AIR WARFARE

also called Aerial Warfare, military operations conducted by airplanes, helicopters, or other manned craft that are propelled aloft. Air warfare may be conducted against other aircraft, against targets on the ground, and against targets on the water or beneath it. Air warfare is almost entirely a creation of the 20th century, in which it has become a primary branch of military operations. The dawn of military aviation occurred at the end of the 18th century, when hot-air balloons were first developed. Balloons were subsequently used as airborne platforms to provide observation of enemy-troop movements in several 19th-century wars. In the early 20th century two lines of development bore fruit, owing to technological improvements of lighter-than-air craft (such as airships) and the invention of the internal-combustion engine. The German soldier Ferdinand von Zeppelin first flew one of his rigid airships in 1900, and the Wright brothers in the United States made the first successful powered flight of a heavier-than-air craft in 1903. Military interest in aviation was stimulated by these endeavours, and thereafter developments were fairly rapid. By World War I, flying units existed in the British, French, German, Russian, and Italian armed forces. The aircraft used in World War I were mostly biplanes, i.e., craft having two sets of wing surfaces, usually mounted one above the other. These planes were constructed of wooden frames and had fabric skins. Initially aircraft were used only for reconnaissance duties, but the military soon began equipping planes with machine guns so that they could shoot down enemy aircraft and thus gain control of the air. The resulting dogfights between opposing fighter planes marked the start of aerial combat. Zeppelin airships were used on medium-distance raids to bomb cities, and the Allies built airplanes large and powerful enough to drop significant loads of bombs on railways and airfields. By the war's end, air warfare had become a useful but not an essential form of military operations. The two most important types of military aircraft had emerged in World War I. Fighter airplanes' primary mission was to secure the control of important airspaces by attacking and destroying all types of enemy aircraft that may be operating in those airspaces. Fighters had to be fast, powerful, and highly maneuverable planes equipped with specialized weapons for shooting down enemy aircraft. Bomber planes' mission was to destroy ground targets by dropping bombs on them. Bombers were generally larger, heavier, slower planes that needed protection by fighters against enemy-fighter attack. The period between the world wars was marked by important technological advances in military aircraft. Highly maneuverable but slow biplanes were replaced in the 1930s by much faster monoplanes, and the durable all-metal fuselage (which needed no internal bracing) replaced the flimsy wooden frames and cloth skins of previous aircraft. Streamlining and new high-performance engines gave military aircraft greater speeds, and the mounting of machine guns or small-diameter cannon in the wings (rather than behind the propeller) became a standard practice. Bombers were equipped with bombsights and bomb racks and bays and could thus carry greater loads of bombs and drop them more accurately. A new type of naval vessel, the aircraft carrier, was developed to serve as a floating platform from which aircraft could mount air operations at sea. The air warfare in World War II was on a greater scale than any seen before or since that conflict. Control of the air was an integral part of the Germans' blitzkrieg tactics, in which fighters and bombers softened up the enemy's forward defensive positions and disrupted his lines of communication and supply in the rear. The first major battle fought exclusively in the air, the Battle of Britain (1940), ended in victory for the British when their fighter forces were able to retain control of England's airspace in the face of concentrated German bomber and fighter raids. Another milestone in air warfare was the Battle of Midway (1942), the first naval battle fought between aircraft carriers, and the first in which the combat consisted exclusively of bombing raids carried out over distances of several hundred miles. The third milestone was the Allies' strategic air offensive against the German homeland in 194345, in which massive air fleets attacked Germany's cities, infrastructure, and industrial capacity. Strategic bombing took on a new significance with the dropping of American atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, thus ending World War II. In 1944 the development of the world's first jet aircraft foreshadowed the most important postwar developments in military aircraft. Jet-powered aircraft could fly much faster than even the fastest propeller-driven planes, and by the early 1960s the major air forces of the world had totally converted to jet aircraft. Long-range jet bombers were developed that could deliver nuclear bombs over intercontinental distances. The fastest fighter aircraft could fly at two or even three times the speed of sound and carried armaments of guided missiles and cruise missiles in addition to machine guns and automatic cannon. Sophisticated radar and other electronics systems were developed to enable pilots to detect and hit their targets amidst the quicker tempo of jet-powered aerial combat. Jet aircraft were extensively employed in a continuing series of limited wars, including the Korean War (195053), the Vietnam War (195475), the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, and the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan (197989). In the meantime, new types of aircraft were developed or adapted for military use. Helicopters were discovered to be extremely useful for the speedy evacuation of wounded from a battle zone. Highly maneuverable helicopter gunships were developed to strafe infantry or other ground targets at close quarters. Vertical (VTOL) or short (STOL) take-off-and-landing aircraft have takeoff capabilities that are similar to those of helicopters but perform as ordinary jet aircraft after having gained altitude. See also attack aircraft; bomber; fighter aircraft. also called aerial warfare the tactics of military operations conducted by airplanes, helicopters, or other manned craft that are propelled aloft. Air warfare may be conducted against other aircraft, against targets on the ground, and against targets on the water or beneath it. Air warfare is almost entirely a creation of the 20th century, in which it has become a primary branch of military operations. Additional reading Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith, Aviation: An Historical Survey from Its Origins to the End of World War II, 2nd ed. (1985), and Flight Through the Ages: A Complete, Illustrated Chronology from the Dreams of Early History to the Age of Space Exploration (1974), provide basic introduction to the development of airplanes as a military force. Robin Higham, Air Power: A Concise History, 3rd rev. ed. (1988); and Bill Gunston (ed.), Aviation: The Complete Story of Man's Conquest of the Air (1978), are general surveys. Edward H. Sims, Fighter Tactics and Strategy, 19141970, 2nd ed. (1980); and Robert L. Shaw, Fighter Combat: The Art and Science of Air-to-Air Warfare, 2nd ed. (1988), focus on fighter planes. R.A. Mason (ed.), War in the Third Dimension: Essays in Contemporary Air Power (1986), emphasizes continuity, innovation, and convergence in development of military aeronautics. Lon O. Nordeen, Air Warfare in the Missile Age (1985), provides an excellent overview of air tactics from 1964 to the 1980s. David MacIsaac