ABSTRACT
Cooperation between land and sea forces goes back a long way, even if by definition joint operations did not occur until the sixteenth century, when several European states institutionalized their navy and army as separate services. The dominating trend in the application of Western military force today seems to be joint operations. Using maritime forces for operations on land is as old as naval battles. Germany bombed London in 1917 and in 1918 the German spring offensive Operation Michael was one of the first land-air joint operations. Experience from the Korean and Vietnam wars greatly influenced thinking concerning the development of airpower in relation to ground units. New weapon-, sensor-, computer-, and telecommunications technology has integrated the battle space and brought information up almost to parity with firepower and movement. The strategic logic of cyber warfare resembles that of the logic of decapitation in airpower theory. The joint operations are inescapable part of the thinking around RMA and network-based defense.
