Air University Review, November-December 1977

From the Editor's Aerie

We are happy to announce that the Basis of Issues has recently been modified to increase the availability of the Review for Air Force personnel. The new criteria (listed on  page 15) were extracted from Publishing Bulletin No. 11, 3 June 1977. If your unit is not receiving its authorized copies of the Review, notify your Customer Account Representative or establish requirements directly with the servicing Publications Distribution Officer (PDO) for your organization.

This issue is devoted primarily to papers prepared for the Air Power Symposium of last spring, which was sponsored by the Air War College. If there is a unifying theme to these papers, it is one of a "forward lean." Technology is galloping ahead so fast that there is danger of losing the rider.

In peacetime one of the traditional roles of the military is to study the mistakes of past wars so they will not be repeated in the future. But this projection of lessons learned to future scenarios becomes increasingly slippery in this era of Alvin Toffler's Future Shock. Are we replacing battle-tested equipment and doctrine prematurely in favor of untried gadgetry, or are we sentimentally preserving the horse cavalry and muzzleloaders beyond their usefulness? Most of this issues revolves around some aspect of that question.

Preceding this block of articles, Dr. Frank T. Trager, Professor of International Affairs at New York University and Director of Studies for the National Strategy Information Center, examines the National Security Act after thirty years. He concludes that, although it has weathered our conflicts satisfactorily, the defense organization, like to weapons in its inventory, must be continually refined. Over cover by Art Editor Bill DePaola conceptualizes the Department of Defense in a constantly changing threat environment.

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