Air Power, Insurgency and the “War on Terror” Edited by Joel Hayward http://www.airpowerstudies.co.uk 1 Air Power, Insurgency and the “War on Terror” Edited by Joel Hayward © 2009 Joel Hayward Credit for logo art: Robert Savannah, US FWS Disclaimer: The views expressed in this book are those of the editor and the authors identified and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Ministry of Defence, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Air Force Centre for Air Power Studies (RAF CAPS) or any other government agency. Release: All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever by any person or in any publication, or stored, transmitted or reproduced by any mechanical or digital means — audio and/or visual — including the internet, without the written permission of the Centre for Air Power Studies, except in the case of quotations embodied, in fair use, within articles and reviews for legitimate academic purposes and with the original source accurately credited. Published and distributed by: Royal Air Force Centre for Air Power Studies Royal Air Force College Cranwell Lincolnshire NG34 8HB United Kingdom Telephone +44 (0)1400 266334 DFTS 95751 6334 Fax +44 (0)1400 266265 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.airpowerstudies.co.uk 2 Air Power, Insurgency and the “War on Terror” Edited by Joel Hayward 3 Index Page Author Biographies Introduction Air Power and Insurgency: Some Preliminary Thoughts 10 Joel Hayward Chapter 1. The Air Power Profession: Adaptations to 19 Continuity and Change in the Strategic Environment Matthew R H Uttley 2. Air Power and Insurgency: Early RAF 28 Doctrine Neville Parton 3. Royal Air Force Operations in South-West 42 Arabia 1917-1967 Peter Dye 4. Unnecessary or Unsung? The Strategic Role 71 of Air Power in Britain’s Colonial Counter- Insurgencies Andrew Mumford and Caroline Kennedy- Pipe 5. “Looks Suspicious”: The US Marines’ Air 86 Campaign against the Sandino Insurgents of Nicaragua 1927-1933 Richard Grossman 6. The RAF in Counter-Insurgency Warfare: 104 British Intervention in Greece, 1944-45 Christina J M Goulter 7. Techniques and Gadgets, Hearts and Minds: 122 An Analysis of Operation Ranch Hand Evelyn Krache Morris 4 8. Night of the Flying Hooligans: Soviet Army 135 Aviation and Air Force Operations during the War in Afghanistan 1979-1989 Thomas Withington 9. Air Power’s Role in Asymmetric Operations: 151 The Case of the Second Lebanon War Sarah E Kreps 10. Air Power and Ethics in the Age of the Global 161 Salafi Jihad M A Ashraf 11. Starting with a Blank Sheet: Principles of War 184 for a New Century Phillip S Meilinger 12. Air Power and Counter-insurgency: Back to 216 the Basics James S Corum 13. The Use of Air Power Today: Have New 233 Ethical Challenges Occurred? Steinar Sanderød 14. Neglected Contributors: The Continental 248 European Air Powers Christian F Anrig Notes and 266 Sources 5 Author Biographies Dr Joel Hayward , the editor of this volume, is the Dean of the Royal Air Force College. He is also a Director of the Royal Air Force Centre for Air Power Studies (RAF CAPS) and the Head of King’s College London’s Air Power Studies Division. He is the author or editor of six books as well as many book chapters and journal articles, some of which have appeared in German, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish and Serbian translations. He lectures widely throughout Europe on air power topics. Dr Christian F Anrig is a Lecturer in Air Power Studies for King’s College London at the Royal Air Force College. Born and raised in Liechtenstein, he started his professional career in Switzerland and was a researcher at the Centre for Security Studies, ETH Zurich, from January 2004 until March 2007. His 2008 PhD analysed Continental European air power in the post-Cold War era. Group Captain Afzal Ashraf is a PhD candidate in the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence at St Andrews University where his topic of research is Al Qaeda's Ideology. Ashraf has a first degree in Aeronautical Engineering and an MA in Defence Studies. He has undertaken a range of engineering appointments throughout his RAF career. Between October 2004 and February 2005, he was appointed to the Multi-National Force in Baghdad where he worked as part of a US Army team dealing with political, military and economic strategy for Iraq. His last appointment was at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office where he was responsible for Security Sector Reform and Political Military affairs for the Iraq Directorate. Dr James S Corum is the Dean of the Baltic Defence College in Tartu, Estonia. He was formerly a military historian at the USAF School of Advanced Airpower Studies and at the US Army Command and General Staff College. He has authored seven books and more than fifty journal articles on military history, airpower and counter- insurgency. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve in 2004 with his last duty assignment in Iraq. His most recent books are Bad Strategies: How Great Powers Fail in Counterinsurgency (Zenith Press, 2008) and Wolfram von 6 Richthofen: Master of the German air War (University Press of Kansas, 2008). Air Vice-Marshal Peter Dye , retired, has published widely on various aspects of historical and contemporary air power. His PhD research at the University of Birmingham focuses on the logistics of the Royal Flying Corps. Dr Christina J M Goulter is a Senior Lecturer in the Defence Studies Department of King’s College London. Between 1994 and 1997 she was Associate Visiting Professor of Strategy at the US Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. She is a member of the Chief of the Air Staff's Air Power Workshop and is a Committee Member, Air Power Group, Royal Aeronautical Society. She is an Air Power Academic on the Higher Command and Staff Course. She has published a book and various articles and chapters on air power. Her forthcoming book deals with British intervention in the second round of the Greek Civil War, examining COIN operations and urban Close Air Support. Dr Richard Grossman is an Instructor in the Department of History at Northeastern Illinois University. He is also a long-time peace and justice activist. He specialises in modern Central American History and US Foreign Relations. His recent publications include: “The Hero Never Dies: Augusto Sandino of Nicaragua,” in Samuel Brunk and Ben Fallaw, eds., Heroes and Hero Cults in Latin America (University of Texas Press. 2006) and “The Blood of the People: The Guardia Nacional de Nicaragua’s Fifty Year War Against the People of Nicaragua, 1927-1979,” in Cecilia Menjívar and Néstor Rodriguez, eds., When States Kill: Latin America, the U.S., and Technologies of Terror (University of Texas Press, 2005). Professor Caroline Kennedy-Pipe has been Professor of International Relations & War Studies at the University of Warwick since 2007. She was previously, from 2001 to 2007, Professor of International Relations at the University of Sheffield and before that, Reader in Politics at the University of Durham. In the 1990s she was Senior Lecturer and Director of the Institute of International Studies at the University of Leeds. She was Chair of the British International Studies Association (BISA) from 2004 to 2006 and is now President of the Association. She has a first class degree in History, an MscEcon in Strategic Studies and a DPhil in International Relations. 7 Dr Sarah Kreps is an Assistant Professor in Cornell's Department of Government. Her research and teaching focus on international and intrastate conflict, military interventions, and alliance politics. She has an undergraduate degree from Harvard, a master's degree from Oxford, and a PhD from Georgetown. Between 1999 and 2006 she served as an officer in the United States Air Force. Dr Phillip S Meilinger is a retired US Air Force colonel with thirty years service as a pilot, staff officer and educator. He flew C-130s and HC-130s in Europe and the Pacific, served on the Air Staff in the Pentagon during the First Gulf War, and has taught at the Air Force Academy and the Naval War College. He was also the Dean of the School of Advanced Airpower Studies, which is the US Air Force's only graduate school for the education of future strategists. Upon retirement from the Air Force Meilinger worked as a defence analyst in Washington DC for six years. He received his PhD from the University of Michigan and is the author of five books and over seventy articles on military theory and practice. Evelyn Krache Morris is a doctoral candidate in history at Georgetown University. Her chapter is a portion of her dissertation, "Into the Wind: The Kennedy Administration and the Use of Chemicals in Vietnam". Andrew Mumford is an ESRC-sponsored PhD candidate at the University of Warwick undertaking research into the evolution of British counter-insurgency strategy in the post-war period. He holds a BA in History and Politics and an MA in Research Methods in Politics, both from the University of Sheffield. He transferred to the University of Warwick to complete his PhD in October 2007. Andrew has been a Research Fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Terrorism at Pennsylvania State University and is currently the conference programme organiser for the British International Studies Association (BISA). He is also the convenor of BISA’s Insurgencies and Small Wars working group, and from 2009 will be Books Review Editor of the journal Civil Wars. Air Commodore Neville Parton is Director, Harrier, Survival and Tornado (DHST), at Defence Equipment & Support.