Airpower and the Environment e Ecological Implications of Modern Air Warfare E J H Air University Press Air Force Research Institute Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama July 2013 Airpower and the Environment e Ecological Implications of Modern Air Warfare E J H Air University Press Air Force Research Institute Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama July 2013 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Airpower and the environment : the ecological implications of modern air warfare / edited by Joel Hayward. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-58566-223-4 1. Air power—Environmental aspects. 2. Air warfare—Environmental aspects. 3. Air warfare—Case studies. I. Hayward, Joel S. A. UG630.A3845 2012 363.739’2—dc23 2012038356 Disclaimer Opinions, conclusions, and recommendations expressed or implied within are solely those of the author 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. AFRI Air Force Research Institute Air University Press Air Force Research Institute 155 North Twining Street Maxwell AFB, AL 36112-6026 http://aupress.au.af.mil ii Contents About the Authors v Introduction: War, Airpower, and the Environment: Some Preliminary Thoughts Joel Hayward ix 1 The mpactI of War on the Environment, Public Health, and Natural Resources 1 Victor W. Sidel 2 “Very Large Secondary Effects”: Environmental Considerations in the Planning of the British Strategic Bombing Offensive against Germany, 1939–1945 9 Toby Thacker 3 The Environmental Impact of the US Army Air Forces’ Production and Training Infrastructure on the Great Plains 25 Christopher M. Rein 4 Airpower and the Targeting of a Nation’s Energy Infrastructure 43 Mark A. Olinger 5 The orestF and the Trees: Aerial Eradication in South Vietnam and Afghanistan 65 Evelyn Krache Morris 6 Airpower and the Environment: Applications in Developing Countries 83 Dan Henk iii CONTENTS 7 Airpower and Collateral Damage: Theory, Practice, and Challenges 107 Phillip S. Meilinger 8 Environmental Degradation and Conflict in Africa: How AFRICOM Can Help Africans 133 John T. Ackerman 9 Toward a Stable African Continent: The Role of AFRICOM and the USAF in Building Partnerships through Environmental Security 149 Robert R. Sands 10 “Making the Desert Green”: The Effect of Environmental Considerations on the Deployment of the Israeli Air Force in the Negev 177 Tamir Libel 11 Airpower and the Environment: Some Ecological Implications of Modern Warfare 197 Joel Hayward Abbreviations 225 Bibliography 229 Index 265 iv About the Authors Dr. Joel Hayward, the editor of this volume, is a scholar, author, and poet. His career highlights include dean of the Royal Air Force College, director of the Royal Air Force Centre for Air Power Studies (RAF CAPS), head of King’s College London’s Air Power Studies Di- vision, and professor of strategy at the Indonesian Defense Univer- sity. He is the author or editor of eight books as well as dozens of book chapters and journal articles, some of which have appeared in Ger- man, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Serbian translations. He lec- tures widely throughout Europe, Asia, and beyond on various topics. He is currently writing An Ecological History of War: The Environ- mental Consequences of Warfare from Antiquity to the Present for Cambridge University Press and Prophet and Warrior: The Conduct and Justice of Muhammad’s Military Campaigns for Kube Publishing. Dr. John T. Ackerman is an associate professor of national secu- rity studies at the Air Command and Staff College (ACSC), Maxwell AFB, Alabama. He is also the International Security Studies course director for the ACSC Department of Distance Learning. Dr. Acker- man’s research efforts include exploration into the international re- lations implications of global climate change, security implications of global and regional environmental degradation, and the national security ramifications of strategic future trends. Dr. Dan Henk, a social anthropologist, is the director of the US Air Force Culture and Language Center. He is a former US Army officer with combat experience in Vietnam and Grenada and mili- tary service in Europe and Africa. His recent publications have ex- plored defense budgeting in African countries, evolving military roles and missions, and emerging definitions of security. A mono- graph in 2006 analyzed the evolution of South Africa’s armaments industry. His latest book, The Botswana Defense Force in the Struggle for an African Environment (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), assessed the Botswana Defense Force in environmental security operations. Dr. Tamir Libel holds a BA in history from Tel Aviv University and an MA and PhD from Bar-Ilan University, both in political studies. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the BESA Center for Strategic Studies and is a Legacy Heritage Fellow at the Kinneret Research Center on Peace, Security, and Society at the Kinneret College of the v ABOUT THE AUTHORS Sea of Galilee, Israel. His PhD dissertation compares changes in Western professional military education institutions between 1991 and 2003. He has published several peer-reviewed journal articles and presented papers on military education, Israeli military doc- trine, and airpower at major international conferences. Dr. Phillip S. Meilinger is a retired US Air Force colonel who served 30 years as a command pilot, staff officer, and educator. He received a PhD in military history from the University of Michigan and has taught at the US Air Force Academy and the US Naval War College and was dean of the School of Advanced Airpower Studies. Upon retiring from the military he worked as a defense analyst in Washington, DC. He is the author of eight books and over 85 arti- cles on military theory and operations. Evelyn Krache Morris is a doctoral candidate in history at Georgetown University. Her chapter draws on research for her dis- sertation, “Into the Wind: Kennedy and the Use of Chemicals in Vietnam.” She holds a Royden B. Davis Fellowship at Georgetown. Ms. Krache Morris has a BA from Tufts University and an AM from the University of Chicago. Mark A. Olinger, a retired US Army officer, received his BS in business administration from California Polytechnic State Univer- sity, Pomona, and an MS in national security strategy from the Na- tional Defense University. He is also a graduate of the National War College. His career culminated as director of operations for the De- fense Energy Support Center, Fort Belvoir, Virginia. His publica- tions include Logistics and the Combatant Commander: Meeting the Challenge (2008) and Conceptual Underpinnings of the Air As- sault Concept: The Hogaboom, Rogers, and Howze Boards (2006). Lt Col Chris Rein is a PhD candidate at the University of Kan- sas, where Dr. Adrian Lewis advises him. From 2005 to 2008, he served as an assistant professor in the Department of History at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He earned a BS in naval architecture and marine engineering from the Mas- sachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992 and an MA in history from Louisiana State University in 2001. Dr. Robert R. Sands is a professor of anthropology at the Air Force Culture and Language Center (AFCLC) at the Air University vi ABOUT THE AUTHORS and is responsible for designing curricula that infuse concepts of culture across the spectrum of professional military education and training. He is also director of the MINERVA Initiative for Energy and Environmental Security. He received his PhD in anthropology from the University of Illinois and his MA in anthropology from Iowa State University. Dr. Sands has authored six books and numer- ous chapters and articles on topics such as environmental security, building partnerships and sustainability, sport and culture, ethno- graphic theory, and origins of religion. Victor W. Sidel, MD, is a distinguished university professor of social medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine and adjunct professor of public health at Weill Cornell Medical College. He has been president of the American Public Health Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. He is co- editor with Dr. Barry Levy of War and Public Health, Terrorism and Public Health, and Social Injustice and Public Health, all published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Toby Thacker is a lecturer in modern European history at Car- diff University. He is the author of Music after Hitler, 1945–1955 (Ashgate, 2007), The End of the Third Reich: Defeat, Denazification, and Nuremberg 1944–1946 (Tempus, 2006), and most recently, Jo- seph Goebbels: Life and Death (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009). He is embarking on a comparative study of three towns in Britain, Ger- many, and France in the aftermath of the First World War. vii Introduction War, Airpower, and the Environment: Some Preliminary Thoughts Joel Hayward Twenty years ago the Norwegian prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, stated, “We are living in an historic transitional period in which awareness of the conflict between human activities and environmental constraints is literally exploding.”1 We have come a long way in the subsequent two decades. Environmental responsi- bility now lies at the forefront of our Western world perspective and is constantly growing in importance. Ecological activism, which used to be a fringe movement, has now become mainstream.