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From Airland Battle to Airsea Battle: the Image of War in the United States Army and Air Force from 1980 to 2012

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From Airland Battle to Airsea Battle: the Image of War in the United States Army and Air Force from 1980 to 2012 Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2016 From AirLand Battle to AirSea Battle: the image of war in the United States Army and Air Force from 1980 to 2012 Fuhrer, Daniel Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-204544 Dissertation Published Version Originally published at: Fuhrer, Daniel. From AirLand Battle to AirSea Battle: the image of war in the United States Army and Air Force from 1980 to 2012. 2016, University of Zurich, Faculty of Arts. From AirLand Battle to AirSea Battle: The image of war in the United States Army and Air Force from 1980 to 2012 Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Zurich for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Daniel Fuhrer Accepted in the fall semester 2015 on the recommendation of the Doctoral Committee: Prof. Dr. Rudolf Jaun (main advisor) Prof. Dr. Sven Trakulhun Zurich, 2016 Index Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 7 Topic .............................................................................................................................................. 7 Question and limitation ............................................................................................................... 11 State of research ......................................................................................................................... 13 Theoretical approach and method .............................................................................................. 17 Quality of sources and selection ................................................................................................. 23 Structure ...................................................................................................................................... 25 I. From Vietnam to the Persian Gulf (1980-1990) .................................................................. 27 1.1. The end of the Vietnam War and the Arab-Israeli war of 1973 ................................... 27 1.2. The perception of the Soviet threat at the beginning of the 1980s ............................ 30 1.3. The emergence of the Operational Maneuver Group ................................................. 37 1.4. Active Defense: attrition warfare in Central Europe .................................................... 46 1.5. The Big Five and the Offset Strategy ............................................................................ 53 1.6. Critique of Active Defense and the concept AirLand Battle ......................................... 57 1.7. The AirLand Battle: FM 100-5 Operations from 1982 and 1986 .................................. 66 1.8. The end of the USSR and AirLand Battle Future .......................................................... 86 1.9. Interim conclusion: fighting against the Warsaw Pact................................................. 97 II. From the Revolution in Military Affairs to Effects-Based Operations (1991-2000) ........... 100 2.1. Conclusions drawn from Operation Desert Storm ..................................................... 100 2.2. The Military-Technological Revolution and the Revolution in Military Affairs .......... 113 2.3 The Air Force and the strategic attack after the Gulf War ........................................ 120 2.4 The Army‘s search for a new enemy and the concept Force XXI ............................... 128 2.5 Warden, the System-of-Systems-Analysis and the Global Attack .............................. 142 2.6 Transformation and Effects-Based Operations .......................................................... 157 2.7 Interim conclusion: towards a New American Way of War ....................................... 186 III. From Counterinsurgency to AirSea Battle (2001-2012) ............................................. 189 3.1 Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom: Transformation and Airpower test bed .... 189 3.2 Counterinsurgency, the Field Manual 3-24 and the future of war ............................ 210 3.3 The Field Manual 3-0 Operations 2008 and the emergence of the hybrid threat ..... 243 3.4 The Air Force, Unified Protector and AirSea Battle .................................................... 259 3.5 The Army and Strategic Landpower ........................................................................... 281 3.6 Interim conclusion: back to the roots all over again? ................................................ 293 IV. Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 297 2 V. Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 302 5.1 Sources ....................................................................................................................... 302 5.1.1 Manuals and official reports ...................................................................................... 302 5.1.2 Journal articles ........................................................................................................... 305 5.1.2.1 Air University Review/Airpower Journal/Aerospace Power Journal ......................... 305 5.1.2.2 Air Force Magazine ..................................................................................................... 309 5.1.2.3 Military Review .......................................................................................................... 312 5.1.2.4 Parameters ................................................................................................................. 318 5.1.2.5 USACGSC / SAMS studies ........................................................................................... 320 5.1.2.6 USAWC / SSI studies ................................................................................................... 321 5.1.2.7 RAND .......................................................................................................................... 323 5.1.2.8 Air University .............................................................................................................. 323 5.1.2.9 Others ......................................................................................................................... 323 5.1.3 Archival sources ......................................................................................................... 325 5.1.3.1 AFHRA......................................................................................................................... 325 5.1.3.2 AHEC ........................................................................................................................... 327 5.1.4 Monographs with value as a source .......................................................................... 330 5.2 Articles........................................................................................................................ 331 5.3 Monographs ............................................................................................................... 332 VI. Appendix .................................................................................................................... 335 6.1 Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. 335 6.2 Curriculum Vitae ........................................................................................................ 341 3 List of contents I. From Vietnam to the Persian Gulf (1980-1990) ............................................................................ 27 1.1. The end of the Vietnam War and the Arab-Israeli war of 1973............................................. 27 After Vietnam .................................................................................................................................... 27 Yom Kippur ........................................................................................................................................ 29 1.2. The perception of the Soviet threat at the beginning of the 1980s ...................................... 30 Fulda Gap .......................................................................................................................................... 31 Conventional Forces .......................................................................................................................... 33 Numbers ............................................................................................................................................ 35 1.3. The emergence of the Operational Maneuver Group ........................................................... 37 Deep Operation ................................................................................................................................. 38 Preventing the deployment of nuclear weapons ............................................................................... 41 1.4. Active Defense: attrition warfare in Central Europe .............................................................. 46 The concept ....................................................................................................................................... 46 The role of modern technology ........................................................................................................
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