Everything about Air Superiority totally explained
Air superiority is the dominance in the
air power of one side's air forces over the other side's during a
military campaign. It is defined in the
NATO Glossary as "That degree of dominance in the air battle of one force over another that permits the conduct of operations by the former and its related land, sea, and air forces at a given time and place without prohibitive interference by opposing air forces." One should note that in military speak,
air superiority is different from
air supremacy.
Air superiority allows greatly increased bombing efforts as well as tactical air support for ground forces. In addition,
paratroop assaults and
airdrops can move ground forces and supplies.
With
mid-air refueling it's possible to keep a number of
attack aircraft airborne and on call for
ground support. The aircraft can then assist ground forces often within a matter of minutes of being requested.
History
In the early 1900s, Italian air-theorist
Giulio Douhet wrote in
The Command of the Air that future wars would be decided in the skies. By late 1915 the German Luftstreitkräfte had air superiority, making Allied access to vital intelligence derived from continual aerial reconnaissance much more dangerous to acquire. At the beginning of
World War II Giulio's ideas were dismissed by some, but as the war continued, it became apparent that his theories on the importance of aircraft were supported once the Allies attained air superiority.
Air power has since become an increasingly powerful element of
military campaigns;
military planners view having at least an environment of air superiority as a necessity. For example, Britain's successful air defence in the
Battle of Britain during
World War II denied the German military air superiority in the English Channel, making a seaborne invasion (planned as
Operation Sealion) unlikely to succeed. Achieving total air superiority later allowed the Allies to carry out
strategic bombing raids on Germany's industrial and civilian centers, most notably the
Ruhr and
Dresden.
The element of air superiority has also been the driving force behind the development of
aircraft carriers, which allow aircraft to operate in the absences of designated airbases. For example, the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor was carried out by aircraft operating from Japanese aircraft carriers miles away from the nearest Japanese air base.
In the Second World War, some fighters became specialized in roles tasked with destroying other fighters, while interceptors were originally designed to counter bombers. The most important air superiority fighters of Germany were the
Me-109 and
FW-190, while the
Supermarine Spitfire was Britain's primary defensive fighter. Performance and range made the
P-51 an outstanding escort fighter which permitted American bombers to operate over Germany during daylight hours. The
A6M Zero gave Japan air superiority for much of the early days of the war, but suffered against newer naval fighters such as the
F6F Hellcat and
F4U Corsair which exceeded the Zero in performance and durability.
In the Korean war, the swept-wing jet powered
Mig-15 soon outclassed initial superiority of United Nations forces. The United States introduced its own swept-wing
F-86 Sabre which claimed kill ratios as high as 10 to 1 against the Migs.
In the 1950s, the United States Navy tasked the
F-8 Crusader as their close in air superiority fighter, though this role would be taken over by the
F-4 Phantom, designed as an interceptor. The USAF had developed the F-100 and F-104 as air superiority fighters, but these didn't have the range or performance to counter the MiG threat encountered over Vietnam. In the Falklands conflict, the British Harrier was employed as an air superiority fighter against Mach 2 Mirage jets.
In the 1960s, the limited agility of American fighters in dogfights over Vietnam led to a revival of the concept of the dedicated
Air superiority fighter which led the development of the teens series
F-14,
F-15,
F-16 and
F/A-18. All made close-combat maneuverablility a top priority, and were equipped with guns which had been deleted from early Phantoms. . The heavy
F-14 and
F-15 were assigned the primary air superiority mission because of their longer range radars and capability to carry more and longer range missiles than the lightweight fighters.
In the 1980s, the United States opted for a newer fighter capable of clearing the skies without being detected by the opposing force. The
ATF was held in order for the United States Air Force to receive new aircraft to replace their aging
F-15 fleet. The
YF-23 and the
YF-22 were chosen as the finalists for the competition. The
F-22 was the subsequent result of the program and has been dubbed the "fifth-generation" of fighter aircraft. Various nations accross the world are now also building "fifth-generation" aircraft in order to compete against the American F-22 Raptor. The most notable is the Russian Sukhoi
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