ABSTRACT
Th e Persian Gulf War will be studied by generations of military students, for it confi rmed a major transformation in the nature of warfare: the dominance of air power. Th e Air Vice Marshal R. A. “Tony” Mason, RAF (ret.) wrote, “Th e Gulf war marked the apotheosis of twentieth-century airpower.” Simply (if boldly) stated, air power won the Gulf War. It was not the victory of any one service, but rather the victory of coalition air power projection by armies, navies, and air forces. At one end were sophisticated stealth fi ghters striking out of the dark deep in Iraqi territory. At the other were the less glamorous but no less important troop and supply helicopters wending their way across the battlefi eld. In between was every conceivable form of air power application, short of nuclear war, including aircraft carriers, strategic bombers, tactical and strategic airlift , and cruise missiles. . . . Indeed, while many analysts expected air power to infl uence the outcome of the war, few expected it to be the war’s decisive force.
