Achieving Strategic Effects with Army Attack Aviation

The United States Army is transforming into a lighter force while simultaneously becoming involved in a growing worldwide spectrum of joint operations. The problem is that future warfare may not permit the marshalling of large fixed-wing air armadas to wage strategic air campaigns. Thus, the central research question is: Can Army attack aviation achieve strategic effects? Using a table of typical theater strategic targets and desired effects derived from current joint doctrine and the principles of effects-based operations, the capabilities of the Army's attack aviation were tested. Additionally, two case studies, Operation Earnest Will and Operation Allied Force (Task Force Hawk), provided historical examples of independent Army attack aviation deployments in direct support of a theater commander's strategic objectives. With its unique abilities of observation, instant battle damage assessment, precision weapons employment with the AGM-114 Hellfire missile, and in the case of Operation Earnest Will, rapid deployment, the Army's attack aviation can have decisive effects on many theater strategic targets. Army attack aviation does have weaknesses, such as doctrinal traditions, weather capability, range, and enemy air defense vulnerability, but none of these weaknesses restrict its employment in a strategic role.