Essay on Air Power

Submitted By kwanheon31
Words: 1283
Pages: 6

Air power has been developed through those wars raised. Thus there are many concepts and theories developed by battle strategists. ‘Centre of gravity’ is also a tactic made by Clausewitz. It emphasises the importance of taking fire in only main point, not the whole area of enemy’s territory is required to be attacked. ‘Centre of gravity’ is defined as the hub of all power and movement, on which everything depends, the point against which all our energies should be directed. So the centre of gravity can be described as the heart of human body which takes the most important part. The Air Campaign of Japan on Pearl Harbour, and the atomic bomb off of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by US, shows both possible characteristics of centre of gravity that are offense and defence. It doesn’t bring out only successful outcome, but also harm to both sides.
The battle strategist Clausewitz defined ‘Centre of gravity’ as the hub of all power and movement, on which everything depends, the point against which all our energies should be directed. The term centre of gravity was borrowed by Clausewitz from Newtonian physics in an effort to emphasise the criticality of target selection to the success of campaigns. Once the enemy got damaged to their important position, they take time to recover or they fall in panic. ‘If the enemy is thrown off balance, he must not be given the time to recover. Clausewitz highlighted that no necessarily have to attack the whole area of enemy’s territory in order to achieve the strategic purpose of the war. According to his theory, the leaders of the war should understand the decisive factors and dominant characteristics of both allies and enemy’s. Moreover, when planning the war, the first mission is to know where the enemy’s centre of gravity and grasp that point and make that point be simplified as much as possible. Second mission is to concentrate all allies’ power and movement to one position in order to break down the enemy’s centre of gravity. This concept was a revolution of strategy and a battle tactic. However, in modern days, a single nuclear bomb can destroy and gain supremacy over the enemy. A nuclear weapon is a measure of warfare but it is also a measure of a warfare restraint. When those concepts or theories in the past are compared to the modern days of human’s science technology, there is nothing the same. That is to say, in fact, these cannot be merged. By the bombing in Hiroshima by US demonstrated this.

Air Campaign affected the development of air power during conflict. The first development in its history is related to kites in China in 18th Century, and the cargo aircrafts and interests from people and for the use of suppression against the enemy as proved during the Berlin Airlift, to the aerial bombing campaign throughout the Persian Gulf War. Air campaign’s utilization of a pre-emptive strike is capable of offering disproportionately advantageous effect upon an enemy through the immediate effect of shock and surprise, and can cause a nation to seize the initiative by striking the potential aggressor at its centre of gravity, while at the same time minimizing friendly casualties (Sharp, 2009). Thus more effective air power utilisation is required. To accomplish an air strike, three different approaches are categorised as the capability, air support, and control of the air. Targeting concept of strategic centre of gravity, centre of gravity may consist of enemy’s command and control facilities, communication networks, intelligence nodes, key production facilities, and transportation infrastructures. Based on the enemy’s dependency, these may become the prime targets of an air campaign with the objective of their disablements through an air strike, in agreement with Conroy and Wray (1989), military operations to be successful, the foundation should be based on the direction and careful evaluation of the source of strength and balance of a nation, and its military forces. A notable example of