{"id":22616,"date":"1994-12-01T23:13:43","date_gmt":"1994-12-02T04:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/?p=22616"},"modified":"2021-10-08T12:11:28","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T16:11:28","slug":"airpower-trends-and-modernization-promise-after-operation-desert-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/airpower-trends-and-modernization-promise-after-operation-desert-storm\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Power Promises and Modernization Trends after Operation Desert Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Alan Bloomgarden and Carl Conetta, Dec 1994.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.comw.org\/pda\/9412-Bloomgarden-Conetta-Hawk-article.html\">\u27aa HTML<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.comw.org\/pda\/fulltext\/9412-Bloomgarden-Conetta-Hawk-article.pdf\">\u27aa PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This article first appeared in 1994 in a slightly edited form in <em>Hawk Journal<\/em>, the annual publication of the Royal Air Force Staff College.<\/p>\n<p>The expectation of an airpower revolution began in earnest soon after victory in the first US-Iraq Gulf War, 1990-1991. Drawing extensively on official and outside expert assessment of airpower in \u201cOperation Desert Storm,\u201d this article critically reviews the evidence for an airpower revolution while summarizing a range of contemporary opinions on the issue.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, the article examines three claims advanced by airpower enthusiasts at the dawn of the post-Cold War period: that the Gulf War experience suggests greatly expanded options for limited-aims &#8220;raiding missions,&#8221; strategic bombing campaigns, and airpower dominance over the ground battle (using improved battlefield interdiction and close air support.)<\/p>\n<p>Included are summaries of the extensive <em>Gulf War Air Power Survey<\/em> and other surveys of the war which provide an unsurpassed view of the war\u2019s dynamics.\u00a0 It also examines the technologies, contemporary and in development, central to the putative airpower revolution.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-22617 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20220623192039\/https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ODS-Airpower-250x159.jpg\" alt=\"air power\" width=\"350\" height=\"223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ODS-Airpower-250x159.jpg 250w, https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ODS-Airpower-106x68.jpg 106w, https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ODS-Airpower.jpg 281w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Alan Bloomgarden and Carl Conetta, Dec 1994. \u27aa HTML \u27aa PDF This article first appeared in 1994 in a slightly edited form in Hawk Journal, the annual publication of the Royal Air Force Staff College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10167552604075290_133638503385018":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[27,23,13,3,8,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-iraq-war","category-mideast-mersian-gulf","category-military-strategic-studies","category-publications","category-us-defense-policy","category-wars-and-military-operations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Air Power Promises and Modernization Trends after Operation Desert Storm &#8211; Project on Defense Alternatives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Trends and modernization promise after Desert Storm - a critical review\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/airpower-trends-and-modernization-promise-after-operation-desert-storm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Air Power Promises and Modernization Trends after Operation Desert Storm &#8211; Project on Defense Alternatives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Trends and modernization promise after Desert Storm - a critical review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/airpower-trends-and-modernization-promise-after-operation-desert-storm\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Project on Defense Alternatives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Project-on-Defense-Alternatives\/133638503385018\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"1994-12-02T04:13:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-08T16:11:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20220623192039\/https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/ODS-Airpower-250x159.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Carl Conetta\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@defensealt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@defensealt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Carl Conetta\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"ScholarlyArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/comw.org\\\/pda\\\/airpower-trends-and-modernization-promise-after-operation-desert-storm\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/comw.org\\\/pda\\\/airpower-trends-and-modernization-promise-after-operation-desert-storm\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Carl Conetta\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/comw.org\\\/pda\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e5f32f920668cc51e114f8faf308f75b\"},\"headline\":\"Air Power Promises and Modernization Trends after Operation Desert Storm\",\"datePublished\":\"1994-12-02T04:13:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-08T16:11:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/comw.org\\\/pda\\\/airpower-trends-and-modernization-promise-after-operation-desert-storm\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":186,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/comw.org\\\/pda\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/comw.org\\\/pda\\\/airpower-trends-and-modernization-promise-after-operation-desert-storm\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/web.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20220623192039\\\/https:\\\/\\\/comw.org\\\/pda\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/11\\\/ODS-Airpower-250x159.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Iraq War\",\"Mideast &amp; 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