Air warfare is the ability to disable an opponent's military using strategic strikes from manned and unmanned aircraft. RAND has extensive experience evaluating and providing recommendations to military decisionmakers to ensure rapid, effective, and sustainable airborne deployments to counter regional threats.
REPORT
A review of recent Israeli military conflicts indicates the United States may be ill-prepared for "hybrid" warfare against state-sponsored adversaries who have a modicum of training and small force numbers, but possess advanced weapons and enough expertise to challenge the U.S. military.
NEWS RELEASE
A review of recent Israeli military conflicts indicates the United States may be ill-prepared for "hybrid" warfare against state-sponsored adversaries who have a modicum of training and small force numbers, but possess advanced weapons and enough expertise to challenge the U.S. military.
REPORT
Examines the risk of U.S.-China conflict based on a variety of theoretical works on conflict, applied to the U.S.-China relationship.
REPORT
This report examines whether a laser-beam-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) could have practical merit, focusing on the altitude, range, persistence, and power possible for a laser-photovoltaic aircraft that uses current technology. Commercially available lasers and photovoltaic cells could provide a UAV with sustained extremely high altitude and moderate persistence and payload.
REPORT
Israel's disappointing performance in its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006 did not reflect a "failure of air power," but rather a failure of Israel's political and military leaders to properly assess the enemy, set achievable goals, apply an effective strategy and adequately manage public expectations.
NEWS RELEASE
Israel's disappointing performance in its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006 did not reflect a "failure of air power," but rather a failure of Israel's political and military leaders to properly assess the enemy, set achievable goals, apply an effective strategy and adequately manage public expectations.
NEWS RELEASE
An exhaustive study of Chinese military sources reveals that a future Chinese air force campaign would, under most likely scenarios, seriously test the United States and its allies in a conflict.
REPORT
An exhaustive study of Chinese military sources reveals that a future Chinese air force campaign would, under most likely scenarios, seriously test the United States and its allies in a conflict.
REPORT
The U.S. Air Force works to build strong and enduring partnerships with allies and friendly nations, to reinforce their capacity to defend themselves and to work in coalitions, and to ensure U.S. access to foreign territories. This volume evaluates existing Air Force capacity to conduct assessments of its security cooperation programs and describes a framework for improving assessment efforts.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Surveys the subject of air power as an area of research in international security studies and provides a bibliography of significant works and useful online resources.
REPORT
Although airpower capabilities have improved dramatically in the past decade, the joint warfighting potential offered by these capabilities is not being fully realized, as illustrated during combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The authors propose several alternatives and suggest a new joint warfighting concept designed to enhance the prioritization and synchronization of joint fires and maneuver.
NEWS RELEASE
Andrew Hoehn, Director of RAND Project Air Force, made a statement today regarding articles that have appeared in the Australian press with assertions regarding a war game in which analysts from RAND were involved.
REPORT
The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy have steadily developed exceptional cross-service harmony in their conduct of integrated strike operations since the first Persian Gulf War in 1991. That close harmony contrasts sharply with the situation that prevailed throughout most of the Cold War.
REPORT
Air Force members who do not routinely cross a defended perimeter when deployed may not have received sufficient training for doing so when they need to. The authors conducted surveys and interviews to determine the kinds of experiences airmen have had “outside the wire,” worked with subject-matter experts to categorize them and suggest training levels, and developed a series of recommendations for course content and further…
REPORT
The relative roles of U.S. ground and air power in major operations and campaigns have shifted since the end of the Cold War. To assess this shift (i.e., between the Army and Air Force, respectively), the author of this report analyzed post–Cold War conflicts in Iraq (1991), Bosnia (1995), Kosovo (1999), Afghanistan (2001), and Iraq (2003). This revised edition includes updates and an index.
REPORT
The relative roles of U.S. ground and air power in major operations and campaigns have shifted since the end of the Cold War. To assess this shift (i.e., between the Army and Air Force, respectively), this executive summary discusses four of the five post–Cold War conflicts analyzed in the larger monograph: Iraq (1991), Kosovo (1999), Afghanistan (2001), and Iraq (2003).
REPORT
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 plunged the United States into a determined counteroffensive against Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist network. This report details the initial U.S. military response to those attacks, namely, the destruction of al Qaeda’s terrorist infrastructure and the removal of the ruling Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The author emphasizes several distinctive achievements in this war, including the use of…
RESEARCH BRIEF
This research brief looks at applications of U.S. air and ground power in post-Cold War operations and the implications of air power largely supplanting ground power in future deep operations.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The successful employment of German air power in the Battle of Britain was greatly hindered by abysmal intelligence. The Luftwaffe never developed an accurate picture of enemy strengths and weaknesses, and this contributed to preventing it from bringing force to bear at the decisive point of battle. Although certain aspects of British intelligence were equally flawed, it ultimately proved itself to be an indispensable adjunct to the…
RESEARCH BRIEF
This research brief describes work documented in Air Power Against Terror: America’s Conduct of Operation Enduring Freedom (MG-166-CENTAF).
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