Reinventing the Wheel: Structuring Aerospace Forces for Foreign Internal Defense

Abstract

Effective United States military support of counterinsurgency efforts in developing nations almost always takes the form of indirect support-- training, advisory assistance, logistics support, and supply of essential military equipment. The aggregate of actions taken to help a government resist a revolutionary insurgency is called foreign internal defense. The theme of this monograph is the lack of organized capability in the US Air Force to conduct foreign internal defense (FID), specifically training and advisory assistance, in support of national policy. During the 1960s, the USAF Special Air Warfare Center (SAWC) possessed the capability to train friendly foreign governments how to effectively employ air power in a counterinsurgency environment. That capability was lost when the SAWC was deactivated in 1974 in the wake of Vietnam. The thesis of this paper is that the need for such an organization still exists and offers a proposal to restore the capability in the US Air Force.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 18, 1991
Accession Number
ADA234904

Entities

People

  • Richard D. Newton

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Warfare
  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Combat Operations
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Conventional Warfare
  • Doctrine
  • Instructors
  • Military History
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Psychological Operations
  • Short Takeoff Aircraft
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Economics
  • Military and Counterinsurgency Studies.

Technology Areas

  • Space