1.
LTV A-7 Corsair II
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The LTV A-7 Corsair II was an American carrier-capable subsonic light attack aircraft designed by Ling-Temco-Vought to replace the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk. Its airframe design was a smaller version of the supersonic Vought F-8 Crusader. The Corsair II initially entered service with the United States Navy during the Vietnam War and it was later adopted by the United States Air Force, including the Air National Guard, to replace the Douglas A-1 Skyraider, and North American F-100 Super Sabre. The aircraft was exported to Greece in the 1970s. In 1962, the United States Navy began preliminary work on the VAX, particular emphasis was placed on accurate delivery of weapons to reduce the cost per target. The requirements were finalized in 1963, announcing the VAL competition, to minimize costs, all proposals had to be based on existing designs. Vought, Douglas Aircraft, Grumman and North American Aviation responded, the Vought proposal was based on the successful Vought F-8 Crusader fighter, having a similar configuration, but shorter and more stubby, with a rounded nose. It was selected as the winner on 11 February 1964, and on 19 March the company received a contract for the batch of aircraft. In 1965, the received the popular name Corsair II. Compared to the F-8 fighter, the A-7 had a shorter, broader fuselage, the wing had a longer span, and the unique, variable incidence feature of the F-8 wing was omitted. The aircraft was fitted with an AN/APQ-116 radar, later followed by the AN/APQ-126 and it was the first U. S. aircraft to have a modern head-up display, now a standard instrument which displayed information such as dive angle, airspeed, altitude, drift and aiming reticle. The integrated navigation system allowed for another innovation – the projected map display system which accurately showed aircraft position on two different map scales, the A-7 had a fast and smooth development. The YA-7A made its first flight on 27 September 1965, the first Navy A-7 squadrons reached operational status on 1 February 1967, and began combat operations over Vietnam in December of that year. The A-7 offered a plethora of cutting-edge avionics compared to contemporary aircraft and this included data link capabilities that, among other features, provided fully hands-off carrier landing capability when used in conjunction with its approach power compensator or auto throttle. Other notable and highly advanced equipment was a map display located just below the radar scope. The map display was slaved to the navigation system and provided a high-resolution map image of the aircrafts position superimposed over TPC/JNC charts. Moreover, when slaved to the auto pilot, the inertial navigation system could fly the aircraft hands off to up to nine individual waypoints. Typical inertial drift was minimal for newly manufactured models and the measurement system accepted fly over, radar
2.
North Vietnam
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North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, was a state in Southeast Asia which existed from 1945 to 1976. Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh declared independence from France on 2 September 1945, France reasserted its colonial dominance and a war ensued between France and the Viet Minh, led by Ho. The Viet Minh was a coalition of nationalist groups, mostly led by communists, in February 1951, the communists announced the creation of the Lao Động Party, gradually marginalizing non-communists in the Viet Minh. Between 1946 and 1954, the Viet Minh captured and controlled most of the areas of Vietnam. In 1954, after the French were defeated, the negotiation of the Geneva Accords ended the war between France and the Viet Minh and granted Vietnam independence. The Geneva Accords divided the country provisionally into northern and southern zones, the northern zone was commonly called North Vietnam and the southern zone South Vietnam, or, formally, the Republic of Vietnam. Supervision of the implementation of the Geneva Accords was the responsibility of an International Commission consisting of India, Canada, and Poland. In July 1955, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem and he said that South Vietnam had not signed the Geneva accords and was not bound by it. With the failure to reunify Vietnam by elections, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam attempted to unify the country by force in the Vietnam War, North Vietnam also supported indigenous communist rebels in Cambodia and Laos against their respective U. S, -backed governments. The war ended when Democratic Republic of Vietnam forces and the Viet Cong defeated the Republic of Vietnam, Viet Minh leader Hồ Chí Minh became head of the government. U. S. President Franklin Roosevelt had spoken against French rule in Indochina, the Hanoi government of Ho Chi Minh claimed dominion over all of Vietnam, but during this time South Vietnam was in profound political disorder. The successive collapse of French, then Japanese power, followed by the dissension among the factions in Saigon had been accompanied by widespread violence in the countryside. On September 12,1945, the first British troops arrived in Saigon, on September 23,28 days after the people of Saigon seized political power, French troops occupied the police stations, the post office, and other public buildings. In June 1946, Chinese Nationalist troops evacuated Hanoi, and on the 15th of June, after the departure of the British in 1946, the French controlled a part of Cochinchina, South Central Coast, Central Highlands since the end Southern Resistance War. In January 1946, the Viet Minh held an election to establish a National Assembly, when France declared Cochinchina, the southern third of Vietnam, a separate state as the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina in June 1946, Vietnamese nationalists reacted with fury. In November, the National Assembly adopted the first Constitution of the Republic, the French reoccupied Hanoi and the First Indochina War followed. Following the Chinese Communist Revolution, Chinese communist forces arrived on the border in 1949, Chinese aid revived the fortunes of the Viet Minh and transformed it from a guerrilla militia into a standing army. The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 transformed what had been a struggle into a Cold War battleground
3.
World War I
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World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilised in one of the largest wars in history and it was one of the deadliest conflicts in history, and paved the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved. The war drew in all the worlds great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances, the Allies versus the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. These alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war, Italy, Japan, the trigger for the war was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914. This set off a crisis when Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia. Within weeks, the powers were at war and the conflict soon spread around the world. On 25 July Russia began mobilisation and on 28 July, the Austro-Hungarians declared war on Serbia, Germany presented an ultimatum to Russia to demobilise, and when this was refused, declared war on Russia on 1 August. Germany then invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, after the German march on Paris was halted, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that changed little until 1917. On the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, in November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Sinai. In 1915, Italy joined the Allies and Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, Romania joined the Allies in 1916, after a stunning German offensive along the Western Front in the spring of 1918, the Allies rallied and drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives. By the end of the war or soon after, the German Empire, Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Empire, national borders were redrawn, with several independent nations restored or created, and Germanys colonies were parceled out among the victors. During the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the Big Four imposed their terms in a series of treaties, the League of Nations was formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such a conflict. This effort failed, and economic depression, renewed nationalism, weakened successor states, and feelings of humiliation eventually contributed to World War II. From the time of its start until the approach of World War II, at the time, it was also sometimes called the war to end war or the war to end all wars due to its then-unparalleled scale and devastation. In Canada, Macleans magazine in October 1914 wrote, Some wars name themselves, during the interwar period, the war was most often called the World War and the Great War in English-speaking countries. Will become the first world war in the sense of the word. These began in 1815, with the Holy Alliance between Prussia, Russia, and Austria, when Germany was united in 1871, Prussia became part of the new German nation. Soon after, in October 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiated the League of the Three Emperors between the monarchs of Austria-Hungary, Russia and Germany
4.
Close air support
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The requirement for detailed integration because of proximity, fires or movement is the determining factor. CAS may need to be conducted during shaping operations with Special Operations Forces, if the mission requires detailed integration with the fire, the term battlefield air interdiction is not currently used in U. S. joint doctrine. Close air support requires excellent coordination with ground forces, in advanced modern militaries, this coordination is typically handled by specialists such as Joint Fires Observers s, Joint Terminal Attack Controllers s, and Forward Air Controllers s. The use of aircraft in the air support of ground forces dates back to World War I. By that point, the startling and demoralizing effect that attack from the air could have on the troops in the trenches had been made clear, at the Battle of the Somme,18 British armed reconnaissance planes strafed the enemy trenches after conducting surveillance operations. The success of this improvised assault spurred innovation on both sides, in 1917, following the Second Battle of the Aisne the British debuted the first ground-attack aircraft, a modified F. E 2b fighter carrying 20-lb bombs and mounted machine-guns. After exhausting their ammunition the planes returned to base for refuelling and rearming, other modified planes used in this role were the Airco DH.5 and Sopwith Camel—the latter was particularly successful in this role. Aircraft support was first integrated into a plan on a large scale at the 1917 Battle of Cambrai. British doctrine at the time came to two forms of air support, trench strafing, and ground strafing —attacking tactical ground targets away from the land battle. As well as strafing with machine-guns, the planes were modified with bomb racks, the Germans were also quick to adopt this new form of warfare and were able to deploy aircraft in a similar capacity at Cambrai. While the British used single-seater planes, the Germans preferred the use of heavier two-seaters with a machine gunner in the aft cockpit. The Germans adopted the powerful Hannover CL. II and built the first purpose built ground attack aircraft, during the 1918 Spring Offensive the Germans employed 30 squadrons, or Schlasta, of ground attack fighters and were able to achieve some initial tactical success. The British later deployed the Sopwith Salamander as a ground attack aircraft. It was during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of 1918 that Close Air Support was first proven to be an important factor in ultimate victory, combined with a ground assault led by General Edmund Allenby, three Turkish armies soon collapsed into a full rout. In the words of the squadrons official report, No 1 Squadron made six heavy raids during the day. The panic and slaughter beggared description, the close air support doctrine was further developed in the interwar period. Most theorists advocated the adaptation of fighters or light bombers into the role, during this period, airpower advocates crystallized their views on the role of air-power in warfare. Aviators and ground officers developed largely opposing views on the importance of CAS, the inter-war period saw the use of CAS in a number of conflicts, including the Russo-Polish War, the Spanish Civil War, colonial wars in the Middle East and the Gran Chaco War
5.
Strategic bombing
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One of the aims of war is to demoralize the enemy, so that peace or surrender becomes preferable to continuing the conflict. Strategic bombing has been used to this end, because the term has pejorative connotations, some, including the Allies of World War II, have preferred to use euphemisms such as will to resist and morale bombings. The theoretical distinction between tactical and strategic air warfare was developed between the two world wars, some leading theorists of strategic air warfare during this period were the Italian Giulio Douhet, the Trenchard school in the United Kingdom, and General Billy Mitchell in the United States. One of the aims of war is to demoralise the enemy, facing continual death, when such attacks were tried in the 1930s—in the Spanish Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War—they were ineffective. Commentators observed the failures and some air forces, such as the Luftwaffe, Terror bombing is an emotive term used for aerial attacks planned to weaken or break enemy morale. Use of the term to refer to aerial attacks implies the attacks are criminal according to the law of war, or if within the laws of war are nevertheless a moral crime. The Allied governments usually described their bombing of cities with other such as area bombing or precision bombing. He then added in a remark that the raid also helped destroy what is left of German morale. Howard Cowan, an Associated Press war correspondent, filed a story about the Dresden raid, there were followup newspaper editorials on the issue and a longtime opponent of strategic bombing, Richard Stokes, MP, asked questions in the House of Commons on 6 March. The first bombing of a city was on the night of 24–25 August 1914, the first effective strategic bombing was pioneered by the Royal Naval Air Service in 1914. The mission was to attack the Zeppelin production lines and their sheds at Cologne, led by Charles Rumney Samson the force of four aircraft inflicted minor damage on the sheds. The raid was repeated a month later with more success. Within a year or so, specialized aircraft and dedicated bomber squadrons were in service on both sides. These were generally used for bombing, the aim was that of directly harming enemy troops, strongpoints, or equipment. Eventually, attention turned to the possibility of causing harm to the enemy by systematically attacking vital rear-area resources. The most well known attacks were those done by Zeppelins over England through the course of the war, in all, four people were killed and sixteen injured, and monetary damage was estimated at £7,740. German airships also bombed on other fronts, for example in January 1915 on Liepāja in Latvia, in 1915 there were 19 more raids, in which 37 tons of bombs were dropped, killing 181 people and injuring 455. London was accidentally bombed in May, and in July the Kaiser allowed directed raids against urban centers, there were 23 airship raids in 1916, in which 125 tons of ordnance were dropped, killing 293 people and injuring 691
6.
Strafing
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Strafing is the military practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons ranging from machine guns to autocannons or rotary cannons. This means that, although ground attack using automatic weapons fire is often accompanied with bombing or rocket fire. The term strafing can cover either fixed guns, or aimable guns, some fixed wing aircraft, like fighter-bombers, are capable of flying either air-combat missions or ground attack missions, while others are dedicated ground-attack types. Less commonly, the term can be used—by extension—to describe high-speed firing runs by any land or naval craft using smaller-caliber weapons, the word is an adaptation of German strafen, to punish, specifically from the humorous adaptation of the World War I German catchphrase Gott strafe England. While the earliest use of aircraft was for observation and directing of artillery. Trenches and supply columns were attacked from the air in the second half of the war. Strafing with machine guns was used when precision was needed, but non-strafing attack methods were preferred for targets, area targets. The German army was the first to introduce a class of aircraft designed for strafing. Planes built specifically for strafing include the German World War I Junkers J. I, the Junkers J. I. had two downward-facing machine guns that were used for strafing. The Luftwaffes best strafing plane was the Junkers Ju-87 Stuka, the Ju-87 G variant had two Rheinmetall-Borsig 37mm Flak 18 guns each mounted under the wing. For the RAF the best ground attack plane was the Hawker Hurricane II and it was armed with four 20 mm wing-mounted cannon. The Hawker Typhoon was used in the stages of the war. It had four 60 lb RP-3 rockets, for the US, the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt was one of the key ground attack planes. It was armed with eight.50 calibre machine guns, another aircraft that was important in that role was the North American B-25 Mitchell. It was used for strafing runs in the Pacific War. The Russian Ilyushin IL-2 Sturmovik was one of the key Russian ground attack planes and it had heavy armour around the engine, underside and canopy. It was armed with 20mm to 23mm to 37mm cannons depending on the model, in the Vietnam War, this was found to be a deficiency, and improvised gunships had to be used in strafing missions. The A-10 was built to attack tanks, armored vehicles, the A-10 was designed around the GAU-8 Avenger, a 30 mm rotary cannon that is the airplanes primary armament and the heaviest such automatic cannon mounted on an aircraft
7.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
8.
North African Campaign
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The North African Campaign of the Second World War took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco, the campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had colonial interests in Africa dating from the late 19th century. The Allied war effort was dominated by the British Commonwealth and exiles from German-occupied Europe, the United States entered the war in December 1941 and began direct military assistance in North Africa on 11 May 1942. Fighting in North Africa started with the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940, on 14 June, the British Armys 11th Hussars crossed the border from Egypt into Libya and captured the Italian Fort Capuzzo. Information gleaned via British Ultra code-breaking intelligence proved critical to Allied success in North Africa, victory for the Allies in this campaign immediately led to the Italian Campaign, which culminated in the downfall of the fascist government in Italy and the elimination of a German ally. On 10 May 1940, the Wehrmacht had started the Battle of France, one month later, it was plain to see that France would have to surrender within two weeks. On 10 June 1940, the Kingdom of Italy aligned itself with Nazi Germany and declared war upon France, British forces based in Egypt were ordered to undertake defensive measures, but to act as non-provocatively as possible. However, on 11 June they began a series of raids against Italian positions in Libya, following the defeat of France on 25 June, Italian forces in Tripolitania—facing French troops based in Tunisia—redeployed to Cyrenaica to reinforce the Italian Tenth Army. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini ordered the Tenth Army to invade Egypt by 8 August, two days later, no invasion having been launched, Mussolini ordered Marshal Graziani that, the moment German forces launched Operation Sea Lion, he was to attack. The battle plan was to advance along the road, while limited armoured forces operated on the desert flank. To counter the Italian advance, Wavell ordered his forces to harass the advancing Italians, falling back towards Mersa Matruh. Positioned on the flank was the 7th Armoured Division, which would strike the flank of the Italian force. By 16 September, the Italian force had advanced to Maktila, around 80 mi west of Mersa Matruh, in response to the dispersed Italian camps, the British planned a limited five-day attack, Operation Compass, to strike at these fortified camps one by one. The British Commonwealth force, totalling 36,000 men, attacked the forward elements of the 10-division-strong Italian army on 9 December, following their initial success, the forces of Operation Compass pursued the retreating Italian forces. In January, the port at Bardia was taken, soon followed by the seizure of the fortified port of Tobruk. Some 40,000 Italians were captured in and around the two ports, with the remainder of the Tenth Army retreating along the coast road back to El Agheila. Richard OConnor sent the 7th Armoured Division across the desert, with a reconnaissance group reaching Beda Fomm some ninety minutes before the Italians. Although desperate attempts were made to overcome the British force at the Battle of Beda Fomm, the Italians were unable to break through, and the remnants of the retreating army surrendered
9.
Italian Campaign (World War II)
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The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war in Europe. It is estimated that between September 1943 and April 1945, some 60, 000–70,000 Allied and 60, overall Allied casualties during the campaign totaled about 320,000 and the corresponding German figure was well over 600,000. Fascist Italy, prior to its collapse, suffered about 200,000 casualties, mostly POWs taken in the Allied invasion of Sicily, including more than 40,000 killed or missing. Besides them, over 150,000 Italian civilians died, as did 15,197 anti-Fascist partisans and 13,021 troops of the Italian Social Republic. The campaign ended when Army Group C surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on May 2,1945, the independent states of San Marino and the Vatican, both surrounded by Italian territory, also suffered damage during the campaign. Even prior to victory in the North African Campaign in May 1943, the British, especially the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, advocated their traditional naval-based peripheral strategy. The United States, with a larger army, favoured a more direct method of fighting the main force of the German Army in Northern Europe. The ability to such a campaign depended on first winning the Battle of the Atlantic. There was even pressure from some Latin American countries to stage an invasion of Spain, the British argued that the presence of large numbers of troops trained for amphibious landings in the Mediterranean made a limited-scale invasion possible and useful. A contributing factor was Franklin D. Roosevelts desire to keep US troops active in the European theatre during 1943 and it was hoped that an invasion might knock Italy out of the conflict, or at least increase the pressure on them and weaken them further. A combined Allied invasion of Sicily began on 10 July 1943 with both amphibious and airborne landings at the Gulf of Gela, the land forces involved were the U. S. Seventh Army, under Lieutenant General George S. Patton, the original plan contemplated a strong advance by the British northwards along the east coast to Messina, with the Americans in a supporting role along their left flank. The defending German and Italian forces were unable to prevent the Allied capture of the island, but succeeded in evacuating most of their troops to the mainland, the Allied forces gained experience in opposed amphibious operations, coalition warfare and mass airborne drops. Forces of the British Eighth Army, still under Montgomery, landed in the toe of Italy on 3 September 1943 in Operation Baytown, the armistice was publicly announced on 8 September by two broadcasts, first by General Eisenhower and then by a proclamation by Marshal Badoglio. Although the German forces prepared to defend without Italian assistance, only two of their divisions opposite the Eighth Army and one at Salerno were not tied up disarming the Royal Italian Army, on 9 September, forces of the U. S. Fifth Army, under Lieutenant General Mark W, although none of the northern reserves were made available to the German 10th Army, it nevertheless came close to repelling the Salerno landing, due mainly to the cautious command of Clark. As the Allies advanced, they encountered increasingly difficult terrain, the Apennine Mountains form a spine along the Italian peninsula offset somewhat to the east, the rivers were subject to sudden and unexpected flooding, which constantly thwarted the Allied commanders plans. This would make the most of the natural geography of Central Italy, whilst denying the Allies the easy capture of a succession of airfields
10.
Operation Overlord
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Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings, a 1, 200-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving more than 5,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June, the decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion in 1944 was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. The coast of Normandy was chosen as the site of the invasion, with the Americans assigned to land at sectors codenamed Utah and Omaha, the British at Sword and Gold, and the Canadians at Juno. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a military deception, Operation Bodyguard. This misled the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings, Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in charge of developing fortifications all along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an invasion. A failed counterattack by German forces on 8 August left 50,000 soldiers of the 7th Army trapped in the Falaise pocket, the Allies launched an invasion of southern France on 15 August, and the Liberation of Paris followed on 25 August. German forces retreated across the Seine on 30 August 1944, marking the close of Operation Overlord, in June 1940, Germanys leader Adolf Hitler had triumphed in what he called the most famous victory in history—the fall of France. The defending British Expeditionary Force, trapped along the northern coast of France, was able to evacuate over 338,000 troops to England in the Dunkirk evacuation. After the Germans invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin began pressing for the creation of a front in Western Europe. Two tentative plans code-named Operation Roundup and Operation Sledgehammer were put forward for 1942–43, instead, the Allies launched the invasion of French North Africa in November 1942, the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, and invaded Italy in September. These operations provided the troops with valuable experience in amphibious warfare, the decision to undertake a cross-channel invasion within the next year was taken at the Trident Conference in Washington in May 1943. Churchill favoured making the main Allied thrust into Germany from the Mediterranean theatre, but was over-ruled by his American allies, British Lieutenant-General Frederick E. Morgan was appointed Chief of Staff, Supreme Allied Commander, to begin detailed planning. The initial plans were constrained by the number of landing craft, most of which were already committed in the Mediterranean. In part because of lessons learned in the Dieppe Raid of 19 August 1942, the failure at Dieppe also highlighted the need for adequate artillery and air support, particularly close air support, and specialised ships able to travel extremely close to shore. Morgan considered four sites for the landings, Brittany, the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy, as Brittany and Cotentin are peninsulas, it would have been possible for the Germans to cut off the Allied advance at a relatively narrow isthmus, so these sites were rejected. The Pas de Calais is the closest point in continental Europe to Britain and was the location of sites for V-1 and V-2 rockets. The Germans considered it to be the most likely initial landing zone, Normandy was hence chosen as the landing site
11.
Korean War
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The Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union gave some assistance. Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as a result of an agreement with the United States, U. S. forces subsequently moved into the south. By 1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was split into two regions, with separate governments, both governments claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither side accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union, on that day, the United Nations Security Council recognized this North Korean act as invasion and called for an immediate ceasefire. On 27 June, the Security Council adopted S/RES/83, Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea and decided the formation, twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing 88% of the UNs military personnel. After the first two months of war, South Korean forces were on the point of defeat, forced back to the Pusan Perimeter, in September 1950, an amphibious UN counter-offensive was launched at Inchon, and cut off many North Korean troops. Those who escaped envelopment and capture were rapidly forced back north all the way to the border with China at the Yalu River, at this point, in October 1950, Chinese forces crossed the Yalu and entered the war. Chinese intervention triggered a retreat of UN forces which continued until mid-1951, after these reversals of fortune, which saw Seoul change hands four times, the last two years of fighting became a war of attrition, with the front line close to the 38th parallel. The war in the air, however, was never a stalemate, North Korea was subject to a massive bombing campaign. Jet fighters confronted each other in combat for the first time in history. The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when an armistice was signed, the agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war. Periodic clashes, many of which are deadly, continue to the present, in the U. S. the war was initially described by President Harry S. Truman as a police action as it was an undeclared military action, conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. In South Korea, the war is referred to as 625 or the 6–2–5 Upheaval. In North Korea, the war is referred to as the Fatherland Liberation War or alternatively the Chosǒn War. In China, the war is called the War to Resist U. S
12.
Vietnam War
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It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam and the government of South Vietnam. The war is considered a Cold War-era proxy war. As the war continued, the actions of the Viet Cong decreased as the role. U. S. and South Vietnamese forces relied on air superiority and overwhelming firepower to conduct search and destroy operations, involving ground forces, artillery, in the course of the war, the U. S. conducted a large-scale strategic bombing campaign against North Vietnam. The North Vietnamese government and the Viet Cong were fighting to reunify Vietnam and they viewed the conflict as a colonial war and a continuation of the First Indochina War against forces from France and later on the United States. The U. S. government viewed its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam and this was part the domino theory of a wider containment policy, with the stated aim of stopping the spread of communism. Beginning in 1950, American military advisors arrived in what was then French Indochina, U. S. involvement escalated in the early 1960s, with troop levels tripling in 1961 and again in 1962. Regular U. S. combat units were deployed beginning in 1965, despite the Paris Peace Accord, which was signed by all parties in January 1973, the fighting continued. In the U. S. and the Western world, a large anti-Vietnam War movement developed as part of a larger counterculture, the war changed the dynamics between the Eastern and Western Blocs, and altered North–South relations. Direct U. S. military involvement ended on 15 August 1973, the capture of Saigon by the North Vietnamese Army in April 1975 marked the end of the war, and North and South Vietnam were reunified the following year. The war exacted a huge human cost in terms of fatalities, estimates of the number of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians killed vary from 966,000 to 3.8 million. Some 240, 000–300,000 Cambodians,20, 000–62,000 Laotians, and 58,220 U. S. service members died in the conflict. Various names have applied to the conflict. Vietnam War is the most commonly used name in English and it has also been called the Second Indochina War and the Vietnam Conflict. As there have been several conflicts in Indochina, this conflict is known by the names of its primary protagonists to distinguish it from others. In Vietnamese, the war is known as Kháng chiến chống Mỹ. It is also called Chiến tranh Việt Nam, France began its conquest of Indochina in the late 1850s, and completed pacification by 1893. The 1884 Treaty of Huế formed the basis for French colonial rule in Vietnam for the seven decades
13.
Gulf War
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The Iraqi Armys occupation of Kuwait that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. US President George H. W. Bush deployed US forces into Saudi Arabia, an array of nations joined the coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the military forces were from the US, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia paid around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost, the war was marked by the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the US network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast of images from cameras on board US bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial and naval bombardment on 17 January 1991 and this was followed by a ground assault on 24 February. This was a victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait. The coalition ceased its advance, and declared a ceasefire 100 hours after the campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel. The following names have been used to describe the conflict itself, Gulf War, a problem with these terms is that the usage is ambiguous, having now been applied to at least three conflicts, see Gulf War. The use of the term Persian Gulf is also disputed, see Persian Gulf naming dispute, with no consensus of naming, various publications have attempted to refine the name. Other language terms include French, la Guerre du Golfe and German, Golfkrieg, German, Zweiter Golfkrieg, French, most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the wars operational phases. Operation Desert Storm was the US name of the conflict from 17 January 1991. Operation Desert Sabre was the US name for the offensive against the Iraqi Army in the Kuwaiti Theater of Operations from 24–28 February 1991, in itself. Operation Desert Farewell was the given to the return of US units and equipment to the US in 1991 after Kuwaits liberation. Operation Granby was the British name for British military activities during the operations, Opération Daguet was the French name for French military activities in the conflict. Operation Friction was the name of the Canadian operations Operazione Locusta was the Italian name for the operations, in addition, various phases of each operation may have a unique operational name. The US divided the conflict into three campaigns, Defense of Saudi Arabian country for the period 2 August 1990, through 16 January 1991
14.
NATO bombing of Yugoslavia
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The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was the North Atlantic Treaty Organisations military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from March 24,1999 to June 10,1999, NATO claimed that the Albanian population in Kosovo were being persecuted by FRY forces, Serbian police, and Serb paramilitary forces, and that military action was needed to force the FRY to stop. NATO countries attempted to gain authorization from the United Nations Security Council for military action, NATO launched a campaign without UN authorization, which it described as a humanitarian intervention. The FRY described the NATO campaign as a war of aggression against a sovereign country that was in violation of international law because it did not have UN Security Council support. The bombing killed between 489 and 528 civilians, and destroyed bridges, industrial plants, public buildings, private businesses, as well as barracks, the NATO bombing marked the second major combat operation in its history, following the 1995 NATO bombing campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was the first time that NATO had used military force without the approval of the UN Security Council, after its autonomy was quashed, Kosovo was faced with state organized oppression, from the early 1990s, Albanian language radio and television were restricted and newspapers shut down. Kosovar Albanians were fired in large numbers from public enterprises and institutions, including banks, hospitals, in June 1991 the University of Priština assembly and several faculty councils were dissolved and replaced by Serbs. Kosovar Albanian teachers were prevented from entering school premises for the new year beginning in September 1991. Later, Kosovar Albanians started an insurgency against Belgrade when the Kosovo Liberation Army was founded in 1996, armed clashes between two sides broke out in early 1998. A NATO-facilitated ceasefire was signed on 15 October, but both sides broke it two months later and fighting resumed, after the Rambouillet Accords broke down on 23 March with Yugoslav rejection of an external peacekeeping force, NATO prepared to install the peacekeepers by force. Operation Allied Force predominantly used an air campaign to destroy Yugoslav military infrastructure from high altitudes. After the third day of bombing, NATO had destroyed almost all of its strategic military targets in Yugoslavia. Despite this, the Yugoslav Army continued to function and to attack Kosovo Liberation Army insurgents inside Kosovo, mostly in the regions of Northern and Southwest Kosovo. The NATO air forces also targeted infrastructure, such as plants, water-processing plants. Commentators have debated whether the capitulation of Yugoslavia in the Kosovo War of 1999 resulted solely from the use of air power, the Rand Corporation examined the issue in a study. According to John Keegan, the capitulation of Yugoslavia in the Kosovo War marked a point in the history of warfare. It proved that a war can be won by air power alone, by comparison, diplomacy had failed before the war, and the deployment of a large NATO ground force was still weeks away when Slobodan Milošević agreed to a peace deal. As for why air power should have been capable of acting alone and these normally come together only rarely, but all occurred during the Kosovo War, Bombardment needs to be capable of causing destruction while minimising casualties
15.
Operation Rolling Thunder
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To combat the NLF and to shore up the government in the south, the U. S. initially delivered monetary aid, military advisors, and supplies. U. S. policy was for a time dictated by its perception of improvement in the Saigon government, no further commitment by the Americans would occur without tangible proof of the regimes survivability. Events in Vietnam, however, outraced this policy, by the beginning of 1965, it was stood upon its head—it was believed that without further American action the Saigon government could not survive. Assurances from us to the highest levels that we, questions then arose among the U. S. administration and military leadership as to the best method by which Hanoi could be dissuaded from its course of action. The answer seemed to lie in the application of air power, by 1964 most of the civilians surrounding President Lyndon B. Johnson shared the Joint Chiefs of Staffs collective faith in the efficacy of strategic bombing to one degree or another. Constantly affecting this decision-making process were fears of possible moves or outright intervention by the Soviet Union. The civilians and the military were divided, however, on the manner of affecting Hanois will to support the southern insurgency, the civilians thought in terms of changing the regimes behavior while the military men were more concerned with breaking its will. This did not, however, satisfy the military chiefs, who demanded a wider, in March 1964 the CinC Pacific began developing plans for a sustained eight-week air campaign designed to escalate in three stages. This was published at the end of August as CINCPAC OPLAN 37-64, there was widespread concern that an air campaign could lead to a wider conflict involving the Chinese or Soviets. Westmoreland referred to an almost paranoid fear of confrontation with the Soviet Union. Johnson later noted, By keeping a lid on all the designated targets, if China reacted to our slow escalation by threatening to retaliate, we’d have plenty of time to ease off the bombing. The Chinese reaction would be instant and total, for a time, no overt action was taken, and the plans continued to evolve. A further refinement of the plan was developed by William and McGeorge Bundy on 29 November 1964, with a more moderate target list, no action was taken while these, and other, plans were considered. But matters came to a head with the attack on Camp Holloway on 7 February 1965, which demanded immediate action, a sapper raid against an American enlisted mens billet at Qui Nhon on the 10th led to Flaming Dart II. These small-scale operations were launched against the region of the country. These actions led to the plans for an air campaign being reconsidered. On 13 February a new plan, merging targets and priorities from the produced by the Bundys. This campaign was not aimed at specific actions on the part of the North Vietnamese, Rolling Thunder called for an eight-week air campaign consistent with the restrictions that Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara had imposed upon it
16.
Air supremacy
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Air supremacy is a position in war where a side holds complete control of air warfare and air power over opposing forces. It is defined by NATO and the United States Department of Defense as the degree of air superiority wherein the opposing air force is incapable of effective interference. There are three levels of control of the air, Air supremacy is the highest level, where a side holds complete control of the skies, Air superiority is the second level, where a side is in a more favorable position than the opponent. It is defined in the NATO glossary as the degree of dominance in air battle and that permits the conduct of operations by and its related land, sea and air forces at a given time and place without prohibitive interference by opposing air forces. Air parity is the lowest level of control, where a side only holds control of skies above friendly troop positions, the degree of a forces air control is a zero-sum game with its opponents, increasing control by one corresponds to decreasing control by the other. Air power has become a powerful element of military campaigns. Air supremacy allows increased bombing efforts, tactical air support for forces, paratroop assaults, airdrops and simple cargo plane transfers. Air power is a function of the degree of air superiority and numbers or types of aircraft, during the First World War, air superiority on the Western Front changed hands between the Germans and the Allies several times. Periods of German air superiority included the Fokker Scourge of late 1915 to early 1916, the Italian Corpo Aeronautico Militare established air superiority over the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto. The defeat suffered by Austria-Hungary in the battle caused the dissolution of the empire, in 1921, Italian aerial warfare theorist Giulio Douhet published The Command of the Air, a book positing that future wars would be decided in the skies. At the time, mainstream military theory did not see air power as a war-winning tactic, Douhets idea that air power could be a decisive force and be used to avoid the long and costly War of Attrition was influential although later events proved him wrong in many details. That would terrorize citizens into pressuring their government into immediate surrender, at the beginning of World War II, Douhets ideas were dismissed by some, but it became apparent that his theories on the importance of aircraft were supported by events as the war continued. In 1925, the Royal Air Force tested the ability of air supremacy in isolation from other warfare forms during their first independent action in Waziristan, American general Billy Mitchell was another influential air power theorist of the inter-war period. After World War I, then-Assistant Chief of Air Service in the United States Army Air Service, the first of these was Project B in 1921, in which the captured German World War I battleship, SMS Ostfriesland, was sunk by a flight of bombers in 22 minutes. He would also go on to air power advocates such as Russian-American Alexander P. Roosevelt in support of long-range bombing. At the beginning of World War II, the sides took different views on the importance of air power. Adolf Hitler saw it as a tool to support the German Army. The Allies saw it, specifically long-range strategic bombing, as being an important part of warfare which they believed capable of crippling Germanys industrial centers
17.
Ho Chi Minh trail
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The Hồ Chí Minh trail was a logistical system that ran from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to the Republic of Vietnam through the neighboring kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia. It was named by the Americans after North Vietnamese president Hồ Chí Minh, although the trail was mostly in Laos, the communists called it the Trường Sơn Strategic Supply Route, after the Vietnamese name for the Annamite Range mountains in central Vietnam. According to the United States National Security Agencys official history of the war, parts of what became the trail had existed for centuries as primitive footpaths that facilitated trade. The area through which the system meandered was among the most challenging in Southeast Asia, during the First Indochina War the Việt Minh maintained north/south communication using this system of trails and paths. Originally, the North Vietnamese effort concentrated on infiltration across and immediately below the Demilitarized Zone that separated the two Vietnams, as early as May 1958 PAVN and Pathet Lao forces had seized the transportation hub at Tchepone, on Laotian Route 9. The 559th Group flipped its line of communications to the side of the Trường Sơn mountains. By 1959, the 559th had 6,000 personnel in two regiments alone, the 70th and 71st, not including combat troops in security roles or North Vietnamese, in the early days of the conflict the trail was used strictly for the infiltration of manpower. This was due to the fact that Hanoi could supply its southern allies much more efficiently by sea, after the initiation of U. S. naval interdiction efforts in coastal waters, known as Operation Market Time, the trail had to do double duty. There were five large Base Areas in the panhandle of Laos, BA604 was the main logistical center during the Vietnam War. From there, the coordination and distribution of men and supplies into South Vietnams Military Region I, BA611 facilitated transport from BA604 to BA609 and the supply convoys moving in either direction. It also fed fuel and ammunition to BA607 and on into South Vietnams A Shau Valley, BA612 was used for support of the B-3 Front in the Central Highlands of South Vietnam. BA614, between Savannakhet, Laos and Kham Duc, South Vietnam was used primarily for transporting men and materiel into MR2, BA609 was important due to a fine road network that made it possible to transport supplies during the rainy season. Two types of units served under the 559th Group, Binh Trams, a Binh Tram was the equivalent of a regimental logistical headquarters and was responsible for securing a particular section of the network. While separate units were tasked with security, engineer, and signal functions, usually located one days march from one another, commo-liaison units were responsible for providing food, housing, medical care, and guides to the next way-station. The motto of the 559th became Build roads to advance, fight the enemy to travel, the system developed into an intricate maze of 5. 5-metre-wide dirt roads, foot and bicycle paths, and truck parks. By 1973, trucks could drive the length of the trail without emerging from the canopy except to ford streams or cross them on crude bridges built beneath the waters surface. The weather in southeastern Laos came to play a role both in the supply effort and in U. S. /South Vietnamese efforts to interdict it. The southwest monsoon from mid-May to mid-September, brought heavy precipitation, the sky was usually overcast with high temperatures
18.
Operation Linebacker
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Operation Linebacker was the codename of a U. S. Seventh Air Force and U. S. Navy Task Force 77 air interdiction campaign conducted against the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from 9 May to 23 October 1972, Linebacker was the first continuous bombing effort conducted against North Vietnam since the end of Operation Rolling Thunder in November 1968. At noon on 30 March 1972,30,000 PAVN troops, supported by regiments of tanks and artillery and this three-division force caught the Army of the Republic of Vietnam and their American allies unprepared. The PAVN force struck the defensive positions of the ARVN 3rd Division, South Vietnamese forces then fell back, and a race began between both belligerents to the bridges at Đông Hà and Cam Lộ. By 4 April, ARVN officers had patched together a line that held the PAVN at bay. On 5 April, a PAVN force of 20,000 crossed the border from their sanctuaries in Cambodia in another three-division, combined force to attack Bình Long Province. They quickly seized the town of Lộc Ninh and then surrounded the town of An Lộc, on 12 April, the PAVN struck again, this time moving in from eastern Laos and seizing a series of border outposts around Đắk Tô in Kon Tum Province in the Central Highlands. The PAVN then proceeded east toward the seat of Kon Tum. Hanoi had initiated the offensive to coincide with the winter monsoon, the initial U. S. response to the offensive was lackadaisical and confused. The Pentagon was not unduly alarmed and the U. S. Ambassador, President Richard M. Nixons first response was to consider a three-day attack by B-52 Stratofortress bombers on Hanoi and the port city of Haiphong. Another stumbling block to the plan was General Abrams desire to utilize the available bombers to support the ARVN defense, both Nixon and Kissinger considered a plan offered by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to be both unimaginative and lacking in aggressiveness. On 4 April, Nixon authorized the bombing of North Vietnam up to the 18th parallel, in order to prevent a total ARVN collapse and to protect American prestige during the upcoming summit meeting with Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, Nixon decided to risk a massive escalation of force. The number of aircraft stationed in Southeast Asia was less than half that of its peak strength in 1968–1969. At the beginning of 1972, the U. S. Air Force had only three squadrons of F-4s and a squadron of A-37s, a total of 76 aircraft. Another 114 fighter-bombers were located at bases in Thailand,83 B-52 bombers were stationed at U-Tapao RTAFB, Thailand and at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. The U. S. Navys Task Force 77, had four carriers assigned to it. Their air wings totaled approximately 140 aircraft, American and Vietnam Air Force aircraft had been supporting the defense since the beginning of the offensive. These strikes were conducted in support of ARVN forces, and included those of the air wings of the carriers Coral Sea, the continuing bad weather, however, limited the ability of the U. S. aircraft to assist in stemming the North Vietnamese onslaught
19.
Operation Odyssey Dawn
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Operation Odyssey Dawn was the U. S. On 19 March 2011, several countries prepared to take military action at a summit in Paris. The goal of coalition forces was to impose a zone for Libyan government forces. The U. S. but passed complete military command of the operation to NATO, however, NATOs objectives did not include aiding the rebel forces efforts to take control of territory held by the government. The British name for its support of Resolution 1973 is Operation Ellamy, the Canadian participation is Operation Mobile. Sixth Fleet, assumed responsibilities as the Joint Forces Maritime Component Commander, major General Margaret H. Woodward was commander of US Air Force aircraft involved in the operation. On 21 March 2011, President Obama stated the U. S. military action would be scaled back soon and was considering handing over command of the operation to either France, the UK or NATO. On 24 March 2011, NATO took command of enforcing the zone in Libya and was considering taking control of the rest of the mission. Kaiser-class oiler USNS Lewis and Clark, a Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo ship USNS Robert E. C, deployed as the Air Contingency Battalion, on 1 March 2011 to serve as the new Battalion Landing Team for the 26th MEU. The ACB was attached to the 26th MEU on 5 March 2011 at NAS Souda Bay and this was the first time ACB has been used in almost a decade. Two MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft from the 26th MEU participated in the pilot rescue, two CH-53E Super Stallions from the 26th MEU participated in the pilot rescue. One KC-130J Hercules from the 26th MEU participated in the pilot rescue. S. the U. S. Department of Defense reports that the dismantling of Libyas ability to hinder the enforcement of the UN no-fly zone was only the first of multiple stages in the operation. USMC Harriers participated in an air strike against a military convoy outside Benghazi. Day 2,20 March 2011 Sustained anti-aircraft fire erupted in Tripoli at around 02,33 EET, Three B-2 Spirit bombers targeted 45 hardened aircraft shelters at a Libyan airfield near Sirte. At the same time, U. S. Air Force fighter jets conducted missions searching for Libyan ground forces to attack, U. S. Navy EA-18G Growlers jammed Libyan radar and communications. No U. S. aircraft were lost during the missions, the warplanes included Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier IIs, Air Force B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, and F-15E Strike Eagle and F-16C Fighting Falcon fighter jets. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, states that there would be continuous allied air cover over Benghazi, and that the no-fly zone is effectively in place. An EC-130J was recorded warning Libyan shipping If you attempt to port, you will be attacked and destroyed immediately in Arabic, French
20.
Operation Inherent Resolve
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Since 21 August 2016, the U. S. Armys XVIII Airborne Corps has been responsible for Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve. Unlike their coalition partners, and unlike previous combat operations, no name was given to the conflict against ISIS by the U. S. government. The decision to keep the conflict nameless drew considerable media criticism, the U. S. decided in October 2014 to name its military efforts against ISIS as Operation Inherent Resolve, the U. S. The medal is approved retroactively beginning 15 June, the Pentagon said, by 4 December 2014, three U. S. service members had died from accidents or non-combat injuries. On 22 October 2015, a U. S, the Kurdistan Regional Government said after the raid that none of the 15 prisoners it was intended to rescue were found. Approximately 80% of these airstrikes have been conducted by American forces, with the remaining 20% being launched by members of the coalition, such as the United Kingdom. 7,268 strikes hit targets in Iraq, while 3,602 hit targets in Syria, on 12 June 2016, it was reported that 120 Islamic State leaders, commanders, propagandists, recruiters and other high-value individuals were killed so far this year. Until March 2016, U. S. military members were ineligible for Campaign Medals, however, on 30 March 2016, U. S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced the creation of a new medal, named Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal. Of the 26,374 targets hit, nearly 8,000 were against ISIS fighting positions, while approximately 6,500 hit buildings, ISIS staging areas and oil infrastructure were each hit around 1,600 times. On 15 December 2016, the UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said that more than 25,000 Daesh fighters have now been killed, when asked about this discrepancy, the UKs Ministry of Defense said that it stood by his estimate. Since the first U. S. airstrikes on ISIS targets in Iraq on 8 August 2014, the air strikes occurred in the period between 22 September 2014 and 23 January 2017. The deployment marks a new escalation in the U. S. war in Syria, as of Feb.28,2017, the Coalition has conducted 3,271 sorties in 2017,2,129 of which have resulted in at least one weapon released. In total, the coalition released 7,040 weapons in Iraq, United States Air Force, United States Navy & United States Marine Corps units that are participating in this operations can be found in the Military intervention against ISIL order of battle. 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division
21.
Tactical bombing
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Tactical bombing is aerial bombing aimed at targets of immediate military value, such as combatants, military installations, or military equipment. A tactical bomber is an aircraft with an intended primary role of tactical bombing. Tactical bombing is employed for two primary assignments, aircraft providing close air support attack targets in nearby proximity to friendly ground forces, acting in direct support of the ground operations. Air interdiction, by contrast, attacks tactical targets that are distant from or otherwise not in contact with friendly units, Tactical bombing was the first type of aerial bombing mission. It began in World War I when pilots dropped small bombs over the side of their open cockpits onto enemy troops below, one of the earliest examples of tactical bombing was at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915 when the Royal Flying Corps dropped bombs on German rail communications. By the time of World War II a number of specialized aircraft were developed to fulfill this role, during the Korean War tactical bombing missions were sometimes carried out by older piston-powered fighters such as the Vought F4U Corsair. In the Vietnam War, missions were directed by forward air controllers flying small propeller-driven planes. The FAC would mark targets with smoke, often in coordination with infantry on the ground, bombers orbiting overhead would then fly in to hit the target. In the modern era, precision-guided munitions can be directed with extreme accuracy, strategic bombing Tactical Air Command Carpet bombing Close air support Forward air control Attack aircraft Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses Gunship Air interdiction Tank plinking
22.
Attack aircraft
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This class of aircraft is designed mostly for close air support and naval air-to-surface missions, overlapping the tactical bomber mission. Designs dedicated to non-naval roles are often known as ground-attack aircraft, Strike fighters, which have effectively replaced the fighter-bomber and light bomber concepts, also differ little from the broad concept of an attack aircraft. The dedicated attack aircraft as a separate class existed primarily during, the precise implementation varied from country to country, and was handled by a wide variety of designs. In the US and UK, attack aircraft were based on light bombers, sometimes carrying heavier forward-firing weapons like the B-25G. In Germany and USSR, where they were known as schlachtflugzeug or sturmovik, in the late-war era, the fighter-bomber began to take over many attack roles, a change that continued in the post-war era. Jet powered examples were relatively rare, but not unknown, like the Blackburn Buccaneer, the US Navy continued to introduce new aircraft in their A-series, but these were purely light and medium bombers. Since the 1960s, only two dedicated attack aircraft designs have been introduced, the US A-10 Thunderbolt II and Soviet Sukhoi Su-25 Frogfoot. One oddity belonging to class is the AC-130, which features as its primary armament high-caliber artillery guns adapted for aircraft use. A variety of attack aircraft exist, usually based on adapted trainers or other light fixed-wing aircraft. Presently, U. S. attack aircraft are identified by the prefix A-, as in A-6 Intruder, however, until the end of World War II the A- designation was shared between attack planes and light bombers for the Army aircraft. The US Navy used a separate system and at the time preferred to call similar aircraft scout bombers or torpedo bombers. For example, Douglas SBD Dauntless scout bomber was designated A-24 when used by the USAAF. It was not until 1946, when the US Navy and US Marine Corps started using the attack designation, as with many aircraft classifications, the definition of attack aircraft is somewhat vague and has tended to change over time. Current U. S. military doctrine defines it as an aircraft which most likely performs an attack mission, Attack mission means, in turn, specifically tactical air-to-ground action—in other words, neither air-to-air action nor strategic bombing is considered an attack mission. In United States Navy vocabulary, the designation for the same activity is a strike mission. Attack missions are divided into two categories, air interdiction and close air support. In the last several decades, the rise of the ubiquitous multi-role fighter has created confusion about the difference between attack and fighter aircraft. According to the current U. S. designation system, an aircraft is designed primarily for air-to-surface
23.
Military aircraft
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A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat, Combat aircraft are designed to destroy enemy equipment using their own aircraft ordnance, Combat aircraft are normally developed and procured only by military forces. Non-combat aircraft are not designed for combat as their primary function and these mainly operate in support roles, and may be developed by either military forces or civilian organizations. In 1783, when the first practical aircraft were established, they were adopted for military duties. The main role of fighters is destroying enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat, many are fast and highly maneuverable. Escorting bombers or other aircraft is also a common task and they are capable of carrying a variety of weapons, including machine guns, cannons, rockets and guided missiles. Many modern fighters can attack enemy fighters from a great distance, examples of air superiority fighters include the F-22 Raptor. World War II fighters include the British Spitfire, the American P-51 Mustang, an example of an interceptor would be the MiG-25. An example of a fighter is the Messerschmitt Bf 110. The term fighter is also applied to aircraft that have little air-to-air combat capability – for example the A-10 ground-attack aircraft is operated by USAF Fighter squadrons. Bombers are normally larger, heavier, and less maneuverable than fighter aircraft and they are capable of carrying large payloads of bombs, torpedoes or cruise missiles. Bombers are used almost exclusively for ground attacks and not fast or agile enough to take on enemy fighters head-to-head, a few have a single engine and require one pilot to operate and others have two or more engines and require crews of two or more. A limited number of bombers, such as the B-2 Spirit, have stealth capabilities that keep them from being detected by enemy radar, an example of a conventional modern bomber would be the B-52 Stratofortress. An example of a World War II bomber would be a B-17 Flying Fortress, bombers include light bombers, medium bombers, heavy bombers, dive bombers, and torpedo bombers. The U. S. Navy and Marines have traditionally referred to their light, attack aircraft can be used to provide support for friendly ground troops. Some are able to carry conventional or nuclear weapons far behind enemy lines to strike priority ground targets, attack helicopters attack enemy armor and provide close air support for ground troops. An example historical ground-attack aircraft is the Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 Shturmovik, several types of transport airplanes have been armed with sideways firing weapons as gunships for ground attack. These include the AC-47 and AC-130 aircraft, in modern air forces the distinction between bombers, fighter-bombers, and attack aircraft has become blurred
24.
History of military ballooning
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Balloons were the first mechanisms used in air warfare. Their role was recognized for reconnaissance purposes. They provided humans with the first available method of elevating themselves well over the battlefield to obtain the proverbial birds-eye view, Kongming lanterns were used as military signalling. The lantern was invented in late Han dynasty, when the Han dynasty chancellor Zhuge Liang was surrounded by Wei dynasty General Sima Yi at Pinlo, Zhuge Liang used paper made lanterns, or hot air balloons, to signal the rescue forces. The Kongming lantern become a military signal in China, and it was inherited by the Mongolian troops. Flying the Kongming lantern is now a festival of memorizing chancellor Zhuge Liang in the Lantern Festival. The first successfully flown balloons were made in France by the Montgolfier brothers in 1782-1783 and they were rigid-style spheres made of cotton or silk stretched over a simple light wood frame resembling a large egg. These rigid balloons were held up over a fire so that the smoke billowed well into the cavity of the sphere and it was thought that the smoke made the balloons rise, but actually it was the hot air of the smoke that caused the elevating. The first decisive use of a balloon for aerial observation was performed by the French Aerostatic Corps using the aerostat l’Entreprenant at the Battle of Fleurus in 1794, the following year, during the Siege of Mainz an observation balloon was employed again. However, the French military use of the balloon did not continue uninterrupted, in 1854, French aeronaut Eugène Godard performed several manned balloon demonstrations at the wedding of Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I. However, in 1859 the French went to war against the Austrians, Godards aerial reconnaissance balloons were again employed by the French in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War and the Siege of Paris. During the 1900 Boxer Rebellion in China, the French forces did bring a balloon with them, with the outbreak of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln did consider the possibility of an air-war mechanism. This had some of the top balloonists in the country vying for position as chief aeronaut of a would-be aeronautics division, the scientific community as well showed great support in influencing Washington to consider the use of balloons. Eventually it was Prof. Thaddeus S. C, Lowe who would be awarded the title Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps. The first major-scale use of balloons in the military occurred during the American Civil War with the Union Army Balloon Corps established and organized by Prof. Thaddeus S. C, Lowe in the summer of 1861. Eventually hydrogen gas generators, a system of tanks and copper plumbing, were constructed which converted the combining of iron filings. The generators were easily transported with the balloons to the field on a standard buckboard. However, this shortened the life of the balloons, because traces of the sulfuric acid often entered the balloons along with the hydrogen
25.
Military glider
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Military gliders have been used by the military of various countries for carrying troops and heavy equipment to a combat zone, mainly during the Second World War. The one-way nature of the missions meant that they were treated as disposable leading to construction from common, troops landing by glider were referred to as air-landing as opposed to paratroops. Landing by parachute caused the troops to be spread over a large drop-zone and separated from other airdropped equipment, such as vehicles, gliders, on the other hand, could land troops and ancillaries in greater concentrations precisely at the target landing area. Furthermore, the glider, once released at some distance from the target, was effectively silent. Larger gliders were developed to land heavy equipment like anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft guns, small vehicles, such as jeeps and this heavier equipment made otherwise lightly armed paratroop forces a much more capable force. The Soviets also experimented with ways to light tanks by air, including the Antonov A-40. By the time of the Korean War, helicopters had largely replaced gliders, helicopters have the advantage of being able to extract soldiers, in addition to delivering them to the battlefield with more precision. Also, advances in powered transport aircraft had made, to the extent that even light tanks could be dropped by parachute. Only special forces use gliders for silent, small-scale insertion today, the development of modern gliders was spurred by the Versailles Treaty following World War I, under the terms of which Germany was prohibited from constructing certain high powered airplanes. The early sporting objectives of gliders were quickly overtaken in the Soviet Union and in Germany by military applications, by 1934, the Soviet Union had ten gliding schools and 57,000 glider pilots had gained licences. In 1932, the Soviet Union demonstrated the TsK Komsula, a four-place glider, larger gliders were then developed culminating in an 18-seater at the military institute in Leningrad in 1935. Luftwaffe Colonel Kurt Student visited Moscow as part of the military collaboration programme with the Soviet Union and he reported back to his superiors in Berlin details of a 1,500 man parachute drop and the large transport gliders that he had seen. The Luftwaffe opened a school as a result in 1937. Further field testing convinced Student that a vehicle was needed to deliver the weapons for the lightly armed parachute troops. This idea was dismissed until October 1938 by which time Student had risen to major-general and was appointed Inspector of Airborne Forces. Development of a glider was assigned to Hans Jacobs of the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug to develop the DFS230 which could carry 9–10 fully equipped troops or 1,200 kg. Ten gliders landed on the roof of the fortress. Only twenty minutes after landing the force had neutralized the fortress at a cost of six dead, Hitler was anxious to gain maximum publicity and so several foreign attachés were given guided tours of the fortress
26.
Military helicopter
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A military helicopter is a helicopter that is either specifically built or converted for use by military forces. A military helicopters mission is a function of its design or conversion, specialized military helicopters are intended to conduct specific missions. Examples of specialized military helicopters are helicopters, observation helicopters. Military helicopters play a part in the sea, land. Generally manufacturers will develop airframes in different weight/size classes which can be adapted to different roles through the installation of specific equipment. For example, the UH-1 has given rise to a number of derivatives through stretching and re-engining, including the AH-1, the systems can be fitted to only those airframes that need it, or when finances allow the purchase of enough units. Most military helicopters are armoured to some extent however all equipment is limited to the power and lift capability. The most extensive armour is placed around the pilots, engines, transmission, fuel lines, control cables and power to the tail rotor may also be shrouded by Kevlar armour. The most heavily armoured helicopters are attack, assault and special forces helicopters, in transport helicopters the crew compartment may or may not be fully armoured, a compromise being to give the passengers Kevlar lined seats but to leave the compartment for the most part unarmoured. Survivability is enhanced by redundancy and the placement of components to each other. Aviation electronics, or avionics, such as radios and navigation aids are common on most military helicopters. Specialized avionics, such as electronic countermeasures and identification friend or foe systems, are military specific systems that can also be installed on military helicopters. For example, it has reported that the PRC is carrying out a rapid enlargement of its assault helicopter regiments with the civilian version of the Mil Mi-17. Allowing a widespread buildup of experience in helicopter operations, attack helicopters are helicopters used in the anti-tank and close air support roles. To enable them to find and identify their targets, some modern helicopters are equipped with very capable sensors such as a millimeter wave radar system. Attack helicopters Transport helicopters are used for transporting personnel and cargo in support of military operations, in larger militaries, these helicopters are often purpose-built for military operations, but commercially available aircraft are also used. The benefit of using helicopters for these operations is that personnel and cargo can be moved to and from locations without requiring a runway for takeoffs, cargo is carried either internally, or externally by slung load where the load is suspended from an attachment point underneath the aircraft. Personnel are primarily loaded and unloaded while the helicopter is on the ground, air assault is a military strategy that relies heavily on the use of transport helicopters
27.
Unmanned aerial vehicle
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An unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system, which include a UAV, a controller. The flight of UAVs may operate with various degrees of autonomy, either under control by a human operator, or fully or intermittently autonomously. Compared to manned aircraft, UAVs are often preferred for missions too dull, civilian drones now vastly outnumber military drones, with estimates of over a million sold by 2015. Multiple terms are used for unmanned vehicles, which generally refer to the same concept. The term drone, more used by the public, was coined in reference to the resemblance of navigation. The term has encountered opposition from aviation professionals and government regulators. This term emphasizes the importance of other than the aircraft. It includes elements such as ground stations, data links. A similar term is a vehicle system remotely piloted aerial vehicle. Many similar terms are in use, therefore, missiles are not considered UAVs because the vehicle itself is a weapon that is not reused, though it is also unmanned and in some cases remotely guided. The relation of UAVs to remote controlled model aircraft is unclear, UAVs may or may not include model aircraft. Some jurisdictions base their definition on size or weight, however, a radio-controlled aircraft becomes a drone with the addition of an autopilot artificial intelligence, and ceases to be a drone when an AI is removed. In 1849 Austria sent unmanned, bomb-filled balloons to attack Venice, UAV innovations started in the early 1900s and originally focused on providing practice targets for training military personnel. UAV development continued during World War I, when the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company invented a pilotless aerial torpedo that would explode at a preset time, the earliest attempt at a powered UAV was A. M. Lows Aerial Target in 1916. Nikola Tesla described a fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles in 1915. Advances followed during and after World War I, including the Hewitt-Sperry Automatic Airplane, the first scaled remote piloted vehicle was developed by film star and model-airplane enthusiast Reginald Denny in 1935. More emerged during World War II – used both to train gunners and to fly attack missions
28.
Gunship
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A gunship is a military aircraft armed with heavy guns, primarily intended for attacking ground targets. The term gunship originated in the century as a synonym for gunboat. During World War II, the urgent need for hard-hitting attack aircraft led to the development of the heavily armed versions of the North American B-25 Mitchell. The 405 examples produced of the B-25G variant were armed with a 75 mm M4 cannon, the most-built B-25J variant omitted such heavy-calibre weaponry, but could in some cases, carry an impressive total of eighteen Ma Deuce AN/M2 Browning. Later the B-25J was additionally armed with eight 5 in. high velocity aircraft rockets, none of the German twin-engined gunship types were produced or converted in large numbers. In the more modern, post-World War II fixed-wing aircraft category and these gunships were configured to circle the target instead of performing strafing runs. Such aircraft have their armament on one side harmonized to fire at the apex of a cone formed by the aircraft. At the time the aircraft was known as dragonship or Puff and it was the later and larger Lockheed AC-130 Gunship II that became the modern, post–World War II origin of the term gunship in military aviation. These heavily armed aircraft used a variety of systems, including 7. The Douglas AC-47 Spooky, the Fairchild AC-119, and the AC-130 Spectre/Spooky, were vulnerable, smaller gunship designs such as the Fairchild AU-23 Peacemaker and the Helio AU-24 Stallion were also designed by the United States during the Vietnam War. Renewed interest in the concept of gunships has resulted in the development of a variant of the Alenia C-27J Spartan. Although the United States Air Force decided not to procure the AC-27J, additionally, in 2013 the US Air Force Special Operations Command reportedly tested a gunship version of the C-145A Skytruck armed with a GAU-18 twin-mount. 50-calibre machine gun system. Early helicopter gunships also operated in the configuration, an early example being the Aérospatiale Alouette III. Later, the.50 caliber machine guns were replaced by a MG151 20mm cannon in a single mounting, the South African and Rhodesian air forces later used armed Alouette III in similar configurations as the Portuguese, respectively in the South African Border and Rhodesian Bush wars. During the Vietnam War, the ubiquitous Bell UH-1 Iroquois helicopters were modified into gunships by mounting the U. S, helicopter Armament Subsystems—these were forward-firing weapons, such as machine guns, rockets, and autocannons, that began to appear in 1962–1963. Rotary-wing aircraft can use a variety of maneuvers to approach a target. In their case, the term gunship is synonymous with heavily armed helicopter, specifically, dedicated attack helicopters such as the Bell AH-1 Cobra also fit this meaning. In any case, the armaments include machine guns, rockets, autocannons, missiles
29.
Bomber
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A bomber is a combat aircraft designed to attack ground and sea targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry, firing torpedoes or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. In 1912, during the First Balkan War, Bulgarian Air Force pilot Christo Toprakchiev suggested the use of aircraft to drop bombs on Turkish positions, captain Simeon Petrov developed the idea and created several prototypes by adapting different types of grenades and increasing their payload. This is deemed to be the first use of an aircraft as a bomber, the first heavier-than-air aircraft purposely designed for bombing were the Italian Caproni Ca 30 and British Bristol T. B.8, both of 1913. The Bristol T. B.8 was an early British single engined biplane built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, under the command of Charles Rumney Samson, a bombing attack on German gun batteries at Middelkerke, Belgium was executed on 25 November 1914. The dirigible, or airship, was developed in the early 20th century, early airships were prone to disaster, but slowly the airship became more dependable, with a more rigid structure and stronger skin. Prior to the outbreak of war, Zeppelins, a larger and these were the first long range, strategic bombers. Although the German air arm was strong, with a total of 123 airships by the end of the war, they were vulnerable to attack and engine failure, German airships inflicted little damage on all 51 raids, with 557 Britons killed and 1,358 injured. The German Navy lost 53 of its 73 airships, and the German Army lost 26 of its 50 ships, the Caproni Ca 30 was built by Gianni Caproni in Italy. It was a biplane with three 67 kW Gnome rotary engines and first flew in October 1914. Test flights revealed power to be insufficient and the engine layout unworkable, the improved design was bought by the Italian Army and it was delivered in quantity from August 1915. Bombing raids and interdiction operations were carried out by French. Sustained attacks with a view to interrupting the enemys railway communications, in conjunction with the main operations of the Allied Armies. The most important bombers used in World War I were the French Breguet 14, British de Havilland DH-4, German Albatros C. III, the Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets, was the first four-engine bomber to equip a dedicated strategic bombing unit during World War I. This heavy bomber was unrivaled in the stages of the war. With engine power as a limitation, combined with the desire for accuracy and other operational factors. By the start of the war included, dive bomber — specially strengthened for vertical diving attacks for greater accuracy. Light bomber, medium bomber and heavy bomber — subjective definitions based on size, torpedo bomber — specialized aircraft armed with torpedoes. Ground attack aircraft — aircraft used against targets on a such as troop or tank concentrations
30.
Strategic bomber
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In addition to strategic bombing, strategic bombers can be used for tactical missions. There are three countries including United States, Russia, and China are operating strategic bombers, the modern strategic bomber role appeared after strategic bombing was widely employed, and atomic bombs were first used in combat during World War II. An example is Frances Mirage IV, a strategic bomber replaced in service by the ASMP-equipped Mirage 2000N fighter-bomber. Study of strategic bombing continued in the interwar years and it was widely believed by the late 1930s that strategic terror bombing of cities in any war would quickly result in devastating losses and might decide a conflict in a matter of days or weeks. But theory far exceeded what most air forces could actually put into the air, Germany focused on short-range tactical bombers. Britains Royal Air Force began developing four-engine long-range bombers only in the late 1930s, the U. S. Army Air Corps was severely limited by small budgets in the late 1930s, and only barely saved the B-17 bomber that would soon be vital. The equally important B-24 first flew in 1939, both aircraft would constitute the bulk of the American bomber force that made the Allied daylight bombing of Nazi Germany possible in 1943–45. Both Britain and the U. S. were developing larger two- and four-engined designs, after American entry into the war, late, in 1941, the U. S. 8th Air Force began to develop a daylight bombing capacity using improved B-17 and B-24 four-engine aircraft. The RAF concentrated its efforts on night bombing, but neither force was able to develop adequate bombsights or tactics to allow for often-bragged pinpoint accuracy. The post-war U. S. Strategic Bombing Survey studies supported the notion of strategic bombing. Attempts to create pioneering examples of smart bombs resulted in the Azon ordnance, deployed in the European Theater, most strategic bombers of the two superpowers were designed to deliver nuclear weapons. For a time, some squadrons of Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers were kept in the air around the clock, the Royal Air Forces British-produced V bombers were designed and designated to be able to deliver British-made nuclear bombs to targets in European Russia. These bombers could have been able to reach and destroy cities like Kiev or Moscow before American strategic bombers, the Soviet Union produced hundreds of unlicensed, reverse-engineered copies of the American Boeing B-29 Superfortress, which the Soviet Air Forces called the Tupolev Tu-4. The Soviets later developed the jet-powered Tupolev Tu-16 Badger, the Peoples Republic of China produced a version of Tupolev Tu-16 on license from the Soviet Union in the 1960s which they named the Xian H-6, it remains in service today. Mirage IVs served until mid-1996 in the role, and to 2005 as a reconnaissance aircraft. Today the French Republic has limited its strategic armaments to a squadron of four nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, france also maintains an active force of supersonic fighter-bombers carrying stand-off nuclear missiles such as the ASMP, with Mach 3 speed and a range of 500 kilometers. These missiles can be delivered by the Dassault Mirage 2000N and Rafale fighter-bombers and it is likely that this bomber would also serve as a replacement for both the B-52 and B-1. The Russian Air Forces new Tu-160 strategic bombers are expected to be delivered on a regular basis over the course of 10 to 20 years, in addition, the current Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers will be periodically updated, as was done during the 1990s with the Tu-22M bombers
31.
Fighter aircraft
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A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat against other aircraft, as opposed to bombers and attack aircraft, whose main mission is to attack ground targets. The hallmarks of a fighter are its speed, maneuverability, many fighters have secondary ground-attack capabilities, and some are designed as dual-purpose fighter-bombers, often aircraft that do not fulfill the standard definition are called fighters. This may be for political or national security reasons, for advertising purposes, a fighters main purpose is to establish air superiority over a battlefield. Since World War I, achieving and maintaining air superiority has been considered essential for victory in conventional warfare, the word fighter did not become the official English-language term for such aircraft until after World War I. In the British Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force these aircraft were referred to as scouts into the early 1920s, the U. S. Army called their fighters pursuit aircraft from 1916 until the late 1940s. In most languages a fighter aircraft is known as a hunter, exceptions include Russian, where a fighter is an истребитель, meaning exterminator, and Hebrew where it is matose krav. As a part of nomenclature, a letter is often assigned to various types of aircraft to indicate their use. In Russia I was used, while the French continue to use C and this has always been the case, for instance the Sopwith Camel and other fighting scouts of World War I performed a great deal of ground-attack work. Several aircraft, such as the F-111 and F-117, have received fighter designations but had no fighter capability due to political or other reasons, the F-111B variant was originally intended for a fighter role with the U. S. Navy, but it was cancelled. This blurring follows the use of fighters from their earliest days for attack or strike operations against ground targets by means of strafing or dropping small bombs, versatile multirole fighter-bombers such as the F/A-18 Hornet are a less expensive option than having a range of specialized aircraft types. An interceptor is generally an aircraft intended to target bombers and so often trades maneuverability for climb rate, fighters were developed in World War I to deny enemy aircraft and dirigibles the ability to gather information by reconnaissance. Early fighters were very small and lightly armed by later standards, and most were built with a wooden frame, covered with fabric. As control of the airspace over armies became increasingly important all of the major powers developed fighters to support their military operations, between the wars, wood was largely replaced by steel tubing, then aluminium tubing, and finally aluminium stressed skin structures began to predominate. By World War II, most fighters were all-metal monoplanes armed with batteries of guns or cannons. By the end of the war, turbojet engines were replacing piston engines as the means of propulsion, further increasing aircraft speed. Since the weight of the engine was so less than on piston engined fighters. This in turn required the development of ejection seats so the pilot could escape, in the 1950s, radar was fitted to day fighters, since pilots could no longer see far enough ahead to prepare for any opposition. Since then, radar capabilities have grown enormously and are now the method of target acquisition
32.
Air superiority fighter
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Air superiority fighters are designed primarily to effectively engage enemy fighters, more than other types of aircraft, although some may have a secondary role for air-to-ground strikes. They are usually expensive and procured in smaller numbers, compared to multirole fighters which are designed with a balance between air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities. In order to maximize their effectiveness and strategic usefulness, air superiority fighters usually operate under the control/co-ordination of an airborne early warning. During World War II and through the Korean War, fighters were classified by their role, heavy fighter, interceptor, escort fighter, night fighter, and so forth. These aircraft would sacrifice high maneuverability, and instead focus on remaining performance characteristics, combat experiences during the Vietnam War proved BVR proponents wrong. Owing to restrictive rules of engagement and the failings of 1960s missile and radar technology, the two designs were built to achieve air superiority and significant consideration was given during the development of both aircraft to allow them to excel at the shorter ranges of fighter combat. Both aircraft also serve as interceptors due to their maximum speed. By contrast, the Soviets developed and continue to operate types of air superiority. For the US Navy, the F-14 Tomcat was initially deployed solely as an air superiority fighter, by contrast, the multirole F/A-18 Hornet was designed as strike fighter while having only enough of an edge to defend itself against enemy fighters if needed. In the 1990s, the US Navy added LANTIRN pods to its F-14s, the F-15 Eagle was envisioned originally as an air superiority fighter and interceptor under the mantra not a pound for air-to-ground. However, the F-15C can carry dumb and GPS guided bombs, the F-16 Fighting Falcon was originally designed as an air superiority fighter but has evolved into a successful all-weather multirole aircraft. The Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale are classified as multirole fighters, the Rafale is regarded as a more balanced design which sacrifices air-to-air ability for being able to carry more ordinance. Interceptor aircraft Fighter aircraft Glossary of Nato Definitions Rand, Revival of the Air-Superiority Fighter
33.
Interceptor aircraft
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An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically to prevent successful missions by enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. For daytime operations, conventional fighters normally fill the interceptor role, few aircraft can be considered dedicated daytime interceptors. Night fighters and bomber destroyers are, by definition, interceptors of the heavy type, examples of classic interceptors of this era include the F-106 Delta Dart, Sukhoi Su-15 and English Electric Lightning. Dedicated interceptor designs became rare, with the widely used examples designed after the 1960s being the Tornado F3, Mikoyan MiG-25 Foxbat. The first dedicated interceptor squadrons were formed up during World War I in order to defend London against attacks by Zeppelins, early units generally used aircraft withdrawn from front-line service, notably the Sopwith Pup. They were told about their targets prior to take-off from a centralized command center in the Horse Guards building. The Pup proved to have too low performance to intercept the Gotha G. IV bombers. Before Second World War started, offensive bomber speeds had improved so much that it appeared that the mission would be effectively impossible. The visual and acoustic detection had a range on the order of a few miles. This could be addressed by a cover of aircraft. The conclusion at the time was that the bomber will always get through, the introduction of radar upset this equation. Radar was able to detect aircraft at long range, on the order of 100 miles even for early systems and this provided enough time for fighters to start up, climb to altitude and chase down their targets. The introduction of jet power increased speeds from perhaps 200 miles per hour to 600 miles per hour in a single step, although radars also improved in performance, the gap between offense and defense was dramatically reduced. Large attacks could so confuse the defenses ability to communicate information to the pilots that the method of manual ground controlled interception was increasingly seen as inadequate. In the United States, this led to the introduction of the Semi-Automatic Ground Environment to computerize this task. In the 1950s, during the Cold War, an interceptor force was crucial for the great powers. Hence for a period of time they faced rapid development. Thus, the doctrine of mutually assured destruction replaced the trend of defense strengthening and their utility waned as the role became blurred into the role of the heavy air superiority fighters dominant in military thinking at the time
34.
Maritime patrol aircraft
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France, Italy and Austria-Hungary used large numbers of smaller patrol aircraft for the Mediterranean, Adriatic and other coastal areas while the Germans and British fought over the North Sea. A number of specialized patrol balloons were built, particularly by the British, the success of long range patrol aircraft led to the development of fighters specifically designed to intercept them, such as the Hansa-Brandenburg W.29. Blimps were widely used by the U. S. Navy, especially in the warmer and calmer latitudes of the Caribbean Sea, the Bahamas, Bermuda, the Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and later the Azores. In the Pacific, the Catalina was gradually superseded by the longer-ranged Martin PBM Mariner flying boat, in the decades following World War II, the patrol duties were partially taken over by aircraft derived from civilian airliners. These had range and performance factors better than most of the wartime bombers, the latest jet-powered bombers of the 1950s did not have the endurance needed for long, overwater patrolling, and they did not have the low loitering speeds necessary for antisubmarine operations. The RAF also flew a derivative of the Avro Lancaster bomber – the Avro Shackleton –, and then replaced it with the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod. The Canadian version is called the CP-140 Aurora, in addition to their ASW and SAR capabilities, most P-3Cs have been modified to carry Harpoon missiles and Maverick s for attacking surface ships if the need ever arose. American P-3s were formerly armed with the Lulu nuclear depth charge for ASW, the Soviet Union developed the Ilyushin Il-38 from a civilian airliner, and the Royal Canadian Air Force did likewise, deriving the Canadair CP-107 Argus from a British airliner. Then, as mentioned above, those were replaced by the CP-140 Aurora, the French Navy developed the Breguet Atlantic following a Request for Proposal from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Some of these were produced for some other NATO members that were not flying the P-3 or the CP-140. Japan developed an aircraft as well, the Shin Meiwa PS-1 flying boat. The main threat to NATO maritime supremacy throughout the 1960s, 1970s, and these were countered by the NATO fleets, the NATO patrol planes mentioned above, and by sophisticated underwater listening systems. S. Navy and Canadian ones from Greenland, Iceland, and Newfoundland, British ones from Scotland and Northern Ireland, and Norwegian, Dutch, and German ones from their home countries. Since the end of the Cold War the threat of a submarine attack is a remote one. The earliest patrol aircraft carried bombs and machine guns, between the wars the British experimented with equipping their patrol aircraft with the COW37 mm gun. During World War II, depth charges that could be set to detonate at specific depths, equipping submarines with radar-warning devices and the snorkel made them harder to find. Then the small escort carriers of WW II became available to cover the oceans. Maritime patrol aircraft are fitted with a wide range of sensors
35.
Multirole combat aircraft
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A multirole combat aircraft is a jet-powered combat aircraft intended to perform different roles in combat. The main motivation for developing multirole aircraft is cost reduction in using a common airframe, more roles can be added, such as aerial reconnaissance, forward air control, and electronic-warfare aircraft. Attack missions include the air interdiction, suppression of enemy air defense. Multirole has also applied to one aircraft with both major roles, a primary air-to-air combat role, and a secondary role like air-to-surface attack. Some aircraft are called swing-role, to emphasize the ability of a role change, either at short notice. According to the Military Dictionary, the ability to employ a multi-role aircraft for multiple purposes during the same mission, according to BAE Systems, an aircraft that can accomplish both air-to-air and air-to-surface roles on the same mission and swing between these roles instantly offers true flexibility. This reduces cost, increases effectiveness and enhances interoperability with allied air forces, capability also offers considerable cost-of-ownership benefits to and operational commanders. Although the term multirole aircraft may be novel, certain airframes in history have proven versatile to multiple roles. The USAF F-4 Phantom II built by McDonnell-Douglas also fits the definition of an aircraft in its various configurations of the basic airframe design. The various F-4 Phantom II configurations were used in air, fighter bomber, reconnaissance. The design was aimed to replace a multitude of different types in the air forces. The project produced the Panavia Tornado, which used the basic design to undertake a variety of roles. Air superiority fighter Tactical bomber Interceptor aircraft Interdictor Fighter-bomber Attack aircraft Strike fighter Lead-in fighter trainer
36.
Fighter-bomber
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A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft. Although still used, the term fighter-bomber has less significance since the introduction of rockets, modern aircraft with similar duties are now typically called multirole combat aircraft or strike fighters. Prior to World War II, general limitations in available engine, engine power grew dramatically during the early period of the war, roughly doubling between 1939 and 1943. It had two Bristol Mercury XV radial engines of 920 hp each, a crew of three, and its payload was just 1,200 lbs of bombs. The Blenheim suffered disastrous losses over France in 1939 when it encountered Messerschmitt Bf 109s, in contrast, the Vought F4U Corsair fighter — which entered service in December 1942 — had in common with its eventual U. S. With less airframe and crew to lift, the Corsairs ordnance load was either four High Velocity Aircraft Rockets or 2,000 lbs of bombs, increased engine power meant that many existing fighter designs could carry useful bomb loads, and adapt to the fighter-bomber role. Notable examples include the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, Hawker Typhoon and Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, larger twin-engined aircraft were also used in the fighter-bomber role, especially where longer ranges were needed for naval strikes. Examples include the Lockheed P-38 Lightning, the Bristol Beaufighter, the Beaufighter MkV had a Boulton-Paul turret with four 0.303 in machine guns mounted aft of the cockpit but only two were built. Bristols Blenheim was even pushed into service as a fighter during the Battle of Britain, equipped with an early Airborne Interception radar set, however, it proved to be an effective night fighter. The first single seat fighters to drop bombs were on the Western Front, when fighter patrols were issued with bombs and ordered to drop them at random if they met no German fighters. The Sopwith Camel, the most successful Allied aircraft of the First World War with 1,294 enemy aircraft downed, was losing its edge by 1918, the Royal Aircraft Factory S. E.5. was used in the same role. The Royal Flying Corps received the first purpose-built fighter-bomber just as the war was ending and it was not called a fighter bomber at the time, but a Trench Fighter as that was what it was designed to attack. The Sopwith Salamander was based on the Sopwith Snipe fighter but had armour plating in the nose to protect the pilot, originally it was intended to have two machine guns jutting through the cockpit floor so as to spray trenches with bullets as it passed low overhead. But this did not work and it was fitted with four Cooper bombs and it was ordered in very large numbers, but most were cancelled after the Armistice. In February and April 1918 the Royal Flying Corps conducted bombing tests at Orfordness, both WW1 fighter bombers were used with novice and experienced pilots. Best results were achieved with a dive into the wind using the Aldis Sight to align the aircraft. But they were not considered enough to justify the expected casualty rate. When war broke out in Europe, Western Allied Air Forces employed light twin-engined bombers in the role for low level attack
37.
Airborne early warning and control
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AEW&C units are also used to carry out surveillance, including over ground targets and frequently perform C2BM functions similar to an Air Traffic Controller given military command over other forces. Like a ground based radar, it can be detected by opposing forces, the system is used offensively to direct fighters to their target locations, and defensively, directing counterattacks on enemy forces, both air and ground. The designation airborne early warning was used for earlier similar aircraft, AWACS is the name of the specific system installed in the E-3 and Japanese Boeing E-767 AEW&C airframes, but is often used as a general synonym for AEW&C. Modern AEW&C systems can detect aircraft from up to 400 km away, one AEW&C aircraft flying at 9,000 m can cover an area of 312,000 km2. Three such aircraft in overlapping orbits can cover the whole of Central Europe, the intention was to cover the North West approaches where German long range Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor aircraft were threatening shipping. A Vickers Wellington bomber was fitted with an antenna array. It was tested for use against aerial targets and then for possible use against German E boats, another radar equipped Wellington with a different installation was used to direct Bristol Beaufighters toward Heinkel He 111s, which were air-launching V-1 flying bombs. In February 1944 the U. S. Navy ordered the development of a system that could be carried aloft in an aircraft under Project Cadillac. A prototype system was built and flown in August on a modified TBM Avenger torpedo bomber, tests proved successful, with the system being able to detect low flying formations at a range in excess of 100 miles. The U. S. Navy then ordered production of the TBM-3W, tBM-3Ws fitted with the AN/APS-20 radar entered service in March 1945, with some 36–40 eventually being constructed. The Lockheed WV and EC-121 Warning Star, which first flew in 1949 served widely with both the US Air Force and US Navy and provided the main AEW coverage for US forces during the Vietnam war. It was to remain operational until replaced with the E-3 AWACS, in 1958, the Soviet Tupolev Design Bureau was also ordered to design an AEW aircraft. After determining that the projected radar instrumentation wouldnt fit in a Tupolev Tu-95 or a Tupolev Tu-116 and this solved the problems with cooling and operator space that existed with the narrower Tu-95 and Tu-116 fuselage. To meet the range requirements, production examples were fitted with an air-to-air refueling probe. The resulting system, the Tupolev Tu-126, entered service in 1965 with the Soviet Air Forces, many countries have developed their own AEW&C systems, although the Boeing E-3 Sentry and Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye are the most common systems worldwide. The E-3 Sentry was built by the Boeing Defense and Space Group and was based on the Boeing 707-320 aircraft,65 E-3 were built and it is operated by the United States Air Force, NATO, the British Royal Air Force, France and controversially, Saudi Arabia. The specially designed Grumman E-2 Hawkeye entered service in 1965 and has operated by eight different nations. Over 168 have been produced so far and new versions continue to be developed making it the most widely used AEW system, for the Japan Air Self-Defense Force, the E-3 technology has been fitted into the Boeing E-767
38.
Experimental aircraft
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An experimental aircraft is an aircraft that has not yet been fully proven in flight. Often, this implies that new technologies are being tested on the aircraft. The term experimental aircraft is sometimes used to refer to aircraft flown with an Experimental category airworthiness certificate. In the U. S. this includes most homebuilt aircraft, many of which are based on conventional designs, the term research aircraft, by contrast, generally denotes aircraft modified to perform scientific studies, such as weather research or geophysical surveying. List of experimental aircraft List of X-planes
39.
Reconnaissance aircraft
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A reconnaissance aircraft is a manned or unmanned military aircraft designed, or adapted, to carry out aerial reconnaissance. Their roles are to collect intelligence, signals intelligence, and measurement. During the Napoleonic Wars and Franco-Prussian War, balloons were used for reconnaissance by the French. In World War I, aircraft were deployed during the phases in reconnaissance roles to aid ground forces. Aerial reconnaissance was carried out by versions of standard fighters and bombers equipped with cameras. Today, much of the role has passed over to satellites. This was proven by the use by Israel and by the Desert Storm operation by the United States. King Hawes, Lt Col, USAF Bonnier Corporation, army-Lockheed YO-3A Silent Airplane in Vietnam
40.
Surveillance aircraft
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A surveillance aircraft is an aircraft used for surveillance—collecting information over time. This article concentrates on aircraft used in roles, rather than for traffic monitoring, law enforcement. Surveillance aircraft usually carry no armament, or only limited defensive armament, a surveillance aircraft does not necessarily require high-performance capability or stealth characteristics. It may be a civilian aircraft. Surveillance aircraft have also included moored balloons and unmanned aerial vehicles, surveillance is sometimes grouped with Intelligence, Target acquisition and Reconnaissance under the title ISTAR. Observation was the used for surveillance when the main sensor was the human eye. In 1794, during the Battle of Fleurus, the French Aerostatic Corps balloon LEntreprenant remained afloat for nine hours. French officers used the balloon to observe the movements of the Austrian Army, dropping notes to the ground for collection by the French Army, and also signalled messages using semaphore. One of the first aircraft used for surveillance was the Rumpler Taube during World War I, the translucent wings of the plane made it very difficult for ground based observers to detect a Taube at an altitude above 400 m. The French also called this plane the Invisible Aircraft, and it is also referred to as the worlds very first stealth plane. German Taube aircraft were able to detect the advancing Russian army during the Battle of Tannenberg, during World War II, light aircraft such as the Auster were used as air observation posts. Officers from the British Royal Artillery were trained as pilots to fly AOP aircraft for artillery spotting, the air observation role was generally taken over by light observation helicopters, such as the Hughes OH-6 Cayuse, from the mid-1960s. Pre war, the British identified a need for an aircraft that could follow, to this end the slow-flying Airspeed Fleet Shadower and General Aircraft Fleet Shadower designs were built and flown in 1940 but they were made obsolete by the introduction of airborne radar. Spy flights were a source of contention between the US and Russia during most of the 1960s. Maritime patrol aircraft are typically large, slow machines capable of flying continuously for many hours, such aircraft include the Hawker-Siddeley Nimrod, the Breguet Atlantique, the Tupolev Tu-95, the Lockheed P-2 Neptune and the Lockheed P-3 Orion/CP-140 Aurora. Predator UAVs have been used by the US for border patrol, unmanned surveillance aircraft have been deployed or are under development in many countries, including Israel, the UK, the United States, Canada, China, India, South Africa and Pakistan. Unmanned surveillance UAVs include both airships—such as Sky Sentinel and HiSentinel 80—and airplanes, most air forces around the world lack dedicated surveillance planes. Several countries adapt aircraft for intelligence gathering
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Aerial refueling
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The procedure allows the receiving aircraft to remain airborne longer, extending its range or loiter time on station. A series of air refuelings can give range limited only by crew fatigue, alternatively, a shorter take-off roll can be achieved because take-off can be at a lighter weight before refueling once airborne. Aerial refueling has also considered as a means to reduce fuel consumption on long-distance flights greater than 3,000 nautical miles. Potential fuel savings in the range of 35-40% have been estimated for long haul flights, usually, the aircraft providing the fuel is specially designed for the task, although refueling pods can be fitted to existing aircraft designs if the probe-and-drogue system is to be used. There is no known regular civilian in-flight refueling activity, for instance, in the Gulf War and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and the Iraq War, all coalition air sorties were air-refueled except for a few short-range ground attack sorties in the Kuwait area. The first mid-air refueling, based on the development of Alexander P. de Seversky, as the 1920s progressed, greater numbers of aviation enthusiasts vied to set new aerial long-distance records, using inflight air refueling. One such enthusiast, who would revolutionize aerial refueling was Sir Alan Cobham, member of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I, and a pioneer of long-distance aviation. During the 1920s, he made long-distance flights to places as far afield as Africa and Australia and this craft was eventually modified by Airspeed to Cobhams specification, for a non-stop flight from London to India, using in-flight refueling to extend the planes flight duration. Meanwhile, in 1929, a group of U. S. Army Air Corps fliers, led by then Major Carl Spaatz, set an endurance record of over 150 hours with the Question Mark over Los Angeles. Aerial refueling remained a dangerous process until 1935 when brothers Fred and Al Key demonstrated a spill-free refueling nozzle. They exceeded the Hunters record by nearly 100 hours in a Curtiss Robin monoplane, the US was mainly concerned about transatlantic flights for faster postal service between Europe and America. In 1931 W. Irving Glover, the assistant postmaster, wrote an extensive article for Popular Mechanics concerning the challenges. In his article he even mentioned the use of Aerial refueling after take off as a possible solution, by 1931 they had demonstrated refueling between two Vickers Virginias, with fuel flow controlled by an automatic valve on the hose which would cut off if contact was lost. Royal Air Force officer Richard Atcherley had observed the dangerous aerial-refueling techniques in use at barnstorming events in the US and determined to create a workable system. In 1934, Cobham sold off the airline Cobham Air Routes Ltd to Olley Air Service, atcherlys system was bought up by Cobhams company, and with some refinement and continuous improvement through the late 30s, it became the first practical refueling system. Sir Alan Cobhams Grappled-line looped-hose air-to-air refueling system borrowed from techniques patented by David Nicolson and John Lord, and was publicly demonstrated for the first time in 1935. In the system the aircraft, at one time an Airspeed Courier, trailed a steel cable which was then grappled by a line shot from the tanker. The line was drawn back into the tanker where the receivers cable was connected to the refueling hose
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Trainer (aircraft)
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A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. Civilian pilots are trained in a light aircraft, with two or more seats to allow for a student and instructor. The aircraft may be modified to withstand the conditions imposed by training flights. The two seating configurations for trainer aircraft are, pilot and instructor side by side, or in tandem, usually with the pilot in front, the tandem configuration has the advantage of being closer to the normal working environment that a fast jet pilot is likely to encounter. It is now the norm for pilots to begin their training in an aircraft with side by side seating. This, however, has not always been the case, given the expense of military pilot training, air forces typically conduct training in phases to eliminate unsuitable candidates. The cost to air forces that do not follow a graduated training regimen is not just monetary. There are two areas for instruction, flight training and operational training. In flight training a candidate seeks to develop their flying skills, in operational training the candidate learns to use his or her flying skills through simulated combat, attack and fighter techniques. Typically, contemporary military pilots learn initial flying skills in an aircraft not too dissimilar from civilian training aircraft. In this phase candidates are screened for mental and physical attributes. Aircraft used for this include the Slingsby Firefly, as at one time used by the United States Air Force Academy. The U. S. replaced the Firefly and the Enhanced Flight Screen Program with the Diamond DA20, at the end of this stage, pilot trainees are assessed as to where their attributes lie, as fast jet, multi-engine or rotary wing pilots. Those who are judged unsuitable for a commission, but show other attributes, may be offered the chance to qualify as navigators. Smaller and more financially restricted air forces may use ultra-light aircraft, gliders, after the ab-inito phase a candidate may progress to basic, or primary, trainers. These are usually turboprop trainers, like the Pilatus PC-9 and Embraer Tucano, prior to the availability of high performance turboprops, basic training was conducted with jet aircraft such as the BAC Jet Provost, T-37 Tweet, and Fouga Magister. Those candidates who are not suitable to continue training as fast jet pilots may be offered flying commissions, examples of such jet trainer aircraft include the supersonic T-38 Talon, the BAE Hawk, the Dassault/Dornier Alpha Jet, the Aero L-39 and the Yakovlev Yak-130. Effective combat aircraft are a function now electronics as much as, if not more so than and it is at this stage that a pilot begins to learn to operate radar systems and electronics
