European Air Power

European Air Power PDF

Author: John Andreas Olsen

Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.

Published: 2014-07-15

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1612346812

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European Air Power examines the current state of eight separate European air forces and their prospective air power capabilities in a manner that will appeal to a wide audience of air force enthusiasts. Included are perspectives from independent air power experts reviewing the air forces of France, Germany, Turkey, and Great Britain as well as from the leaders of the air forces of the Nordic nations, including Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. Within the national security framework of threats and challenges, and against the seemingly universal backdrop of lower budgets for defense, the contributors present varying views on the types of air power capability a state should have and those it does not need. The contributors consider each air force separately and how each is structured to remain sustainable and efficient in accordance with its national strategic infrastructure.

Global Air Power

Global Air Power PDF

Author: John Andreas Olsen

Publisher: Potomac Books, Inc.

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 609

ISBN-13: 1597977446

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What influences have shaped air power since human flight became a reality more than a hundred years ago? Global Air Power provides insight into the evolution of air power theory and practice by examining the experience of six of the world’s largest air forces--those of the United Kingdom, the United States, Israel, Russia, India, and China--and of representative smaller air forces in Pacific Asia, Latin America, and continental Europe. The chapters, written by highly regarded scholars and military leaders, explore how various nations have integrated air power into their armed forces and how they have applied air power in both regular and irregular warfare and in peacetime operations. They cover the organizational, professional, and doctrinal issues that air forces confronted in the past, the lessons learned from victory and defeat, and emerging challenges and opportunities. Further, Global Air Power supplements the traditional military perspective with examinations of the ideological, economic, and cultural factors that give air forces their distinctive characters. Chapters show how the interplay among these internal factors, together with external challenges, determines the structure, role, and effectiveness of air forces. Together, these chapters illuminate universal trends as well as similarities and differences among the world’s air forces. Its combination of military history and sociopolitical analysis makes Global Air Power especially valuable to a broad range of historians, air power specialists, and general readers interested in national defense and international relations.

At the Vanguard

At the Vanguard PDF

Author: Anika Binnendijk

Publisher:

Published: 2020-10-22

Total Pages: 222

ISBN-13: 9781977405869

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Europe's air forces have the opportunity to make increasingly pronounced contributions to NATO's defense and deterrent posture in combat air campaigns, especially high-intensity operations requiring rapid and large-scale application of airpower.

Command Of The Air

Command Of The Air PDF

Author: General Giulio Douhet

Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing

Published: 2014-08-15

Total Pages: 620

ISBN-13: 1782898522

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In the pantheon of air power spokesmen, Giulio Douhet holds center stage. His writings, more often cited than perhaps actually read, appear as excerpts and aphorisms in the writings of numerous other air power spokesmen, advocates-and critics. Though a highly controversial figure, the very controversy that surrounds him offers to us a testimonial of the value and depth of his work, and the need for airmen today to become familiar with his thought. The progressive development of air power to the point where, today, it is more correct to refer to aerospace power has not outdated the notions of Douhet in the slightest In fact, in many ways, the kinds of technological capabilities that we enjoy as a global air power provider attest to the breadth of his vision. Douhet, together with Hugh “Boom” Trenchard of Great Britain and William “Billy” Mitchell of the United States, is justly recognized as one of the three great spokesmen of the early air power era. This reprint is offered in the spirit of continuing the dialogue that Douhet himself so perceptively began with the first edition of this book, published in 1921. Readers may well find much that they disagree with in this book, but also much that is of enduring value. The vital necessity of Douhet’s central vision-that command of the air is all important in modern warfare-has been proven throughout the history of wars in this century, from the fighting over the Somme to the air war over Kuwait and Iraq.

Air Power

Air Power PDF

Author: Jeremy Black

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2016-03-10

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 1442250976

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This essential book offers a compelling and original interpretation of the rise of military aviation. Jeremy Black, one of the world’s finest scholars of military history, provides a lucid analysis of the use of airpower over land and sea both during the two world wars and the more limited wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Considering both the theory and praxis of air power, the author begins with hot air balloons, and then highlights the use of zeppelins, piston engine fighters, jet bombers, and finally the so-called Military Revolution of today. While discussing the growth of American and European military aviation, Black, a pioneer in emphasizing the importance of non-Western military history for understanding global developments, also traces the emergence of air power in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Black breaks new ground by exploring not only to conventional war—both inside and outside Europe—but also to the use of air power in unconventional wars, especially critical given to the spread of insurgencies around the globe. He vividly describes traditional debates over the pros and cons of strategic bombing and aircraft carriers versus battleships and gives equal attention to managerial, doctrinal, and technological innovations. The author shows how better management resulted in increasing lethality of close air support of the RAF during the latter part of World War II and at the same times highlights the limits of air power with case studies of the two Gulf Wars. The author goes beyond our traditional understanding of air power associated with bombing and fighter engagements, adding the important elements associated with naval power, including ground/logistics support, anti-aircraft measures, and political constraints. As he explains, air power has become Western politicians’ weapon of choice, spreading maximum destruction with the minimum of commitment. His current and comprehensive study considers how we got to this point, and what the future has in store. Anyone seeking a balanced, accurate understanding of air power in history will find this book an essential introduction.

The Quest for Relevant Air Power

The Quest for Relevant Air Power PDF

Author: Christian F. Anrig

Publisher:

Published: 2012-05-01

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 9781907521645

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"Examines the air power experience of a selected range of European countries since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Gulf War of 1991. The study offers an assessment of key issues influencing the evolution of air power in continental Europe. Amongst the main challenges are deployed operations, the intellectual grasp of air power doctrine, and the imbalance between combat aircraft and force enablers. Regarding the latter, the development of common capabilities that are equally available to both NATO and the European Union is crucial."--P. [4] of cover.

Air Battle Central Europe

Air Battle Central Europe PDF

Author: Alfred Price

Publisher:

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13:

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Fifteen NATO officers reveal the awesome strength and secret shortcomings of our most advanced aircraft, including the Linz helicopter, the Harrier jet, the F-4 Phantom, and others. Photographs, illustrations.

Military Air Power in Europe Preparing for War

Military Air Power in Europe Preparing for War PDF

Author: Norman Ridley

Publisher: Air World

Published: 2023-01-24

Total Pages: 330

ISBN-13: 1399066897

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The First World War had seen the mechanization of warfare. Battle fronts had become immobilized in the grip of machine-guns and heavy artillery, leading to slaughter on an unprecedented scale. The end of the war saw exhausted governments extricating themselves from the carnage, but some leaders were concerned that, sooner or later, another major war would follow. As France’s Marshal Foch put it, the Treaty of Versailles was only a ‘twenty-year truce’. The overriding concern was to find ways in future of avoiding the kind of static battle fronts that had consumed so many in such futile efforts. Military aviation was seen as the one great innovation that had the potential to do this by revolutionizing warfare. It would not only augment the effectiveness of ground forces in a tactical role, but it also had the means of reaching out strategically beyond the battlefronts to strike at the enemy’s trade, supplies, communications and industrial production. All through the war, military aviation had been firmly under the control of army commanders but there was soon a fierce debate over the way it should develop. The development of an ‘air doctrine’ within each of the major European powers was fraught with difficulty as the nascent air arms struggled, with varying degrees of success, to free themselves from army control to find a new, independent identity. This book examines the way in which these air arms competed for prominence within the military structures of six major European nations – Germany, Britain, France, Soviet Union, Poland and Italy – with different resources, ambitions and philosophies, in the years from the beginning of aviation right up to the start of the Second World War.

The Role of European Ground and Air Forces After the Cold War

The Role of European Ground and Air Forces After the Cold War PDF

Author: G. C. De Nooy

Publisher: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers

Published: 1997-04-03

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9789041103970

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This book is about European ground and air forces after the Cold War and the potential role they might - or might not - play in shaping a pragmatic, common European foreign and security policy. It deals with future co-operation between West European armies and air forces. Challenges, in the form of politico-military strategic interests at stake and the corresponding risks, as well as the possible responses to these challenges, in the form of national and multilateral military doctrines and the execution thereof, are scrutinized and dealt with. First, in Chapters Two (James Gow), Three (François Mermet), and Four (Stephen Cambone), the strategic rationale and the political-military implications of an overall European security and defence policy are discussed. Next, Chapters Five (Trevor Taylor), Six (Madeleine Sandström), and Seven (Lothar Rühl) deal with the harmonization and restructuring of national defence policies and their tools. Chapters Eight (Tony Mason), Nine (Jan Folmer), and Ten (Luc Stainier), then concentrate on the role, missions and means of the ground, air and joint components of a collective European military instrument for the implementation of a future European security and defence policy. Finally, in Chapter Eleven the editor provides an overview of topical highlights and tentative conclusions emanating from both the previous chapters and the discussions during the workshop of experts that was held in conjunction with this book. This book is of interest to European policy-makers, defence planners, officers-under-training in military and defence academies, and students of international relations, political science and European security.