AIRPLANES! why are they good for WAR!?

Answer 1

There are many reasons aircraft present a benefit for war:

1) Speed. Aircraft are the fastest platform to have attack a target at any place in the world

2) Reach. With Air Refueling, flight range is infinite. A B2 Bomber can leave florida, fly to iraq, run a bombing mission and come back to Florida in a single flight

3) Cargo. no one will deny the navy their ability to transport massive loads of cargo... but when you need something there and it's gotta be quick, you slap it on a C-17 and have it there within a day. It's easier to transport personnel like this as well

4) seaborne applications: Minelaying used to do it with ships. It's MUCH faster and more effective to do from a plane. Submarine hunting, surface ship destruction, etc

5) CAS - Close air support provides superior firepower to ground forces and can act as a force multiplier. When afghanistan fell there were less than 10,000 US troops in the country, but they were effective due to air power. CAS is 100% against enemy forces

6) Interdiction - the use of airstrikes to cut off enemy resources which are on their way TO combat or FROM combat. ie, a convoy driving to reenforce an enemy unit with supplies and ammo

7) Strategic bombing - the ULTIMATE reason the air force was formed is the belief that with the ability to skip over the enemy's fielded ground forces, striking their factories and warehouses along with command and control, communications, and logistics structures would effectively eliminate a nations ability to continue making war. Essentially, you could kill 1000 pilots... but blowing up 1 ball bearing factory nearly halted Germany's production of combat aircraft for a time.

8) Aerial reconnaisance. The first ever application of Air Power. The essentials: you're higher, you can see more

9) Offensive nature. Successful air wars are fought offensively... meaning their landside takes damage and yours remains untouched. EVENTUALLY no matter how well a defender does in air war they will lose the fight because destruction of their infrastructure will grind down their capability to sustain their forces. The battle for london was successful because it allowed the brittish to resume the offensive use of air power after blunting assaults from the luftwaffe.

10) Flexibility. strike packages can be tailored for specific missions. Different aircraft can be used, and we can even tailor the included armament on each craft for certain focuses. For example, an F-15 might be loaded with an air to air combat load, while another F-15 might be loaded with an air to ground load. The AtoG F-15 would carry out the ground strike while the AA F-15 would provide fighter cover... to better round out our strike package, we'll include an F-16 with a jamming suite to ward off radar based weapons systems. That's a great example of how flexibility can be used to build a mission

There are many more distinctive capabilities of air power, but these are a good start for ya. I don't want to write a whole book, afterall

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Everyone wants it now! Airplanes can move large amounts of troops, weapons, and equipment in a short period of time. Not only that but also planes like the C-17, (along with the smaller C-130s), can land and take off almost anywhere, fully loaded in less than a 1,000 feet. To give you an idea of this it took the Allies fourteen months to amass a force of troops, weapons, and equipment in Great Britain for the assault on Normandy. Much of that came from the United States by ocean convoy. The Air Force now has the ability to move that same amount of troops, weapons, and equipment anywhere in the world in less than 120 days.

Besides that the weapons systems that tactical aircraft have along with their ability to reach out and attack from above and stay in orbit over an area for hours if needed through the use of aerial refueling allows the military to destroy any real sizable force or troops, weapons and equipment. It literally reduces the enemies ability to carry out any real long lasting, large scale operations. This is one of the reasons why you see some of the things like you have now taking place in Iraq and Afghanistan. You don't see huge armies massing and fighting long, protracted engagements. Instead you have small operations of a few hundred or only several hundred quickly massing and attacking and then dispersing again back into the country side and in with the civilian population.

Answer 4

Because in a modern war you must first gain air superority. This is vital! Without air superority you leave the ground troops vulenerable. Also planes just take care of the enemy more quickly, by destroying crucial assets such as factories, HQs and so and so forth. Also just to make things go boom is another plus. Also planes can get supplies and people in and out of an area a lot faster than with a ship or by ground.

Answer 5

In airplanes, you do get close to bullets.

Airplanes can get to their targets quickly whether you're talking about bombing raids or close support of ground troops. Speed is really the answer.

Altitude is another answer. From high spots, you can see where the enemy is and maybe where he's going. From your spot in the air, you can help direct other airpower and troop movements.

Answer 6

Fighters - provide air support to ground forces, hence they can drop small - large ordinance in a strategic manner against enemy forces. Also provide air superiority in a battle, keeps the bad guys from dropping bombs on our guys.

Bombers - also provide ground support but carry more and sometimes larger bombs than a fighter. Sometimes you have to drop a bomb on a location to help your guys out.

Cargo - get supplies to the troops quickly & safely. Don't have to wait on a convoy truck and sometimes that truck can't get to where the troops are so you'll have to airdrop it in. Cargo planes can also airdrop troops into an area quicker than by boat or truck.

In modern warfare the airplane be it fighter, bomber or cargo is a necessity.

Answer 7

Air strikes. Remember what happened with the Iraq invation? Boom. The entire country's power supply was offline making it easy for us to roll in the tanks and ground troops. That was by far the most successfull Air strike ever. We secured most the country (not an easy task) in a week because of the air strikes.

Answer 8

Try standing in the middle of the target during an airstrike and you'll find out why

Answer 9

Always take the high ground in a battle. You can't get much higher than air-power.

Got any other stupid questions?

Answer 10

With a plane, you don't get close to bullets.