This third and final volume in the AU Press monograph series Defending Air Bases in an Age of Insurgency provides concise principles designed to assist Air Force and Space Force commanders in better understanding their role in base defense to better protect their people, resources, and war-fighting assets. Volume I of this book was Air University Press’s number one download in 2014; Volume II was released in 2019. Volume III distills lessons and recommendations from the preceding two volumes to provide commanders the most concise view of the issues and concepts at stake in fulfilling their base defense roles. This volume provides future wing, group, and squadron commanders and maturing Air Force and Space Force leaders some guiding principles through which they can better lead, protect, and secure their people, and air- and space power assets. Volume III outlines 10 base defense principles for commanders: (1) You Own It! (commander responsibilities for base defense); (2) Get Left of the Boom: Deter, Disrupt, Deceive; (3) Influence the Base Security Zone . . . or Someone Else Will; (4) Unity of Effort: Synchronize the Fight; (5) Everyone Must Have a Role in the Base Defense . . . and Play It!; (6) Intelligence Drives Maneuver: A Joint-Interagency Approach Is Critical; (7) Air-mindedness Includes Using Air Assets for Base Defense; (8) Law Enforcement Skills Are Critical to Base Defense and Irregular Warfare; (9) Manage the Risk: Commit Intellectual Capital to the Fight; and (10) Nowhere to Hide: Anticipate Future Threats and Develop Countermeasures. [Col Shannon W. Caudill, USAF, Retired / 2021 / 87 pp / ISBN 9781585662883 / B-169]
Author Frank Blazich has spent years researching and compiling disparate records of Civil Air Patrol's short-lived--but influential--coastal patrol operations of World War II, which he synthesizes into the first scholarly monograph that cements the legacy of this unique and vital wartime civil-military cooperative effort. [Dr. Frank Blazich / 2020 / 258 pages / ISBN: 9781585663057 / AU Press Code: B-168]
Twentieth-century Italian general Giulio Douhet has influenced generations with his theories on airpower and air force development. The book, long established as essential reading for Air University students, collects separate writings The Command of the Air, The Probable Aspects of the War of the Future, Recapitulation, and The War of 19– into one volume. This 2019 edition builds on a 1942 Italian-to-English translation and includes an index. [Giulio Douhet / 2019 / 362 pages / ISBN: 978-1-58566-296-8 / AU Press Code: B-0160].
Today's Air Force commanders face a wide range of issues, many of which involve complex statutes, laws, regulations, and rules. Our commanders must deal with challenging legal matters ranging from military justice to environmental law to operations law. The Military Commander and the Law is used as a deskbook for instruction at various commander courses at Air University. It also serves as a handy reference guide for commanders in the field, providing general guidance and helping commanders clarify issues and identify potential problem areas. [Judge Advocate General's School/ 2019 / 524 pages / AU Press Code: B-159]
Authors offer their experiences from the field regarding air base security and discuss modern air support for base defense, counterintelligence enablers, commander responsibilities for air base defense, lessons from the Afghanistan theater of operations, projected technological advances in base defense, and unique operational defensive challenges at a conflict’s beginning (getting in) and end (getting out). [Shannon W. Caudill, Colonel, USAF, Retired / 2019 / 452 pages / ISBN: 9781585662418 / AU Press Code: B-154]
Cradle of Airpower takes readers through a hundred years of discovery and development, starting when the future runways of Maxwell Air Force Base were still furrowed fields and Orville Wright himself astonished the people of Montgomery, Alabama, as he buzzed overhead in his Flyer performing daredevil deeds, ascending to heights previously unimagined. In this illustrated history of Maxwell’s first century, readers will discover why the Wright brothers chose this land for their first pilot-training program and how that single choice contributed to a century of US military airpower advancement. It also documents in photographs the growing communal relationship among the military population on what became Maxwell AFB and Gunter Annex with the communities of central Alabama. How did the winds of war and the perils of politics influence the development of aircraft and all the teaching and learning that make the US Air Force the world’s foremost airpower today? Turn the pages of this singular collection of history and photographs to find out how it all began at modest Wright Field and today continues at the Air Force’s premier professional education institutions. [Jerome A. Ennels Sr., Robert B. Kane, and Silvano A. Wueschner / 2018 / 140 pages / ISBN: 978-1-58566-285-2 / AU Press Code: B-153]
The emergence of radar and tactical fighter control is the genesis of today’s air battle managers. Army Signal Corps technicians and Air Corps aircraft operators comprised the aircraft warning service, creating a constant source of frustration to both communities. It is from this mixed environment that the first fighter control squadrons emerged. What air battle managers do today has its foundations in procedures and terminology developed by the struggles of their predecessors in both the Army Signal and Air Corps in developing cutting-edge radar technology and in defining roles and organizations. This context is valuable in fostering an appreciation for the fighter controller heritage. [Randall DeGering / 2018 / 111 pages / ISBN: 978-1-58566-291-3 / AU Press Code: B-152]
This anthology discusses the converging operational issues of air base defense and counterinsurgency. It explores the diverse challenges associated with defending air assets and joint personnel in a counterinsurgency environment. The authors are primarily Air Force officers from security forces, intelligence, and the office of special investigations, but works are included from a US Air Force pilot and a Canadian air force officer. The authors examine lessons from Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other conflicts as they relate to securing air bases and sustaining air operations in a high-threat counterinsurgency environment. The essays review the capabilities, doctrine, tactics, and training needed in base defense operations and recommend ways in which to build a strong, synchronized ground defense partnership with joint and combined forces. The authors offer recommendations on the development of combat leaders with the depth of knowledge, tactical and operational skill sets, and counterinsurgency mind set necessary to be effective in the modern asymmetric battlefield. [Shannon W. Caudill, Colonel, USAF / 2014 / 471 pages / ISBN: 978-1-58566-241-8 / AU Press Code: B-136]
With insightful and innovative chapters written by experts in various disciplines, this book chronicles and analyzes the effects of airpower on the environment. It also highlights the fact that military forces now take far more care of the environment than ever before and that many militaries, even in less developed regions such as central Africa, have developed strategies to minimize all harm and even to do environmentally beneficial activities. This book reveals that some military forces, utilizing the speed, reach, and intelligence-gathering capabilities of air assets, are providing highly positive contributions to conservation efforts and the maintenance and protection of ecological protection zones. This is a positive story and it brings richness and variety to this seminal collection of essays. The Library Journal put Airpower and the Environment on its 2013 Notable Government Documents list! [Joel Hayward, editor / 2013 / 542 pages / ISBN: 978-1-58566-223-4 / AU Press Code: B-131]
Airpower for Strategic Effect is intended to contribute to the understanding of airpower—what it is, what it does, why it does it, and what the consequences are. This is the plot: airpower generates strategic effect. Airpower’s product is strategic effect on the course of strategic history. Everything about military airpower is instrumental to the purpose of securing strategic effect. [Colin S. Gray / 2012 / 367 pages / ISBN: 978-1-58566-218-0 / AU Press Code: B-122]