The Paths of Heaven The Evolution of Airpower Theory by The School of Advanced Airpower Studies Edited by Col Phillip S. Meilinger, USAF Air University Press Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama 1997 Library of Congress Cataloging–in–Publication Data The paths of heaven : the evolution of airpower theory / by the School of Advanced Airpower Studies ; edited by Phillip S. Meilinger. p. cm. Includes index. 1. Air power. 2. Air warfare—History. I. Meilinger, Phillip S., 1948– . II. Air University (U.S.). Air Command and Staff College. School of Advanced Airpower Studies. UG630.P29 1997 358.4—dc21 97–24531 CIP ISBN 1-58566-027-2 First Printing 1997 Second Printing 1998 Third Printing 1999 Fourth Printing March 2001 Disclaimer Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Air University, the United States Air Force, the Department of Defense, or any other US government agency. Cleared for public release: distribution unlimited. ii Contents Chapter Page DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii ABOUT THE SCHOOL OF ADVANCED AIRPOWER STUDIES . . . . . . . . ix INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi 1 Giulio Douhet and the Origins of Airpower Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Col Phillip S. Meilinger 2 Trenchard, Slessor, and Royal Air Force Doctrine before World War II . . . . . . . . 41 Col Phillip S. Meilinger 3 Molding Airpower Convictions: Development and Legacy of William Mitchell’s Strategic Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Lt Col Mark A. Clodfelter 4 The Influence of Aviation on the Evolution of American Naval Thought . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Dr. David R. Mets 5 Airpower Thought in Continental Europe between the Wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Dr. James S. Corum 6 Interwar US Army Aviation and the Air Corps Tactical School: Incubators of American Airpower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Lt Col Peter R. Faber iii Chapter Page 7 Alexander P. de Seversky and American Airpower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Col Phillip S. Meilinger 8 Strategic Airpower and Nuclear Strategy: New Theory for a Not-Quite-So-New Apocalypse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Dr. Karl P. Mueller 9 Air Theory, Air Force, and Low Intensity Conflict: A Short Journey to Confusion . . . . . . 321 Prof. Dennis M. Drew 10 John Boyd and John Warden: Airpower’s Quest for Strategic Paralysis . . . . . . 357 Lt Col David S. Fadok 11 An Ambivalent Partnership: US Army and Air Force Perspectives on Air-Ground Operations, 1973–90 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399 Dr. Harold R. Winton 12 The Evolution of NATO Air Doctrine . . . . . . . . 443 Col Maris “Buster” McCrabb 13 Soviet Military Doctrine and Air Theory: Change through the Light of a Storm . . . . . . . 485 Lt Col Edward J. Felker 14 Ascendant Realms: Characteristics of Airpower and Space Power . . . . . . . . . . . . 529 Maj Bruce M. DeBlois 15 Reflections on the Search for Airpower Theory . . 579 Dr. I. B. Holley Jr. CONTRIBUTORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607 iv Illustrations Figure Page 1 Boyd’s OODA Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366 2 Boyd’s Theory of Conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368 3 Warden’s Five Strategic Rings . . . . . . . . . . . 373 4 Warden’s Theory of Strategic Attack . . . . . . . . 376 Table 1 The Changing Atmospheric Medium . . . . . . . 551 2 Characteristic Advantages of Airpower and Space Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 564 v Foreword For the past half century, the United States Air Force has been responsible for controlling and exploiting the air and space environment to meet the needs of the nation. We are America’s Air Force—the only service that provides airpower and space power across the spectrum, from science and technology, research and development, testing and evaluation, to fielding and sustaining forces. Although the men and women of the Air Force have recorded some outstanding accomplishments over the past 50 years, on the whole, our service has remained more concerned with operations than theory. This focus has produced many notable achievements, but it is equally important for airmen to understand the theory of airpower. Historian I. B. Holley has convincingly demonstrated the link between ideas and weapons, and in the conclusion to this book, he cautions that “a service that does not develop rigorous thinkers among its leaders and decision makers is inviting friction, folly, and failure.” In that light, The Paths of Heaven is a valuable means of increasing our expertise in the employment of airpower. It offers an outstanding overview of airpower theories since the dawn of flight and will no doubt serve as the basic text on this vital subject for some time to come. The contributors, all from the School of Advanced Airpower Studies (SAAS) at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, are the most qualified experts in the world to tackle this subject. As the home of the only graduate-level program devoted to airpower and as the successor to the Air Corps Tactical School, SAAS boasts students and faculty who are helping build the airpower theories of the future. In explaining how we can employ air and space forces to fulfill national objectives, this book enriches the Air Force and the nation. Airpower may not always provide the only solution to a problem, but the advantages of speed, range, flexibility, and vantage point offered through the air and space environment make airpower a powerful instrument for vii meeting the needs of the nation. Understanding these advantages begins by knowing the ideas behind the technology. RONALD R. FOGLEMAN General, USAF Chief of Staff viii About the School of Advanced Airpower Studies Established in 1990, the School of Advanced Airpower Studies (SAAS) is a one-year graduate school for 27 specially selected officers from all the services. The mission of SAAS is to develop professional officers educated in airpower theory, doctrine, planning, and execution to become the air strategists of the future. SAAS achieves this mission through a unique educational process that blends operational expertise and scholarship in an environment that fosters the creation, evaluation, and refinement of ideas. The goal is thus twofold: to educate and to generate ideas on the employment of airpower in peace and war. SAAS is part of Air Command and Staff College, located at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. The SAAS curriculum consists of a series of courses that emphasize military and airpower theory, political science, economics, history, and technology. Civilian academics and high-ranking military officers are frequent visitors. All students must write a thesis and undergo an in-depth oral examination by the faculty. In addition, students participate in war games and joint exercises which hone their skills as airpower thinkers and planners. The faculty implementing this curriculum is composed of eight members—four military and four civilian—who are chosen for their academic credentials (a doctoral degree), teaching abilities, operational experience, desire to write on topics of military concern, and dedication to SAAS and its students. Strict academic and professional criteria are used to select students for SAAS, and volunteers are ultimately chosen by a special board of senior officers. The typical student is an aviator who has an outstanding military record, has been promoted ahead of his or her contemporaries, already holds a master’s degree, and has a strong desire to learn and to serve his or her country. Upon graduation with a master’s degree in airpower art and science, officers return to operational assignments or are placed in impact positions on higher headquarters staffs in the Pentagon and around the world. ix Introduction Col Phillip S. Meilinger In greater skill the paths of heaven to ride. —Gordon Alchin Airpower is not widely understood. Even though it has come to play an increasingly important role in both peace and war, the basic concepts that define and govern airpower remain obscure to many people, even to professional military officers. This fact is largely due to fundamental differences of opinion as to whether or not the aircraft has altered the strategies of war or merely its tactics. If the former, then one can see airpower as a revolutionary leap along the continuum of war; but if the latter, then airpower is simply another weapon that joins the arsenal along with the rifle, machine gun, tank, submarine, and radio. This book implicitly assumes that airpower has brought about a revolution in war. It has altered virtually all aspects of war: how it is fought, by whom, against whom, and with what weapons. Flowing from those factors have been changes in training, organization, administration, command and control (C2), and doctrine. War has been fundamentally transformed by the advent of the airplane. Billy Mitchell defined airpower as “the ability to do something in the air. It consists of transporting all sorts of things by aircraft from one place to another.”1 Two British air marshals, Michael Armitage and Tony Mason, more recently wrote that airpower is “the ability to project military force by or from a platform in the third dimension above the surface of the earth.”2 In truth, both definitions, though separated in time by almost six decades, say much the same thing. Interestingly, however, most observers go on to note that airpower includes far more than air vehicles; it encompasses the personnel, organization, and infrastructure that are essential for the air vehicles to function. On a broader scale, it xi includes not only military forces but also the aviation industry, including airline companies and aircraft/engine manufacturers. On an even broader plane, airpower includes ideas—ideas on how it should be employed. Even before the aeroplane was invented, people speculated—theorized—on how it could be used in war. The purpose of this book is to trace the evolution of airpower theory from the earliest days of powered flight to the present, concluding with a chapter that speculates on the future of military space applications.3 Attempting to find the origins of airpower theory, trace it, expose it, and then examine and explain it, is no easy task. Perhaps because airpower’s history is short—all of it can be contained in a single lifetime—it lacks first-rate narrative and analytical treatments in many areas. As a result, library shelves are crammed with books about the aerodynamics of flight, technical eulogies to specific aircraft, and boys’ adventure stories. Less copious are good books on airpower history or biography. For example, after nearly five decades, we still do not have an adequate account of American airpower in the Southwest Pacific theater during World War II, or the role of George Kenney, perhaps the best operational- level air commander of the war. Similarly, we need a biography of one of the most brilliant thinkers and planners in US Air Force history; the only airman ever to serve as Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and the third youngest general in American history—Lauris Norstad. Nor do we have a complete, official history of airpower’s employment in the war in Southeast Asia. Much needs to be done to fill such gaps. The second roadblock to an effective concept of airpower employment in an evolving world is the lack of a serious study of airpower’s theoretical foundations. For example, each of the two editions of Makers of Modern Strategy, the classic compendia of military theory, includes only a single chapter out of two dozen that deals with air theory—and neither is comprehensive.4 Admittedly, however, the list of great air thinkers is not large, and in some cases the list of their writings is surprisingly thin. Nonetheless, even before the invention of the airplane, some people imagined flight as one of mankind’s potentially greatest achievements. Flight would not only free people from the tyranny of gravity and its earthly xii