The Synergy of Air and Space.
Abstract
UNTIL THE GULF WAR of 1991, Air Force aviators and space professionals lived and worked in almost separate worlds. For their part, rated airmen were quintessential operators" with an ingrained fingertip feel for the practical uses of airpower, given their responsibility for fulfilling mission profiles, which-un-like those in the nuclear arena-had an all-too-deadly air of plausibility about them. In contrast, USAF space professionals evolved not out of the rated flying community but from the secret world of space and missile research and development (R&D). For the first 10 to 15 years of the space program, those who created military space systems were de voted almost exclusively to ensuring nuclear deterrence and otherwise supporting the nation's strategic-level leadership. Naturally, their career development steeped them not in the warrior arts but in applied science, engineering, and systems management. That made for an almost preordained divide between the air and space components of the Air Force a divide that became ever more apparent as military space systems increasingly emerged from the compartmented world into the light of day.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA356600
Entities
People
- Benjamin S. Lambeth
Organizations
- Air University