This manuscript is part of a continuing series of historical volumes produced by the Office of Air Force History in direct support of Project Warrior. Since its beginning in 1992, Project Warrior has captured the imagination of Air Force people around the world and reawakened a keener appreciation of our fundamental purpose as Service: to deter war, but to be prepared to find and win should deterrence fail.

The Air Force mission is global. Airmen are trained to employ air, space, and cyberspace forces anywhere, at any time, across the full range of military operations. In order to adequately support the Secretary of Defense and the geographic combatant commanders in executing operations, we must have a global command and control system. Military operations in the 21st century are highly complex and require close coordination to be effective. An effective command and control system allows efficient and effective coordination of all the means that Airmen can bring to bear on a conflict and speed...

The mission of the United States Air Force is to fly, fight, and win in air, space, and cyberspace. A crucial part of achieving that mission involves obtaining and maintaining superiority in the air domain. That domain, defined for the first time in this publication, is the area, beginning at the Earth's surface, where the atmosphere has a major effect on the movement, maneuver, and employment of joint forces. Within that domain, forces exercise degrees of control or levels of influence, characterized as parity, superiority, or supremacy. The US has enjoyed at least air superiority in all...

In war, defeating an enemy's force is often a necessary step on the path to victory. Defeating enemy armies is a difficult task that often comes with a high price tag in terms of blood and treasure. With its inherent speed, range, and flexibility, air and space power offers a way to lower that risk by providing commanders a synergistic tool that can provide a degree of control over the surface environment and render enemy forces ineffective before they meet friendly land forces. Modern air and space power directly affects an adversary's ability to initiate, conduct, and sustain ground...

This doctrine provides guidance for Air Force nuclear operations. It is based on a body of knowledge gained from experience and lessons learned in organizing, training, and equipping nuclear forces in support of national security objectives.

America's national security rests on a strategy of full spectrum dominance supported by effects-based planning and operations. To support this full spectrum dominance, public affairs (PA) operations must be planned and conducted within an effects-based framework. PA operations integrate activities from different information and media disciplines to support commanders across the full range of military operations. PA operations span the spectrum of the information environment and battlespace, and are an important part of information operations (IO). As such, PA operations must be...

Air Force space forces perform functions that are critical for the joint force- intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; missile warning; command and control; positioning, navigation, and timing; environmental monitoring; space control; communications; and spacelift. As our reliance on space increases, so too, must our ability to integrate space capabilities throughout joint operations. To retain the US military's space superiority, our Air Force must fully exploit and defend the space domain.

The United States is engaged in a protracted struggle against violent extremists that will persist for the foreseeable future. Our Air Force Special Operations Forces (AFSOF) are at the forefront of this struggle. In recent years, we have called upon AFSOF to deliver unique capabilities and skill sets to combatant commanders across the range of military operations from the major combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to the humanitarian relief operations in Haiti.

War is one of mankind's most complex endeavors. Destroying or incapacitating enemy military forces and attriting them into ineffectiveness is one means, but not the only means, of achieving warfare's objectives. Airmen have always envisioned going directly to the heart of an enemy. Modern air, space, and cyberspace power has come a long way toward realizing this vision. The combination of advanced systems with stealth and precision has made airpower a force to be reckoned with. Commanders now have the capability to directly affect an adversary's strategic center of gravity, helping to...

Time and time again in the last several decades, air and space power has proven among the most powerful of weapons in the nation's military arsenal, deciding some conflicts outright and enabling us to resolve others in the manner of our choosing. Today, air and space power can impose decisive effects anywhere on the globe at almost any time, but it has taken more than this global reach to make it the world's premier military instrument. Sound doctrine, strategy, and operational art are also required and the discipline of targeting is a vital piece of Air Force operational art. Time and time...