In control of the sky: aerial dominance--the ability to employ assets with impunity in the airspace above enemy territory and forces--depends not only on achieving a high kill ratio in air combat (which increasingly relies on situational awareness provided by off-board sensors), but also on destroying the enemy's airfields, radars, Sam systems and control centres.

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Fixed-wing

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In control of the sky: aerial dominance--the ability to employ assets with impunity in the airspace above enemy territory and forces--depends not only on achieving a high kill ratio in air combat (which increasingly relies on situational awareness provided by off-board sensors), but also on destroying the enemy's airfields, radars, Sam systems and control centres.

Years ago this writer was involved in attempts to market British Aerospace's Stovl Harrier. These efforts were largely unsuccessful because the aircraft was subsonic, expensive and lacked credibility in the air-to-air role. In its favour, the Harrier had a unique ability to continue operations after its runways had been badly damaged, and to generate unprecedented sortie rates (delivering a massive amount of ordnance per hour) from sites close to the enemy. Less significantly, it could (thanks to a US Marine Corps initiative) also employ thrust-vectoring in air combat, though only as a last-ditch defensive manoeuvre.

Most air forces that we approached expressed curiosity about Harrier technology, but the US Air Force then had no interest whatever in acquiring Stovl capability. The argument put to us was that US Air Force runways could only be bombed if the service had lost control of the air, in which event the US would have lost the war. This scenario was s...

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