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 149 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 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 Collateral Damage written by Sahr Conway-Lanz and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Collateral damage" is a military term for the inadvertent casualties and destruction inflicted on civilians in the course of military operations. In Collateral Damage: Americans, Noncombatant Immunity, and Atrocity after World War II, Sahr Conway-Lanz chronicles the history of America's attempt to reconcile the ideal of sparing civilians with the reality that modern warfare results in the killing of innocent people. Drawing on policymakers' response to the issues raised by the atrocities of World War II and the use of the atomic bomb, as well as the ongoing debate by the American public and the media as the Korean War developed, Conway-Lanz provides a comprehensive examination of modern American discourse on the topic of civilian casualties and provides a fascinating look at the development of what is now commonly known as collateral damage.

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 Chasing Success written by Sarah B. Sewall and published by . This book was released on 2015-11 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Within Limits written by Wayne Thompson and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1997-07 with total page 65 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 WW II. In Korea, the U.S. 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 2 invasions of South Korea while securing control of the skies so decisively that other U.N. forces could fight without fear of air attack.

Download or read book The Strategic and Political Impacts of Collateral Damage from Strike Warfare Covering Air Campaigns and Bombing Damage in Korea Vietnam Kosovo Target Selection and Limitations written by U. S. Military and published by . This book was released on 2018-04-02 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines the strategic and political impacts of collateral damage from strike warfare and strategic bombing. 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 thesis 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.CHAPTER I * INTRODUCTION * A. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH * B. LITERATURE REVIEW * 1. Korea * 2. Vietnam * 3. Kosovo * C. POTENTIAL EXPLANATIONS * CHAPTER II * THE KOREAN WAR * A. PROXIMITY TO WORLD WAR II * B. THE IMPLICATIONS OF LIMITED WAR * C. THE IMPACT OF OUTSIDE PRESSURE * D. CONCLUSION * CHAPTER III * THE VIETNAM WAR * A. THE AIR CAMPAIGN IN NORTH VIETNAM * B. THE AIR CAMPAIGN IN SOUTH VIETNAM * C. CONCLUSION * CHAPTER IV * THE KOSOVO CONFLICT * A. NEW LIMITS AND NEW CHALLENGES * B. MAINTAINING THE ALLIANCE'S COHESION * C. CONCLUSION * CHAPTER V * CONCLUSION * A. THE FUNCTIONALITY OF COLLATERAL DAMAGE * B. FUTURE IMPLICATIONS

Download or read book Thinking Effects Effects Based Methodology for Joint Operations written by Edward C. Mann III and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Collateral Damage written by Sharon L. Nichols and published by Harvard Education Press. This book was released on 2007-03-01 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on their extensive research, Nichols and Berliner document and categorize the ways that high-stakes testing threatens the purposes and ideals of the American education system. For more than a decade, the debate over high-stakes testing has dominated the field of education. This passionate and provocative book provides a fresh perspective on the issue and powerful ammunition for opponents of high-stakes tests. Their analysis is grounded in the application of Campbell’s Law, which posits that the greater the social consequences associated with a quantitative indicator (such as test scores), the more likely it is that the indicator itself will become corrupted—and the more likely it is that the use of the indicator will corrupt the social processes it was intended to monitor. Nichols and Berliner illustrate both aspects of this “corruption,” showing how the pressures of high-stakes testing erode the validity of test scores and distort the integrity of the education system. Their analysis provides a coherent and comprehensive intellectual framework for the wide-ranging arguments against high-stakes testing, while putting a compelling human face on the data marshalled in support of those arguments.

Download or read book Rpa Vector written by United States United States Air Force and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-05-09 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The character of future international conflicts represents a complex and unpredictable set of challenges that necessitates a significant shift in the United States' approach to warfighting. Strategic guidance in Sustaining U.S. Global Leadership: Priorities for 21st Century Defense reinforces that -...the United States will continue to take an active approach to countering...threats by monitoring the activities of non-state threats worldwide, working with allies and partners to establish control over ungoverned territories, and directly striking the most dangerous groups and individuals when necessary. The U.S. Air Force (USAF) Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Vector-Vision and Enabling Concepts: 2013-2038 balances the effects envisioned in the USAF Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Plan 2009-2047 with the reality of constrained resources and ambitious national strategy for a complex world. More importantly, as a visionary document, the RPA Vector opens the aperture beyond current austere fiscal realities to explore art of the possible technologies in the 2013-2038 timeframe. The intent is to examine technological advances necessary to enable the Air Force's future RPA force.

Download or read book Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms written by United States. Joint Chiefs of Staff and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

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 Air Force Doctrine Document 3 60 written by U. S. Military and published by . This book was released on 2018-03-21 with total page 125 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Air Force Doctrine Document (AFDD) establishes doctrinal guidance for planning, executing, and assessing targeting operations. Time and time again in the last several decades, air and space power has proven among the most powerful of weapons in the nation's military arsenal, deciding some conflicts outright and enabling us to resolve others in the manner of our choosing. Today, air and space power can impose decisive effects anywhere on the globe at almost any time, but it has taken more than this global reach to make it the world's premier military instrument. Sound doctrine, strategy, and operational art are also required and the discipline of targeting is a vital piece of Air Force operational art. Guided by sound doctrine and strategy, targeting during conflict enables air and space power to be a decisive force in modern warfare. Targeting processes and principles that encompass the realms of information and influence can also have decisive effects upon operations other than major combat. This publication describes what targeting is and how it supports the overarching structure of air and space planning, execution, and assessment. The United States military operates according to effects-based principles, which tie planning, execution, and assessment together into an adaptive whole. Accordingly, this publication also shows why and how effects-based thinking is integral to effective targeting today. This document builds upon the foundational doctrine concepts of an effects-based approach established in Air Force Doctrine Document 2, Operations and Organization. Targeting has been a vital part of air and space power since the first weapon was dropped from an aircraft. It has evolved over a century from a matter of primitive guesswork into a discipline based on scientific principles and robust processes that is used to guide employment of much more than just weapons dropped from airplanes. Targeting will continue to evolve as it assimilates the insights of effects-based operations, improvements in battlespace awareness, and other innovations, but it will always be central to the way the Air Force conducts operations. Contents: Chapter One - Targeting Fundamentals * Chapter Two - Deliberate Targeting * Chapter Three - Dynamic Targeting * Chapter Four - Assessment * Chapter Five - Readiness And Ongoing Responsibilities For Targeting

Download or read book Introduction to the United States Air Force written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To lead the US Air Force into the future, it is necessary to understand the past and present nature of the force. With this in mind, Air Force leaders have always sought to arm members of the force with a basic knowledge and understanding of Air Force culture and history. This volume is a contribution to that ongoing educational process, but as the title states, this is only an introduction. The information provided here merely scratches the surface of the fascinating stories of the people, equipment, and operations of the Air Force Topics that are covered here in only a few short paragraphs have been, and will continue to be the subject of entire books. We hope this volume will be a starting point and a reference work to facilitate your continuing study of aerospace power. The reader should keep in mind that all the people, operations, and aerospace craft included in this book have been important to the US Air Force, but they are not the only ones that have been important. The US Air Force has gained much from other nations, other US military services, and civilian organizations and these outside influences on the US Air Force are not included in this volume. This Introduction to the United States Air Force is organized into two parts and five appendices. The first part is organized chronologically and groups significant operations and personalities together in several critical periods in the development of the US Air Force. The second part covers aerospace craft and is organized by type (fighters, bombers, missiles, etc,) in order to show the development of each type over time. Following Part II are appendices listing the senior leaders of the early air forces (before the creation of the US Air Force in 1947), the Air Force Chiefs of Staff, the Chief Master Sergeants of the Air Force, Fighter Aces, and Medal of Honor Winners.

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 620 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.