Air Control

To those who say that study of early airpower is a waste due to today's great leap in technology, I offer the observation of Michael Longoria from his study a decade ago, "We still derive military lessons and insight from the campaigns of Alexander. Thus, it is a ludicrous proposition to suggest there is nothing to learn from early airpower in war just because technology has gone far beyond the biplane era. Airpower has such a short history that no stone should be left unturned."76 As it did in Iraq eighty years ago, air control today "can offer more than it is currently being asked to deliver. A locally raised, indigenous security force, backed by expeditionary air power, could gradually replace occupying troops The indigenous population may welcome air power's relatively small cultural footprint in preference to being occupied by intrusive foreign 'storm troopers'. In other words, air control offers influence and reassurance without presence.