Aerial Interdiction: Air Power and the Land Battle in Three American Wars

Washington, DC: Center for Air Force History, 1994. Reprint. Initially published in 1992. Hardcover. Good. No dust jacket. Highlighting/underlining. Ink mark inside front cover (probably obliterating name of previous owner). Minor pencil underlining noted.. xi, [1] 432 p. Illustrations. Maps (some with color). Footnotes. Bibliography. Index. Air interdiction (AI), also known as deep air support (DAS), is the use of aircraft to attack tactical ground targets that are not in close proximity to friendly ground forces. It differs from close air support because it does not directly support ground operations and is not closely coordinated with ground units. Unlike strategic bombing, air interdiction is not meant as an independent air campaign, as its ultimate purpose is to aid ground operations rather than to defeat the enemy by air power alone. The purpose of air interdiction is to delay, disrupt, or destroy enemy forces or supplies en route to the battle area before they can engage friendly forces. Even at such degree, a distinction is often made between strategic and tactical interdiction; strategic operations are broad and long-term, while tactical operations are designed to affect events rapidly and in a localized area. Dr. Eduard Mark, a historian for the U. S. Air Force in Washington, D.C. He is currently writing a classified history of planning for nuclear war in the first decade of the Cold War. This work is a companion to a volume already completed and now undergoing declassification review."A Glooming Peace: " American National Strategy And the Defense of Western Europe, 1946-1954."