During the decade following Operation Desert Storm, common wisdom held that air power would dominate all future conflicts. Developments in communications, satellite reconnaissance, unmanned aerial vehicles, and precision munitions convinced many that U.S. military programs should shift away from land forces and focus instead on air power. This consensus did not necessarily translate into larger budgets for the Air Force, but it did mean that successive Air Force chiefs of staff faced little difficulty in explaining the value and importance of their service.
Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have changed this situation. The centrality of land power and limited role of air power in the counter-insurgencies have put the Air Force increasingly on the defensive. It has reopened the debate about the capability and utility of air power and posed a series of challenges the service has not faced since before the first Gulf War. What role can the Air Force play in operations like those in Iraq and Afghanistan? What threats to U.S. aerospace dominance lurk in the middle and distant future? Are the transformation programs of the 1990s still appropriate for the changing international system of today?
These and other questions will be the subject of an all-day AEI conference, the fourth in a series on the future of America’s armed forces. General T. Michael Moseley, chief of staff of the Air Force, will deliver the keynote address.
