Is Airpower Relevant in a COIN Fight?

Abstract

Joint Publication 3-24, "Counterinsurgency Operations," is an outstanding publication incorporating historical counterinsurgency lessons. However, in its current form, JP 3-24 has captured only a portion of the total joint effort. The doctrine writers dedicated only 4 out of 238 pages to air power's use in a counterinsurgency (COIN) fight. In reality, the combatant commander is employing 32,000 Airmen in the AOR, and thousands more in reachback capacity, in all but one of the Air Forces' 12 core functions. Before DoD forgets the contributions that air power made during OIF and OEF, the Air Force needs to capture and tout its contributions to the COIN fight, formulate its own dedicated COIN doctrine, and then reengage with the Joint Staff to ensure that JP 3-24 captures air power's hard won contributions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2010
Accession Number
ADA520144

Entities

People

  • Jeffrey M. Smith

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Counter IED
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerial Warfare
  • Afghanistan Conflict
  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Aircrafts
  • Airframes
  • Asymmetric Warfare
  • Combat Areas
  • Command And Control
  • Medical Evacuation
  • Military Force Levels
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • Situational Awareness
  • Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies