Operation ALLIED FORCE: How Airpower Won the War for Kosovo

摘要

The fact that airpower won NATO's first war is indisputable. However, this victory was far from inevitable. Just showing up with a lot of airplanes isn't enough, and in this case, risked shipwrecking an alliance that was the foundation of US and European defense policy for 50 years. Airpower must be wielded in an intelligent and appropriate manner to be effective, and its proper usage is not always intuitive. In Allied Force, much time and political capital were expended to no positive effect when the template for Operation Desert Storm was unthinkingly overlaid on Kosovo by government and military leaders unschooled in air operations. Further, the factors that made airpower so effective in OAF—diplomatic and economic isolation—may not be present in another conflict, so air planners cannot merely overlay the Allied Force template over every future problem. Marine Corps University.