Coming of Age: The Implications of Precision Guided Munitions for Air Power

摘要

The thesis argues that air power now dominates modern warfare. The overwhelmingvictory of the Gulf War stands as a symbol of the maturity of air power. In effect, technology has caught up with nearly a century of air power theory, the early prophets of air power were basically correct. The air war in the Gulf was revolutionary in the sense that very few bombs were required to achieve an enormous amount of very focused, precise destruction. The existence of precision guided munitions allow single aircraft to accomplish what, in the past, would have taken literally thousands of aircraft to accomplish or could not have been accomplished at all. The argument is based on a brief history of the employment of air power in previous conflicts. A comparison is then made with the employment of air power in the Gulf War. In the context of modem war, the implications of the air war in the Gulf have profound implications for every warfare specialty. However, this thesis only considers the implications of precision guided munitions for naval air power.... Air power, Military technical revolution, Precision guided munitions.