Air War Project Podcast: Recent Episodes
Jack/Horan
Welcome to the Air War Project, a podcast dedicated to everything airpower. This series will shine a light on some of the many fascinating subjects, events and personalities that have shaped the history of aerial warfare. It has now been over 100 hundred years since the airplane arrived over the battlefield and redefined the way in which wars were fought. The Air War Project will take you on a journey through the world of air combat, aircraft histories, great pilots and leaders, campaigns that changed wars, and the great ideas that shaped airpower.
The first episode – Airpower: Turning Points, Triumphs and Challenges – will range far and wide covering the turning points over the past century that shaped and gave direction to the airplane as a weapon of war. We will start at the beginning of the 20th Century, when airplanes were nothing more than rudimentary contraptions of wood, wire and stretched canvas that were more likely to kill their pilots than do real damage to the enemy, and will conclude with today’s integrated and networked weapons systems that seem to have more in common with science fiction than their piston powered progenitors. In between, we will touch upon airpower’s stunning growth during WWII, its leading role in the beginnings of the Cold War, its manifest limits as shown in Vietnam, and its resurgence during the 1980s as part of the micro-circuit driven Revolution in Military Affairs.
A short description and explanation of the United States Army Cold War 1980s doctrine of AirLand Battle, the plan to counteract and contain the much-feared World War Three scenario of a Soviet armoured thrust into Western Europe.