An
air strike is a
military strike by
air forces or other
military aviation assets against either a suspected or a confirmed enemy ground position. Air strikes are commonly delivered from aircraft such as
bombers,
ground attack aircraft,
strike fighters, and
Attack helicopters. Weapons used in an airstrike can range from
machine gun bullets,
missiles, to various types of
bombs. Air strikes are sometimes initiated in
strategic bombings, but the term generally refers to tactical intervention by airpower on the battlefield.
Air strikes may be followed by
artillery,
armor, or
infantry assaults, dependent on the military situation at hand. Air strikes are commonly used when ground attacks are ineffective, when ground forces need to be used in conjunction with
close air support, or when public opinion in the nation or around the world would not support a ground attack.
Air strikes are controlled by trained observers, often translating the requests of ground troops. The coordination and authorization of air strikes is carried out at command levels to ensure minimal "collateral damage" or "fratricidal fire".
History
On November 1, 1911,
Italian aviator Second Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti dropped four bombs on two Turkish-held
oases in Libya, carrying out the world's first air strikes as part of the
Italo-Turkish War.
One of the first examples of an Allied use of an airstrike during
World War I was at the
Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915 when the
RFC dropped bombs on German rail communications.
"Broken Arrow"
The United States military code word for calling in all available aircraft for an air strike to support a ground unit with a high ranking officer (such as a captain or brigadier) facing imminent defeat in a battle was "
Broken Arrow".
The code has been depicted during the movie
We Were Soldiers, depicting the battle at
Landing Zone X-Ray in the
Ia Drang Valley during the
Vietnam War.
Collateral damage
Most modern military aircraft such as this
F-22 Raptor carry precision guided munitions which decrease the chance of causing collateral damage during an airstrike.
In any air strike, there is a risk of injuring, killing, or destroying non-combatants, allies or non-military buildings. This is called
collateral damage.
Collateral damage can be advantageous by damaging nearby enemy troops and installations. The negative side effects to collateral damage may include the infliction of damage to civilian facilities and
accidental injury of friendly troops near the target.
The amount of civilian collateral damage caused by air strikes has decreased dramatically since its peak during the
World War II era, when air strikes were carried out with
'dumb' bombs - bombs without any guidance systems. The strategy was to use large numbers of bombers and bombs in the hope that some of the bombs that were dropped struck the intended target.
There have been claims that lately, with the increased availability of precision-guided missiles and smart bombs by the military in the modern era, recent conflicts such as
Operation Desert Storm and the
2003 Invasion of Iraq have seen decreased civilian collateral damage as compared to previous wars, such as the
Allied incendiary bombing raids on Dresden, the
German bombing of Coventry during
the Blitz, and the
American air strikes on the Japanese mainland during the Second World War.
See also
