Force Multipliers: Combat-Support Air Operations

Abstract

Having dealt with the various types of combat air operations, we turn now to the second broad category of air operations identified in Chapter 3: combat-support air operations or ‘force multipliers’ as they are often called. Whilst combat-support air operations do not in themselves involve the direct use of combat capabilities, they can bring about major increases in the effectiveness of air, surface and sub-surface combat forces. Such capabilities — perhaps more than any other — make Fuller’s dictum on the fighting power of a force as valid for aviation forces as it for armies.

… the fighting power of an army is the product and not the sum of the arms composing it.

Major-General J.F.C. Fuller