164: Dozen Interesting Military Quotes

 

1
Know and use all the capabilities in your airplane. If you don’t, sooner or later, some guy who does use them all will kick your ass.

Dave “Preacher” Pace
Quoted in Robert L . Shaw, Fighter Combat

 

2
As one veteran Israeli pilot said after the June 1982 air campaign over Lebanon in response to American questions about how much doctrine the Israeli Air Force had written down, “Yes, we have books. But they are very thin.”

Barry D. Watts and James 0. Hale
Air University Review, 1984

 

3
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.

Sir Winston Churchill

 

4
A modern, autonomous, and thoroughly trained Air Force in being at all times will not alone be sufficient, but without it there can be no national security.

Gen H. H. “Hap” Arnold

 

5
War is not an affair of chance. A great deal of knowledge, study, and meditation is necessary to conduct it well.

Frederick the Great

 

6
A wise man learns from his experience; a wiser man learns from the experience of others.

Confucius

 

7
Every soldier generally thinks only as far as the radius of action of his branch of the service and only as quickly as he can move with his weapons.

Luftwaffe general Karl Koller

 

8
Strategic air assault is wasted if it is dissipated piecemeal in sporadic attacks between which the enemy has an opportunity to readjust defenses or recuperate.

Hap Arnold

 

9
The science of war (knowledge).
The art of war (application of knowledge).

Wallace P. Franz and Harry G. Summers

Art of War Colloquium, textbook Army War College

 

10
Space in which to maneuver in the air, unlike fighting on land or sea, is practically unlimited.

Group Captain J. E “Johnnie” Johnson

 

11
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.

Napoléon

12
Tactics are concerned with doing the job “right,” higher levels of strategy are concerned with doing the “right” job.

Dennis M. Drew and Donald M. Snow

 

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163: AIR POWER IN GREY ZONE OPERATIONS

 

My views on the issue of Air Power in Grey Zone Operations.

(For selective viewing, please click on the links below)

  1. Upto 03:10 – Introduction.
  2. 03:10 – 07:35 – Perspective on the issue.
  3. 07:35 – 13:10 – Defining Grey Zone warfrare.
  4. 13:10 – 21:00 – Difference between GZ and NWNP.
  5. 21:00 – 27:30 – India’s GZ Threat Scenario.
  6. 27:30 – 36:00 – Air Power vis-a-vis GZ.
  7. 36:00 -38:00 – GZ activity between friendly countries.
  8. 38:00 – 43:50 – Using AP in GZ.
  9. 43:50 – 57:30 – Capability building and reorientation to deal with GZ.
  10. 57:30 onwards – Concluding Thoughts.

 

Question

Does ongoing military reforms and proposed reorganisation cater for future grey zone operations?

 

Comments and value additions are most welcome

 

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Also read – Article on the subject

https://55nda.com/blogs/anil-khosla/2021/07/26/airpower-in-grey-zone-my-article-in-usi-journal/

158: AIRPOWER IN GREY ZONE: My Article in USI Journal

 

The Grey Zone is characterised by intense political, economic, informational, and military competition more fervent in nature than normal steady-state diplomacy, yet short of conventional war. It is hardly new, however. The cold war was a 45-year-long grey zone struggle in which the west succeeded in checking the spread of communism and ultimately witnessed the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

– Unconventional Warfare in the Grey Zone

Joint Force Quarterly (1st Quarter, Jan 2016)

 

Introduction

Earlier days states or nations used to resort to open armed conflicts by declaring war, with the aim of achieving an objective through the use of force. Recent trends indicate that national political objectives are increasingly being achieved without official declaration   of war. There are multifarious forms of state sponsored activities that are being carried out in the metaphorical zone between war and peace. These grey zone activities have become a norm in the recent years.

The grey zone warfare is best defined as an aggressor engaging in actions that circumvent traditional norms and laws of war, in the pursuit of political strategic objectives. The grey zone conflict operations are unclear and ambiguous in character, and are orchestrated in such a way that the threshold is maintained below that of conventional     war. These conflicts are carried out in any of the multiple domains, using variety of means as a weapon.

Air power besides offensive use, can also be effectively utilised in many ways, in non-conventional hostile situations categorised above. Various aspects of grey zone operations need to be deliberated from the point of view of airpower involvement. Certain amount of reorientation would be required in application of airpower in these grey zone situations supported by capability enhancement in certain fields.

 

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