Air supremacy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Air supremacy is the most favorable state of control of the air. It is defined by NATO and the United States Department of Defense as "that degree of air superiority wherein the opposing air force is incapable of effective interference."

There are normally thought to be three levels of control of the air. Air supremacy is the highest, meaning there is complete control of the skies. Air superiority is the next highest, which is being in a more favorable position than the opponent. Air parity is the lowest level of control, meaning control of the skies only above friendly troop positions.

For example, in World War II after the German attack into France, the German Luftwaffe had air superiority over Western Europe, being able to attack England, specifically London, with some resistance. As the Royal Air Force began winning the Battle of Britain it had air parity - having control of the skies above England, but not the skies over Western Europe. As the war went on, the Allies eventually gained air supremacy and the Luftwaffe could not give effective interference.

After the First World War, many theorists around the world began to consider the importance of air supremacy and air superiority. Most notably was the Italian general Giulio Douhet in his book The Command of the Air. At the beginning of the Second World War, the main combatants took different views on the importance of air power. Adolf Hitler saw it as only a helpful tool to support the Wehrmacht, the German army. The Allied powers, however, saw it as being a more important part of warfare, specifically long-range strategic bombing which crippled Germany's industrial centers.

Today, air supremacy is a key first goal of United States military operations. This was demonstrated in the Gulf War when the Iraqi Air Force had been decimated in the opening stages, losing five of six Tu-22s to bombings and not obtaining any kills on coalition forces while losing several jets.^{[citation needed]}

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[edit] References

Defense Technical Information Center [1]
Australian Department of Defense [2]
Encyclopedia Britannica [3]
Canadian forces aerospace doctrine [wps.cfc.forces.gc.ca/doctrine/aerospace.doc]