The technological breakthrough of mobility in the third dimension, heralded by the helicopter, may now, thanks to the development of its weapon systems, become a tactical breakthrough, and open an era of ‘aerocombat’, vital when faced with a multiform, omnipresent enemy. To this end the ground forces of many countries are working to adapt the organisation, tactics and employment of combat helicopter units. For its part the French Army has created a robust and effective system that can serve as a model.
From Land Forces' Airmobility to ‘Aerocombat’: Towards a Tactical Breakthrough
Armed confrontations, whatever their form (conventional or asymmetrical) always observe the same principles, because the objective is always the same: to achieve ascendancy over a human enemy group in order to impose one’s own will on it. The enemy may temporarily give way if he is attacked brutally or surprised, but he is definitively defeated only if he is durably dominated. That explains the usefulness of brief, violent actions to make the enemy yield, and the indispensable feature of powerful and continuous actions aimed at achieving domination.
All military history bears testimony of that and, more recently, the campaigns in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq have shown the necessity to have, beside air and air-naval forces able to conduct ‘shock and awe’ actions, a flexible and coherent land force able to carry out fundamental work on a long-lasting basis—in order to enter Kosovo, seize Kabul or break through Basra to Baghdad.
‘War is a simple art consisting entirely in execution’, said Napoleon, and one image can sum up several millennia of military history: the picador and banderilleros make the bull give in, but the matador will still have to work long to defeat it.
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