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ID:
161292
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| Summary/Abstract |
As the RAF celebrates and commemorates the 100th anniversary of its foundation as the world’s first independent air force on 1 April 1918, RUSI marks this event with a special edition of the RUSI Journal. When he established RUSI in 1831, the Duke of Wellington could not have envisaged the multi-domain nature of contemporary military operations, and indeed his great rival Napoleon had disbanded the French military balloon corps some 30 years previously. However, a glance at the archives of the RUSI Journal demonstrates an interest in airpower as part of the military instrument long before the founding of the RAF, with an unsurprising intensification through the First World War. The extent of the continuities as well as the dramatic change in military airpower can be seen in an article from 1914 which discusses the use of aircraft to rapidly remove wounded soldiers from the battlefield.1 In the twenty-first century, this took the form of RAF Chinook helicopters delivering Medical Emergency Response Teams directly to the battlefield in Afghanistan. The articles in this special edition do not seek to review the entire history of the RAF or indeed the military use of airpower, but rather engage with contemporary debates through a range of academic prisms and with insights from academics, practitioners and practitioner-academics.
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| 2 |
ID:
161296
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In this article, Philip Sabin surveys how popular images of airpower in Britain, as reflected in books, films and the media, have changed over the past century. It argues that the British public has consistently focused more on the human traumas associated with airpower than on technology and tactics, but that the particular form of this human focus has varied widely over time and is still changing today.
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| 3 |
ID:
161289
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article examines the impact of Brexit on British–Irish relations to date. Etain Tannam shows how the intergovernmental relationship has flourished, but highlights the challenges posed by Brexit. She argues that strong British–Irish intergovernmental relations are essential to manage the challenges. A formalised institutional framework is and will be essential in the absence of common EU membership. To this end, the Good Friday Agreement’s British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference should be revitalised.
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ID:
161297
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article explores the relationship between the Air Ministry and the British airframe industry in the 1920s and the efforts undertaken to increase the capacity of the industry to increase output in the event of a national emergency. It charts the negotiations between the Society of British Aircraft Constructors (SBAC) and Air Commodore Lionel Evelyn Oswald Charlton in 1925. It argues that the Air Ministry was looking at the strategic problems that would be faced if the industry were not able to increase production while the SBAC was only concerned with its survival and looked to exploit the Air Ministry’s concerns.
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| 5 |
ID:
161298
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| 6 |
ID:
161305
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| 7 |
ID:
161306
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| 8 |
ID:
161303
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| Summary/Abstract |
In this article, Christopher Spearin examines Russian private military and security companies (PMSCs) operating in the so-called ‘grey zone’ and highlights their offensive character. Regarding a potential NATO response, the article contends that advancing an international normative stance such that PMSC employment should be viewed in an undeniable and defensive manner would be a positive approach.
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| 9 |
ID:
161302
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This article assesses the latest edition of the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) joint space doctrine, the second edition of which was published in December 2017, and considers its convergence with and divergence from US doctrine. The increasing maturation of space technology may pose some challenges to the RAF’s status as the lead military space organisation in the MoD as the service heads into its second century. Overall, however, Bleddyn E Bowen argues that this doctrine places a firm intellectual foundation for the growth of space power in both the RAF and the MoD as a whole.
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| 10 |
ID:
161301
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| Summary/Abstract |
Heading into the Modernising Defence Programme (MDP) review process, the RAF has a force structure composed of assets that on a platform level are appropriate and relevant for the high-end state threat posed by Russia, while also being effective during overseas interventions. However, Justin Bronk argues that the force structure itself is too small to sustain attrition on any significant scale without rapidly running short of both aircraft and trained aircrew. While the RAF can, therefore, demonstrate the continuing relevance of its force structure in the new reality where deterrence against Russia is NATO’s key focus, questions remain about its sustainability in the unlikely but necessary planning scenario of a major war.
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| 11 |
ID:
161304
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It is the policy of the Chinese Communist Party that the country should become a great maritime power. In this article, Martin N Murphy and Peter Roberts provide an overview of what this means militarily, where China is laying down a challenge to the US and its regional neighbours, where it is falling short, and what this has to do with Europe.
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| 12 |
ID:
161293
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| Summary/Abstract |
Despite its significance in international relations and statecraft, the phenomenon of airpower remains controversial and little understood beyond its tactical and technological manifestations. This article examines 24 themes that scholars and practitioners must study to attain an in-depth, broad-ranging and contextual understanding of airpower. While all the themes are important, in combination they offer a comprehensive insight into airpower as a political instrument of war and peace.
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| 13 |
ID:
161300
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| Summary/Abstract |
In order to investigate how airpower might maintain its position as central in the minds of strategic decision-makers, Clive Blount examines the fundamental attributes and roles of airpower, looking into the future, and discusses the continuing strategic utility of airpower. After considering potential technological advances, he then turns to the strategic interface and, in the face of enemies that are likely to adopt a ‘hybrid warfare’ strategy, he proposes three new fundamental properties to which airpower must aspire if it is to retain its historical strategic utility – those of availability, affordability and acceptability.
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