In this study Lt Col Curtis Connell, USAF, examines the debate between those who perceive a general Islamic threat, the confrontationalists, and others who see a small band of religious fanatics who have hijacked Islam from the moderate majority, the accommodationists. A well-researched but brief history of Islam and the various sects and key players that currently comprise this institution helps answer that debate. This question of the source of terrorism has importance to the Islamic world as it does for the United States and its Latin American neighbors. The preliminary answer for Latin America is that the United States should not be alarmed at the potential for Islamic fundamentalism, but sufficiently concerned to keep a watchful eye on future developments. In fact Connell suggests that the demographics do not favor the growth of an effective radical movement. If there are too few Muslims in Latin America to birth radicalism, there is on the other hand, a very active and extensive native, non-Islamic terrorism. The author connects these dots because he sees a latent connection to Muslims in the areas where terrorism organizations and drug traffickers proliferate. It is a potentially easy step for incipient Muslim radicals to get caught up and find beneficial purpose with these criminals. [Curtis C. Connell / 2005 / 50 pages / ISBN: 1-58566-133-3 / AU Press Code: P-37]

Colonel Clark chronologically traces the evolution of uninhabited combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) beginning two centuries before the birth of Christ and ending with the USAF abandonment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and UCAVs in the late 1970s. He provides some background information and examines the most current USAF involvement with UCAVs. Colonel Clark discusses the obstacles that prevented unmanned aviation programs of the past from becoming operationally significant. He extracted evidence from current periodicals, from interviews with UAV and UCAV experts, and from other supporting documentation to determine what significant obstacles UCAVs may face in achieving operational significance in the Air Force. Colonel Clark provides recommendations for overcoming the obstacles and managing the risks and uncertainties involved with UCAVs. [Richard M. Clark / 2000 / 100 pages / ISBN: 1-58566-083-3]

Lt Col Chad T. Manske, USAF, looks at the shortfall in strategic airlift as its role continues to expand throughout the world. He then asks if there might be a role for unmanned airlift vehicles and then analyzes the requirements for producing such an aircraft. He looks to the past, the present, and the future in producing a clearer picture of why this concept might work and what the final product might be—a mother ship controlling a number of unmanned airlift vehicles. He has produced a thorough examination of the subject and raises a number of interesting questions. [Chad T. Manske / 2004 / 118 pages / ISBN: 1-58566-131-7]

Colonel McCaffrey traces air-ground doctrine and operational practices relative to battlefield interdiction from World War I to Operation Desert Storm and suggests at one point that even the flank support for General Patton was, in effect, battlefield air interdiction (BAI). He carries the discussion through the decade after Desert Storm and shows how the issue is too important to be dropped by the Air Force and Army, even as technology provides new weapons for both services. Colonel McCaffrey concludes that there is still need for a BAI-type mission. Both services are searching for an answer to the doctrinal void. [Terrance J. McCaffrey III / 2004 / 144 pages / ISBN: 1-58566-129-5 / AU Press Code: P-33]

Major Shwedo examines the relationship among ULTRA, Gen George S. Patton Jr.’s ground scheme of maneuver, and the operations of XIX Tactical Air Command. He also examines ULTRA reports and compares them to the standard accounts of the various battles. Major Shwedo traces Patton’s higher tactical and operational decisions from the hedgerows of Normandy in early August 1944 to the banks of the Moselle River, just 50 miles from the German border. He contends that both the Air Force and the Army should learn the proper lessons from this campaign concerning how best to integrate intelligence, ground maneuver, and airpower. Major Shwedo recommends that these same tools could be usefully combined in the technologically enhanced era of the twenty-first century. [Bradford J. Shwedo / 2001 / 158 pages / ISBN: 1-58566-089-2]