Jedburgh
08-02-2007, 12:47 PM
RAND, 31 Jul 07: Airlift Capabilities for Future U.S. Counterinsurgency Operations (http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2007/RAND_MG565.pdf)
...This monograph examines the role of airlift in counterinsurgency. It begins by analyzing the strategic, operational, and tactical roles and effects of airlift in counterinsurgency, drawing on counterinsurgency theory, U.S. military experience, and USAF doctrine. Based on this survey, it then addresses its central question of whether, and to what extent, the airlift requirements of counterinsurgency call for specialized airlift forces or are merely another task best handled by the general-purpose airlift fleet. Finally, it examines airlift in the foreign internal defense (FID) program, through which the United States seeks to assist partner states to deal with insurgent threats before they reach the point at which major U.S. intervention might be required....
...This monograph examines the role of airlift in counterinsurgency. It begins by analyzing the strategic, operational, and tactical roles and effects of airlift in counterinsurgency, drawing on counterinsurgency theory, U.S. military experience, and USAF doctrine. Based on this survey, it then addresses its central question of whether, and to what extent, the airlift requirements of counterinsurgency call for specialized airlift forces or are merely another task best handled by the general-purpose airlift fleet. Finally, it examines airlift in the foreign internal defense (FID) program, through which the United States seeks to assist partner states to deal with insurgent threats before they reach the point at which major U.S. intervention might be required....