Strategy and Airpower
Abstract
When a new technology appears in business or war, advantages in cost or efficiency--albeit initially marginal-- may be clear almost from its appearance. Conversely, decades or even centuries may pass before we conclude that the new technology is not a substitute for the old but offers the opportunity to move into a new dimension previously not available or even conceived. Such myopia often leads otherwise competent observers to underestimate significantly the new technology's potential. Two business examples stand out: in 1876 Western Union observed that "this 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us"; and in 1977 Ken Olsen declared that "there is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home." In the military sphere, airpower--anything guidable that moves through the air or space, manned or remotely piloted--has encountered the same problem, as evidenced by Marshal Ferdinand Foch's reported evaluation of the airplane when he was a professor of strategy at France's Ecole superieure de guerre (war college) before World War I: "Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value." Certainly, few people today would go as far as Marshal Foch in dismissing airpower as just a toy, but perhaps equally few understand that airpower can and should fundamentally change the very nature of war.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2011
- Accession Number
- ADA538519
Entities
People
- John A. Warden Iii
Organizations
- Air University