Sustained Coercive Air Presence: Provide Comfort, Deny Flight, and the Future of Airpower in Peace Enforcement
Abstract
Sustained Coercive Air Presence (SCAP) is an airpower approach to peace enforcement designed to impose a cease-fire on an unwilling belligerent and then use a prolonged air presence to enhance long-term diplomatic efforts that seek a political solution. In an era of scarce resources, the United States (US) military would rather concentrate on defending the republic than engaging in peace enforcement. However, civilian leaders will continue to appease and court public opinion as well as other governments with limited airpower options that attempt to produce meaningful results. The time has come to articulate a strategy that reconciles the demands of politicians with the strengths and limitations of combat airpower. SCAP orchestrates precision air strikes, a long-term air presence, and the limited use of ground forces to create a seamless coercive military effort that enhances the overarching diplomatic process. The distinctly American quest for quick and inexpensive victory through airpower came to a dramatic end over the skies of Iraq in 1991. The application of airpower in Operation Desert Storm discredited gradualism and minimum force approaches such that the American norm is now to commit overwhelming force to control the level of violence and resolve disputes quickly. Overwhelming yet discriminating force is often necessary in peace enforcement to impose a ceasefire on belligerents who increasingly possess modern weapons and indiscriminately use them on civilians. A compellent air campaign can often pressure a belligerent to make political concessions with few casualties on either side. A successful airpower approach to peace enforcement must support the long-term diplomatic process necessary to convert short-term political concessions into a lasting political solution. Modern airpower can maintain a long-term coercive presence with intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capability linked to precision-guided munitions (PGM).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2001
- Accession Number
- ADA431017
Entities
People
- George D. Kramlinger
Organizations
- Air University Press