A Concise History of the US Air Force - Air Force Historical Studies ...

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The Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt, top, the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, center, and the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, bottom. These attack and fighter aircraft armed with missiles, cannon, and various electronic countermeasure (ECM) features have been in service since the 1970s and performed outstandingly in the Gulf War. tion with one of assured survival, in the form of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). SDI was to focus on the development and deployment of a combination of defensive systems such as space-based lasers, particle beams, railguns, and fast ground-launched missiles, among other wea- pons, to intercept Soviet ICBMs during their ascent through the Earth’s outer atmosphere and their ballistic path in space. While the ABM Treaty restricted various methods of testing SDI weapon systems, the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union removed the justification for the level of research and development associated with this project, although research continued at a much reduced level under the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization. 71
Beginning in March 1985, Soviet Communist Party General Sec- retary Mikhail Gorbachev initiated major changes in Soviet-American relations. The Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in December 1987 eliminated short-range nuclear missiles in Europe, including Air Force ground-launched cruise missiles stationed in the United Kingdom. Gorbachev’s announcement in May 1988 that the Soviet Union, after nine years of inconclusive combat, would begin withdrawing from the war in Afghanistan, indicated a major reduction in Cold War tensions, but it pro- vided only a hint of the rapid changes to come. Relatively free and open Russian elections in March 1989 and a coal miners strike in July shook the foundations of Communist rule. East Germany opened the Berlin Wall in November, which led to German reunification in October 1990. A coup against Gorbachev in August 1991 by Boris Yeltsin, led to the dis- solution of the Soviet Union and its replacement by the Commonwealth of Independent States on December 25, 1991. This chain of events brought major changes to American nuclear strategy. Under START I, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in July 1991, the Air Force will be involved in reducing to a level of 6,000 total warheads on deployed ICBMs, SLBMs, and heavy bombers. START 11, signed in January 1993, will reduce (upon entry into force) total deployed warheads to a range of 3,000 to 3,500. The resulting force structure (determined during the Nuclear Posture Review process overseen within his department by then Secretary of Defense Les Aspin), will ultimately lead to the deployment of five hundred single warhead Minuteman I11 ICBMs, 66 B-52H and 20 B-2 heavy bombers. Ninety-four B-1 heavy bombers will be reoriented to a conventional role by 2003, in addition to all Peacekeeper ICBMs being removed from active inventory through the elimination of their associated silo launchers. The Air Force, by Presidential direction in Sep- tember 1991, notified SAC to remove heavy bombers from alert status. SAC was subsequently inactivated several months later in June 1992. U.S. Strategic Command replaced Strategic Air Command, controlling all remaining Air Force and Navy strategic nuclear forces. Rebuilding the conventional Air Force after Vietnam began with personnel changes. The Vietnam-era Air Force included many officers and airmen who had entered its ranks in World War 11. President Nixon ended the draft in 1973 in favor of an “all volunteer” American military. The Air Force attracted recruits as best it could, but encountered problems with the racial friction and alcohol and drug abuse that reflected America’s social problems. Enough Vietnam career veterans remained, however, to direct the new service and institute changes, one of the most 72
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A Concise History of the U.S. Air F
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The Genesis of American Air Power T
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vivid contrast to aerial achievemen
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For sale by the US. Government Prin
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In the United States an outpouring
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commander, General John Pershing, c
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Early Military Aviation Leaders The
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served him well at St. Mihiel in Se
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No one in the Air Service was parti
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direct or indirect support of other
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Interwar Aircraft In amazing techno
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AF) on March 1, 1935. This first Am
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Page 89: Hallion, Richard P. Rise of the Fig
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