ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 investigates the four fundamental roles of air power: control of the air, ISR (or the information role), attack (or coercion), and mobility (or the transportation role), and their implementation in conventional wars. The main case studies are the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as the case where air power really proved its claim to be the dominant weapon on the conventional battlefield. The four roles are used as certain criteria for a comparison of these case studies illustrating the complexity of fulfilling these roles in different case scenarios. This chapter also provides the historical context of employing air power in conventional wars building upon lessons learned during the two World Wars. The question of cross-domain integration is also addressed here, emphasizing the three traditional physical domains of warfare: land, sea, and air.
