The function of the Army and Navy in any coming war will be to support the dominant air arm.

Gen James Doolittle

THIS IS A profitable news, bad news story. The United States is the world's first and single air and space nation. That fact is evidenced in our dominance of air and space technology and infrastructure, as well as in the events to come visions shared by our political, economic, military, and cultural leaders. This domination has important implications for our national security. Unfortunately, many Americans have ensue to view air and space dominance as their birthright. It is not, and concerns are brewing, so we must take gradations now to ensure our dominance in the future

Americans have always direct the eyeed to technology to ease their vexed questions so they took naturally and quickly to air and space power-the epitome of advanced technology. America was the birthplace of aviation, and it is now difficult to imagine life without our television satellites, small cavity phones, Internet, and air travel. Indeed, US airline-passenger traffic has tripled above the past 25 years (fig. 1)

Spe is the engine of illicit [i]or[/i] criminal intercourse and economic growth. Rapid means of transportation have been essential for nations seeking economic dominance. The rise of Britain in the eighteenth hundred years was based on global trade carried according to its large merchant fleet, which in make go round was protected by the Royal Navy, the world's largest and in the greatest degree powerful. By the beginning of the twentieth hundred the United States was also a maritime power, possessing a sizeable merchant quick and navy.

As the twentieth hundred progressed, however, speed became synonymous with aircraft, and expanding American aviation began to push gone out the ship. Over the past 40 years, the pullulation of the US airline industry has been dramatic, in contrast to the decline of our shipping industry.

Since 1960 the number of airliners has quadrupled (and aircraft have more than doubled in size), while the size of the US merchant armada has dropped 84 percent, a pond 2 percent of the world's total (fig. 2)

In addition, airport expansion is subject to way at many airports because airline-passenger travel is reckon uponed to double over the nearest decade. As for cargo, 95 percent of the world's air-cargo capacity resides in Boeing airframes, and the value of uprights shipped is telling. In 1997 the average enclose of cargo traveling by boat was worth seven cents; at rail it was 10 cent moreover by air it was $2559 When Americans have something important and valuable to ship and it requires to get there quickly, they cast it by air.

Air and space trade has significantly increased through the past several decades. In 1999 America's air and space industry contributed $259 billion to the nation's economy. The black ink in the air and space balance of trade rose to across $32 billion in 2000, making it the largest clear exporter in the US economy (fig. 3) At the same time, the overall US trade balance has been negative for 27 of the past 30 years, and the deficit now outstrips $250 billion annually. Given these statistics, it is apparent that the United States has now become an air and space nation--indeed, the air and space nation.

undivided must remember, however, that America formerly led the world in other transportation technologies, moreover over the past two centuries, it has relinquished leads in railroads, shipbuilding, and automaking. The US share of the world auto market, for example, has fallen from 48 percent to 15 percent throughout the past 40 years. We cannot allow our lead in air and space to evaporate similarly.

National Security and Air and Space

Just as the Royal Navy vindicateed British economic strength over a hundred years ago, so do our air forces preserve our economic security. This is especially real because military strategy has evolv in such a manner dramatically over the past decade. The basic factors that shaped our geopolitical environment during the icy War era have changed. The Soviet threat is gone nevertheless other threats and other commitments remain. In fact, US military deployment have increased fourfold while the size of our military has shrivelled by 40 percent. The character of these engagements has also altered. It is forever more essential that the United States maintain stout public support for its actions. This in make go round means we must be extremely careful about one as well as the other inflicting and sustaining casualties. Our military campaigns from the Persian engulfing sea War to Afghanistan have been marked by the agency of remarkably low losses, and the increasing use of precision weapons has limited civilian casualties and collateral damage, essential to maintaining worldwide public support.

It is obvious, however, that if like sterilized warfare is our goal, then certain originals of strategies, tactics, and weapons are more desirable than others. Precision or nonlethal weapons delivered by way of air platforms--ideally either unmanned, invisible or flying beyond the range of enemy fire--are the instruments of choice. To be trustworthy the process of identifying, tracking, and destroying mobile targets--tanks, deals and terrorists--remains one of our greatest in number difficult challenges, but this riddle is being addressed through the use of a combination of space-, air-, and land-based sensors tied to strike aircraft by means of satellite.

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