Precision: A History of American Warfare

Precision: A History of American Warfare by James Patton Rogers. Manchester University Press, 2023, 224 pp.

In a short 143 pages of text, James Patton Rogers packs a punch with his broad overview of the role of precision weapons in warfare, homing in on the United States’ experience. Rogers begins by highlighting the peculiar relationship of the United States to precision weapons, suggesting that the “American pursuit of precision is as fascinating as it is troubling” and even verges on “obsession” because of the way in which it reflects a narrative of American exceptionalism (2). Rogers stresses the idea of precision as a “social construct” in that it emerged in the United States as a reflection of the very fabric of American culture (2). Yet there is unfortunately not much room to unpack this worthwhile and interesting theme, and he does not thread this thesis consistently throughout the work. It is also interesting to consider, given the democratization of technology, the extent to which there are many emerging and co-existing ideas about precision.¹

Rogers completed his PhD on the history of precision warfare at the UK’s University of Hull and now currently serves as the executive director of the Cornell Brooks Tech Policy Institute at Cornell University and as the NATO country director of the Full Spectrum Drone Warfare project. Despite most of his current interest in emerging trends in drone warfare, much of Precision focuses on nuclear weapons.

Rogers divides his work into six chapters: Genesis (1917–1941), Evolution (1941–1945), Continuation (1945–1949), Side-lining (1949–1950), Replacement (1950–1961), and Resurrection (1961–1991), followed by a forward-leaning epilogue regarding the implications of the democratization of precision weaponry throughout the world. For the reader’s purposes, this organization can be truncated into (1) 1917–1945: the birth of the idea of precision weapons and the US attempt to implement this vision through air warfare in World War II; (2) 1945–1961: the effect of nuclear weapons on thinking about precision; and (3) 1961–today: the return to an emphasis on conventional precision weapons.

This results in 28 percent of the book describing precision weapons prior to World War II, 54 percent detailing precision in the context of atomic weapons for the relatively short time span of only 11 years, and with only 18 percent devoted to the subsequent 62 years of American warfare, when the United States increasingly applied precision warfare from Vietnam through Desert Storm and subsequently during the Global War on Terror. The rationale for this framing and organization is not developed and is difficult to understand. On the one hand, the inclusion of both conventional and nuclear airpower in one slim volume is a wonderful addition to airpower history, which tends to be bifurcated into a number of opposing camps: kinetic versus non-kinetic, strategic versus tactical, nuclear versus conventional, and more. Yet the book would have benefited from more than 43 pages to do full justice to the ongoing development of precision strike capabilities in US airpower history.

In its current state, Rogers largely handwaves almost 30 years of conventional air warfare. He bridges the shift from atomic weapons to conventional precision weapons in an interesting nine pages that showcase the extent to which the re-righting of civil-military relations in the United States allowed Curtis LeMay and his supporters—who insisted on waging an imprecise and mass nuclear war—to be supplanted by the new Kennedy administration.

While this is an important piece of the story, it also omits other puzzle pieces that shed insights on precision warfare. Rogers is correct that nuclear weapons cut into research into conventional weapons, but the Vietnam War particularly helped reignite emphasis on precision weapons, as Paul S. Gillespie demonstrates in Weapons of Choice: The Development of Precision Guided Weapons (2006). The battlefield challenges of Southeast Asia far more than the efforts of Strategic Air Command invigorated efforts to precisely strike ground targets.

Rogers then picks up the story in 1991 in Operation Desert Storm, which he does by recounting a fascinating discussion he had with retired US Air Force Lieutenant General David Deptula, who explained how his reading of two books by World War II General Haywood Hansell in the summer of 1990 inspired his air plans. But this anecdote lacks other supporting material, making the story of precision appear to be more of a one-off phenomenon rather than an “obsession” and a cultural expression as Rogers contends at the start of the work. Airmen have pursued precise air strikes since practically the beginning of air warfare.

Rogers abruptly concludes that “history has shown us how precision can also be decisive and effective in war” (143). Interestingly, instructors at the Air Command and Staff College frequently argue the exact opposite, and this work may not offer enough compelling evidence to change the reader’s mind. Precision—for all its tactical and operational effectiveness and efficiency—fails to automatically translate into enduring success in achieving political victory. If anything, this reality may help temper some of the author’s concerns regarding the implications of this precision technology now being acquired by non-state actors and less powerful nations. If he is correct about precision’s decisiveness, then there is much to be concerned about.

While Rogers has an impressive background in precision warfare, he does not fully bring that expertise to bear in this volume given the number of pages he spends providing the background and history of airpower prior to true precision weapon technology, leaving insufficient room to defend his  provocative theme regarding precision and American culture exceptionalism.

Heather P. Venable, PhD