Air University (AU) > AUPress

April 22, 2025
Human, Machine, War: How the Mind-Tech Nexus Will Win Future Wars

Military and strategic success depends not on minds or technology but on the combination of minds plus technology. We call this combination the Mind-Tech Nexus, which we define as how human factors (e.g., will to fight, skill, daring, perception) will interface and converge with the technologies of
April 22, 2025
A Few Great Captains: The Men and Events That Shaped the Development of US Air Power

It was known as the Army Air Corps from 1926-41, and it was in many ways a golden age.  The technology of flight was advancing in great leaps, and it was glamorous.  Aces of the World War, such as Eddie Rickenbacker and Frank Luke, were heroes still, and then there were the new faces—Charles
June 12, 2023
Kick the Tires and Light the Fire: Foundations of American Airpower

Kick the Fires and Light the Fires: Foundations of American Airpower introduces American airpower studies and explores the foundations of today’s United States Air Force. It seeks to build Air Force identity through an overview of Air Force heritage and an explanation of the concepts
March 20, 2023
Aerospace Power: A Brazilian Multidimensional Approach

This collection of studies delves into themes of Brazil’s airpower and space power: protecting territorial sovereignty in the Amazon, developing missile technology in partnership with South Africa, taking a place in global aerospace geopolitics, participating in UN peace operations, among many
Sept. 19, 2022
The Icarus Solution: The Lure and Logic of Airmindness

In 1990, the think tank RAND assessed the professionalism of United States Air Force officers at Air University. The study’s author, Carl Builder, concluded they lacked allegiance to air power theory and instead were enamored with the excitement of flight. He labeled this institutional crisis,
April 11, 2022
Assured Access: A History of the US Air Force Space Launch Enterprise, 1945–2020

In Assured Access: A History of the United States Air Force Space Launch Enterprise, 1945–2020, David N. Spires surveys more than six decades of Air Force launch support for the nation’s military, intelligence, and civilian space communities. From their inception as refurbished ballistic
March 2, 2021
Defending Air Bases in an Age of Insurgency, volume III: Integrated Base Defense Principles for Commanders

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
Oct. 3, 2019
The Command of the Air

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
April 11, 2019
The Military Commander and the Law [ONLINE ONLY]

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
March 8, 2019
Defending Air Bases in an Age of Insurgency, Vol. II

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