Sky Wars: A History of Military Aerospace Power (Contemporary Worlds)

226 Pages·2004·0.63 MB·English

by  David Gates

SKY WARS
A HISTORY OF MILITARY AEROSPACE POWER
DAVID GATES
CONTEMPORAR Y WORLDS

SKY WARS
CONTEMPORARY WORLDSexplores the present and recent past.
Books in the series take a distinctive theme, geo-political entity or
cultural group and explore their developments over a period
ranging usually over the last fifty years. The impact ofcurrent
events and developments are accounted for by rapid but clear
interpretation in order to unveil the cultural, political, religious
and technological forces that are reshaping today’s worlds.
series editor
Jeremy Black
In the same series
Britain since the Seventies
Jeremy Black
SKY WARS
A History of Military Aerospace Power
DAVID GATES
REAKTION BOOKS
Published by Reaktion Books Ltd
79Farringdon Road
London ec1m 3ju, uk
www.reaktionbooks.co.uk
First published 2003
Copyright © David Gates 2003
All rights reserved
No part ofthis publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission ofthe publishers.
Printed and bound in Great Britain
by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Gates, David, 1955–
Sky wars : a history ofmilitary aerospace power. –
(Contemporary worlds)
1. Air power – History 2. Air warfare – History
I. Title
358.4’009
isbn186189189x
Contents
Preface 7
Part One: History
1 War in and from the Skies, 1903–1943 11
2 The Aerospace Era, 1943–2003 59
Part Two: Issues
3 Aerospace Power’s Evident Nature and its
Impact on War and Peace 151
4 Bases Ashore and Afloat 177
5 Missile-Defence Dilemmas 192
Abbreviations 207
References 209
Selected Further Reading 218
Index 221

Preface
This book’s publication coincides with the centenary of the first
controlled, powered flight. Barely 66years after the Wright brothers’
remarkable, pioneering feat, a still more astonishing one occurred
when Neil Armstrong descended from the lunar-module ofApollo11to
become the first man to walk on the Moon. Yet the year ofthis book’s
appearance also witnessed what has widely been described as the first
‘space-age war’, which only serves to underscore the mixed blessings
that have flowed from our quest to slip ‘the surly bonds ofEarth’, as
John Gillespie Magee so eloquently phrased it in his poem High Flight.
Since it would be impossible – certainly in a work ofthis size – to
begin to chart the full extent ofthe ramifications within human civ-
ilization ofmomentous events such as these, I have confined myself
to an examination ofthe impact that air and aerospace power have
had on one ofhistory’s great catalysts, warfare. Even within this field
I have been obliged to be selective, not least because the parameters of
‘military’ history remain elusive. I have, however, sought to provide a
fairly detailed analysis ofthe evolution ofair power through the most
important aerial campaigns of the past 65 years especially, and to
explore some ofthe major issues that surround the possession and use
ofaerospace power – one ofthe cardinal symbols and instruments of
modernity.
I am grateful to all those – both in Britain and abroad – who helped
me in the production ofthis book and to the publishers who made it
possible. Any errors are mine alone.
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