Saturday, September 6, 2014

Is The U.S. Army Stuck In The 19th Century?

Why The U.S. Army Is Stuck In The 19th Century -- Bill Sweetman, Daily Beast

It’s unlikely that the U.S. Air Force will be abolished in anyone’s lifetime, whatever University of Kentucky professor Robert Farley, author of Grounded—The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force, may think.

A few commentators have already raised the obvious issues: that the USAF already provides essential enablers to the Army and Navy, rather than being obsessed with bombers and independent airpower; that neither the Army nor the Navy would be well suited to take over things like space launch and operations, or airlift; and that not much money would actually be saved without eliminating entire missions.

But Farley’s book makes a bigger argument: that the case for an independent air force is based on the false assertion that airpower can win wars on its own. In doing so, the book exemplifies a toxic, and irrational skepticism toward airpower, and only airpower, which pervades some military thinking.

Read more ....

My Comment: Is Clausewitz's thinking  now out of date? I will leave that argument to people who are better positioned to argue that point than I am. But for those who want to download a free ebook copy of Von Clausewitz book "On War" .... go here.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I considered that the military academies should be combine into a single academy.

That would emphasize jointness from the start.

As an alternative I considered having a JOINT academy for pleb and sophomore years and then upper classmen would go to the specialized academies for specific training.

The pay systems, GSA and other support functions (medical, dentistry, etc) should pretty much be the same for them all.

It is only the tip of the spear that is different and may/would need specialization.

On the other hand adding another academy is adding another layer and I am sure government could screw it up.