Close air support
Though most air-power proponents sought independence from ground commanders and hence pushed the importance of interdiction and strategic bombing, they nonetheless recognized the need for close air support.[3][page needed] From the commencement of hostilities in 1914, aviators engaged in sporadic and spontaneous attacks on ground forces, but it was not until 1916 that an air support doctrine was elaborated and dedicated fighters for the job were put into service.In 1917, following the Second Battle of the Aisne, the British debuted the first ground-attack aircraft, a modified F.E 2b fighter carrying 20 lb (9.1 kg) bombs and mounted machine-guns.The newly formed Royal Air force (RAF) contributed to the defeat of the Afghan military during the Third Anglo-Afghan War by harassing Afghani troops and breaking up their formations.Following from these successes, the decision was made to create a unified RAF Iraq Command to use air power as a more cost-effective way of controlling large areas than the use of conventional land forces.[citation needed] Ground officers contended there was rarely sufficient artillery available, and the flexibility of aircraft would be ideal for massing firepower at critical points, while producing a greater psychological effect on friendly and hostile forces alike.[3][page needed] Although the prevailing view in official circles was largely indifferent to CAS during the interwar period, its importance was expounded upon by military theorists, such as J. F. C. Fuller and Basil Liddell Hart.[9] In joint exercises with Sweden in 1934, the Germans were first exposed to dive-bombing, which permitted greater accuracy while making attack aircraft more difficult to track by antiaircraft gunners.General Heinz Guderian, one of the creators of the combined-arms tactical doctrine commonly known as "blitzkrieg", believed the best way to provide cover for the crossing would be a continuous stream of ground attack aircraft on French defenders.[citation needed] Despite these accomplishments, German CAS was not perfect and suffered from the same misunderstanding and interservice rivalry that plagued other nations' air arms, and friendly fire was not uncommon.Luftwaffe's loss of air superiority, combined with a declining supply of aircraft and fuel, crippled their ability to provide effective CAS on the western front after 1943.[citation needed] The CAS tactics developed and refined by the British during the campaign in North Africa served as the basis for the Allied system used to subsequently gain victory in the air over Germany in 1944 and devastate its cities and industries.Rovers might call on artillery to mark targets with smoke shells, or they might direct the fighters to map grid coordinates, or they might resort to a description of prominent terrain features as guidance.[citation needed] The situation improved during the Italian Campaign, where American and British forces, working in close cooperation, exchanged CAS techniques and ideas.There, the AAF's XII Air Support Command and the Fifth U.S. Army shared headquarters, meeting every evening to plan strikes and devising a network of liaisons and radios for communications.[19][20] In 1944, USAAF commander Lt. Gen. Henry ("Hap") Arnold acquired 2 groups of A-24 dive bombers, the army version of the Navy's SBD-2, in response to the success of the Stuka and German CAS.Though Gen. Lesley McNair, commander of Army Ground Forces, pushed to change USAAF priorities, the latter failed to provide aircraft for even major training exercises.He also used a modified antiaircraft radar to track friendly attack aircraft to redirect them as necessary, and experimented with assigning fighter pilots to tours as forward air controllers to familiarize them with the ground perspective.Armed reconnaissance was a major feature of XIX TAC close air support, as the rapid advance left Patton's Southern flank open.Navy and Marine F6F Hellcats and F4U Corsairs used a variety of ordnance such as conventional bombs, rockets and napalm to dislodge or attack Japanese troops using cave complexes in the latter part of the Second World War.[27] Though the Marine Corps continued its tradition of intimate air–ground cooperation in the Korean War, the newly created United States Air Force (USAF) again moved away from CAS, now to strategic bombers and jet interceptors.It eventually required pilots to serve 80 days as forward air controllers (FACs), which gave them an understanding of the difficulties from the ground perspective and helped cooperation when they returned to the cockpit.Though not as fast as fixed-wing aircraft and consequently more vulnerable to anti-aircraft weaponry, helicopters could use terrain for cover, and more importantly, had much greater battlefield persistence owing to their low speeds.During wargames, field commanders tended to hold back attack helicopters out of fear of air defenses, committing them too late to effectively support ground units.Presently, the ALO mainly serves in the liaison role, the intricate details of mission planning and attack guidance left to the enlisted members of the Tactical Air Control Party.[citation needed] Since their 1977 introduction into modern military practice for close air support purposes, General Crosbie E. Saint provided the AH-64 Apache the doctrinal cover for use in AirLand Battle operations such as in the NATO European theatre.[36] Some variants of the Stuka were equipped with a pair of 37 mm (1.5 in) Bordkanone BK 3,7 cannons mounted in under-wing gun pods, each loaded with two six-round magazines of armour-piercing tungsten carbide-cored ammunition, for anti-tank operations.[42] The Royal Navy Hawker Sea Fury fighters and the U.S. Vought F4U Corsair and Douglas A-1 Skyraider were operated in a ground attack capacity during the Korean War.During Operation Enduring Freedom, the lack of fighter aircraft forced military planners to rely heavily on US bombers, particularly the B-1B Lancer, to fill the CAS role.[56] Air platforms communicating with ground forces can also provide additional aerial-to-ground visual search, ground-convoy escort, and enhancement of command and control (C2), assets which can be particularly important for low intensity conflict.
U.S. Air Forcejoint terminal attack controllersA-10 Thunderbolt IIlive fire exercisemilitary tacticsaerial warfarestrafesairstrikesmilitary aircraftfire supportaerial bombsglide bombsmissilesrocketsautocannonsmachine gunsdirected-energy weaponslasersspecial forcesair interdictionartillery observersforward air controllersWorld War Iinterwar periodPolish–Soviet WarSpanish Civil WarIraqi RevoltChaco WarWorld War IIcombined armsforward air controlinvasion stripesItalian Campaigninvasion of NormandyCold WarKorean WarVietnam Warattack helicoptersgunshipsattackF.E 2dLewis gunfighter bomberartilleryradio communicationground forcesfighterstrenchesBattle of the SommereconnaissancesurveillanceSecond Battle of the AisneF.E 2bmachine-gunsAirco DH.5Sopwith CamelBattle of CambraiJunkers J.Iground-attack aircraftcockpitHannover CL.IIground attack aircraftGerman spring offensiveSchlastaSopwith SalamanderSinai and Palestine Campaignair superiorityOttoman TurksJordan riverEdmund AllenbyArmy cooperation aircraftMiddle Eastlight bombersairpowerIraqi revolt of 1920Gran Chaco WarNorth AfricaRoyal Air forceRAF Iraq CommandGreat Iraqi Revolution of 1920Condor LegionLuftwaffeU.S. Marine Corps AviationU.S. Marine CorpsBanana WarsDominican RepublicNicaraguadive bombingJ. F. C. FullerBasil Liddell HartBlitzkriegEastern Frontstrategic bombingTreaty of VersaillesSwedendive-bombingErnst UdetCurtiss HelldiverHenschel Hs 123Junkers Ju 87Wolfram von Richthofeninvasion of PolandMeuse RiverInvasion of FranceHeinz Guderiantactical bombersinterservice rivalryErwin RommelAfrika KorpsU.S. NavySBD DauntlessBattle of FranceWar OfficeNorthern IrelandGroup CaptainRAF Army Cooperation CommandSir Arthur TedderArthur Coninghamcab rankcampaign in North AfricaDesert Air ForceNorth African CampaignBritish Armyfighter-bomberUnited States Army Air ForcesHenry ("Hap") Arnold