In Search of High Ground... The Airpower Trinity and the Decisive Potential of Airpower

Abstract

Throughout history, military leaders have sought better ground, usually higher ground, from which to fight great military theorists proclaimed the benefit of the high ground. With the advent of aircraft, that high ground became the air. With this in mind, many of the early airpower theorists saw the great potential in exploiting this new dimension and promised that airpower would be the preeminent instrument of battle. Unfortunately, in the early days of airpower, these promises rang hollow, as theory was ahead of capability. Nations were chasing the technology that would allow the capability to live up to the promising early theories. In the United States, even when the capability existed during the Korean and Vietnam wars, the practice of airpower had not been developed sufficiently, nor was the political situation suitable, to exploit airpower's unique characteristics on which the theory was based.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1997
Accession Number
ADA442665

Entities

People

  • D. K. Edmonds

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Warfare
  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Aircrafts
  • Bombing
  • Combat Areas
  • Combat Support
  • Fighter Aircraft
  • Military Organizations
  • Persian Gulf
  • Second World War
  • United States
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • Unmanned Systems
  • Unmanned Vehicles
  • Warfare
  • Weapons

Readers

  • Aerospace logistics and air mobility.
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Strategic Security Studies