Download or read book Collateral Damage And The United States Air Force written by Major Patrick M. Shaw and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Minimization of collateral damage is an objective of the United States Air Force (USAF) whenever it conducts hostile operations. While the USAF has often expressed concern about causing collateral damage, its actions have not always reflected a consistent level of commitment. This essay explores the evolution of USAF concerns about collateral damage and examines the causes and effects of this unfortunate by-product of airpower. It concludes that the concerns harbored about causing collateral damage reduce the military effectiveness of airpower. This loss of effectiveness is not always important. For example, when a resource rich coalition conducts an air campaign against an inferior adversary, that coalition can discriminate in its application of airpower by allocating great effort to the avoidance of collateral damage. In a different context, such asymmetry may not exist. Commanders then might have to focus on achieving objectives while paying little attention to the possibility of collateral damage. In either case, collateral damage will likely occur, varying only in degree. The USAF can take actions which will help alleviate some of the causes of collateral damage. Improvements in the areas of planning and technology provide certain relief, but ultimately, political and military leaders must accept that collateral damage is an inevitable part of airpower.

Download or read book Collateral Damage and the United States Air Force written by Patrick M. Shaw and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Collateral Damage and the United States Air Force written by Patrick M. Shaw and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Chasing Success written by Air University Press and published by . This book was released on 2019-07-17 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how international expectations intersected with the United States Air Force's fight for autonomy and utility, explains how the service began to change, and asks how airpower-and the US military as a whole-might further deepen its efforts. The author expands perspectives on assessing and directing the use of airpower and encourages further work to maximize both mission accomplishment and civilian protection. The recent evolution of US airpower offers inspiring, if incomplete, evidence that the conduct of war can become more humane while remaining effective. Technology, adversaries, and the goals of armed conflict will continue to evolve, but the central challenge of humanizing war will endure. Part one outlines the challenge that contemporary expectations about the American use of force pose for airpower. Part two describes the Air Force's adaptation to modern expectations of civilian protection, tracing operational experiences during the 1990s and the consequent operational and institutional innovation.

Download or read book Chasing Success written by United States Air Force Research Institute and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-08-24 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discussions concerning civilian casualties in warfare continue to elicit very emotional responses among the public at large. Dr. Sarah Sewall, in Chasing Success: Air Force Efforts to Reduce Civilian Harm, depicts the US Air Force's efforts over the past twenty-plus years being at the vanguard of minimizing civilian harm in conflict while still effectively pursuing military objectives. When the Air Force Research Institute turned to Dr. Sewall to write this work, we understood that warfare is a messy business. At its core, when other elements of national power have failed to persuade and deter, warfare is about forcing one's will upon an adversary, including applying controlled violence. History is rife with examples of civilizations falling after their armies in the field are defeated and their cities are sacked, looted, and burned. The nature of modern warfare extracted an increasingly high toll on civilians as weapons became more deadly. As early as our own Civil War, the American military has become increasingly aware of civilian casualties-as has the international community, following the close of World War II. Nazi Germany's attacks on London utilizing terror weapons, such as the V-1 and V-2, and the Allied bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima demonstrated the totality of warfare in the modern era. The Geneva Conventions of 1949 attempted to define the basic rights of not just wartime prisoners but also to establish protection for civilians in and around a war zone. Warfare has become increasingly more complex. Some organizations, like the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), are following the old historical examples in which they convert, enslave, or murder the civilian residents in conquered territories. In other conflicts, with the rise of insurgencies across the globe, standing militaries no longer meet on a battlefield where identifiable fronts and protected zones exist. In Iraq and Afghanistan, adversaries hiding within civilian populations have become the norm rather than the exception. Precision-guided munitions (PGM) have enabled more accurate delivery of kinetic effects, improving airpower's effectiveness while reducing risk to friendly forces. PGMs have also enabled airpower to reduce collateral damage and civilian casualties through more precise targeting. Yet PGMs, and the humans who deliver them, are not infallible, nor is the targeting information obtained during wartime perfect. Thus, unintended effects can be reduced but never completely eliminated. An open dialogue on such controversial issues as civilian vi casualties depicts the true strength of our Air Force and demonstrates the best attributes of a military operating inside a democratic society. It is in this spirit of open dialogue that we present Dr. Sewall's work on a very timely and emotionally charged subject.

Download or read book A Concise History of the U S Air Force written by Stephen Lee McFarland and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 1997 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Except in a few instances, since World War II no American soldier or sailor has been attacked by enemy air power. Conversely, no enemy soldier orsailor has acted in combat without being attacked or at least threatened by American air power. Aviators have brought the air weapon to bear against enemies while denying them the same prerogative. This is the legacy of the U.S. AirForce, purchased at great cost in both human and material resources.More often than not, aerial pioneers had to fight technological ignorance, bureaucratic opposition, public apathy, and disagreement over purpose.Every step in the evolution of air power led into new and untrodden territory, driven by humanitarian impulses; by the search for higher, faster, and farther flight; or by the conviction that the air way was the best way. Warriors have always coveted the high ground. If technology permitted them to reach it, men, women andan air force held and exploited it-from Thomas Selfridge, first among so many who gave that "last full measure of devotion"; to Women's Airforce Service Pilot Ann Baumgartner, who broke social barriers to become the first Americanwoman to pilot a jet; to Benjamin Davis, who broke racial barriers to become the first African American to command a flying group; to Chuck Yeager, a one-time non-commissioned flight officer who was the first to exceed the speed of sound; to John Levitow, who earned the Medal of Honor by throwing himself over a live flare to save his gunship crew; to John Warden, who began a revolution in air power thought and strategy that was put to spectacular use in the Gulf War.Industrialization has brought total war and air power has brought the means to overfly an enemy's defenses and attack its sources of power directly. Americans have perceived air power from the start as a more efficient means of waging war and as a symbol of the nation's commitment to technology to master challenges, minimize casualties, and defeat adversaries.

Download or read book The Future of Air Power in the Aftermath of the Gulf War written by Robert L. Pfaltzgraff and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1992 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays reflects the proceedings of a 1991 conference on "The United States Air Force: Aerospace Challenges and Missions in the 1990s," sponsored by the USAF and Tufts University. The 20 contributors comment on the pivotal role of airpower in the war with Iraq and address issues and choices facing the USAF, such as the factors that are reshaping strategies and missions, the future role and structure of airpower as an element of US power projection, and the aerospace industry's views on what the Air Force of the future will set as its acquisition priorities and strategies. The authors agree that aerospace forces will be an essential and formidable tool in US security policies into the next century. The contributors include academics, high-level military leaders, government officials, journalists, and top executives from aerospace and defense contractors.

Download or read book Air Force Handbook 1 written by U. S. Air Force and published by . This book was released on 2018-07-17 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This handbook implements AFPD 36-22, Air Force Military Training. Information in this handbook is primarily from Air Force publications and contains a compilation of policies, procedures, and standards that guide Airmen's actions within the Profession of Arms. This handbook applies to the Regular Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard. This handbook contains the basic information Airmen need to understand the professionalism required within the Profession of Arms. Attachment 1 contains references and supporting information used in this publication. This handbook is the sole source reference for the development of study guides to support the enlisted promotion system. Enlisted Airmen will use these study guide to prepare for their Promotion Fitness Examination (PFE) or United States Air Force Supervisory Examination (USAFSE).

Download or read book Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms written by and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Defining the Role of Airpower in Joint Missions written by Glenn A. Kent and published by Minnesota Historical Society. This book was released on 1998 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stage is set for the emergence of a "new American way of war," in which U.S. forces are able to bring military power to bear against an enemy state quickly, comprehensively, decisively, and with minimal risk of heavy casualties. But some obstacles remain. These obstacles seem more budgetary and political than technical or operational. Some key programs are being abandoned or delayed because of the press of limited resources and competing demands. In this environment, it is imperative that the Air Force articulate in clear and compelling terms the potential contributions of airpower to joint operations. This is distinct from claiming "Air Force roles and missions." The approach offered here begins with a consideration of the basic characteristics of air forces and space forces, identifies the operational capabilities of these forces, and lists the missions and operational objectives to which these forces can contribute. By insisting that these missions and objectives be defined from the perspective of joint operations, this approach to doctrine positions the Air Force favorably to advance the role of its forces in the competition for roles within missions.

Download or read book The Strategic and Political Impacts of Collateral Damage from Strike Warfare written by Naval Postgraduate Naval Postgraduate School and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2015-12-15 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is hard to argue that there is a more prevailing issue than collateral damage when discussing strike warfare today. The outlook of the United States and other militaries regarding bombing operations, particularly concern about collateral damage, is a historically contingent process. This book examines three case studies-the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Kosovo air campaign-to examine the impact of concern about collateral damage on U.S. policy and strategy. It analyzes the disparity between collateral damage effects at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels over the span of a half century. A significant amount of research on the effects of collateral damage from strike warfare focuses on legal, humanitarian, and moral issues. To oversimplify, killing non-combatants is bad, but it happens, and not always by accident. Therefore, it is instructive to gain knowledge on how it affects policy and strategy. Depending on the conflict and time period, U.S. administrations and war strategists have put the priority of mitigating collateral damage at different levels. Understanding the reasoning and timing behind the political and military attitudes toward collateral damage is helpful to understanding how the potential for civilian casualties fits into military strategy as a whole.

Download or read book Within limits The United States Air Force and the Korean War written by Wayne Thompson, Bernard C. Nalty and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 1999 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite American success in preventing the conquest of South Korea by communist North Korea, the Korean War of 1950-1953 did not satisfy Americans who expected the Kind of total victory they had experienced in World War II. In that earlier, larger war, victory over Japan came after two atomic bombs destroyed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, in Korea five years later, the United States limited itself to conventional weapons. Even after Communist China entered the war, Americans put China off-limits to conventional bombing as well as nuclear bombing. Operating within these limits, the U.S. Air force helped to repel two invasions of South Korea while securing control of the skies so decisively that other United Nations forces could fight without fear of air attack. This book tells the story of those limits from Invasion to Air Pressure as part of the Air Force's Fiftieth Anniversary Commemorative Edition.

Download or read book Air Power as a Coercive Instrument written by Daniel Byman and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 1999-08-20 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Coercion--the use of threatened force to induce an adversary to change its behavior--is a critical function of the U.S. military. U.S. forces have recently fought in the Balkans, the Persian Gulf, and the Horn of Africa to compel recalcitrant regimes and warlords to stop repression, abandon weapons programs, permit humanitarian relief, and otherwise modify their actions. Yet despite its overwhelming military might, the United States often fails to coerce successfully. This report examines the phenomenon of coercion and how air power can contribute to its success. Three factors increase the likelihood of successful coercion: (1) the coercer's ability to raise the costs it imposes while denying the adversary the chance to respond (escalation dominance); (2) an ability to block an adversary's military strategy for victory; and (3) an ability to magnify third-party threats, such as internal instability or the danger posed by another enemy. Domestic political concerns (such as casualty sensitivity) and coalition dynamics often constrain coercive operations and impair the achievement of these conditions. Air power can deliver potent and credible threats that foster the above factors while neutralizing adversary countercoercive moves. When the favorable factors are absent, however, air power--or any other military instrument--will probably fail to coerce. Policymakers' use of coercive air power under inauspicious conditions diminishes the chances of using it elsewhere when the prospects of success would be greater.

Download or read book Restraint and the Future of Warfare written by Bryan A. Frederick and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 77 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Military objectives often can be pursued using a number of different approaches: airpower versus ground forces, larger munitions versus smaller ones, more- or less-restrictive rules of engagement. Military effectiveness often favors the immediate application of overwhelming force, but militaries and their civilian overseers often opt for more-restrained approaches. Understanding how and why policymakers have chosen to impose these restraints in the past and how and why they are likely to do so in the future is critical to understanding how states will conduct future wars. This report identifies four key trends likely to shape the future exercise of restraint in warfare: the spread of lawfare (or use of law as a weapon of war), the widespread distribution of imagery of U.S. military operations, the increasing effectiveness of false accusations, and the increasing public concern for civilian casualties. These trends are assessed for how likely they are to affect both conflict between states and between states and nonstate actors, in addition to how the effects of these trends might differ for different types of states. Overall, these trends appear likely to further increase the incentives of decisionmakers in liberal democratic states to avoid civilian casualties in conflicts against weaker adversaries and to support investments in capabilities to make this possible. Other states that are more autocratic are not likely to be similarly constrained, and policymakers in democratic states will need to adapt to this asymmetry. Between highly capable state actors, conflict is less likely to occur but could involve very different incentives if operational considerations prompt a sharp reduction in the degree of restraint exercised beyond each state's legal obligations and the public shows a greater tolerance of heightened levels of military casualties and collateral damage to civilians. This report also provides specific recommendations for U.S. policymakers to begin to adapt to these anticipated trends.

Download or read book Command Of The Air written by General Giulio Douhet and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Bugsplat written by Bruce Cronin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why do states who are committed to the principle of civilian immunity and the protection of non-combatants end up killing and injuring large numbers of civilians during their military operations? Bugsplat explains this paradox through an in-depth examination of five conflicts fought by Western powers since 1989. It argues that despite the efforts of Western military organizations to comply with the laws of armed conflict, the level of collateral damage produced by Western military operations is the inevitable outcome of the strategies and methods through which their military organizations fight wars. Drawing on their superior technology and the strategic advantage of not having to fight on their own territory, such states employ highly-concentrated and overwhelming military force against a wide variety of political, economic, and military targets under conditions likely to produce high civilian casualties. As a result, collateral damage in western-fought wars is largely both foreseeable and preventable. The book title is derived from the name of a computer program that had been used by the Pentagon to calculate probable civilian casualties prior to launching air attacks.

Download or read book Off Target written by Human Rights Watch (Organization) and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed or injured during the three weeks of fighting from the first air strikes on March 20 to April 9, 2003, when Baghdad fell to U.S.-led coalition forces. Human rights investigated the conduct of the war during a five-week mission in Iraq. This report documents Iraqi violations of international humanitarian law, including use of human shields, abuse of the red cross and red crescent emblems, use of antipersonnel landmines, location of military objects in protected places, and failure to take adequate precautions to protect civilians from the dangers resulting from military operations.