ABSTRACT
Throughout the Cold War, 'strategic' air power was associated in Western defense thinking almost exclusively with intercontinental-range bombers and nuclear weapons. It is not the intent of this essay to suggest that air power can win wars all by itself, as some of its more outspoken proponents have long argued. As 'Desert Storm' attested, air power has matured over the past two decades to a point where it has finally become truly strategic in its effects. Although military involvement in the exploitation of space can be traced back to the 1950s, it was only in the crucible of the Gulf War that the synergistic potential of air and space power first began to be fully appreciated. Although air power will unquestionably be the key to success in any war that might erupt there, no such war would be fought with the comparative luxury of fewer than 200 US combat fatalities, as was the case in 'Desert Storm'.
