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Aug. 1, 2009
Missile Defensive Systems and the Civil Reserve Air Fleet

One of the United States’ greatest military advantages is rapid global mobility. The Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) provides a crucial supplement to the military’s mobility resources in time of war or national emergency. The proliferation of man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS),
Aug. 1, 2009
Counterinsurgency Aircraft Procurement Options

Although aircraft have shown to be effective in small wars, the United States Air Force currently does not possess counterinsurgency (COIN) aircraft of the type advocated by many students of small wars. Little attention is placed on obtaining a COIN operations platform; however, within academic
Aug. 1, 2009
The Air University Pantheon of Air, Space, and Cyberspace Power Thinkers [ONLINE ONLY]

An initiative of Gen Steven R. Lorenz, former Air University commander, the Air University Pantheon of Air, Space, and Cyberspace Power Thinkers is an effort to identify the intellectual roots of Air University. Together, these biographies provide a framework for understanding the evolution of Air
Aug. 1, 2009
Challenging Nuclear Abolition [ONLINE ONLY]

Tough choices regarding defense spending and national security strategy are likely to come in 2009 and 2010, and may significantly affect nuclear weapons policy. Although the president’s efforts to develop a “new New Deal” may overshadow shifts in nuclear weapons policy, the
March 1, 2009
The Machinery of Government Needs A Tune-Up

This study examines the history, likes and differences of the US National Security Council system and its organizational prototype, the pre-World War II British Committee of Imperial Defence, their structures, purposes, functions, leadership, and the significant changes each experienced their
March 1, 2009
Learning to Fight Together: The British Experience with Joint Air-Land Warfare [ONLINE ONLY]

Applying a methodology that is best described as “inductive synthesis,” this research paper examines the elusive quest for effective integration between air and land forces in the context of joint operations. It draws on the British experience from the first attempts to provide air
March 1, 2009
Understanding Airpower: Bonfire of the Fallacies

The general purpose of this monograph is to help prevent or reduce error in debates over all aspects of airpower. Since we humans, our institutions and procedures, and our behavior are friction prone and apt to err, it is sensible to try to diminish the pile of assumptions, beliefs, attitudes, and
March 1, 2009
Centralized Control and Decentralized Execution

Lieutenant Colonel Hinote applies the Air Force tenet of centralization versus decentralization to the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and suggests that the urgent need for improved communication between air and ground forces. Relying on the teaching of the theoretician B. H. Liddell Hart,
Feb. 1, 2009
Lights, Camera, Action: Getting Back to the Basics

SMSgt Leslie Bramlett offers a call to the USAF enlisted corps to return to the basics of leadership, traditions, and discipline that are taught in basic military training (BMT). He delineates how the Air Force’s senior corps of noncommissioned officers recognizes discipline problems among the
Jan. 4, 2009
Rethinking The QDR

P. Dean Patterson and Lenny J. Richoux offer a cogent argument for a Department of Defense quadrennial defense review (QDR). Having been established in 1997, the QDR is a relatively new process. It examines the budgetary process to ensure that taxpayers’ money is well spent. At the same time,