Aerospace Power In The Twenty First Century A Basic Primer July 2010

Dr. Chun's Aerospace Power in the Twenty-First Century: A Basic Primer is a great start towards understanding the importance of aerospace power and its ability to conduct modern warfare. Aerospace power is continually changing because of new technology, threats, and air and space theories. However, many basic principles about aerospace power have stood the test of time and warfare. This book provides the reader with many of these time-tested ideas for consideration and reflection. Although Aerospace Power in the Twenty-First Century was written for future officers, individuals desiring a broad overview of aerospace power are invited to read, share, and discuss many of the ideas and thoughts presented here. Officers from other services will find that this introduction to air and space forces will give them a good grasp of aerospace power. More experienced aerospace leaders can use this book to revisit many of the issues that have affected air and space forces in the past and that might affect them in the future. Air Force officers will discover that Aerospace Power in the Twenty-First Century is a very timely and reflective resource for their professional libraries.

"In Aerospace Power in the Twenty-First Century: A Basic Primer, Dr. Clayton K.S. Chun exposes readers to relevant aerospace capabilities, theories, uses, elements of operational planning, and key issues. After introducing basic definitions and concepts, Dr. Chun uses case studies of both successful and unsuccessful applications of aerospace power to illustrate its functions and abilities. Designed primarily for readers new to the subject, Aerospace Power in the Twenty-First Century also serves as a useful source of information about the strengths and weaknesses of air and space forces."--Publisher's website.

Dr. Chun's Aerospace Power in the Twenty-First Century: A Basic Primer is a great start towards understanding the importance of aerospace power and its ability to conduct modern warfare. Aerospace power is continually changing because of new technology, threats, and air and space theories. However, many basic principles about aerospace power have stood the test of time and warfare. This book provides the reader with many of these time-tested ideas for consideration and reflection. Although Aerospace Power in the Twenty-First Century was written for future officers, individuals desiring a broad overview of aerospace power are invited to read, share, and discuss many of the ideas and thoughts presented here. Officers from other services will find that this introduction to air and space forces will give them a good grasp of aerospace power. More experienced aerospace leaders can use this book to revisit many of the issues that have affected air and space forces in the past and that might affect them in the future. Air Force officers will discover that Aerospace Power in the Twenty-First Century is a very timely and reflective resource for their professional libraries.

Following the cataclysmic losses suffered in World War I, air power theorists in Europe advocated for long-range bombers to overfly the trenches and strike deep into the enemy's heartland. The bombing of cities was seen as a means to collapse the enemy's will to resist and bring the war to a quick end. In the United States, airmen called for an independent air force, but with the nation's return to isolationism, there was little appetite for an offensive air power doctrine. By the 1930s, however, a cadre of officers at the US Army Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS) had articulated an operational concept of high-altitude daylight precision bombing (HADPB) that would be the foundation for a uniquely American vision of strategic air attack. In Lectures of the Air Corps Tactical School and American Strategic Bombing in World War II editor Phil Haun brings together nine ACTS lecture transcripts, which have been preserved in Air Force archives, exactly as delivered to the airmen destined to lead the US Army Air Forces in World War II. Presented is a distinctive American strategy of high-altitude daylight precision bombing as told through lectures given at the ACTS during the interwar period and how these airmen put the theory to the test. The book examines the Air Corps theory of HADPB as compared to the reality of combat in World War II by relying on recent, revisionist histories that have given scholars a deeper understanding of the impact of strategic bombing on Germany.

Rarely does a work of military strategy elevate its vision beyond merely military concerns. Rarer still are strategies that compel the wise engagement of our military with the broader polity they serve-the American people. The strategy you are about to read is this rare exception. American Aerospace Power: Choosing to Lead in the Twenty-First Century offers a compelling vision for sustaining the American way of life for the next hundred years. As challenges to world order and the American way of life appear around every corner, our instinct might be to ask, "What do we do now?" Wiser strategists, however, ask where have we been? Where have we historically gained our strength, preserved our advantage, and developed one of the most prosperous societies in the history of the world? This essay looks forward by first looking back, and it finds that America's strengths as an aerospace nation laid the foundation for our unmatched prosperity over the past 100 years.This is a story of civil-military partnerships at their finest, harnessing the innovation of industry, the insight of academia, the strength of the military, and the sweat equity of the American worker. Together, this aerospace nation propelled Charles Lindbergh across the Atlantic in 1927, rocketed Chuck Yeager through the sound barrier in 1947, landed Neil Armstrong on the moon in 1969, and hung the constellation of satellites that give communication, timing, and navigation to the entire world. As the authors make clear, American aerospace strength has been the fruit of toil matched with vision, not a birthright. The challenge for a new century is to reclaim our aerospace roots as a nation. As the pace of technological change accelerates, and with it the potential threats to our American way of life, our aerospace power may prove to be the margin of our survival. The strategy outlined in this essay appeals not to a military audience, but to the American people; the task ahead of us is a national task, not just a military one. Our approach needs to be comprehensive once again, uniting our societal strengths in industry, technology, manufacturing, and innovation. American Aerospace Power gives us a path forward, equally grand in its scope and detailed in its recommendations.