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121-451: Airpower can be considered a function of air supremacy and numbers. Roughly speaking, a combatant side that has 100% or near 100% control of the skies has air supremacy; an advantage of some 70–90% would indicate air superiority . A 50/50 split is air parity; lower than this, one side may be said to be air denied or air incapable. Because aeroplanes generally take off from designed airfields on missions typically involving some hours of cruising,

242-640: A Jurchen Jin army against a Chinese Song city. The term for this explosive bomb seems to have been coined the " thunder crash bomb " during a Jin dynasty (1115–1234) naval battle in 1231 against the Mongols . The History of Jin (金史) (compiled by 1345) states that in 1232, as the Mongol general Subutai (1176–1248) descended on the Jin stronghold of Kaifeng , the defenders had a " thunder crash bomb " which "consisted of gunpowder put into an iron container ... then when

363-405: A S-75 Dvina (SA-2) long range high altitude surface to air missile largely refuting the concept of high altitude as a refuge for high-performance bomber aircraft. US training changed to low altitude flight of bombers and unpiloted cruise missiles in the hopes of avoiding ground-based air defense radar networks by hiding in with ground clutter and terrain, thwarting attempts at air supremacy over

484-404: A blasting cap containing a more sensitive primary explosive . A thermobaric bomb is a type of explosive that utilizes oxygen from the surrounding air to generate an intense, high-temperature explosion, and in practice the blast wave typically produced by such a weapon is of a significantly longer duration than that produced by a conventional condensed explosive. The fuel-air bomb is one of

605-502: A fleet in being , and to create broad-based destruction behind enemy lines . With airpower, supplies can be transported by cargo planes , providing a decisive edge in mobility. Military and civilian aircraft interact in a number of complex ways, including shootdowns of civilian planes , whether mistaken or not; military escorts of civilian planes; civilian planes being used for military transport, espionage , or other purposes; and/or no-fly zones being enforced to punish or sanction

726-576: A 7:2 kill ratio against the more powerful MiG-15. During the Vietnam war the US side, especially over the north, had restrictive rules of engagement often requiring visual identification nullifying the advantage they would have had using beyond visual range missiles though possibly avoiding friendly fire due to IFF systems not being ubiquitous on US strike aircraft. In the 1950s, the United States Navy tasked

847-593: A bomb exploding in a transport network often damages, and is sometimes mainly intended to damage, the network itself. This applies to railways , bridges , runways , and ports , and, to a lesser extent (depending on circumstances), to roads. In the case of suicide bombing , the bomb is often carried by the attacker on their body, or in a vehicle driven to the target. The Blue Peacock nuclear mines, which were also termed "bombs", were planned to be positioned during wartime and be constructed such that, if disturbed, they would explode within ten seconds. The explosion of

968-477: A bomb may be triggered by a detonator or a fuse . Detonators are triggered by clocks , remote controls like cell phones or some kind of sensor, such as pressure (altitude), radar , vibration or contact. Detonators vary in ways they work, they can be electrical, fire fuze or blast initiated detonators and others, In forensic science , the point of detonation of a bomb is referred to as its blast seat, seat of explosion, blast hole or epicenter . Depending on

1089-463: A combination of air attack and air blockade over 54 days to force militant tribes to surrender. The campaign was successful in defeating the tribes with two deaths for the RAF, but contemporary critics were not entirely convinced of its use in isolation; Commander-in-Chief, India General Sir Claud Jacob stated that "satisfactory ... the results of these operations have been, I am of [the] opinion that

1210-758: A combination of land and air action would have brought about the desired result in a shorter space of time, and next time action has to be taken, I trust that it will be possible to employ the two forces in combination". American general Billy Mitchell was another influential air power theorist of the inter-war period. After the First World War I, then-Assistant Chief of Air Service in the United States Army Air Service under Chief Mason Patrick , Mitchell arranged live fire exercises that proved that aircraft could sink battleships (the largest and most heavily armed class of warships ). The first of these

1331-493: A combination of negative shock wave effects and extreme temperature to incinerate objects within the blast radius. Fragmentation is produced by the acceleration of shattered pieces of bomb casing and adjacent physical objects. The use of fragmentation in bombs dates to the 14th century, and appears in the Ming Dynasty text Huolongjing . The fragmentation bombs were filled with iron pellets and pieces of broken porcelain. Once

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1452-407: A comparatively low explosive yield to scatter harmful material over a wide area. Most commonly associated with radiological or chemical materials, dirty bombs seek to kill or injure and then to deny access to a contaminated area until a thorough clean-up can be accomplished. In the case of urban settings, this clean-up may take extensive time, rendering the contaminated zone virtually uninhabitable in

1573-748: A crippling blow to the Egyptian , Jordanian and Syrian Air Forces and airfields at the start of the Six-Day War , achieving Israeli air supremacy. Disruption can be carried out through ground and air attack. The main role for which the British Special Air Service was formed was to conduct raids on German aircraft and airfields. During operations in the Western Desert the SAS are reckoned to have destroyed more than 400 enemy aircraft. On 6 December 1944,

1694-515: A general stance of air superiority over the Syrian forces, enabling offensive operations with relative impunity. However, this was challenged during 2018 by the deployment of a Russian-supplied S-400 missile battery to the Syrian theatre. During the February 2018 Israel–Syria incident , despite the loss of an aircraft, Israel has demonstrated their capability to operate without effective interference within

1815-665: A genuine synchronisation gear , developed by the Fokker company. The device was fitted to the most suitable Fokker type, the Fokker M.5K (military designation Fokker A.III ), of which A.16/15, assigned to Otto Parschau , became the prototype of the Fokker Eindecker series of fighter designs. This subsequently contributed to a period of German air superiority known as the Fokker Scourge , lasting between late 1915 and early 1916. A briefer period of German aerial dominance occurred in

1936-412: A high burst pressure to be useful as a bomb. A high explosive bomb is one that employs a process called " detonation " to rapidly go from an initially high energy molecule to a very low energy molecule. Detonation is distinct from deflagration in that the chemical reaction propagates faster than the speed of sound (often many times faster) in an intense shock wave. Therefore, the pressure wave produced by

2057-444: A high explosive is not significantly increased by confinement as detonation occurs so quickly that the resulting plasma does not expand much before all the explosive material has reacted. This has led to the development of plastic explosive . A casing is still employed in some high explosive bombs, but with the purpose of fragmentation . Most high explosive bombs consist of an insensitive secondary explosive that must be detonated with

2178-597: A large force of infiltration troops; in the event of a war, they would be tasked, among other missions, with attacking coalition airfields with mortar, machine gun and sniper fire, possibly after insertion by some 300 An-2 low radar-observable biplanes. This strategy has been practiced in active conflicts even in recent decades; during the asymmetrical warfare of the War in Afghanistan , 15 fedayeen destroyed or severely damaged eight United States Marine Corps Harrier jump jets in

2299-545: A low loss rate of friendly aircraft, as hostile forces are often able to adopt unconventional tactics or identify weaknesses. For example, NATO forces which held aerial superiority over Kosovo still lost a stealth strike aircraft to a Serbian ground-based air defense system, despite it being considered "obsolete". Several engagements have occurred in asymmetrical conflicts in which relatively poorly-equipped ground forces have been able to achieve aircraft kills despite working against overwhelming aerial supremacy. During both

2420-407: A low-tech force of massive numbers of low-tech planes (e.g., An-2 ) resulting in high capacity but low long-term survivability demonstrate that 'air power' is multi-faceted and complex. Significant contributors to theorizing about air power have been Giulio Douhet , Billy Mitchell , John Boyd and John A. Warden III . At the start of World War I, opinions differed on the national air forces and

2541-574: A major military feature, and a number of novel delivery methods were introduced. These included Barnes Wallis 's bouncing bomb , designed to bounce across water, avoiding torpedo nets and other underwater defenses, until it reached a dam , ship , or other destination, where it would sink and explode. By the end of the war, planes such as the allied forces' Avro Lancaster were delivering with 50 yd (46 m) accuracy from 20,000 ft (6,100 m), ten ton earthquake bombs (also invented by Barnes Wallis) named " Grand Slam ", which, unusually for

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2662-401: A mixture of an oxidizing salt, such as potassium nitrate (saltpeter), with solid fuel, such as charcoal or aluminium powder. These compositions deflagrate upon ignition, producing hot gas. Under normal circumstances, this deflagration occurs too slowly to produce a significant pressure wave; low explosives, therefore, must generally be used in large quantities or confined in a container with

2783-593: A more important part of warfare which they believed capable of crippling Germany's industrial centers. After the Battle of France , the Luftwaffe (Germany's air force) achieved air supremacy over Western Europe . The Battle of Britain represented a concerted attempt by Germany to establish air superiority over Great Britain , which it never achieved. Through home-territory advantage and Germany's failure to push home its strategy of targeting Britain's air defenses, Britain

2904-447: A powerful element of military campaigns ; military planners view having an environment of at least air superiority as a necessity. Air supremacy allows increased bombing efforts, tactical air support for ground forces, paratroop assaults, airdrops and simple cargo plane transfers, which can move ground forces and supplies. Air power is a function of the degree of air superiority and numbers or types of aircraft, but it represents

3025-479: A protective League of Nations mandatory regime managed by the UK, the neighbouring countries have, to varying degrees, disputed the legitimacy of a Jewish state in a majority Arab region. Some neighbouring states have in the last few decades recognized and signed peace treaties; all have ceased large scale conventional warfare to overrun Israel in large part due to an increasing ability to impose Israeli air supremacy over

3146-410: A report (published in 1925 as the book Winged Defense ) that predicted future war with Japan, including the attack on Pearl Harbor . He would also go on to influence air power advocates such as Russian-American Alexander P. de Seversky , whose 1942 New York Times bestselling book, Victory Through Air Power , was made into a 1943 Walt Disney animated film that opened with a quote from Mitchell;

3267-509: A revival of dedicated air superiority fighters , which led the development of the "Teen Series" F-14 , F-15 , F-16 and F/A-18 . All of them made close-combat manoeuvrability a top priority, and were equipped with guns absent from early Phantoms. The heavy F-14 and F-15 were assigned the primary air superiority mission, because of their longer range radars and capability to carry more missiles of longer range than lightweight fighters. From 1948, when Israel reestablished independence from

3388-407: A significant explosion can occur. Under the right circumstances, rapid consolidation can provoke a chain reaction that can proliferate and intensify by many orders of magnitude within microseconds. The energy released by a nuclear fission bomb may be tens of thousands of times greater than a chemical bomb of the same mass. A thermonuclear weapon is a type of nuclear bomb that releases energy through

3509-619: A single pylon. Some bombs are equipped with a parachute , such as the World War II "parafrag" (an 11 kg (24 lb) fragmentation bomb), the Vietnam War -era daisy cutters , and the bomblets of some modern cluster bombs . Parachutes slow the bomb's descent, giving the dropping aircraft time to get to a safe distance from the explosion. This is especially important with air-burst nuclear weapons (especially those dropped from slower aircraft or with very high yields), and in situations where

3630-491: A situation that defies black-and-white characterization. The degree of a force's air control is a zero-sum game with its opponent's; increasing control by one corresponds to decreasing control by the other. Air forces unable to contest for air superiority or air parity can strive for air denial , where they maintain an operations level conceding air superiority to the other side, but preventing it from achieving air supremacy. The achievement of aerial supremacy does not guarantee

3751-562: A standard design out of standard components and intended to be deployed in a standard explosive device. IEDs are divided into three basic categories by basic size and delivery. Type 76, IEDs are hand-carried parcel or suitcase bombs, type 80, are "suicide vests" worn by a bomber, and type 3 devices are vehicles laden with explosives to act as large-scale stationary or self-propelled bombs, also known as VBIED (vehicle-borne IEDs). Improvised explosive materials are typically unstable and subject to spontaneous, unintentional detonation triggered by

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3872-706: A target nation. Airpower also relates to space power, although militarization of space remains regulated by international treaty. Developed nations have enjoyed a consistent advantage in airpower since the beginning of mechanized flight. Airpower has been wielded mostly decisively in the last hundred years by Nazi Germany , the United Kingdom , the United States , the Soviet Union , Japan , Italy , and France , with many client nations using aircraft developed by one or more of these nations. A mass technological base

3993-444: A war-winning tactic. Douhet's idea was that air power could be a decisive force and be used to avoid the long and costly War of Attrition . In The War of 19, Douhet theorized that a future war between Germany and France would be settled in a matter of days, as the winner would be the one to gain air supremacy and destroy a few enemy cities with aerial bombs. He speculated that, while the targets would be announced ahead of time and all

4114-469: A wide range of environmental effects, ranging from impact and friction to electrostatic shock. Even subtle motion , change in temperature , or the nearby use of cellphones or radios can trigger an unstable or remote-controlled device. Any interaction with explosive materials or devices by unqualified personnel should be considered a grave and immediate risk of death or dire injury. The safest response to finding an object believed to be an explosive device

4235-454: Is a hypothetical nuclear weapon that does not require a primary fission stage to start a fusion reaction. Antimatter bombs can theoretically be constructed, but antimatter is very costly to produce and hard to store safely. The first air-dropped bombs were used by the Austrians in the 1849 siege of Venice . Two hundred unmanned balloons carried small bombs, although few bombs actually hit

4356-400: Is considered necessary for the development of airpower. Air superiority Aerial supremacy (also known as air superiority ) is the degree to which a side in a conflict holds control of air power over opposing forces. There are levels of control of the air in aerial warfare . Control of the air is the aerial equivalent of command of the sea . Air power has increasingly become

4477-437: Is created by the sudden release of heat caused by an explosion. Military bomb tests have documented temperatures of up to 2,480 °C (4,500 °F). While capable of inflicting severe to catastrophic burns and causing secondary fires, thermal wave effects are considered very limited in range compared to shock and fragmentation. This rule has been challenged, however, by military development of thermobaric weapons , which employ

4598-746: Is said to enable unprecedented air combat capabilities. Anthony Cordesman wrote of NATO 's theater air supremacy during its 1999 intervention in the Kosovo War of 1998–1999. According to several reports, including reports by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that quote Russian sources, the Russian Federation has in recent decades formulated explicit strategies for using tactical nuclear weapons. These new strategies have in part resulted from

4719-399: Is the destruction of enemy aircraft on the ground and the destruction of the means and infrastructure by which an opponent may mount air operations (such as destroying fuel supplies, cratering runways with anti-runway penetration bombs and the sowing of air-fields with area denial weapons ). A historical example of this is Operation Focus in which the outnumbered Israeli Air Force dealt

4840-415: Is to get as far away from it as possible. Atomic bombs are based on the theory of nuclear fission , that when a large atom splits, it releases a massive amount of energy. Thermonuclear weapons , (colloquially known as "hydrogen bombs") use the energy from an initial fission explosion to create an even more powerful fusion explosion. The term " dirty bomb " refers to a specialized device that relies on

4961-752: The Advanced Tactical Fighter program to develop a replacement for the United States Air Force 's (USAF) aging F-15 fleet. The YF-23 and the YF-22 were chosen as the finalists in the competition. During 2005, the F-22 Raptor , the subsequent result of the program, became operational. USAF officials have promoted the F-22 as being a critical component of the service's tactical air power. Its combination of stealth, aerodynamic performance, and avionics systems

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5082-661: The Aragon Offensive , allegedly informed both the Germans and Soviets of the value of using aircraft to support infantry. At the beginning of the Second World War , the opposing sides developed different views on the importance of air power. Nazi Germany viewed it as a helpful tool to support the German Army , the approach being dubbed "flying artillery ". The Allies saw it, specifically long-range strategic bombing , as being

5203-508: The Bloody April of April 1917; paradoxically, the Germans were disadvantaged on paper during Bloody April in terms of numerical inferiority; their effectiveness was increased by confining themselves to mainly operating over friendly territory, both reducing the possibility of pilots being captured and increasing the amount of time they could stay in the air. Moreover, German pilots could choose when and how they would engage, effectively dictating

5324-655: The F-8 Crusader , known affectionately as the "Last Gun Fighter" as their close-in air superiority fighter. This role would be taken over by the F-4 Phantom , which was designed as a missile armed interceptor. The USAF had developed the F-100 and F-104 as air superiority fighters, though by the Vietnam war had already phased out the F-100 from all but air support missions and the fast but slow turning F-104 allegedly deterred attacks and despite losses scored no victories in air combat but in

5445-686: The F-86 Sabre , which arrived in the theatre in December 1950. The Sabre reportedly claimed kill ratios as high as 10 to 1 against the MiGs, allegedly shooting down 792 MiG-15s and 108 other aircraft in exchange for 78 Sabres that were lost to enemy fire. Meanwhile, the Grumman F9F Panther , a straight-wing carrier-based jet, became the mainstay of the USN during the period and had a relatively good showing, possessing

5566-679: The Falklands War (2 April–20 June 1982), the British deployed Harrier jets as air superiority fighters against Argentina 's Mach-capable Dassault Mirage IIIEA fighters and subsonic Douglas A-4 Skyhawk jets. Despite the Sea Harrier's numerical and performance disadvantages, the British Harrier force suffered no air-to-air losses for over twenty Argentine aircraft shot down in aerial combat. Argentine airpower targeted Royal Navy ships during

5687-613: The Fokker Scourge period, greatly increased the effectiveness of fighter units. Early on, the Allies gained a lead over the Germans by introducing machine-gun armed types such as the Vickers F.B.5 Gunbus fighter and the Morane-Saulnier L . In response, Germany bolstered its own aerial development efforts; a major achievement of the era was the Stangensteuerung (push rod controller),

5808-607: The Imperial Japanese Army Air Force Raiding Group Teishin Shudan destroyed B-29 aircraft on Leyte . During the Cold War , the Soviet Union claimed it could achieve air superiority despite the inferiority of its fighters, by over-running NATO airfields and parking their tanks on the runways, similar to what they have done during Tatsinskaya Raid during the Battle of Stalingrad (note

5929-476: The Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan , insurgents found a greater degree of success in attacking coalition aircraft on the ground than when they were operating above them in the skies. Although the destruction of enemy aircraft in air-to-air combat is the most obvious aspect of air superiority, it is not the only method of obtaining air superiority. Historically, the most effective method of gaining air superiority

6050-620: The Latin bombus , which in turn comes from the Greek βόμβος romanized bombos , an onomatopoetic term meaning 'booming', 'buzzing'. Gunpowder bombs had been mentioned since the 11th century. In 1000 AD, a soldier by the name of Tang Fu (唐福) demonstrated a design of gunpowder pots (a proto-bomb which spews fire) and gunpowder caltrops, for which he was richly rewarded. In the same year, Xu Dong wrote that trebuchets used bombs that were like "flying fire", suggesting that they were incendiaries. In

6171-452: The Middle East and North Africa until today. Regarding aircraft procurement, Israel started with British and French designs, then transitioning to indigenous production and then also design before moving again to purchasing to American designs. The Arabs directly participating in these battles against Israel except for Jordan and, to some extent, Iraq have commonly used Soviet designs. In

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6292-573: The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 while less agile was formidable against the F-4 and traded range for very high performance. This imbalance lead to the USAF ordering variants of the F-4 with an internal 20mm gun, and both the USAF and USN sometimes flying with centerline gun pods on aircraft not equipped with an internal gun. In the 1960s, the limited agility of American fighters in dogfights over Vietnam led to

6413-501: The Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991). It lost most of its aircraft, as well as command-and-control capability, to precise Coalition strikes or when Iraqi personnel flew their aircraft to Iran. Iraqi Anti-aircraft defenses, including shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles, were surprisingly ineffective against coalition aircraft, suffering only 75 aircraft losses in over 100,000 sorties, of which 42 of these were

6534-586: The Security Council of Russia , developed a concept of using both tactical and strategic nuclear threats and strikes to de-escalate or cause an enemy to disengage from a conventional conflict threatening what Russia considered a strategic interest. This concept was formalized when Putin took power in Russia in the following year. Throughout the Syrian Civil War of the 2010s, Israel was reportedly able to hold

6655-534: The September 2012 Camp Bastion raid , one result of which being pilots fighting as infantry for the first time in 70 years. Similarly, during the Iraqi War , four Apaches were destroyed on the ground in 2007 by insurgents armed with mortar , which were unintentionally aided by web-published geotagged photographs taken by coalition soldiers. The First World War saw many firsts in the field of aerial warfare, including

6776-466: The United States Air Force 's MOAB (officially Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or more commonly known as the "Mother of All Bombs"). Below is a list of five different types of bombs based on the fundamental explosive mechanism they employ. Relatively small explosions can be produced by pressurizing a container until catastrophic failure such as with a dry ice bomb . Technically, devices that create explosions of this type can not be classified as "bombs" by

6897-456: The landings at San Carlos Bay , numerous British vessels were lost or moderately damaged. However, many British ships escaped being sunk due to the Argentine pilots releasing their bombs at very low altitude, and hence those bomb fuzes did not have sufficient time to arm before impact and thus many never exploded. The pilots would have been aware of this—but released at such low altitudes due to

7018-751: The population evacuated, but that the event would terrorize citizens into pressuring their government into immediate surrender . At the beginning of the Second World War , Douhet's ideas were dismissed by some, but it became apparent that his theories on the importance of aircraft were supported by events as the war continued. In 1925, the Royal Air Force (RAF) tested the ability of air supremacy in isolation from other warfare forms during their first independent action in Waziristan . The operation, that later came to be known as Pink's War after Wing Commander Richard Pink in charge, used only air warfare in

7139-656: The "Flying Coffin" by Spanish Republican pilots), Dewoitine aircraft, and Loire 46 fighter aircraft being sent to the Republican forces, along with a group of trained fighter pilots and engineers to aid the Republicans. Also, until 8 September 1936, aircraft could freely pass from France into Spain if they were bought in other countries. The Soviet Union also covertly aided Republicans, between 634 and 806 aircraft were supplied alongside various other armaments. Both Italy and Nazi Germany supplied large numbers of aircraft to

7260-569: The "thunder-crash bombs" has been discovered in an underwater shipwreck off the shore of Japan by the Kyushu Okinawa Society for Underwater Archaeology. X-rays by Japanese scientists of the excavated shells confirmed that they contained gunpowder. Explosive shock waves can cause situations such as body displacement (i.e., people being thrown through the air), dismemberment , internal bleeding and ruptured eardrums . Shock waves produced by explosive events have two distinct components,

7381-742: The Arab SAM cover with airstrikes, commando raids, and armored cavalry, the Arab armored units outran their mobile SAM cover and Israeli aircraft began to take greater control of Egyptian skies, permitting Israeli landings and establishing a beachhead on the west bank of the Suez canal. When Egyptian fighter aircraft were sent into the area of the Israeli bridgehead , SAM sites were offlined which allowed Israeli air power to more safely engage and destroy many Egyptian fighters though taking some losses. The 1978 South Lebanon conflict

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7502-559: The German fighters wherever they could be found and substantially lowered bomber losses for their side for the rest of the war over Western Europe. The element of air superiority has been the driving force behind the development of aircraft carriers , which allow aircraft to operate in the absence of designated air bases. For example, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was carried out by aircraft operating from carriers thousands of miles away from

7623-461: The Germans used parts of their autobahn motorways as airfields during the last war). The Soviet Union planned to use its Spetsnaz special forces in attacks on NATO airfields in the event of conflict. Attacks by special forces have been seen by some commanders as a way to level the playing field when faced by superior numbers or technology. Given the disparity in effectiveness between their own and South Korean and US fighters, North Korea maintains

7744-694: The KPAF was reduced to only about 20 planes. However, with the Chinese intervention in late October 1950, the KPAF begun receiving the MiG-15 , which was one of the world's most advanced jet fighters at that time. Equipped with not only jet propulsion but also a swept wing , the MiG-15 quickly outclassed the straight-wing United Nations fighters. In response, the United States dispatched three squadrons of its own swept-wing fighter,

7865-729: The Nationalists while also deploying their own units, such as the Condor Legion and the Aviazione Legionaria , to bolster the Nationalist's forces with their own. While the Soviet aircraft were in current service with their own forces, they proved inferior to those supplied by Germany by the end of the conflict. The use of aircraft, particularly by the Nationalists to continually pressure Republican forces and compel multiple withdrawals during

7986-683: The Second World War—relinquished their air superiority roles to a new generation of faster, jet-powered fighters arriving in the theater. In the initial months of fighting, the P-80 Shooting Star , F9F Panther , Gloster Meteor and other jets under the UN flag dominated the Korean People's Air Force (KPAF) propeller-driven Soviet Yakovlev Yak-9 and Lavochkin La-9s . By early August 1950,

8107-515: The Syrian theater. On 22 May 2018, Israeli Air Force chief Amikam Norkin said that the service had employed their F-35Is in two attacks on two battle fronts, marking the first combat operation of an F-35 by any country. Bombing A bomb is an explosive weapon that uses the exothermic reaction of an explosive material to provide an extremely sudden and violent release of energy . Detonations inflict damage principally through ground- and atmosphere-transmitted mechanical stress ,

8228-504: The US led the way in first applying stealth technology to small strike aircraft like the F-117 and stealthy nuclear cruise missiles carried in conventional bombers for standoff release before the air defenses got too thick. The Soviet Union invested heavily in expensive to defeat intermediate and intercontinental range nuclear missiles and less on expensive to maintain patrol bombers, though they had to spend heavily on interceptors and surface to air missiles as well as radar sites to cover

8349-499: The US was engaged in two major limited air wars aiding allies who faced Soviet-supported enemies, with both sides using weaponry designed to fight such a conflict; the Korean and Vietnam wars. The Korean War represented a major turning point for aerial warfare, being the first conflict in which jet aircraft played the central role in combat. Once-formidable fighters such as the P-51 Mustang, F4U Corsair , and Hawker Sea Fury —all piston-engined , propeller-driven, and designed during

8470-410: The USAF was also replaced by the F-4 by 1967. Especially under the rules of engagement imposed on them the 'Century Series" aircraft initially specifically designed for intercepting heavy nuclear bombers or delivering tactical nuclear weapons were found to be wanting when they were engaged by the very agile fighters Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 and Shenyang J-6 provided to the VPAF by the USSR and PRC ;

8591-442: The West. (For example, the Luftwaffe mustered 391 aircraft to oppose over 9,000 allied aircraft on D-day .) Russia did the same on the Eastern Front , meaning the Luftwaffe could not effectively interfere with Allied land operations. Achieving total air superiority allowed the Allies to carry out ever-greater strategic bombing raids on Germany's industrial and civilian centers (including the Ruhr and Dresden ), and to prosecute

8712-528: The Zero in performance and durability. The Hellcat shot down 5,168 enemy aircraft (the second highest number), while the land-based Lockheed P-38 was third, shooting down 3,785 in all theaters. During the Cold War , between 1946 and 1991, the US, UK, and NATO allies faced the Soviet Union , the Warsaw Pact , and its allies. Both sides engaged in an arms race of improving radar and fighter intercept capability versus

8833-407: The air battle, known as the Battle of Britain , the Germans switched to a strategy of night bombing raids, which Britain echoed with raids over Germany. During Operation Barbarossa , the Luftwaffe initially achieved air supremacy over the Soviet Union . As the war dragged on, the United States joined the fight and the combined Allied air forces gained air superiority and eventually supremacy in

8954-491: The aircraft releases a bomb at low altitude. A number of modern bombs are also precision-guided munitions , and may be guided after they leave an aircraft by remote control, or by autonomous guidance. Aircraft may also deliver bombs in the form of warheads on guided missiles , such as long-range cruise missiles , which can also be launched from warships . A hand grenade is delivered by being thrown. Grenades can also be projected by other means, such as being launched from

9075-695: The aircraft were mostly destroyed on the ground; Syria and Jordan also had their air forces destroyed when they entered the conflict. This is one of the preeminent examples of a smaller force seizing air supremacy where Israel had complete control of the skies above the entire conflict area. Following the Six-Day War , from 1967 to 1970, there were small scale incursions into the Israeli-held Sinai desert as Egypt rearmed. This evolved into large-scale artillery and air incursions in 1969, with Soviet pilots and SAM crews arriving to assist in January 1970. The strategy

9196-415: The airspace over the battle area; however, these Arab forces were able to control losses and shoot down Israeli air support aircraft by employing mobile surface to air weaponry which travelled along with invading units. Most of Israel's air power in the first few days was directed to reinforce the badly mismatched garrison overlooking the besieged Golan Heights which was under attack by Syria. After weakening

9317-567: The assumption of obtaining air supremacy and use by the U.S. Air Force of precision munitions with little collateral damage in the Kosovo conflict in what amounted to quick mass destruction of military assets once only possible with nuclear weapons or massive bombing against fellow Slavic Serbians; it also assumed that Russia and its allies do not have the strategic economic capacity of current NATO and allied nations to meet this threat with conventional weapons. In response Vladimir Putin , then secretary of

9438-401: The best-known types of thermobaric weapons. Nuclear fission type atomic bombs utilize the energy present in very heavy atomic nuclei, such as U-235 or Pu-239. In order to release this energy rapidly, a certain amount of the fissile material must be very rapidly consolidated while being exposed to a neutron source. If consolidation occurs slowly, repulsive forces drive the material apart before

9559-515: The bomb explodes, the resulting fragments are capable of piercing the skin and blinding enemy soldiers. While conventionally viewed as small metal shards moving at super- supersonic and hypersonic speeds, fragmentation can occur in epic proportions and travel for extensive distances. When the SS Grandcamp exploded in the Texas City Disaster on April 16, 1947, one fragment of that blast

9680-846: The city. The first bombing from a fixed-wing aircraft took place in 1911 when the Italians dropped bombs by hand on the Turkish lines in what is now Libya , during the Italo-Turkish War . The first large scale dropping of bombs took place during World War I starting in 1915 with the German Zeppelin airship raids on London , England, and the same war saw the invention of the first heavy bombers . One Zeppelin raid on 8 September 1915 dropped 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) of high explosives and incendiary bombs, including one bomb that weighed 600 lb (270 kg). During World War II bombing became

9801-608: The combination of fission and fusion of the light atomic nuclei of deuterium and tritium. With this type of bomb, a thermonuclear detonation is triggered by the detonation of a fission type nuclear bomb contained within a material containing high concentrations of deuterium and tritium. Weapon yield is typically increased with a tamper that increases the duration and intensity of the reaction through inertial confinement and neutron reflection. Nuclear fusion bombs can have arbitrarily high yields making them hundreds or thousands of times more powerful than nuclear fission. A pure fusion weapon

9922-433: The definition presented at the top of this article. However, the explosions created by these devices can cause property damage, injury, or death. Flammable liquids, gasses and gas mixtures dispersed in these explosions may also ignite if exposed to a spark or flame. The simplest and oldest bombs store energy in the form of a low explosive . Black powder is an example of a low explosive. Low explosives typically consist of

10043-697: The deployment of aircraft armed with machine guns, the first successful engagement involving synchronisation-gun -armed aircraft on the afternoon of 1 July 1915. Throughout the conflict, air superiority on the Western Front changed hands between the German Empire and the Allies several times. It became recognised that the worst losses was amongst new pilots, many of whom lasted just a day or two. The emergence of specialised fighter units , which were typically led by highly experienced pilots, some of them survivors of

10164-527: The dissolution of the empire. In turn, the surrender of Germany's primary ally was another major factor in the German Empire's decision that the conflict was no longer viable and needed to end. In 1921, Italian aerial warfare theorist Giulio Douhet published The Command of the Air , a book positing that future wars would be decided in the skies. At the time, mainstream military theory did not see air power as

10285-498: The early foundations of Israeli military success in the air, rather than technology which, at the inception of the IAF, was generally inferior to that used by Israel's adversaries. In light of the complete Arab theater air supremacy, and the bombing and shelling of existing airbases, the first Israeli military-grade fighters operated from a hastily constructed makeshift airbase around the current Herzliya Airport , with fighters dispersed between

10406-462: The enemy landmass. Ballistic missiles were also introduced and were very difficult and expensive to intercept even with nuclear-armed defensive missiles. Airborne early warning and control flying radar aircraft as well as look down shoot down radar in fighter and interceptor aircraft allowed engaging low flying invaders again tipping the balance though this was partly ameliorated by succeeding generations of electronic countermeasures . Ultimately

10527-448: The explosive fireball as well as incendiary agents projected onto the body. Personal protective equipment, such as a bomb suit or demining ensemble, as well as helmets, visors and foot protection, can dramatically reduce the four effects, depending upon the charge, proximity and other variables. Experts commonly distinguish between civilian and military bombs. The latter are almost always mass-produced weapons, developed and constructed to

10648-507: The fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Air superiority in the feared Cold War era WW-III European theater would include fighters intercepting or diverting nuclear and conventionally armed strike aircraft and ground-based air defences, some of which were developed into mobile systems which could accompany and protect armored and mechanized formations. While the Cold War never went hot directly between NATO and Warsaw Pact alliances,

10769-523: The film is reported to have been influentially shown by Winston Churchill to Franklin D. Roosevelt in support of long-range bombing. Seeking to influence the outcome of the Spanish Civil War , various international powers tried to influence the conflict via a heavy reliance on air power. The French government provided aircraft to the Republicans covertly, such as the Potez 540 bomber aircraft (nicknamed

10890-463: The fuse was lit (and the projectile shot off) there was a great explosion the noise whereof was like thunder, audible for more than thirty miles, and the vegetation was scorched and blasted by the heat over an area of more than half a mou . When hit, even iron armour was quite pierced through." The Song Dynasty (960–1279) official Li Zengbo wrote in 1257 that arsenals should have several hundred thousand iron bomb shells available and that when he

11011-400: The high concentration of British SAMs , Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA), and Sea Harriers , many failed to climb to the necessary release point. The Argentine forces solved the problem by fitting improvised retarding devices , allowing the pilots to effectively employ low-level bombing attacks on 8 June. The Iraqi Air Force suffered almost complete obliteration in the opening stages of

11132-450: The huge landmass of the Soviet Union. The US joined with Canada to organize defense of the area of Alaska , Canada, and the continental United States with North American Aerospace Defense Command or NORAD using both interceptors, some armed with the nuclear AIR-2 Genie , and a surface to air missile component, which was at one point partly nuclearized. Development for the B-2 stealth bomber

11253-460: The impact and penetration of pressure-driven projectiles, pressure damage, and explosion-generated effects. Bombs have been utilized since the 11th century starting in East Asia . The term bomb is not usually applied to explosive devices used for civilian purposes such as construction or mining , although the people using the devices may sometimes refer to them as a "bomb". The military use of

11374-503: The interim. The power of large bombs is typically measured in kilotons (kt) or megatons of TNT (Mt) . The most powerful bombs ever used in combat were the two atomic bombs dropped by the United States to attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki , and the most powerful ever tested was the Tsar Bomba . The most powerful non-nuclear bomb is Russian " Father of All Bombs " (officially Aviation Thermobaric Bomb of Increased Power (ATBIP)) followed by

11495-427: The internal organs. When the overpressure wave impacts the body it can induce violent levels of blast-induced acceleration. Resulting injuries may range from minor to unsurvivable. Immediately following this initial acceleration, deceleration injuries can occur when a person impacts directly against a rigid surface or obstacle after being set in motion by the force of the blast. Finally, injury and fatality can result from

11616-595: The land war successfully on both the Eastern and Western fronts. Following the Big Week attacks in late February 1944, the new 8th Air Force commander Jimmy Doolittle permitted P-51 Mustangs to fly far ahead of the bomber formations instead of closely escorting them starting in March 1944. This commenced in March 1944 and was part of a massive "fighter sweep" tactic to clear German skies of Luftwaffe fighters. Allied planes went after

11737-471: The military text Wujing Zongyao of 1044, bombs such as the "ten-thousand fire flying sand magic bomb", "burning heaven fierce fire unstoppable bomb", and "thunderclap bomb" ( pilipao ) were mentioned. However these were soft-shell bombs and did not use metal casings. Bombs made of cast iron shells packed with explosive gunpowder date to 13th century China. Explosive bombs were used in East Asia in 1221, by

11858-458: The muzzle of a rifle (as in the rifle grenade ), using a grenade launcher (such as the M203 ), or by attaching a rocket to the explosive grenade (as in a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG)). A bomb may also be positioned in advance and concealed. A bomb destroying a rail track just before a train arrives will usually cause the train to derail . In addition to the damage to vehicles and people,

11979-588: The nearest Japanese air base. Some fighter aircraft specialized in combating other fighters, while interceptors were originally designed to counter bombers . Germany's most important air superiority fighters were the Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190 , while the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane were the primary ones on the British side. Performance and range made the P-51 Mustang

12100-608: The outstanding escort fighter which permitted American bombers to operate over Germany during daylight hours. They shot down 5,954 aircraft, more than any other American fighter in Europe. In the Pacific Theater , the A6M Zero gave Japan air superiority for much of the early part of the war, but suffered against newer naval fighters such as the F6F Hellcat and F4U Corsair which exceeded

12221-627: The paratroop transport aircraft. The Egyptian tactic was to use their new Soviet-made MiG-15 jets as fighter escorts, while their older jets conducted strikes against Israeli troops and vehicles. In air combat, Israeli aircraft shot down between seven and nine Egyptian jets with the loss of one plane, but Egyptian strikes against the ground forces continued through to 1 November. After several sorties were launched by French and British aircraft, President Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered his pilots to withdraw to bases in Southern Egypt . The Israeli Air Force

12342-477: The positive and negative wave. The positive wave shoves outward from the point of detonation, followed by the trailing vacuum space "sucking back" towards the point of origin as the shock bubble collapses. The greatest defense against shock injuries is distance from the source of shock. As a point of reference, the overpressure at the Oklahoma City bombing was estimated in the range of 28 MPa . A thermal wave

12463-408: The precise state of air superiority is fluid and less defined vis-a-vis land or sea warfare . For example, a contested airspace directly above a battlespace bristling with anti-aircraft weapons may be denied to the air forces of both sides. Further, the completely different situations of a technologically advanced airforce with one flight of high-tech planes (air supremacy but low capacity) or

12584-578: The region's airspace when required. The Israeli Air Force formed in 1948 with the formation of the modern State of Israel. Israel was involved in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War immediately after the end of the British mandate in Palestine . The air force initially consisted of mainly donated civil aircraft, a variety of obsolete and surplus ex-World War II combat-aircraft were quickly sourced by various means to supplement this fleet. Creativity and resourcefulness were

12705-474: The result of Iraqi action while the other 33 were reportedly lost to accidents. In particular, RAF and US Navy aircraft which flew at low altitudes to avoid radar were particularly vulnerable, though this changed when the aircrews were ordered to fly above the AAA. During the 1980s, the United States commenced work on a new fighter capable of gaining air superiority without being detected by an opposing force, approving

12826-420: The sudden and drastic rise in ambient pressure that can damage the internal organs, possibly leading to permanent damage or death. Fragmentation can also include sand, debris and vegetation from the area surrounding the blast source. This is very common in anti-personnel mine blasts. The projection of materials poses a potentially lethal threat caused by cuts in soft tissues, as well as infections, and injuries to

12947-585: The term "bomb", or more specifically aerial bomb action, typically refers to airdropped, unpowered explosive weapons most commonly used by air forces and naval aviation . Other military explosive weapons not classified as "bombs" include shells , depth charges (used in water), or land mines . In unconventional warfare , other names can refer to a range of offensive weaponry. For instance, in recent asymmetric conflicts, homemade bombs called " improvised explosive devices " (IEDs) have been employed by irregular forces to great effectiveness. The word comes from

13068-521: The terms of combat. The Italian Corpo Aeronautico Militare established air superiority over the Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in late October 1918. The Allies operated roughly 600 aircraft (93 Anglo-French, including four RAF squadrons) to gain complete air superiority in this final offensive. The defeat suffered by Austria-Hungary at Vittorio Veneto has been attributed with causing

13189-448: The threat of intercontinental strategic bombers carrying nuclear weapons. Initially, high altitude, later combined with high supersonic speeds, was hoped to keep nuclear bombers out of range of fighters and later surface to air missiles, both of which were sometimes equipped with nuclear warheads. In the 1960 U-2 incident an American very high altitude spy plane was shot down over the USSR with

13310-515: The time, were delivered from high altitude in order to gain high speed, and would, upon impact, penetrate and explode deep underground (" camouflet "), causing massive caverns or craters, and affecting targets too large or difficult to be affected by other types of bomb. Modern military bomber aircraft are designed around a large-capacity internal bomb bay , while fighter-bombers usually carry bombs externally on pylons or bomb racks or on multiple ejection racks, which enable mounting several bombs on

13431-663: The trees of an orange orchard. As the war progressed, more and more Czechoslovak , American, and British surplus WWII-era aircraft were procured, leading to a shift in the balance of power. In 1956, Israel, France, and the United Kingdom occupied the Sinai Peninsula after Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships, sparking the Suez Crisis . Israel's new French-made Dassault Mystere IV jet fighters provided air cover for

13552-551: The value of airships. Some early strategists/visionaries after World War I imagined that airpower alone would suffice to bring nations to their knees. The Bombing of Guernica was an early trial that revealed both capabilities and limitations. But yet another maxim, "no war was ever won solely by airpower" was challenged by the NATO victory in Kosovo . Airpower has been used to conduct lightning strategic strikes, to complement land offensives , to instill fear and lower morale similarly to

13673-412: Was Project B in 1921, in which the captured First World War-era German battleship, SMS Ostfriesland , was sunk by a flight of bombers in 22 minutes. Mitchell's ideas were not popular, with his outspoken opposition to Army and Navy resistance resulting in a court-martial that precipitated his resignation, but he would prove prescient; his 1924 inspection tour of Hawaii and Asia culminated in

13794-494: Was a two-ton anchor which was hurled nearly two miles inland to embed itself in the parking lot of the Pan American refinery. To people who are close to a blast incident, such as bomb disposal technicians, soldiers wearing body armor, deminers, or individuals wearing little to no protection, there are four types of blast effects on the human body: overpressure (shock), fragmentation , impact , and heat . Overpressure refers to

13915-484: Was able to establish air superiority over the territory – a superiority that it never lost. It denied the German military air superiority over the English Channel , making a seaborne invasion (planned as Operation Sea Lion ) impossible in the face of Britain's naval power. Strategically, the overall situation at home and abroad at the end of the battle might be considered air parity between Britain and Germany. After

14036-748: Was an invasion of Lebanon up to the Litani River , carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in 1978 in response to the Coastal Road massacre . Israel had complete air supremacy. In the 1982 Lebanon War where Israel invaded up to Beirut , Syria intervened on the side of Lebanon and the PLO forces residing there. Israeli jets shot down between 82 and 86 Syrian aircraft in aerial combat, without losses. A single Israeli A-4 Skyhawk and two helicopters were shot down by anti-aircraft fire and SAM missiles. This

14157-563: Was in Jingzhou , about one to two thousand were produced each month for dispatch of ten to twenty thousand at a time to Xiangyang and Yingzhou. The Ming Dynasty text Huolongjing describes the use of poisonous gunpowder bombs, including the "wind-and-dust" bomb. During the Mongol invasions of Japan , the Mongols used the explosive "thunder-crash bombs" against the Japanese. Archaeological evidence of

14278-400: Was intended for, and in anticipation of, a nuclear war and it was the first fully mature stealth aircraft to enter service. The F-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter was a stealth fighter and interceptor aircraft designed during the Cold War as a medium altitude air superiority fighter which was intended to destroy Warsaw Pact aircraft without ever being detected or engaged; both were introduced after

14399-638: Was the largest aerial combat battle of the jet age with over 150 fighters from both sides engaged. Syrian claims of aerial victories were met with skepticism even from their Soviet allies. The Soviets were so shaken by the staggering losses sustained by their allies that they dispatched the deputy head of their air defense force to Syria to examine how the Israelis had been so dominant. The Israelis have upheld substantial air superiority for most of this time with Israel able to operate almost unopposed; Israel held near air supremacy against targets anywhere within range in

14520-463: Was then free to strike Egyptian ground forces at will. In 1967, the Straits of Tiran were again closed and international peacekeepers were ejected by Egypt. Israel then initiated Operation Focus . Israel sent nearly every capable combat aircraft out against the vastly larger Egyptian Air Force , holding only four for protection. Egyptian airfields were destroyed with anti-runway penetration bombs and

14641-646: Was to engage Israeli aircraft in surprise fighter encounters near the Suez Canal where Egyptian SAMs could be used to assist fighters. Syrian, North Korean, and Cuban pilots assisting also suffered losses in this period. In August 1970, a cease-fire was agreed on. The first few days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War saw major Arab ground breakthroughs, surprising Israel who, after its lopsided 1967 victory, considered its air supremacy sufficient to blunt or dissuade any conventional attack. Despite Egypt and Syria having rebuilt their air forces since 1967, Israel continued to deny them

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