THE HISTORY OF AIR FORCES AROUND THE WORLD politically and militarily around the world Early armies exercised force projection by maintaining frontier garrisons or patrolling roads that were frequently used by merchants or pilgrims The British navy maintained con trol of the world s sea lanes as a measure of force projection during the era of the British Empire it retains some measure of that con trol to this day through its overseas territories The expansion of air power revolu tionized the way in which countries could project force The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 demonstrated that naval air power could be used in a devastating man ner to strike targets thousands of miles away The Berlin airlift which utilized air trans port to bring relief to the blockaded city of West Berlin in 1948 49 was a classic dem onstration of soft power projection The development of strategic weapons systems such as long range bombers and innovations such as in air refueling greatly expanded the sphere of action for air forces and targets on the other side of the world were suddenly within reach The launch of the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik in 1957 inaugurated the satellite age and ignited the Space Race as the United States and the Soviet Union sought to assert control of the Io
INTRODUCTION final frontier The Apollo astronauts went to the Moon and private companies joined national governments in the orbital skies as telecommunications satellites transformed the way in which information was transmit ted around the world The Navstar Global Positioning System GPS a constellation of satellites originally used by the United States Department of Defense for military purposes has fundamentally changed the way in which humans navigate the world around them Recognizing the soft power implications of a single country controlling such a powerful tool Russia China and the European Union have all embarked on similar programs Whether through soft power or hard power air forces provide modern military planners with a range of options and challengesundreamed of by those early balloonists II
WHAT IS AN AIR FORCE W his is an age of air power and the mil itary strength of a nation depends in great part upon the effectiveness of its air force All of the major countries of the world maintain air forces as part of their defense systems Air power also reaches into outer space where satellites control modern weapons and communications systems The contemporary air force relies on com puter and radar technology to control fleets of fighters bombers transports and reconnais sance spy craft Modern airplanes can carry missiles and bombs as well as machine guns while tanker planes can refuel fighters and bombers in the air to lengthen flight time ORGANIZATION Most of the world s air forces organize their resources in similar ways Air forces either are dependent units of an army navy or unified defense system or are autonomous service branches 13
