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Jungle Skippers: The 317th Troop Carrier Group in the Southwest Pacific and Their Legacy
"This study examines the 317th Troop Carrier Group's experience in the southwest Pacific during World War II to identify its long-term impacts. The work focuses on the 317th's role in two specific events, the Battle of Wau in January 1943, and the airborne assault at Nadzab the following September. Each event highlights a specific half of the combat airlift dichotomy of airland and airdrop. In airland, troops are moved by aircraft, and disembark after the aircraft reaches the ground. In airdrop, troops are moved by air transport and landed by means of parachutes. The author assesses how the convergence of opportunity, capability, and conditions enabled the 317th Troop Carrier Group to employ airland and airdrop to make a successful contribution beyond the immediate battlefield. This study demonstrates that the 317th's actions in both the Battle of Wau and the assault at Nadzab directly contributed to success at the engagement, campaign, theater, and institutional levels. Failure or limited success in similar, contemporaneous operations in the European theater allowed the actions at Wau and Nadzab to hold lasting significance. The troop carriers' performance at the Battle of Wau and the assault on Nadzab represents the first truly successful execution of combat employment via airland and airdrop respectively. Together, they represent the point of origin of today's combat-employment mission. From here, we can see the doctrinal persistence and recurring themes of this application of airpower."
Air University (U.S.). School of Advanced Airpower Studies
Poole, John
2014-06
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Biological Warfare and American Strategic Risk
From the thesis abstract: "After the Cold War and absent a monolithic threat, the Department of Defense adopted a threat assessment based on 'weapons of mass destruction' (WMD) called Proliferation: Threat and Response. Further, President Clinton identified generic WMD as the greatest potential threat to global security. This deluge of rhetoric associated with the diplomatic term of art 'weapons of mass destruction' and the doctrinal amalgamation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons obscures and confuses understanding of modern biological warfare. Unfortunately, most military and national security leaders do not consider biological weapons as independently decisive; instead, they view them as they regard airpower, as simply tools to be used on the battlefield. As this thesis shows, however, biological warfare is fundamentally distinct from chemical and nuclear warfare and must be treated as such to fully understand its nature and prepare its defense. This thesis disengages biological weapons from WMD and focuses on biological warfare's unique characteristics and constraints. Biological weapons in the hands of state or non-state actors pose intricate and multi-level national security conundrums. The ubiquitous and duel-use [sic] biotechnological revolution is fundamentally altering mankind's relationship with life on Earth and portends a future in which any actor may be able to create and disseminate mass casualty biological weapons. Using analogies from other strategic forms-airpower and nuclear warfare-this thesis delves into the complex enigmas of biological warfare counterproliferation, deterrence and defense, offering novel approaches to America's most dangerous security threat."
Air University (U.S.). School of Advanced Airpower Studies
Hickman, Donald C.
2000-06
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Policy, Influence, and Diplomacy: Space as a National Power Element
From the thesis abstract: "This study investigates how United States space systems can be used to directly achieve diplomatic objectives. While space systems are widely acknowledged as vital enablers of terrestrial-based forces, they are often overlooked as a critical component of national power capable of directly pursuing national objectives. A brief review of space doctrine and policy from the Department of Defense, Joint Staff, Unified Command, and Air Force perspectives reinforces the thesis that space systems' ability to independently shape events and achieve objectives, beyond their support to terrestrial forces, is overlooked. Historical precedent for the use of space systems and other military forces in directly supporting diplomatic objectives is then established through case studies on Sputnik's effect on global affairs, the use of U-2 imagery during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the use of the United States Navy as a tool of diplomacy. The study then presents the Space-Diplomacy model that posits seven facets to the diplomatic power of space assets and shows when they can be effective over the spectrum of conflict: prestige, technology partnerships, access to space services, legal precedent, objective information, presence, and threat of punishment. Based on the model, the study offers six ways in which the United States could better leverage its existing space assets for diplomatic advantage."
Air University (U.S.). School of Advanced Airpower Studies
Whiting, Stephen N.
2002-06
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Enduring Framework for Assessing the Contributions of Force Structure to a Coercive Strategy
From the Thesis Abstract: "The US Department of Defense is still struggling to define itself in the postcold-war age--over a decade after the new period has begun. With a strategy and force structure review occurring on average every two years, the military has still not been able to generate a consistent basis on which to justify its force structure or its strategy. This study uses a decision analysis framework as a foundation for creating such a basis. Instead of depending on leadership for guidance, which changes with destabilizing regularity, this study relies on the theories of coercion that began in the cold war era. These theories have particular value today, especially in light of the many innovations the nation has undertaken in the past decade. Modified and translated for modern conventional warfare, these theories form the basis for a framework of enduring requirements for any military force that undertakes a coercive strategy. This study develops this framework to the operational level of analysis, and it is applied to two developmental air platforms, the Global Hawk Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and the Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle. The unique contributions of these two platforms become apparent using this framework, and the value of the framework is depicted as it points to areas for future improvement in these systems. Finally, the study makes a comparison between this framework and traditional analyses and strategy review processes, and it shows the unique and enduring value of this analytical framework for assessing the contributions of airpower platforms."
Air University (U.S.). School of Advanced Airpower Studies
Beene, Eric A.
2002-07
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Germinating a New SEAD: The Implications of Executing
the SEAD Mission in a UCAV
From the thesis abstract: "This study attempts to identify and explore the implications of executing the suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) mission in an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) in 2015. To do this the thesis first explores the history of both the UCAV and the SEAD mission. Next, it discusses the three options being considered by the USAF to execute the 2015 SEAD mission: a space-based option, modernized manned aircraft with advanced weapons, and a UCAV. The author then analyzes the three options in their ability to effectively execute the SEAD mission based on fiscal cost, risk to human life, feasibility, and mission effectiveness. He then discusses other issues the USAF should consider before implementing the UCAV option. The study concludes by recommending the UCAV as the most effective SEAD option for 2015, with a few caveats."
Air University (U.S.). School of Advanced Airpower Studies
Hathaway, David C.
2001-06
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Stealth, Precision, and the Making of American Foreign Policy
From the thesis abstract: "The end of the Cold War greatly reduced the risk that a limited, peripheral conflict would escalate to a major war between the great powers. It would seem, with this constraint removed, that the United States should be freer to intervene militarily in the affairs of other peoples. Indeed, in the last decade of the twentieth century, the United States intervened militarily as many times as it had during the full forty years of the Cold War. Alternatively, the decision to intervene had always been based on the best interest of America. With the fall of the Soviet Union, America's most vital national interest, its security, was assured. Logic would dictate a less-interventionist foreign policy, as the need to intervene was drastically reduced. This study examines the paradox by investigating the presidential decision making process that leads to military intervention, determining the relative weight for intervention before and after the Cold War, and assessing the importance of technology - in this case the maturity of the combination of stealth aircraft and precision guided weapons - that made the president's decision to intervene after 1990 easier."
Air University (U.S.). School of Advanced Airpower Studies
O'Mara, Raymond P.
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