- Air University